El Cheapo Cruises Thread

[arxcards]

16 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

it is cheap because it involves a one way flight and hotel accommodation for a night.  Hotels are often dearer on Saturday nights.  

Or two flights for anyone out of reach of Brisbane or Cairns.

[Sparky74]

41 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

it is cheap because it involves a one way flight and hotel accommodation for a night.  Hotels are often dearer on Saturday nights.  

 

22 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Or two flights for anyone out of reach of Brisbane or Cairns.

But if you were looking at spending a week in Cairns anyway, it could be a bargain add on at the end of your holiday. 

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Sparky74 said:

 

But if you were looking at spending a week in Cairns anyway, it could be a bargain add on at the end of your holiday. 

I have done it previously - a Cairns holiday followed by a PNG cruise, B2B with a relocation south. The differences were that flights from Newcastle - Brisbane - Cairns were reasonable at the time, and the relocation cruise was Cairns to Sydney.

 

Spending time in Cairns is a great holiday, but the flights are exxxxy.. The sad part is that if flights were cheaper, there would be more takers and the cruise would be dearer.

[SinbadThePorter]

14 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

Here's the cheapest cruise I've seen in a while.

 

P&O have been trying hard to sell cruises out of Cairns for years now. They always end up discounting them to rock bottom. It's like the dream of cruising out of Darwin, until the airlines come to the party with cheap airfares it ain't gonna happen.

[Zetta83]

If it is at the same or lower per night rate for a longer cruise, I would have considered. 

 

Adding the flight and accoms to the total cost and dividing by 3/4 nights bumped the cost up significantly per night.

[arxcards]

30 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

P&O have been trying hard to sell cruises out of Cairns for years now. They always end up discounting them to rock bottom. It's like the dream of cruising out of Darwin, until the airlines come to the party with cheap airfares it ain't gonna happen.

They have a shorter season out of Cairns next winter - than nothing. It appears P&O is putting more faith in Auckland going forward.

[Sparky74]

4 hours ago, arxcards said:

They have a shorter season out of Cairns next winter - than nothing. It appears P&O is putting more faith in Auckland going forward.

@Jean C will be happy about that. 

[Jean C]

16 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

@Jean C will be happy about that. 

Sure will, although it will depend on what they charge. When the Pacific Pearl came down under, it arrived with a lot of fanfare, and promo pictures showed it with a huge red bow wrapped around the hull.  It was promoted as a new ship to be home ported in Auckland. We knew it wasn't brand new as Keith's UK rellies had sailed on it under its previous name of Ocean Village, but some of our travel agents referred to it as "brand new, straight out of the box", hehehe - we knowingly smiled to ourselves 🤣.  

 

We sailed on it twice - our first cruise experiences, so we knew no better, however even back then there was a noticeable drop in food standards from one cruise to the other. On the first cruise someone in the MDR gave us the hint to also order a side of veges with the main 🍽 - we're not big eaters but, boy, did we need the extra side dish to pad out the meagre servings! On the second cruise  lunch in the buffet consisted of glad wrapped filled rolls. I'd take two and combine the filling in one roll, leaving the other to go to waste.

 

With sufficient pent up demand from Kiwis, there was no such thing as launch bargains, it's fares were well up there - the  per night fee was similar to Princess' at the time (about NZD180 per person).  On the second cruise we had a balcony (they'd heavily reduced that price so our agent was able to rebook us) - it spoilt us from that time onwards. However, Pearl's balcony cabins were lined with a filthy, cigarette discolored, suede like fabric - it felt dingy and drab 🤑

 

Having said all that, times have moved on and I'm sure their newer second-hand ships have improved somewhat, so I'll certainly keep an open mind and balance their fares against the inconvenience and cost of flying to Aus 🛩 and sailing on a decent line 🛳

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Jean C said:

Sure will, although it will depend on what they charge. When the Pacific Pearl came down under, it arrived with a lot of fanfare, and promo pictures showed it with a huge red bow wrapped around the hull.  It was promoted as a new ship to be home ported in Auckland. We knew it wasn't brand new as Keith's UK rellies had sailed on it under its previous name of Ocean Village, but some of our travel agents referred to it as "brand new, straight out of the box", hehehe - we knowingly smiled to ourselves 🤣.  

 

We sailed on it twice - our first cruise experiences, so we knew no better, however even back then there was a noticeable drop in food standards from one cruise to the other. On the first cruise someone in the MDR gave us the hint to also order a side of veges with the main 🍽 - we're not big eaters but, boy, did we need the extra side dish to pad out the meagre servings! On the second cruise  lunch in the buffet consisted of glad wrapped filled rolls. I'd take two and combine the filling in one roll, leaving the other to go to waste.

 

With sufficient pent up demand from Kiwis, there was no such thing as launch bargains, it's fares were well up there - the  per night fee was similar to Princess' at the time (about NZD180 per person).  On the second cruise we had a balcony (they'd heavily reduced that price so our agent was able to rebook us) - it spoilt us from that time onwards. However, Pearl's balcony cabins were lined with a filthy, cigarette discolored, suede like fabric - it felt dingy and drab 🤑

 

Having said all that, times have moved on and I'm sure their newer second-hand ships have improved somewhat, so I'll certainly keep an open mind and balance their fares against the inconvenience and cost of flying to Aus 🛩 and sailing on a decent line 🛳

We tried to dump Pacific Sun in Auckland, but the rubber bands kept on snapping on the way over and they had to keep returning to Australia. 🤣

[Jean C]

Hahaha, so we all get duds. From pictures, Pearl removed the suede wall covering in the balcony cabins some time after we cruised. The cabin, apart from the water constantly running down the bathroom door frame, would have looked much nicer, and presuming that at some stage they'd wiped away the grubby fingerprints from the ceiling 🤔

[ceeceeDee]

53 minutes ago, Jean C said:

Hahaha, so we all get duds. From pictures, Pearl removed the suede wall covering in the balcony cabins some time after we cruised. The cabin, apart from the water constantly running down the bathroom door frame, would have looked much nicer, and presuming that at some stage they'd wiped away the grubby fingerprints from the ceiling 🤔

Was a previous occupant of the cabin Spider Man?😁

[Sparky74]

There's lots of good deals to be had at the moment.

For what it's worth, here's a list of cruises that I can find. currently priced under $100/person/night, sailing out of Australian ports.

There was too many to list individually so I made a table.

YMMV

 

 

Cheap Cruises.pdf

[arxcards]

3 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

There's lots of good deals to be had at the moment.

For what it's worth, here's a list of cruises that I can find. currently priced under $100/person/night, sailing out of Australian ports.

There was too many to list individually so I made a table.

YMMV

 

 

Cheap Cruises.pdfUnavailable

Attached docs here are only visible to the poster. Yes, strange. If you are able to store somewhere like google docs, then link to it from there.

[Sparky74]

24 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Attached docs here are only visible to the poster. Yes, strange. If you are able to store somewhere like google docs, then link to it from there.

Really? 🤦‍♂️

[Sparky74]

53 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

There's lots of good deals to be had at the moment.

For what it's worth, here's a list of cruises that I can find. currently priced under $100/person/night, sailing out of Australian ports.

There was too many to list individually so I made a table.

YMMV

 

Date	Nights	Ship	From	To	Interior	Daily
17/6/23	10	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	North Qld	$849	$85
13/11/23	2	Grand Princess	Adelaide	Melbourne (one way)	$189	$95
20/11/23	13	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	New Zealand	$1,074	$83
27/1/24	7	Pacific Encounter	Brisbane	North Qld	$599	$86
30/1/24	14	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	Singapore (one way)	$1,274	$91
14/2/24	10	Pacific Encounter	Brisbane	PNG	$899	$90
3/3/24	8	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$761	$95
23/4/24	10	Pacific Encounter	Brisbane	PNG	$899	$90
6/5/24	10	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	North Qld	$958	$96
19/5/24	9	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$831	$92
25/5/24	7	Pacific Encounter	Brisbane	North Qld	$649	$93
28/5/24	10	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	North Qld	$988	$99
1/6/24	3	Pacific Explorer	Cairns	Brisbane (one way)	$251	$84
4/6/24	2	Pacific Explorer	Brisbane	Sydney (one way)	$188	$94
11/6/24	9	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$831	$92
24/6/24	10	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$936	$94
4/7/24	4	Pacific Explorer	Sydney	Auckland (one way)	$299	$75
5/7/24	9	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$809	$90
14/7/24	9	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	North Qld	$854	$95
21/7/24	15	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	Singapore (one way)	$1,305	$87
30/7/24	10	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$944	$94
31/8/24	7	Pacific Encounter	Brisbane	North Qld	$649	$93
30/9/24	10	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$864	$86
13/10/24	8	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$791	$99
16/10/24	10	Pacific Encounter	Brisbane	PNG	$944	$94
21/10/24	10	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$951	$95
2/12/24	8	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	Tasmania	$749	$94
7/2/25	11	Pacific Explorer	Fremantle	Singapore (one way)	$1,079	$98
6/3/25	8	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$749	$94
5/4/25	6	Pacific Explorer	Adelaide	Auckland (one way)	$584	$97
19/5/25	8	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$755	$94
2/6/25	10	Pacific Adventure	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$989	$99

[Sparky74]

The first cruise in my table should be 17/6/24. 

[arxcards]

Thanks for these. Apart from a few genuinely last minute, in trading terms, it shows a floor for locally based and under-subscribed cruises at $90. Any return cruises under $100 are a bargain. With those prices, Carnival currently has a $50pp deposit.

 

Some of this seasons cruises may be close to sold out in the cheapest category and could come and go from the list. I also see:

3/3/24 Luminosa ex Brisbane, 7 nights $672 ($96)

Three other 7 night Luminosa itineraries just miss the boat at $101

 

31/3/24 Grand Princess, Melbourne to Sydney 2 nights $199 ($99.50)

Might be her final Aussie based cruise as a Princess.

 

As there is a cheap Sydney to Auckland cruise mentioned, there is also a really cheap Auckland to Sydney. It leaves in 10 days though - Majestic Princess, 30th October 5 nights for $378 ($76)

[arxcards]

1 minute ago, arxcards said:

As there is a cheap Sydney to Auckland cruise mentioned, there is also a really cheap Auckland to Sydney. It leaves in 10 days though - Majestic Princess, 30th October 5 nights for $378 ($76)

Note: Last days of a $US relocation cruise with daily grats to be added. Still under $100 per day, but something else that can cloud a bargain price.

[SinbadThePorter]

3 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Note: Last days of a $US relocation cruise with daily grats to be added. Still under $100 per day, but something else that can cloud a bargain price.

 

Even so, a mini-suite at $99/day is tempting.

[arxcards]

Just now, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Even so, a mini-suite at $99/day is tempting.

If we didn't have our annual QA accreditation audits over the next couple of weeks, I would be looking at flights right now to turn it into a B2B.

[Cruisers47]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

If we didn't have our annual QA accreditation audits over the next couple of weeks, I would be looking at flights right now to turn it into a B2B.

I can’t fit anymore in for 2024.   But thanks for the info!

 

Eileen

[datone]

If you don't mind  P and O - Pacific Adventure 20 November 2023, 13 nights NZ return ex Sydney, $944 pp interior twin.  Works out at $73 a night.

 

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by datone

[Sparky74]

Date	Nights	Ship	From	To	Interior	Daily
20/3/24	8	Carnival Splendor	Sydney	South Pacific Islands	$781	$98

[fixi]

On 10/20/2023 at 5:04 PM, arxcards said:

31/3/24 Grand Princess, Melbourne to Sydney 2 nights $199 ($99.50)

Might be her final Aussie based cruise as a Princess.

Interestingly enough, I was thinking the same, but perusing the provisional port schedule in Melbourne for 2025/2026 shows that there are possibly plans for the Grand Princess to sailing from Melbourne again for what seems to be six cruises, from 18/10/2025 to 13/12/2025 after basically missing the 24/25 season. 

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, fixi said:

Interestingly enough, I was thinking the same, but perusing the provisional port schedule in Melbourne for 2025/2026 shows that there are possibly plans for the Grand Princess to sailing from Melbourne again for what seems to be six cruises, from 18/10/2025 to 13/12/2025 after basically missing the 24/25 season. 

Correct. Based on those port schedules, it is Grand this season for Melbourne and Brisbane, Diamond next season, and Grand is back the following year. There has been some rumours that Grand could be retiring from the fleet, but it is more probable she will be back again in late 2025 for Melbourne & Brisbane.