arxcards

Worth a shot, but I really don't know. What I have realised that together with Big Gav, we have ... Alas Smith and Jones

Tim Jones at last count.

Even a Princess 4hr Brisbane City debark tour to the airport is only $AU70pp

Given that on short cruises there are around 50% on packages, and less than 40% for longer cruises, it would be business suicide to alienate more than half their passengers. Being able to pitch three different fare types works in their favour. Sure, they would like more passengers to take up plus, but 10% would be a gold mine for them. Putting the internet price up will indeed change the tipping point for those undecided whether to get a package or not, but that will be a small %. The key bit mentioned by @Cbtours is that at their core, Plus & Premier are drink packages. Those that don't drink and those that drink little will continue to pay $130 per couple less for each day of their cruise fare. The price of plus will go up again this year, of that I have no doubt. I don't see them splitting into old & new plus again any time soon though. Their relative fare types are not competing with other, but are competing against Royal Caribbean & NCL pricing. As best as I can tell, they are putting up their internet pricing because they can, mostly as their direct competitors already have a similar higher price.

It is great for TV, but in real life the cost in restoring many of those items would prohibit most people from getting them done.

I am not sure that Barb has picked-up many of my technical interests. I loved the smell of turning up pieces of Huon pine but it just made Barb sneeze. She has learned not to measure anything with one of my old contraction rules - once bitten.

Same document attached. This AU/NZ forum - unviewable The Princess forum - viewable and DL 50+ times

It is the same for all attachments that are loaded on this board. Not the main boards, but this one. I have had it that a Princess launch brochure was not available here, but available to everyone when it was attached to a post on the Princess board. I will see if I can find the two posts. BBCode has administrative permissions that allow settings for each individual board to be switched on or off. I would suspect that someone attached something naughty in the past, so the setting was switched off to protect everyone from the breach(es).So be it, except that you can still attach a file, and be totally unaware that nobody else can view it.

Mic, I figure you are the only one here that sees something different to this.

Nope. If you upload an attachment on this board, you are the only one that can see/download it. Do the same on other boards such as roll calls or the various cruise line boards and everyone can see/download it. You uploaded a link on this thread a few days ago. How many times does it show as downloaded?

A definite marine connection back through time with the manufacture of propellers. This guy must have had one of those days, or he is as rough as guts. Way too much car bog, and use of rasps and grinding tools. I didn't ever make one anywhere near that large, but we made them from timber, not plywood. They were shaped with spokeshaves and drawknives, and anyone who had to use car bog on a work of art would be sneered at by the other tradesmen. The video is short, but there are 100's of hours in one of these.

Nothing is free. It is just part of your fare.

Yep, for bar conversation I couldn't put it any simpler. For metal castings, it is somewhat of a replica, made slightly oversized to allow the molten metal to contract to the correct dimensions. For any undercuts or internal shapes/holes (think engine block), separate pieces of sand were moulded then assembled in the overall mould as somewhat of a 3D jigsaw puzzle. The void in the mould was then filled with the required molten metal. It was definitely a measure twice, cut once occupation. I also did the same for making fibreglass moulds, mostly for interior train panels. I still annoy Barb by running my fingers over a curved window surround panel on one of our older local trains and saying something like - awesome curve. On the tack of one of those days, there were lots of awesome days. There were other days when a month of meticulous work was returned in a dozen pieces. Chemically bonded foundry sand tended to grip the pattern a bit, and a sledgehammer was the tool of choice for some foundry moulders. With very little heavy engineering in Australia now, there are very few patternmakers active in their trade.

They won't be ditching the standard fare. They will always have an entry level fare to compete with no-frills lines, then continue to pitch a fare "upgrade" to your email address until sailing day. What will change with standard fare though is that the standard will slip. As examples, many of the "casual restaurants" were part of standard fare, but no longer. Ocean Now delivery was part of standard fare, but is no longer. Who knows, cracked pepper on your MDR meal may become part of plus and incur a charge for standard. For context, this price increase is nothing to do with anything being watered down, but purely about a price increase. Elite minutes excepted, ship internet has never been a freebie. Once upon a time not too far gone, you purchased minutes of crappy service, and all your minutes disappeared if it didn't logout properly. In those days, you took a laptop so you could type up your blogs and messages, then connect to send and hopefully disconnect successfully. Now to be connected for the whole trip, and being able to video message, stream TV channels, do emails & messenger, post on Cruise Critic etc, the value runs rings around what it used to be. There is an issue, but that was their decision to take away free minutes from elite captains circle. Been a while now - 200 minutes if I recall correctly. That is a watering down of Captains Circle, not a standard or package fare.

The connection was excellent in November, months prior to tomorrows' price rise, and with more than half the passengers having internet as part of their plus/premier packages. Prior to Starlink it wasn't crappy because of traffic, but due to high latency caused from distance to the satellite.

It was mentioned in another thread here on Saturday. Yes, I do think the packages will be going up again soon, but I don't think they would be so dumb to create new versions of the packages. I have noticed that the "door prizes" has quietly disappeared from the Australian premier package a few months ago, without creating a different version. If it was part of the package when you booked, you till get it. If you have booked in the past few months, it won't be listed on your itemised list of inclusions and you won't get it.

It is pretty decent now. The latency is much improved since they changed to Starlink.

The conversation is general, but the OP is for Carnival. In the crossfire, some lines are OK with bringing bottles back aboard, some aren't. For Carnival, they screen for everything. P&O Australia also screens for everything. Anything bought aboard is stowed till the end of the cruise. Anything considered to be sneaking/smuggling it aboard is usually confiscated and disposed of (i.e. rum runners, Scotch or bourbon in an iced tea bottle etc)

That is exceedingly expensive. Somebody has stuffed-up. Later than above, in February 2023, Majestic Princess charged us $AU40pp from Brisbane cruise terminal to the airport. This was booked and paid for onboard.

PS - P&O did deserve a bollocking, as their itinerary swap was dirty hull related. Other recently swapped itineraries have had an option of a credit though.

Other lines would have made the call yesterday, giving the new passengers a choice of doing a fully changed itinerary or a credit. I get that it is really touch & go as to whether they go north or south though. Those coming from overseas are going to board anyway, but someone from Melbourne or Adelaide might like the option of getting a credit. A missed port or a changed port is a risk of cruising. Replacing the whole itinerary is a different deal, as for a cruise that was meant to go to NZ going to Tassie instead. Maybe the expectations for Cunard are different to those for P&O who copped a bollocking over it.

I am just revisiting this topic, and I must say I am impressed. By trade, I am a foundry patternmaker, and appreciate precise and intricate work. Back in my trade days, it was rare for me to bring my work home with me and was content to leave my engineered timber projects to my employer. I have done some serious renovations over the years, but mostly have an impressive and underutilised toolbox.

The tour operators are on the ball. Letting their customers get stung isn't very good for business.

It depends on the hotel. There is much less choice more than a year out, but there are a few that are available for the full 16 months of the booking.com window.

The ex-Pacific Eden, Vasco de Gama, is also cruising down the coast. Cairns today, and Townsville the following day if 05U lets them.