arxcards

AIS has listed Sydney. Eden is no fun for Ovation until they finish the wave attenuator wall. Do circles off Sydney or come in a day early, as I don't think there is another ship at OPT.

Agreed. In our case, all of the higher-level cabins were sold out when we booked. With so many cancellation credits floating around, they have been getting snapped up quicker than usual. We are happy with what we have, but also happy if we can snag something better.

A shore tour home to drop off your excess luggage?

For Princess, if upgrade bidding is available for your cruise, you can find out here: Princess Upgrade – Cruise Room Upgrades - Princess Cruises

And Klingons on the starboard bow.

The weather won't make for relaxed cruising, but Coral should be able to stay ahead of the worst of it. At the time of your capture, Coral is scheduled to be departing Wellington bound for Christchurch. Lots of rain, but the ocean conditions are much less hazardous. Very slim hope for the fiords though.

It is predicted to still be at CAT 3 at Brisbane's latitude and passing over Norfolk Island at CAT 2. A beast best avoided. NZ doesn't need another ex-cyclone, but it doesn't look promising. We have cruised on the tail of a similar cyclone turned hybrid-low at the end of 2007. It was an awesome experience. Happy to give this one a miss.

We have been able to put bids in for our upcoming cruise on Majestic Princess. We have done this via the personaliser without needing an email. All of the upper-level cabins have been sold out for months, so the bids are only speculative that there could be a last minute cancellation.

For those that scored the deals, they are well in front. There were promos for $240pp twin balcony with $500 OBC. That turns into $700 OBC and $120pp cruise credit for a $480 fare.

I hope they can salvage something for you. Quantum has decided to head to Hobart instead of Noumea.

Quantum of the Seas has also decided not to risk 3 days in Noumea, and is heading south to Hobart instead. Luminosa hasn't updated their destination yet but is tracking back towards Brisbane.

I like to think my T/A gives me the best possible deal without having to have a financial membership. If Costco starts a cruise line, I would pay for a membership. Other than that .... All the same, great deal. Booking direct with P&O is a bit more than double that price.

Presumably a medical emergency, of which we have seen plenty this season. Splendor has just departed from just off the Qld Coast near Bundaberg. She will be cranking it to get to Sydney on time Thursday morning.  Bundaberg.

Ruby has only made sure that borderforce and state authorities are thorough when they are clearing the ship in port. The protocols were based on what the CDC were doing in the US, and Ruby had nothing to do with CDC's cruising framework. It is only really some parts of our media that treats every ship with covid as another Ruby Princess. The protocols were/are about the safe operation of the ship, and their ability to control an outbreak. Our authorities are happy for passengers to be unmasked until the ship hits tier 3, but the cruise lines aren't so keen on tier 3. When the media puts their ship on the front page it is bad for business, and it is their choice to continue with masks and an additional screening test. It must be working as planned, with no tier 2's or 3's and no media outrage. I am happy that pre-boarding tests are still required. To me, that means there is less chance of me spending a large chunk of my cruise in isolation because of someone knowingly bringing it aboard. If unvaxxed travellers want to cruise, that is fine by me. That is a bit of the leftover carrot & stick that was used to promote vaccination - if you are vaxxed, you can go to work, go to the pub, travel etc. Those days have long gone and should no longer prevent anyone taking a cruise.

They should be able to skirt the worst of it.

The cruise protocols, being government rules, only require masks when there is an elevated number of cases aboard. We cruised on Majestic in October, and no masks were required, as the state governments had largely dropped the mask mandate from their protocols. Then the following cruise had 800 infections and they reinstated masks on their ships to match the perceived risk. Hospitals have similar responses as the ships have with their tiers and will adjust requirements to match the level of infection around them. As the infections on land are coming down, the Carnival branded ships are gradually removing their mask requirements. As for the pre-cruise testing and vaxx requirements, who knows how long that will apply. When covid first broke, the cruise ships said that their experience with mitigating influenza and gastro outbreaks made them safer than being on land - but for all their expertise, they couldn't control covid without these extra imposed layers. When the summer fleet has departed, it is likely the few remaining ships will start peeling back those layers. If all goes to plan, and strain xyz doesn't surface at the wrong time, next season will be a much more relaxed experience.

Should be an absolute bargain now they have added a possible cyclone to the itinerary.

I spoke too soon. Majestic has skipped the fiords and have doubled back to Cook Strait. The weather is certainly not favourable today. Could be quite a few changed itineraries this week. The QLD coast looks like being off-limits from Wednesday.

Government wise, it applies to all cruise lines - since late October. Most of the Carnival brands have still been requesting masks, but I think I read recently that P&O and Carnival were relaxing masks on shorter cruises. I haven't heard anything yet about the other Carnival brands, to whether they are heading the same way.

Very limited mask protocols coming from government. At 3% (tier 2) all crew are required to wear masks indoors. At 10% (tier 3) all passengers are required to wear masks indoors. Other than that, it is at the discretion of each ship/line. Royal seem to be in control of things, enough to not be needing masks.

Without that arrangement, Sydney's airport line would likely be at the same stage as Melbourne. Yes, the gate charges are frustrating.

Maybe. As they are not returning to Australia, how they report numbers to US CDC will determine whether they will continue doing screening tests on longer cruises. NZ and Tahitian requirements may play a part, but once bound for Hawaii, I think all bets will be off. But yes, if they want to test you aboard, they will provide them.

The number of berths listed is the maximum number of passengers that can be booked in the cabin. You can just book 3 people in a 4 berth balcony. If you book in an extra name, it costs more.

It also depends. Some of Princess' promo fares have had a non-refundable deposit, which makes it difficult to rebook price drops.

I agree. It makes no sense to do it now for the sake of the next cruise, which will already be disrupted whether they try to finish the butt scraping or not. She will get a full clean and new anti-fouling paint in 6 weeks' time, and no other itineraries between now and then require a clean butt. For the season, I think it was only 2 cruises that skipped the fiords due to weather. If I was to miss out due to weather, I would accept it to be outside of anyone's control. That isn't the case for operational causes, including the condition of the ship.