I feel cheated by cruising opportunities in Australia

[icat2000]

2 hours ago, MelbTone said:

Lots about Azamara + Australia on Paul and Carole's recent YouTube series

You have to wonder with all these videoers and bloggers whether they get any time to actually enjoy the cruise but I guess they generating $$ off the videos so keeps them cruising.

[MMDown Under]

27 minutes ago, mr walker said:

We don't feel cheated by itineraries offered by the cruiselines from Australia, just accepting that there is a limit to options for 'local' cruising. If we want 'new' ports we need to widen our scope on ports to sail, and that basically means from OS. At this stage we choose to sail only from Sydney & perhaps Brisbane, and so need to be realistic and accept that we will often go to ports we have already been too, many multiple times.

 

Looking to fit a cruise in in Feb/Mar '24, there were limited options & we have elected to book with a cruiseline that is not our 'go-to' one ie Royal Caribbean, who's offering in that time window did not appeal. We have booked 13N to Sth Pacific Majestic Princess ex Sydney 10-Feb. Our PCP was able to book us DB (Deluxe Balcony) Baja Mid-Aft at an acceptable price with some OBC. To book an actual cabin was just $53 more than guarantee, so that's fine. We didn't upgrade to PLUS - offered at $65 pn.

 

Hope we enjoy Majestic - our only previous Princess cruise was on the Sun round Aus in Mar '17, which we really enjoyed.

On reflection, I don’t feel cheated just very disappointed.  I cruise for the destinations and the experience rather than the ship.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, icat2000 said:

You have to wonder with all these videoers and bloggers whether they get any time to actually enjoy the cruise but I guess they generating $$ off the videos so keeps them cruising.

I appreciate them but wonder where they find the time.  I have enough trouble keeping on top of my emails!

[Ondine]

Just checking out the Vic Cruise ship schedule and they now have updated the Philip Island schedules for the next 3 seasons (now listed separately as of 17th April) and just about all have departure times of 23.00 hrs with a couple even 23.59pm.

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, Ondine said:

Just checking out the Vic Cruise ship schedule and they now have updated the Philip Island schedules for the next 3 seasons (now listed separately as of 17th April) and just about all have departure times of 23.00 hrs with a couple even 23.59pm.

What time of year?  Are there any cruises from

Brisbane to Phillip Island and Melbourne?

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

What time of year?  Are there any cruises from

Brisbane to Phillip Island and Melbourne?

They would be during the summer season as there aren't many/any cruises out of Melbourne in winter.

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

They would be during the summer season as there aren't many/any cruises out of Melbourne in winter.

Maybe I could slot a visit in 2004  in lieu of the Aust Open and Wooden Boat Festival which is every second year.

[MicCanberra]

53 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Maybe I could slot a visit in 2004  in lieu of the Aust Open and Wooden Boat Festival which is every second year.

Not sure that is possible

[MMDown Under]

5 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Not sure that is possible

Oops 2024!!  

[Ondine]

22 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

What time of year?  Are there any cruises from

Brisbane to Phillip Island and Melbourne?

 

There are no cruises from Bris to PI however if you are happy to fly one way then you could look at the following:  Diamond Princess (utilising repro cruises)

 

24th Sept 2024 -- 4 nights Bris - Syd - Melb  b2b with

28th Sept 2024 -- 7 nights Mel - PI - KI - Port Lincoln - Adelaide - Melb   or

 

30th Nov 2024 -- 7 nights Melb - PI - Adel - KI - Port Lincoln - Melb  b2b with

7th Dec 2024 -- 4 nights Melb - Syd - Bris   (this is followed by a Bris to Tassie itin I think)

 

The b2b cruises for 5th Oct and 16th Nov ex Melb return are both NZ 14 nighters.

 

The other ships listed for Philip Island are Silver Nova, Seabourn Odyssey, Regatta and Viking Sky.  Not sure what their itineraries are.

[OzKiwiJJ]

On 4/20/2023 at 1:09 PM, MMDown Under said:

On reflection, I don’t feel cheated just very disappointed.  I cruise for the destinations and the experience rather than the ship.

For me:

Disappointed - not really

Getting bored with the same old same old - getting close.

 

And for me there are three types of cruises:

1 - destinations/experiences - which now means either having to fly overseas, do a world cruse, or shell out for one of the Coral Expeditions cruises.

2 - catching up with family and friends so from Sydney either NZ or Melbourne or Queensland.

3- chill out time and I don't care where it goes or where it stops as long as it's warm and I'm on Princess ship with the Sanctuary.

[Ozwoody]

Reading the comments made on this thread, I'm a bit mystified, I guess I see cruising different than a lot of people.🤔

I'm a believer in the P&O slogan "We are the destination", cruising with a good dose of sea days are what I love about cruising.
I would say that the cruise days would be 60% of my reason for cruising and 40% is about port days, I love the relaxation not having to worry about what am I supposed to be doing next.
When people say "Oh that would mean we would have to spend 3 sea days to get there, its to far" I'm thinking "What???".🙄

 

So getting back to the original post, Yes I do feel cheated for cruising opportunities in Australia, at least definitely for Queensland, basically we have NZ, New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Qld coast, over and over again.😒
Now there is nothing wrong with NZ, but the ports could be alternated like they do for Syd cruises.

Also! Why can't we have a Fiji cruise like both Syd & Melb do? Dam it we're closer than they are.😆

 

What about a cruise Bris-Port Douglas or Cairns-Darwin-Alotua-Bris, maybe even slip an Airlie Beach in, I think that would be a good mix and could easily be done in a 14 day cruise, as an alternative to an NZ one, of which there are 4 scheduled from Bris for the 23-24 cruise season.☺️

 

I'm with OzKiwiJJ, getting bored with the same old same old.😬

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Ozwoody said:

L
When people say "Oh that would mean we would have to spend 3 sea days to get there, its to far" I'm thinking "What???".🙄

 

 

I'd probably say "What? Only 3 sea days? Damn!" 🤣🤣🤣

 

It was really funny on the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise we did in 2019. It had several sets of 4-5 sea days and at the end of each set we'd grumble about it being port day next but, of course, we thoroughly enjoyed the port days as well. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by OzKiwiJJ

[Aussieflyer]

On 4/20/2023 at 12:50 PM, icat2000 said:

You have to wonder with all these videoers and bloggers whether they get any time to actually enjoy the cruise but I guess they generating $$ off the videos so keeps them cruising.

There was a couple on our Antarctic cruise who were travel bloggers - they made money from their website and videos and also had cheap ship accommodation (not a premium cabin though). I checked their site later - if they can make money, anyone can. Videos and photos were done with iPhones so quality was not great and the website was full of typos/spelling errors and dodgy formatting.I had to wonder! A bit like the 'influencers' that seem to be running amok on the net these days.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Aussieflyer

[Jean C]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I'd probably say "What? Only 3 sea days? Damn!" 🤣🤣🤣

 

It was really funny on the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise we did in 2019. It had several sets of 4-5 sea days and at the end of each set we'd grumble about it being port day next but, of course, we thoroughly enjoyed the port days as well. 

We're destination cruisers, definitely. The longest stretch of sea days we had were 9 at the tail end of a lengthy South America cruise. I must admit I was dreading them a bit, wondering how we'd cope, but we got involved with on board activities like the art auctions, trivia and anything else we stumbled across. Sea Princess had a good library and I read a few new authors  including my first and last Jackie Collins novel - not my cup of tea. Although we're not glutons, I jokingly say "they're not sea days, they're buffet days".  We discovered all the yummy goodies like scones with jam and cream for afternoon tea - yummm 😋

[MMDown Under]

9 minutes ago, Jean C said:

We're destination cruisers, definitely. The longest stretch of sea days we had were 9 at the tail end of a lengthy South America cruise. I must admit I was dreading them a bit, wondering how we'd cope, but we got involved with on board activities like the art auctions, trivia and anything else we stumbled across. Sea Princess had a good library and I read a few new authors  including my first and last Jackie Collins novel - not my cup of tea. Although we're not glutons, I jokingly say "they're not sea days, they're buffet days".  We discovered all the yummy goodies like scones with jam and cream for afternoon tea - yummm 😋

9 sea days too many for me.  Of course if there was something to see along a coastline that would be different. Loved cruise from Singapore to Sydney

 

[MMDown Under]

2 hours ago, Aussieflyer said:

There was a couple on our Antarctic cruise who were travel bloggers - they made money from their website and videos and also had cheap ship accommodation (not a premium cabin though). I checked their site later - if they can make money, anyone can. Videos and photos were done with iPhones so quality was not great and the website was full of typos/spelling errors and dodgy formatting.I had to wonder! A bit like the 'influencers' that seem to be running amok on the net these days.

I have followed bloggers on world cruises for years.  On current world cruise a guy from Alaska who blogs was taken off the ship in Mauritius.  He takes great photos and writes an interesting non commercial blog. Feels like family.

[OzKiwiJJ]

19 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

9 sea days too many for me.  Of course if there was something to see along a coastline that would be different. Loved cruise from Singapore to Sydney

 

Before we did the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise I thought five sea days would be too much but we soon got into a comfortable sea day routine and they whizzed past.

 

We've got one set of seven on next year's world cruise.

[MMDown Under]

6 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Before we did the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise I thought five sea days would be too much but we soon got into a comfortable sea day routine and they whizzed past.

 

We've got one set of seven on next year's world cruise.

My longest sea days were Atlantic from memory.  Get out the games and jigsaw puzzles! 

[Jean C]

47 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

9 sea days too many for me.  Of course if there was something to see along a coastline that would be different. Loved cruise from Singapore to Sydney

 

It was really good, we had a balcony and saw all sorts of sea life, flying fish, sting rays, dolphins and various birds flying alongside the ship and peering in the cabins. We nickname passengers we don't know by name and "grumpy old woman" (apologies to her) grizzled that she hadn't seen any sea life - she obviously wasn't looking at the same time as we were!

[Jean C]

23 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

My longest sea days were Atlantic from memory.  Get out the games and jigsaw puzzles! 

Yep, added a few pieces to the jigsaws on the go. Also played table tennis and used the pools 🏊  Even went to a snake oil salesmanship pitch 🤣 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Jean C

[MMDown Under]

19 minutes ago, Jean C said:

Yep, added a few pieces to the jigsaws on the go. Also played table tennis and used the pools 🏊  Even went to a snake oil salesmanship pitch 🤣 

Ha ha. 

[MMDown Under]

24 minutes ago, Jean C said:

It was really good, we had a balcony and saw all sorts of sea life, flying fish, sting rays, dolphins and various birds flying alongside the ship and peering in the cabins. We nickname passengers we don't know by name and "grumpy old woman" (apologies to her) grizzled that she hadn't seen any sea life - she obviously wasn't looking at the same time as we were!

Enjoying seeing all those except for sting rays.  They are all entertaining. Favourite are the big albatross and little birds which land on the deck.  

[Jean C]

4 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Enjoying seeing all those except for sting rays.  They are all entertaining. Favourite are the big albatross and little birds which land on the deck.  

At first I thought the stingray was a square of cardboard and thought it strange to be so far out to sea, hehehe 🌊 Also saw penguins, when "sitting" on the surface of the water they looked like ducks, but when they swam, they swam like Disney princesses 🐧 

[MMDown Under]

19 minutes ago, Jean C said:

At first I thought the stingray was a square of cardboard and thought it strange to be so far out to sea, hehehe 🌊 Also saw penguins, when "sitting" on the surface of the water they looked like ducks, but when they swam, they swam like Disney princesses 🐧 

Yes they look so different when they walk compared to when they swim.  We had one solitary Penguin walk alongside my daughter for ages.  I thought at any moment it would dive in but it didn’t. I eventually broke away to see some ruins.  I like your cardboard stingrays!