Ovation in Sydney

[TommyH2006]

Last time for this season.

[MMDown Under]

22 minutes ago, TommyH2006 said:

Last time for this season.

I wish another cruise line would base a medium size ship in Australia during our autumn to spring.  The current cruise

season in Aust is based on northern winter.

imagine how successful it would be with passengers from all Aust states and NZ being able to cruise north for the winter.  I have had American friends ask me why they can’t cruise here in their northern summer.

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

58 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I wish another cruise line would base a medium size ship in Australia during our autumn to spring.  The current cruise

season in Aust is based on northern winter.

imagine how successful it would be with passengers from all Aust states and NZ being able to cruise north for the winter.  I have had American friends ask me why they can’t cruise here in their northern summer.

P&O have a couple of ships permanently cruising out of Australian ports. Princess also have ships permanently based here, although the Coral sets off in June on its World Cruise.

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, Aus Traveller said:

P&O have a couple of ships permanently cruising out of Australian ports. Princess also have ships permanently based here, although the Coral sets off in June on its World Cruise.

But they don’t cruise north to Darwin in winter. Thinking better quality than P&O.  Thinking more interesting ports on way to Darwin like Cooktown, Thursday Island’s, etc.  Current cruising in Australia has lost the

sense of adventure/discovery.

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

But they don’t cruise north to Darwin in winter. Thinking better quality than P&O.  Thinking more interesting ports on way to Darwin like Cooktown, Thursday Island’s, etc.  Current cruising in Australia has lost the

sense of adventure/discovery.

P&O and I think Princess also, used to have Cooktown on their northern itineraries, but it had to be missed too often because sea conditions would be too rough to allow for safe tendering. On one cruise we were on (an August one) from Brisbane to Darwin return, senior crew said that Cooktown was often problematic.

 

Thursday Island? As far as I know, no cruise lines have had it on their itineraries. There could be an issue with the depth of the water for larger vessels. I am not sure about this, but the shipping channel through the Torres Strait goes north of Thursday Island (as you probably know) and reef pilots have mentioned in their presentation in the theatre, that larger ships cannot go through that shipping channel at or near low tide. The waters closer to Thursday Island would probably be even shallower.

[MMDown Under]

19 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

P&O and I think Princess also, used to have Cooktown on their northern itineraries, but it had to be missed too often because sea conditions would be too rough to allow for safe tendering. On one cruise we were on (an August one) from Brisbane to Darwin return, senior crew said that Cooktown was often problematic.

 

Thursday Island? As far as I know, no cruise lines have had it on their itineraries. There could be an issue with the depth of the water for larger vessels. I am not sure about this, but the shipping channel through the Torres Strait goes north of Thursday Island (as you probably know) and reef pilots have mentioned in their presentation in the theatre, that larger ships cannot go through that shipping channel at or near low tide. The waters closer to Thursday Island would probably be even shallower.

I visited Cooktown last year on a small ship. We didn’t visit TI because of Covid protections of residents.  Some cruiselines with medium ships visit TI,

[arxcards]

+ Carnival.

 

The reason they don't have more big ships here is because they will be half empty. It is also why Princess takes their ship around the world instead of trying to fill winter itineraries in Australia.

 

As with Ovation departing our shores today, most of the ships return to the northern hemisphere where nice weather and the money is.