arxcards

Not sure about that. It appears to be spreading to other parts of the world 😉 Yes, I agree, but there comes a point when a cruise line has to decide on plan B.

We have recently made a booking at Room2 for a pre-cruise night next June. The pricing was up/down, depending on the date, but it worked out for us. We had considered the Leonardo & the Holiday Inn, but Room2 looks to be a much nicer location for the Ocean terminal. From your comment, it appears that we chose well, and we can only hope the sun is shining on the day so we can enjoy a nice walk to the terminal. It seems our plans are evolving in similar ways. We are spending 6 nights in London at Waterloo (Marlin) and planning on taking the train to Southampton. Is there plenty of room on the train, or is storing luggage an issue?

Glad it has all sorted out. It is a weird feeling. Is Princess turning on any other grand plans for your last night? It shows on the tracking too.

Those are 6 months+ ahead of Voyager and could offer a timeline should the conflict continue.

That recent slump won't cost them the minor premiership, but maybe a cool million. Those extra points might have come in handy. Go the Swanettes!

They will all need to comb their pits and calm the farm before any cruising resumes transits through there. There is more than a year for something good to happen though, so fingers crossed for everyone that has made a booking. It seems that medallions don't work on rockets. A couple of months back, Princess pulled the pin on Crown going via the Red Sea next June/July, so I would presume they aren't as confident about the area as Royal is. The Anthem jumpers might be the smart ones. If your cruise is canned and you are hoping for something similar to come along later, where to you park your booking? Perhaps on another one they think could be canned.

The Rome to Dubai & Dubai to Singapore legs are showing as close to sold out too.

Do they get any sort of prize for that, apart from relying on comparable success from their AFLW side to win the Mcclelland trophy & prizemoney? It has long been an important honour, but also the easily forgotten one compared to the grand final winner. If there is no standalone prize for the AFL minor premier, there is no real difference to finishing 2nd apart from bragging rights.

A quirky little clip from Pacific Jewel drydock there in 2018. https://www.9news.com.au/national/behind-the-scenes-at-garden-island-s-dry-dock/72af649e-980d-441b-be1f-263f92356e9c

Where is the uncertainty? If the exemption doesn't get renewed, they just apply to get licenses rubber stamped. Take some time to read how the new legislation would work. There is no uncertainty, just a lack of understanding from those who assume this is the reason that cruise lines are pulling ships. Seriously, take the time to read how & when permits and licenses apply. It is in B&W. To take the opposite view, now they have "certainty" till the end of 2026, wouldn't we have another 1/2 dozen ships coming back next summer?

Sydney has a visitor for the next couple of weeks, with one of the Tassie ferries in Captain Cook drydock. Is there a good view from the Manly ferry?

5 on embarkation day, with so many with bags still in tow. Nowadays, a discretionary cough or two and you can have an elevator to yourself.

We really have no organised local lobbying body. CLIA is largely about supporting the TA network, and perhaps explains the fear in their announcements. There are many more TA jobs at stake than those in any other part of the cruise industry. It is encouraging that TTF and CLIA are looking to connect over these issues. We are left as a bunch of rational (and a few irrational) cruisers as a voice of reason from a US cruise forum. Then we have fragmented cruise groups all over social media, competing for referral clicks and free cruises. It would be nice to think we could cobble together a powerful voice for cruising in Australia, but we are just an opinion. Royal Caribbean and Carnival corp are multi-billion dollar entities who generate significant profit as well as tax revenue for various Australian governments. You would think they are more than capable of selling their own cases to the federal & NSW transport ministers. It couldn't happen on Ann Sherry's watch, and it has me beat why Carnival Australia no longer has a local figurehead. Let's set a date to revisit in 2026. Till then, we can at least agitate.

Cool, thanks. Not sure where I plucked May from.

26th May to 15th August, the Auckland WC passengers won't be concerned with the buffet today. Time flies.

A couple of options at Mascot. It is also possible to free park at a suburban rail station out of Sydney, although with limited security. Another option is to drive to the cruise terminal and hand over your car to Cruise Control, where they will valet it away to their garage and bring it back for when you disembark. Pretty ordinary web site (red text = ouch), but they are good guys. https://www.cruisecontrolaustralia.com/

The shuttle from the ship to Lyttleton drops you close to Norwich Quay anyway. For those who feed like they have had one creme brulee too many and are feeling fit, you can walk there via the Bridle Path. The path is accessed by some stairs, just to the east of the big roundabout (below the start of the tunnel). It is a steep walk of around 2km, and only for those fit at heart. Whichever way. I believe the ship tour would be a waste of money.

Very strange. They say they have withdrawn the Platinum card, yet there it is on the application page.

I'm sad too. All bigger numbers than Mic, and little chance of adding another between. But it just adds more counters, and a nice one that has us on QF1 in 300 days.

It may still carry that name for existing accounts, and is likely part of the confusion as to why there was thought to be an annual fee. That card is no longer available to new customers. Coles has 3 options - No annual fee, Low Rate, Rewards. With the removal of Platinum from the card names, it gives them the option of downgrading usual platinum benefits, and they have already cut the number of flybuy points and have started to transition customers over to the new versions of the cards. Coles cards are also handled by Latitude, the same company that is adding the monthly fee to 28 Degrees. The Coles Platinum reward card used to have no commission on foreign currency, but that also got changed to 3% on 1st July. I see a trend here.

Surety fullstop. These exemptions are not a win or loss, just a deferment. Yes, Australia will not be building a merchant fleet anytime soon, and that includes an Aussie operated cruise line. The irony with all today's self-congratulation is that until a cruise line with an Aussie payroll materialises, all foreign cruise ships will have their Aussie licences granted anyway. It is written in the legislation. It is as if the proposed legislation was in hope that one of the US lines would spin-off an Australian crewed ship, but Carnival Corp have certainly quashed any possibility by dismantling the only cruise line that even had Australia in the brand name.

Surprise surprise. Nice to see it get rubber stamped a little bit earlier and for a bit longer. Not much has changed though, and it has just kicked the can down the road for two more years.