arxcards

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.

A bit of a see-saw happening. Is it windy at Mt Barker?

I read it that there are some agencies that will give you additional OBC as part of your booking, without having to pay a membership fee for the privilege.

I get that, but why wouldn't they just make the port bookings with Adventure to get the WOW tongues wagging early. I would suggest that the name on the booking is the most probable ship.

I would guess boarding starting at around 1pm. There will be a crowd of people who will gather from before 11am and wait. You should get a text from Princess in the morning.

They had engaged an architect, so presumably have plans drawn. Much of the talk around being green & carbon neutral makes it sound like it will be on par with what already exists at Conflict Islands, with maybe an extra bit of WOW. What has been removed from Royal's slate - billions of dollars lost by RCI during the covid years. Dollars spent now need an accelerated return on investment.

But what is the point of hiding a Voyager class ships bookings behind Voyager of the Seas bookings. Different if they wanted to go WOW, surprise, here is Freedom of the Seas (example). Apart from buying a different fridge magnet, Adventure would just be a charade to those that need some good oil in their WOW.

Docking at around 8:30, which will have first disembark around 9:30. I hope anyone with international flights has opted for flights after noon 😉 That delay and a bit of residual weather could make for an OPT Ship Show. It makes sense though, as the conditions are a bit rough for the pilot to board in the dark.

I noticed Noordam has pushed out to sea a bit to try and circle around the current squall that you are cruising towards as you approach Wollongong. Noordam has pushed back their arrival till 11am, but I think that has been imposed due to harbour runoff. Coming in close to high tide won't allow them enough bridge clearance. No midnight stroll on deck for you tonight! Still, I would rather be cruising in it than driving to work in it.

Lelepa is real. Royal anchoring off the island and offering access to both Port Vila and Lelepa Island is quite plausible, as Lelepa only needs a tender wharf to offer access to a beach. Perfect Day at Lelepa resort? Well, I would call that fiction for now, and for a few years to come. Would be WOW, but even Chinese money evaporates into the hierarchy.

They will also leave shareholders behind when they are late back to the ship 😉

I don't know what they set out to achieve last night, but they were back in Newcastle at the scheduled time this morning. Just seemed a shame to waste such a neat speech bubble.

An SOS from Brilliance?

As far as I can tell, she didn't exceed 10 knots, but maybe that was the plan anyway.

You aren't on your own on a private tour either. The cruise lines shipping agent will normally assist you to make your way to the meet the ship at the next available port, but at your own expense. It is possible that for such an obscure port that there was no shipping agent present on Bom Bom Island.

A control issue with one of the pods, but yes, 18 knots would confirm both pods are fully back in service. There should be a few different turns to test that as well, so lets hope she doesn't just go round in circles. Lovely weather for it!