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portcbob

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    This is a good sign regarding cruising restarting

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    17 minutes ago, Elorac123 said:

    And this

    TEHAN CONFIRMS AUSTRALIAN CRUISE INDUSTRY TO RESTART "IN COMING WEEKS AND MONTHS"
    The Minister for Tourism offered no specific restart date, but mentioned discussions had been opened with state and territory leaders.

    Minister for Tourism Dan Tehan has said that following the reopening of Australia to international tourists in a fortnight, cruising would also resume at some point this year.

    Tehan said his desire is for Australian cruises to operate again "as soon as we possibly can", but alluded to the fact states and territories would need to comply with any such restart.

    "My hope would be, over the coming weeks and months, we'll be able to resume cruising," Tehan told The Kenny Report on Sky News.

    More details in tomorrow's issue of Cruise Weekly.

     

    Cheers Carole

    The Chris Kenny Report tomorrow afternoon has more on this. After what Hunt previously said I'm not that confident until I hear from tge State Premiers stating it is happening.😉

    • Thanks 1

    SHIPS SAILING FROM PORT OF BRISBANE NEW TERMINAL - APRIL 2022

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    1 hour ago, CCC's said:

    For what it is worth (maybe wishful thinking) the Port of Brisbane (new terminal) has Pacific Encounter sailing from Saturday 23 April 2022 and onwards.  Carnival Spirit enters the list on 5 June 2022 and Coral Princess on 29 June.   Here is the link ....

    https://www.portbris.com.au/operations-and-trade/shipping-schedule/

    We can only keep our fingers crossed that this is a true sign that sailing will commence in April ???

     

    Wrong. Our May cruise on the Encounter out of Brisbane has just been cancelled. This is old news. Feb 17 is the next important date re restart or not.

    • Like 1

    Your thoughts on restarting

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Elorac123 said:

    Below is a exert from a couple on a HAL-cruise that usually do a worldy but are doing several back to back from Fort Lauderdale, I have been following them for years.

    if the following is what we may have to look forward to when we restart I may give it a miss,

    what are your thoughts .

    Cheers Catole
     

     

     

     

    Now, here's the thing…..we were not allowed past the guards after weaving through the terminal shops.  The only way out was to hire a taxi driver, or pay an escort to walk us through town.  Neither option was acceptable to us.  And from what we saw, it was not working for the other passengers either.  We don't get it, when any of us are allowed to go all over the island, taxi or not, the virus would still be spread or picked up by locals.  It should be all or nothing.  So it boils down to money and the local taxi union, which we have witnessed in many other places around the world.  We have seen barricades thrown in front of the mini vans as they tried to leave the port in Vanuatu. In essence, we were being held like captives unless we did it their way.  So, we turned around and headed back to the ship with all the rest of the grumpy guests.  Lucky we have such a nice ship to spend the rest of the day onboard.  We had gotten a notice from HAL this morning that this port will be substituted once again on a future sailing.  Perhaps by then, the restrictions will be lifted.

     

    Back on the ship, we ran into Barb on our deck in the elevator lobby.  While we were chatting with another couple, we spotted a hazmat team of four crew members coming down the hallway with two guests, luggage in tow, heading towards the aft section.  The carpets and walls were being heavily sprayed as they passed by.  Oh no…..it must be Covid, and they were going into quarantine.  We discovered that area a few days ago while we were attempting to go to the aft elevator using deck five.  The fire door was closed with a note saying crew only.  So we assumed that was the Covid area for passengers.  It would be confirmed later by asking our waiters.

     

    Yep, I believe cruising will be changed forever. We either like the new protocols if and when it restarts or venture to land based holidays.

    bucket list cruise destinations

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    2 hours ago, NSWP said:

    As you see from my signature, done just about all the world since my retirement in 2003.  These days solo traveller and not cost effective to pay the big money out, plus health issues.

     

    So I am almost sure my cruising career is over, glad I retired early and my late wife and I could travel the world inc Australia doing the cruising and land travel.

     

    I sometimes wonder what I am still doing on CC, being a retired cruiser but I enjoy the banter.

    Same here mate. Retired from the job ( police ) in 2003. Luv cruising mate but now so frustrated with it all. 👍

    • Like 1

    Has the new Omicron variant delay the restart of cruising?

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, getting older slowly said:

    I think is issue is Les  that they one have the Big Red Button of Doom...

    no Green lights in sight......

     

    Green  ??? we will have to wait until St Patrick Day.. to see what happens

     

    Don with Coffee

    What's going to change in the future maybe?? for many years to come. So if the government has that attitude cancel cruising altogether.

    Opinions on whether the Commonwealth Government will green light the resumption of cruising on the 17th December, 2021??

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    59 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

    Yep, forgot about 2022-2023 season.
    Their expecting another variant in the middle of the year.

    Its to bad we can’t  pass the hat around and get the tennis players lawyers on the job.

    Yes guys I agree there will be no cruising probably for a couple of years yet and yes there will be further variants along the way. 

    My way of thinking, just say this theory is right and these variants do keep coming this could roll over for another decade. Will Any government in power have the balls to restart cruising, evenly domestically moving forward because if they have ambitions of not allowing it, may as well can the industry forever as this is not going to change.

    Has the new Omicron variant delay the restart of cruising?

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    14 hours ago, icat2000 said:

    I do actually. Me.

     

    The way you are talking is you don't want to move on period. You got to start somewhere. And from what I can see so far and reading about the Southern Africian experience (which is several weeks ahead of us) was high infection rates, lower hospitalisation rates and deaths. And I believe there is even less vaccinated people in that continent.

     

    Tell me how this is any different at the moment from a bad season of the flu? Older people and people with underlying health conditions are always the most at risk from ANY illness. 

     

    It was my position back in March 2020. Was to protect the Eldery and the Compromised. But hell no. They went down the route of shutting up everyone and moving into year three still plodding on the same course. 

     

    You have to start making moves to role out of this at sometime. Yes this virus is going to rip through and infect a lot of people. Like a bad season of the flu.  Otherwise, forget cruising until 2025.

     

    Now Victoria has brought in mask mandates indoors everywhere and work from home if you can. YOu just can tell that we are 50 seconds away from them locking us down again and curfews. Cause that is how Victoria rolls. 

     

    • Victorians have been ordered to wear face masks in all indoor public spaces
    • From 11.59pm on Thursday, face coverings mandatory again in pubs and cafes 
    • Spectators at events with attendance exceeding 30,000 must also wear masks
    • Deputy Premier James Merlino said Victorians must work from home if they can.
    • urged hospitality venues to switch to a seated-only service to reduce transmission. 
    •  

     

    I tend to agree with you. We have to move forward now. Get yours vacs and boosters and get on with life. Green light cruising now or at least soon OTHERWISE ban cruising forever, as nothing is going to change in the foreseeable future.👍

    P&O Pacific Adventure & Pacific Encounter - what can I expect ?

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    8 hours ago, CCC's said:

    I have never sailed with P & O Australia, having mostly sailed on Celebrity Solstice and Ovation of the Seas.  However, I am thinking I might enjoy a 4-5 night short cruise on P & O Pacific Adventure or Pacific Encounter.   Does anyone here have any information regarding these ships and what can I expect when comparing to the two other cruise ships I have sailed with.   Would appreciate any information before jumping in the deep end (pardon the pun).  

    Hi. If you are wanting a comparison between Celebrity and P & O we'll, there is quite a bit of difference in class. Although the Encounter for eg is an ex Princess ship, the Star Princess it's hard to compare with Celebrity Solstice, IMO.

    We found the Celebrity Solstice a much nicer ships all round and the food much superior.

    Although P & O are not bad they can't hang with Celebrity.

    Having said that we are booked on the Pacific Encounter for a Fiji cruise from Brissie in May, 2022 however we think it will be cancelled.

    • Like 1

    Has the new Omicron variant delay the restart of cruising?

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

     

    I'll trade Qld "paranoia" against NSW 600+ dead any day of the week. ☹️

     

    Do people never get sick of this kick a Queenslander meme?

     

    Qld is doing just what the other states like SA, WA, Tas are doing, and we don't see anything near the same level of whinging about them.

     

    Here we are opening up just as we said we would, at 80% vaxxed, and it's still not good enough. It has to be done just as NSW wants, when NSW wants. As if they know what they are doing in NSW.

    EXACTLY👍

    Has the new Omicron variant delay the restart of cruising?

    in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

    Posted

    On 12/15/2021 at 8:22 AM, bazzaw said:

    The Omicron variant has reignited the paranoia!!!! On the day after Qld opened its borders, one case onboard an aircraft has forced the rest of the passengers into 14 day quarantine - ALL of them! . There has been zero mention of just how "sick" this person is. While this paranoia and the Qld "unwritten commitment" to zero Covid continues, there will be no cruising or much of anything else.  

    Spot on.

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