Pacific Explorer Movements

[SinbadThePorter]

5 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

Wasn’t it the cruise ban won’t be lifted until after the election?

But you where the closest.

 

I had two bob each way on, the ban would get lifted after the election, or the ban would get lifted before the election but cruises would be after the election. 😇

[Kiwi_cruiser]

11 hours ago, Fletch1 said:

 

Thanks for posting. What is she doing at White Bay from 19 April to 6 May?  

 

 

 

Loading crew (There is a load coming from Vanautu), and loading supply's etc...

[arxcards]

32 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

Wasn’t it the cruise ban won’t be lifted until after the election?

But you where the closest.

The ban wasn't politically motivated, but close to the mark. Cruising could have begun on 18th April if any of the lines were ready to go.

 

Le Laperouse departs Darwin on Thursday for the first cruise. Yes, an expedition ship, but was unable to cruise here while the ban was in place.

[Chiliburn]

30 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I had two bob each way on, the ban would get lifted after the election, or the ban would get lifted before the election but cruises would be after the election. 😇

As a prize for being the closest you have permission to book all the Pacific Explorer cruises your health can take.

[arxcards]

33 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

If it wasn’t for all these lift and shifts ,none refundable deposits we would be in the U.S. in October for a few months.

If RC cancels this season theres going to be some angry people.

You bet, and there should be a hoard of rampaging cruisers chanting .. we want out diamond drinks.

 

I lost a couple of cruises on Splendor this winter, and while I get the need for them to relocate the ship, they can't blame the government for that.

[SinbadThePorter]

14 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

As a prize for being the closest you have permission to book all the Pacific Explorer cruises your health can take.

 

I already have, before covid.

 

I've done quite a few P&O cruises. Mainly because for a while there they were the only line operating out of Brisbane. On the whole I thought they were good value.

 

Plus:

Shows I thought were as good as on any other line.

Nice bars and public areas. Apart from the Dome on Dawn which was very tatty.

Free specialty restaurants, particularly Angelo's.

Plenty of entertainment during the day.

Nice itineraries.

Good staff and service.

 

Minus:

Older ships, that looked old.

Faded worn out staterooms.

MDR and Pantry food was RSL quality, if that RSL had a particularly unimaginative chef.

Noisy kids everywhere, even late at night.

The worst pizza at sea.

[Chiliburn]

1 hour ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I already have, before covid.

 

I've done quite a few P&O cruises. Mainly because for a while there they were the only line operating out of Brisbane. On the whole I thought they were good value.

 

Plus:

Shows I thought were as good as on any other line.

Nice bars and public areas. Apart from the Dome on Dawn which was very tatty.

Free specialty restaurants, particularly Angelo's.

Plenty of entertainment during the day.

Nice itineraries.

Good staff and service.

 

Minus:

Older ships, that looked old.

Faded worn out staterooms.

MDR and Pantry food was RSL quality, if that RSL had a particularly unimaginative chef.

Noisy kids everywhere, even late at night.

The worst pizza at sea.

Plus the price seems to be good value.

Well if everything goes well you should have plenty to choose from in Brisbane.

[Aus Traveller]

2 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

I've done quite a few P&O cruises. Mainly because for a while there they were the only line operating out of Brisbane. On the whole I thought they were good value.

 

Plus:

Shows I thought were as good as on any other line.

Nice bars and public areas. Apart from the Dome on Dawn which was very tatty.

Free specialty restaurants, particularly Angelo's.

Plenty of entertainment during the day.

Nice itineraries.

Good staff and service.

 

Minus:

Older ships, that looked old.

Faded worn out staterooms.

MDR and Pantry food was RSL quality, if that RSL had a particularly unimaginative chef.

Noisy kids everywhere, even late at night.

The worst pizza at sea.

You mention the shows. We didn't like the one called Sleep and another one where the theme was social media on mobile phones. When I described them to my daughter she suggested they were aimed at a younger demographic.🙂

[Fletch1]

10 hours ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

 

Loading crew (There is a load coming from Vanautu), and loading supply's etc...

 

17 days to load crew and supply's..........that's a lot of crew and supplies!

[NSWP]

Just now, Fletch1 said:

 

17 days to load crew and supply's..........that's a lot of crew and supplies!

Indeed, I reckon they are taking TA's, Tour Operators and VIP's out for a jaunt. Why else would they be here here for over  a month?

[NSWP]

9 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I already have, before covid.

 

I've done quite a few P&O cruises. Mainly because for a while there they were the only line operating out of Brisbane. On the whole I thought they were good value.

 

Plus:

Shows I thought were as good as on any other line.

Nice bars and public areas. Apart from the Dome on Dawn which was very tatty.

Free specialty restaurants, particularly Angelo's.

Plenty of entertainment during the day.

Nice itineraries.

Good staff and service.

 

Minus:

Older ships, that looked old.

Faded worn out staterooms.

MDR and Pantry food was RSL quality, if that RSL had a particularly unimaginative chef.

Noisy kids everywhere, even late at night.

The worst pizza at sea.

Well P&O Straya ships have been labelled floating RSL's and floating Aged Care facilities, lol, or is that HAL? 

[Aus Traveller]

11 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Indeed, I reckon they are taking TA's, Tour Operators and VIP's out for a jaunt. Why else would they be here here for over  a month?

P&O might not be taking TAs etc out for a jaunt. They are trying to keep the ship clean. It could be risky letting a hoard on board (sorry it rhymes) to pass COVID to the crew.

 

I feel that they brought Pacific Explorer in on Easter Monday, the first day after the ban was lifted, as a PR exercise - and it succeeded. They got fantastic media coverage. It might be costing a bit more to sit in Sydney Harbour than it would have to spend more time in Europe, but they might have got a deal from the Sydney Ports authority. After all, no other ships were waiting to go into White Bay.

[NSWP]

1 minute ago, Aus Traveller said:

P&O might not be taking TAs etc out for a jaunt. They are trying to keep the ship clean. It could be risky letting a hoard on board (sorry it rhymes) to pass COVID to the crew.

 

I feel that they brought Pacific Explorer in on Easter Monday, the first day after the ban was lifted, as a PR exercise - and it succeeded. They got fantastic media coverage. It might be costing a bit more to sit in Sydney Harbour than it would have to spend more time in Europe, but they might have got a deal from the Sydney Ports authority. After all, no other ships were waiting to go into White Bay.

They will do it under the guise of these 'work up cruises'  and keep it under wraps.

Edited April 26, 2022 by NSWP

[Aus Traveller]

3 minutes ago, NSWP said:

They will do it under the guise of these 'work up cruises'  and keep it under wraps.

If they do take VIPs or whoever, I hope it is at least a couple of weeks before the end of May when cruising starts. They need time to keep the crew in quarantine to make sure the visitors haven't passed on any nasties.

[NSWP]

Just now, Aus Traveller said:

If they do take VIPs or whoever, I hope it is at least a couple of weeks before the end of May when cruising starts. They need time to keep the crew in quarantine to make sure the visitors haven't passed on any nasties.

Do they really care? Time will tell.

[Aus Traveller]

9 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Do they really care? Time will tell.

I think they will be doing anything they can to keep COVID off the ship.

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Fletch1 said:

 

17 days to load crew and supply's..........that's a lot of crew and supplies!

Yeah, there is a lot more to it than just that. Lots of safety drills and other boring stuff like training in the new protocols was on the list I was looking at. In the end, they got here early because they could, and Easter Monday was a perfect day for PR.

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

Indeed, I reckon they are taking TA's, Tour Operators and VIP's out for a jaunt. Why else would they be here here for over  a month?

From post 1, this is already announced:

depart White Bay on 26 May for an ‘activation’ cruise from 26 – 29 May

 

Travel agents - makes sense to have them represented, as they are the ones being bombarded with questions about the new protocols, 

Tour operators - irrelevant,

VIPs - yeah, maybe some from head office to critique the protocols,

Government officials - Domicron Perrotwat and Brad Bio-Hazzard might get an invite, but they will likely delegate this to some health officials to sign-off on the protocols,

Media - maybe, but this could backfire if they don't think the protocols are adequate, or sea siren forgive, someone from the media gets sick. There are no hints that any of the "influencers" have got an invite at this stage.

 

That just covers 4 days of the month. They do have lots of compliance stuff to take care of for SOLAS that hasn't been done for a couple of years, and a crew to train in the new protocols. Most of the ships off the US were crewed-up for a few weeks before they entered service as well.

[arxcards]

On 4/25/2022 at 1:50 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

It will be interesting to see if Coral Princess comes over a bit earlier to do work up / activation cruises out of Brisbane. 

Here is the scoop. She arrives in Brisbane on 7th June

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Here is the scoop. She arrives in Brisbane on 7th June

From memory, Coral Princess's first cruise from Brisbane is 16th June, for the first of three short cruises. Interesting that she will (presumably) sit at the BITC for more than a week. Once again, time for more crew to fly in and to undertake deep cleaning.

[arxcards]

8 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

From memory, Coral Princess's first cruise from Brisbane is 16th June, for the first of three short cruises. Interesting that she will (presumably) sit at the BITC for more than a week. Once again, time for more crew to fly in and to undertake deep cleaning.

She has been doing regular service calls in Port Everglades, presumably doing a lot of the pre-work. I can only guess at what they have planned for their 9 days at the terminal.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Load up more crew then go for some short runs to do the emergency drills etc.

 

Also 9 days gives time for new crew to isolate onboard to ensure they haven't caught Covid before joining the ship.

[CRUISING ALONG]

 

Anyone who would like to see the P & O Pacific Explorer:

 

Pacific Explorer will be heading back to the Overseas Passenger Terminal ( OPT) Circular Quay Saturday 7th May 2022 7.30am for 4 days then shifting to Athol Bay Anchorage (ATH4A) at 4pm on the 10th May 2022 

 

Cheers 

 

CRUISING ALONG

[plettza]

On 4/25/2022 at 7:50 PM, stki said:

Public holiday in NSW is on Monday 13th June. We are on the 11th-14th June cruise.  

 

We're on the 11th of June cruise too.  I'm taking advantage of the public holiday and an ADO on the Tuesday.

[arxcards]

On 4/27/2022 at 10:48 AM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Load up more crew then go for some short runs to do the emergency drills etc.

 

Also 9 days gives time for new crew to isolate onboard to ensure they haven't caught Covid before joining the ship.

As yet, they have booked no short runs - just in on 7th and out on 16th.