arxcards

Dora is now showing as for sale, so at this stage, she hasn't been sold for scrap. It isn't a sellers market though. Apart from Dora's newer sister, ships like Rhapsody & Radiance have been up for sale for several months. If not sold by February, Carnival will not await a possible buyer - scrap = cash.

For anyone wanting to start an Aussie cruise line, Dora is now showing for sale. 1997 Cruise Ship Cruise Ship for sale - YachtWorld

That is the bug. The freebies are based on turnover, not wins or losses. Any gambler will tell you they can win money on a free cruise, but in reality the house always wins.

Or worse.

One thing in Dora's favour of keeping afloat is that she has had a more active life than her sisters, all of whom are still intact. Sun Princess - Pacific World aka Peace Boat Dawn Princess - still Dora for now Sea Princess - now sailing from Tianjin, China as MS Dream. This is her 2nd post-covid owner/identity. Ocean Princess (Oceana) - Queen of the Oceans - laid up, for sale. Either the price is too high, or there is no market for her. As an Aussie cruise ship, Dora's length in service here is only surpassed by the iconic Fairstar. Crossings between Australia & Noumea are tough on cruise ships, and I can't recall much in the way of breakdowns for Dora. Her three sisters all changed ownership during the covid pause, so at least she survived Carnival's 2020 cull. She will be 28 year old when she departs Fremantle in February. In comparison, Pacific Sun was only 26yo, and Pacific Dawn was 29yo. Time was just about up anyway, and her 18th February drydock date is likely one of the triggers for P&O being dissolved. If a decision had been made to not spend the drydock money on Dora, that would leave P&O Australia as a two ship fleet, with an even higher ratio of overheads. Her final day for P&O is in Singapore, and that is relevant. Whether Dora is drydocked/rebranded in Singapore for another line, or just stripped of assets ready for scrap, time will tell.

98% of the time, it will work out perfect. If there is no severe weather and our customs are playing fair, it will be 100% do-able. Princess transfers don't wait for the bus to fill up, These are pre-ticketed and have their own disembarkation group, however there can be stragglers and they will wait a while for those passengers. Talk to guest services to find out the disembark time they are assigning to the transfer and take it from there.

Pacific Dawn was extremely lucky, in that the buyer who thought he had a future for the ship hadn't done his due diligence. If he had, there were no other buyers at the time and she would have been sold for scrap. Dora will also need some luck. She has a younger sister, the former Oceana/Ocean Princess. This ship was sold to Seajets in 2020 and is now called Queen of the Oceans. The ship is currently laid-up, not seeing a passenger for her new owners. The ship has been for sale for some time. Unless Dora is a more attractive purchase, it would seem there is no future for her in the secondary market. Carnival will not lay her up to await a buyer, unfortunately, scrap = cash. Not a done deal yet, either way. Perhaps a cashed-up Aussie buyer can save her. Gina for Port Hedland to save on FIFO costs, or Clive could pretend she is Titanic 2, and run her aground in every port in the Pacific. Fingers crossed, we have loved cruising on these Sun class ships.

Stanging is when you finally have a day where you hit your 15 drink limit, a combination of standing and staggering. 😉

I love a good old fashioned - preferably bourbon or Southern Comfort.

Not fair. Barb does an excellent eggs benny, but nowadays she thinks its OK to charge me a fee.

Not yet. Compared to 23/24, there is one less ship for 24/25, two less ships for 25/26. Part of that is from them withdrawing from Melbourne. For those P&O cruisers that have a dislike for Carnival, I guess that in time, it will drive-up demand for Princess. There is lots of choice over summer, but with our only full time based Princess doing her annual world cruise, we now get a sole choice of Carnival each winter. C'mon Royal, where are you. It looks like Carnival has kicked a bit of an own goal here, and a year round Lelepa would fill a significant void.

Dig deeper. The NZ thing is a recent issue, and affects all cruise lines operating here, including Carnival. There were no chinks at the time the newbuild was announced. P&O Australia was driving incredible growth and opening up new ports in this part of the Pacific. The newbuild was a logical next step. Carnival corp reneged, and a new P&O ship was changed to Carnival Legend being upgraded to Splendor. The chinks were bought about by Carnival Corp themselves at the time they decided to place Carnival Spirit in Sydney. While the brand is P&O, in reality the demographic has been an Australian version of Carnival. Adding Spirit undermined the market P&O had built for Carnival Corp. It was a smaller market, but per-capita numbers were world leading. Now that Carnival has left the door ajar for Royal and Norwegian to capitalise, they have no choice but to rationalise to try to hang onto their slice of the market.

As did several other ships with "dirty" hulls. The same could still happen next year if Carnival Adventure fails her routine hull inspection.

All booked now. Ship coffee is usually rather shippy coffee, and not a P&O exclusive. Charlie's Bar coffee is a more consistent quality than some of their competitors.

There is no change for Eden. P&O hasn't been calling in Eden, nor has Carnival. Perhaps the good news for Eden is that Norwegian has added several visits there over the next couple of seasons. Hobart still gets around 20 visits per month in summer, and this weeks announcement doesn't include any Hobart cancellations, although Royal should still visit more often.

We have had a few, mostly at breakfast. We have never asked, but plenty of T/As have told us they were much better than whoever we were using.

For the bigger picture, I don't know what it means yet. They have just announced the end of P&O Australia, and the end of Pacific Explorer's place in the fleet. Carnival have said there will be more news about their future in Australia, so there will be lots of speculation until that happens. That includes the future of Fremantle, Melbourne, Auckland & Cairns. I doubt that CCL would abandon the money generated from those ports. Perhaps the author is unaware of this board for linking?

Melatonin is available over the counter here, so won't be an issue. Your most stringent checkpoint will be when you arrive into Sydney airport. Australian government guidelines: https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/can-you-bring-it-in/overview

Even though it was announced just this week, this was all scheduled months ago. The only reason they would alter plans is if they got it wrong the first time.

Drydocks are scheduled for routine maintenance & repairs below the waterline. Hotel mods are done at the same time to make the most of their out of service time. Given the nearest active drydock for ships this size is 6 days away in Singapore, and their current service schedule, it is more likely they will be just laid up at a convenient industrial dock in Australia. Last drydock for Adventure was April 2024. Encounter in February 2023, with next drydock scheduled for February 2026. Cabins won't change much. The public areas certainly will, as well as needing a Carnival paint job above the waterline and a rebranded funnel. Two weeks should be sufficient.

Decision made last August, with everything being pieced together till the announcement this week? P&O have been without a CEO since then. CW breaking news – Carnival Australia chief Marguerite Fitzgerald resigns | (cruiseweekly.com.au)

Flying all that distance, I am more concerned about quantity than quality. If flying to the Caribbean, there would be a week on land combined with at least two cruises. Yes, I would probably like free laundry & minibar, but I would be more inclined to pick the best itinerary. Someone else might fly all that way just to add a different pin to their vest.

Yes, that is in the plans. It fits perfectly. Last embark would still have us over at White Bay too early. We also have the benefit of being able to drop or swap bags in Newcastle the day before.

I know I have said previously we would never book P&O again. My greatest criticism is that they have become groundhog day cruises, with menus and amenities that have barely changed since the current format was introduced in 2015. The new $10 charge for eggs benny was the last straw. But I am about to book our 14th P&O cruise on our 8th P&O ship. Forever will be a long time. This week's news might give some context to why P&O haven't been evolving. They have been treading water since 2017, stagnating as if they knew they had no future. We arrive into Sydney on Diamond Princess on 21st Feb, so a bit of brunch followed by a cab over to White Bay to spend the following weekend on Pacific Adventure. I am even planning to spend a couple of hundred more on a Byron mini so that we can get free eggs benny. 😉

As they are the middle-man for your booking, the extra time is to make sure your payment has cleared their systems in time to be paid onto the cruise line. Some of the larger places like to do their cruise remittances in weekly batches so they aren't spending their days working like an ATM. Good T/A's will refund as quick as the cruise line, also considering the payment has to get to them first. Some do have onerous terms, cancellation fees, slow response times - I won't book through those agencies.