arxcards

Context please? Ship, country. Someone used to steal our Princess chocolates from our pillows. I thought it was a major mystery, then one night I caught my wife in the act.

That is true, and as long as the bot response is considered as an answer, not the answer. The company I work for is considering adding an applied version of this stuff, largely to speed up mundane aspects of communication and reporting. They are concerned that over time it will all become generic and while solutions are efficiently found, are they going to miss the thought process that gives the best solutions.

Yes. Already muddied. Cruise line A gives "Influencer" B a free cruise. In order to keep getting free cruises, "Influencer" B puts content on blogs, youtube, instagram etc. These reviews are generally truthful but not the whole truth, as anything they are unhappy with is omitted from the review - no more free cruises if you express any negatives. This influencer content is already all over the web, free of most negatives. Value for money is a major consideration when choosing a cruise, and getting them for nothing also removes a large chunk of credibility from the content. At restart last May, the two most prominent influencer voices in this country had done less than 5 cruises between them, and included info on how nice a ship was based on having lunch and a ship tour in port. Yes, these are the people that are laying crumbs for the bots, and you will need even more critical thinking to sort the chaff from the hay.

My point is that is todays answer, based on available web content, much of which reads like cruise line brochures or travel agent sell, often one of the same. A solid answer, except Solstice hasn't cruised here since early 2020. If we start to copy/paste the same sort of responses for a forum question, we start to lose a unique perspective we have gained from experience, or the unique perspective of another traveller/cruiser. I wonder where the "luxurious" description came from for Majestic. Compared across all the available ships, that is not a stand-out descriptor. Now if Princess were to start calling Majestic the best ship in their literature, when do the bots change luxurious to best? It would take a rainy day for me, but an idea would be to copy some of the questions asked here recently, and see how the bot response compares. Things like a hotel close to Brisbane's cruise terminal. I wonder if the bot screens Cruise Critic for answers, as google certainly does, or whether chatGBT replaces the need for asking questions here.

There will always be a quest for knowledge, and there will always be a need for information at your fingertips. They are vastly different learnings. Britannica becomes google becomes hey Google/Alexa/Siri becomes chatGPT, always on hand for instant response as long as you ask the right question. I get that repetitive manual jobs are replaced by machines, but we need to be careful about getting machines to do our thinking on our behalf. Especially dangerous when you don't know if information (i.e. forum post) is coming 2nd hand via a bot generating a consensus answer or from a personal response from a respected source. Currently it is not much more than a copy/paste bot, but over time it will be impossible to tell the difference. If I think of a question like - what is the best ship to cruise from Sydney on, how long will it be until sponsored content taints the answer? It already happens that google inserts sponsored results above what you were really searching for, and there will be a gold rush of corporates generating their own favourable content for GPT fodder.

Just a Sunday drive to check. 😂 Unless the actual sign has been recently modified, it is significantly photoshopped.

The whole basis of their free travel for seniors is that it is for any off-peak time. Yes, early mornings and late nights, but also through the middle of the day and at weekends.

Let me know how your cabin goes. It is hard to find glowing reviews about the comfort of the cabins. I don't expect the average age to be much lower despite the way they are pitching them. Branson fans are either retired or close to it, and there will be lots of us rusty cruisers keen to just try something a bit different. Having no kids means no young families, so it could be young and old with little between.

As a port summary, I guess it depends how much detail it has beyond whether shuttles are free or paid. A bit of a walk to the shops and a long line waiting for the local bus when we were there in October, then a couple of blocks from the bus stop to the Esplanade at the other end. All do-able of course, even with some extra diversions if you are there on a Sunday.

Yes, very true. I just had this seasons ships in mind. Yes, Edge plus QM2 also has an appointment with Yorkeys next summer. As for shuttle prices from Yorkeys to the park in Cairns, we paid a bit over $20pp for the return trip with Majestic Princess. I think it was $22, but somewhat irrelevant as the prices will be different for next season, and different again for Royal, Celebrity & Cunard.

These were great fun, and even if they return to Solstice, she has moved on from her Aussie seasons. Plus all of the tittering when they were referring to the glory hole.

Down the track, maybe they will. They do call one of their cruises a "Pacific Island holiday". Alas, that is a cruise from Melbourne to Burnie, Hobart & back. Their first season is super conservative for a brand that is supposed to have so much style. The cruises between Melbourne & Auckland are one way, and the only loop cruises are from Melbourne to Tassie. 2024/5 cruises should be announced soon, and I hope that season will both be longer and with more variety.

The shortest advertised sectors down here are usually between Hong Kong & Sydney. If they have available cabins 3 or 4 months from sailing, they will split the sectors up even further. We have done a short one from Sydney to Auckland with a single stop in Wellington this way. They have listed a 10 night Fremantle to Sydney cruise in Feb 2024, and anyone with a love of trains can do the other half of the loop on the Indian Pacific. https://www.cunard.com/en-au/find-a-cruise/M405/M405

Yes, Eden has a free shuttle, which will also bring you back if you don't feel like walking back down the hill.

For Yorkeys, there is indeed a cost for the shuttle to Cairns, but the good news is it is only Royal/Majestic Princess, Ovation/Quantum of the Seas that are tendering there instead of docking. Port Douglas - no shuttle required Newcastle - has a free shuttle to take passengers from the secure wharf over to Queens Wharf on the Harbour foreshore.

Pre-book if you can. I have seen people turned away when they are full. It is a great spot at City Extra, as it is also good for coffee, cold drinks, meals or snacks. It is also located below Circular Quay railway station for easy access to the airport train.

Australian price inclusive of tips & charges? Launch fares around $2500pp, but likely to come down later from a lack of interest in fly-cruise. Everything out for 24/25 so far has jumped-up in price.

If you consider Princess & Carnival as far too busy, P&O will also be the same. Apart from Holland America, I can't think of a large ship cruise line that offers a mostly relaxed and chilled environment. Holland America has no South Pacific departures from Auckland anyway. All ships have busy spaces, but they also have quiet spaces such as Princess' Sanctuary. We have found the adults only areas on Carnival or P&O to be not as quiet in comparison. But, as already mentioned, it is possible to have a quiet time on any ship. Avoid the daily activities and the pool deck, eat earlier or later than the masses, enjoy your balcony etc.

No such thing. Virgin is only doing Australia & NZ.

As far as I can tell, Carnival & P&O will not let you bring plastic water bottles aboard if they have any liquid in them. When empty, no problems with plastic water bottles on any of the contemporary lines I am aware of.

Most of the wharf for Eden has already been done. For much of the extension, they have just added extra mooring pylons in a line out from the end of the wharf (visible on the photo in the above link). I think they still need to add a couple more pylons for ships like Oasis, but I am pretty sure that ships like Ovation and Majestic will tie up to the wharf in its current configuration.

Potentially over time, but the wall also allows them to develop their marina and protect it from East Coast lows.

Attenuates waves 😉 Large ships cause a significant wash, especially while using thrusters and azipods that are pushing water to the side for docking. Eden has been constructing a wall in Snug Cove to protect the shoreline, marina and small boats etc Eden wave wall nears completion, will provide 'safe harbour that was promised' | About Regional Because of the initial delays, large ships such as Majestic and Ovation were unable to dock as planned this past season. Size may have played a part, but I believe it was mostly about the large wash of water that the azipods would push across the bay.

Only if the wall is incomplete. The wharf is supposed to be able to handle Royal's Oasis class ships, and Majestic is smaller than those and Ovation as well.