arxcards

One account is as told by staff, the other is based on what is being charged. Remy XO was $30 in February, and I think the prices are stable for now. I would presume that is a +$8 charge. Remy & Hennessey VSOP's are covered by plus at $18 each. Scary on a World Cruise - the packages and prices might change twice by the time you get back 🤣

Nice itinerary, as it has 2 stops at Conflict Islands https://www.carnival.com.au/itinerary/11-day-papua-new-guinea-cruise/brisbane/luminosa/11-days/jg2/?itinportcode=bne

They have tried them. They didn't sell very well. There is something about 4 sea days up and 4 sea days back that deters the majority of cruisers. The best ones started in Cairns. The last two of these departs next month, of which one also includes Honiara. PS: P&O is still doing short seasons from Cairns in late 2024 + 2025

And for @NSWP The final trip of the former Regal Princess in 2007, before she became Pacific Dawn. Webcam capture from a day around the bottom of NZ, with waves hitting The Dome.

I also love the rock & roll. Bad weather ends up with everyone indoors and treading on each others toes. Really bad weather is uncomfortable at best, and scary when you get bounced out of bed. I think they do a better job of avoiding storms than 15 - 20 years ago, largely due to better predictions of ocean conditions. Our worst, crossing from Sydney to Noumea through an ex-tropical storm (hybrid low) on Sun Princess (the previous one) in late 2007. Gales and 9 metre waves for a day & a half. We had the added joy of having an aft-facing mini suite for maximum see-saw benefits. Similarly, a large number of passengers hid away in their cabins, and we almost had the MDR to ourselves for breakfast. Great to know we could handle the movement, but a summer holiday with 2 days of no outside decks was a downer. I think the worst I have seen accounts for locally are for Pacific Sun on a cruise out of Auckland in 2008. It should never have left Auckland, but they thought they could dodge it. They got in a bit of trouble, as most of the stuff sliding was in breach of SOLAS as it was supposed to be bolted down. Strap yourself in 😁

If they are cruising overseas for variety, as long as you choose their brand they still win. P&O lack the ability to have you cruising with them overseas, yet they also have less variety than they did a few years ago. Currently, for most brands, it is lowest common denominator cruising. That would appear to be driven by lower price point, and shorter itineraries fit with that. When I lament the lack of variety, I look at where Melbourne and Freo currently are and am happy to mostly settle for what is available from Sydney or Brisbane. For great island itineraries, look at Pacific Explorer ex-Auckland. They have pinched the good ones. https://www.pocruises.com.au/cruises/fiji-encounter/x431 (plus 5 more dates). https://www.pocruises.com.au/cruises/tongan-discovery/x532

Pacific Explorer is currently circling cyclone Olga as she makes her way from Broome to Komodo Island. That is much better than what Celebrity Edge will face heading to Tassie & Ovation of the Seas will encounter returning to Sydney from NZ this week. Carnival Spendor, Brilliance of the Seas & Pacific Encounter should be able to dodge the worst of it.

Is it a colony somewhere in France?

We are the minority John. The mainstream lines are catering to the boring bottom line and are selling cruises in a way to fill the ships. Sydney attracts international cruisers, and they help to fill these 2-week Pacific itineraries out of Sydney. Karen from Princess marketing things that anyone from QLD only wants to cruise for more than 9 nights if they are going to NZ. Aside from the dual porting of the long voyages, it is a bit of NZ, a bit of Tassie, one to the Pacific and one to PNG, Everything else is 8 nights and under. On top of that, your Princess QLD season shrinks rapidly with Coral Princess leaving. Phyllis from P&O agrees. They do a few PNG with encounter, but mostly out of peak season which is also out of cyclone season. Encounter is your year-round ship, yet between now & early 2026 they go to Fiji once (in May) and a Bounty cruise in August. They are both off-season and outside of school holidays. Very few cruises longer than 7 nights. Short cruises from Brisbane are an easier sell for P&O. Carrie from Carnival is in the same boat. The only local Luminosa cruises longer than 8 nights go to PNG, of which there are 3 over the next 2 seasons. I haven't checked Royal, but suspect Voyager will be the same as it was for Quantum, with most cruises up to 8 nights. It costs me less than $10 to get from home to OPT, yet we have cruised out of Brisbane in 2022, 2024 and have two cruises out of BICT next year. I actually like the option of doing 7-night cruises from Brisbane. It isn't that far back that Brisbane only had a single ship from P&O, so hopefully there are incredible alternatives ahead in the next few years.

Fingers crossed for Lelepa, or it will be more of the same itineraries on a ship from the 20th century.

Width in the channel is also a factor. Voyager has had port entries for Yorkeys Knob for several months. To save on having 3 tender posts, they are overnighting at Yorkeys instead of going up to Port Douglas.

WOW, just WOW. That is so funny. I was just about to post here. I have just been reading Royal's Australian social media feeds, and they are copping a bagging for trying to WOW their loyal patrons with a cookie-cutter ship. Apparently the show is different. Flogging a dead giraffe? I look forward to them spinning the WOW of a 20th century ship heading for Brisbane. I would be more WOW'd if I could get a Southo & Coke for under $AU15 and a meal at Chop's for under $AU70. At this stage, until I can get the last few nights to diamond qual, it looks like I can only afford Anthem if we are going on a detox cruise.

In the end, she has kept south past Sydney Heads. I hope she comes back for her passengers before heading to Hobart.

Ouch indeed. Footy days over Mic?

Not just the ship. How marvellous is that skyline!

The speed does confirm both pods are working. It may not need a fancy turn if they know that the control issue has been resolved. If I didn't know better, I reckon she will be going into OPT tonight. She is in the shipping lane and will be off Sydney Heads in time to collect a pilot off one of the departing ships.

21 knots

She only needs 4hrs max to get to Sydney, so I am keen to see if they are going to do some maneuvers overnight. Already at 13 knots.

Bang-on her PLAN E departure time, Brilliance of the Seas is backing out of her Newcastle berth. Fingers crossed for those still aboard tomorrow & beyond.

Looks like the wind changed direction at 3/4 time. Go Swannies!

Hasn't stopped them before. When P&O announced Pacific Explorer, Royal arrived with Explorer of the seas. Carnival Legend was in Australia when Legend of the Seas arrived. Other conflicts between cruise lines over recent years, including Sun, Dawn, Jewel. Maybe confusion is a good thing? I have friends that booked on Pacific Dawn, which turned out to be Dawn Princess when they arrived at the terminal. Hey, it is a big white ship with restaurants and bars, so who cares what the name is? 🤣

Similar wideness. Do you remember the one about the Canadian who booked in $US for an Aussie based world cruise sector, and the exorbitant package price? Well, if I check the personaliser for our Diamond Princess cruise next Feb, on the beverage tab a standalone premier package will cost us $195.63pp per day. If you go to the bundles tab instead, then you can pay for plus or premier at $65/95pp per day. We have the current plus for next years WC, but it will likely be the new old plus by the time we cruise. If there is any weirdness with how they are treating older versions/pricing, I won't be upgrading but will be cancelling the plus fare and relying on carry-on, mini-bar and very moderate bar purchases.

I believe there is a discrepancy between plus fare drink caps and standard fare + standalone drink package caps. The weirdness appears to come from those that purchased standard fares, then purchased standalone drinks packages via their personaliser.

Yes, for the Royal class ships. We felt the same with a suite on Majestic late last year. Spending each evening in the concierge lounge, we didn't get value out of our drinks package. We could have easily managed with concierge and our mini bar. Because of that, we have booked a suite on Discovery as a standard fare.

I am not sure they had changed their destination to Tangalooma, and were just looking to get out of the weather overnight. Plenty of time to get to Eden for tomorrow.