Predict when cruising will start again post-Coronavirus

[ilikeanswers]

35 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

That’s a great idea a sail past lord Howe, go to the top of the class and get a star on your hand.

 I don’t know why it hasn’t happened before?

 

Too rough seas I suspect. They have trouble just getting the supply ship to the island. Not to mention the waters around Lord Howe are a National Park and the locals have very strict rules about its preservation. Maybe it is too difficult for cruise ships to comply with their strict rules 🤔. Lastly having visited the island and speaking to the locals I don't think they are the type who would appreciate being circumnavigated by giant cruise ships😝. Visitors who visit the island pay a lot for a "pristine holiday" . It would be kind of ruined if your look out to see cruise ships sailing by 😉. 

[Chiliburn]

46 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Too rough seas I suspect. They have trouble just getting the supply ship to the island. Not to mention the waters around Lord Howe are a National Park and the locals have very strict rules about its preservation. Maybe it is too difficult for cruise ships to comply with their strict rules 🤔. Lastly having visited the island and speaking to the locals I don't think they are the type who would appreciate being circumnavigated by giant cruise ships😝. Visitors who visit the island pay a lot for a "pristine holiday" . It would be kind of ruined if your look out to see cruise ships sailing by 😉. 

I suppose it would be a marine reserve and would have a no go area .

But it would be good for sample cruises.

[ELep]

2 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

There don't seem to be any ports in NSW on the north coast. I would have thought that Coffs Harbour could have rated as a tender port. The main basin seems deep enough and is protected from northerly and southerly seas, just open to the east. They could also throw in extended sails to Lord Howe island and Ball's Pyramid. I don't see why it would be necessary to land there, the places are spectacular enough just from the sea.

 

 

We got an unexpected scenic couple of hours of LH Island and Ball's Pyramid in March 2018. RC VOS took a diversion east on the way to Noumea to avoid a cyclone. Ball's Pyramid was quite sensational. It seems that even the captain and crew were excited to see it, out taking photos etc as it is not on any regular shipping lanes so rarely seen. It was a fabulous afternoon. 

[SinbadThePorter]

1 hour ago, ilikeanswers said:

Too rough seas I suspect.

 

If ships can sail around the bottom of the South Island of NZ, I don't think they would have trouble with the seas around Lord Howe.

 

1 hour ago, ilikeanswers said:

Not to mention the waters around Lord Howe are a National Park and the locals have very strict rules about its preservation.

 

The Lord Howe Island Marine Park mostly consists of the lagoon area on the main island and an area south of Ball's Pyramid. I don't think that it would preclude any sightseeing from a cruise ship. Besides the Great Barrier Reef is also mostly a Marine Park and cruise ships regularly navigate it.

 

1 hour ago, ilikeanswers said:

Lastly having visited the island and speaking to the locals I don't think they are the type who would appreciate being circumnavigated by giant cruise ships

 

I'm not sure they get to decide, such decisions would likely be made in Sydney as Lord Howe is NSW territory.

[ilikeanswers]

13 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

I'm not sure they get to decide, such decisions would likely be made in Sydney as Lord Howe is NSW territory.

 

From what I understood the locals have a fairly significant sway when it come to their island. If they start to protest against the ships I don't think it will be as easily dismissed as the protests around the GBR. They also have significant conservation credentials thanks to the revival of the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect and could easily rally international support for any complaints. Lord Howe is a very different situation to GBR and I don't think it is such a good comparison. I reckon if it was so easy for cruise ships to organise a cruise by it probably would already have been done🤔. 

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, ELep said:

We got an unexpected scenic couple of hours of LH Island and Ball's Pyramid in March 2018. RC VOS took a diversion east on the way to Noumea to avoid a cyclone. Ball's Pyramid was quite sensational. It seems that even the captain and crew were excited to see it, out taking photos etc as it is not on any regular shipping lanes so rarely seen. It was a fabulous afternoon. 

We had a sail-by on a cruise returning to Brisbane from NZ. We were going 'clock-wise' around the islands. Because of bad weather we turned back from Akaroa and went to Picton then had a very very slow drive-by of Lord Howe. Several people said this was the highlight of the cruise.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, SinbadThePorter said:

If ships can sail around the bottom of the South Island of NZ, I don't think they would have trouble with the seas around Lord Howe.

 

The Lord Howe Island Marine Park mostly consists of the lagoon area on the main island and an area south of Ball's Pyramid. I don't think that it would preclude any sightseeing from a cruise ship. Besides the Great Barrier Reef is also mostly a Marine Park and cruise ships regularly navigate it.

 

I'm not sure they get to decide, such decisions would likely be made in Sydney as Lord Howe is NSW territory.

I agree with your comments. 🙂

[Chiliburn]

56 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

Besides the Great Barrier Reef is also mostly a Marine Park and cruise ships regularly navigate it.

 

 

 

I think ships have to stay in the designated shipping lanes .

There a few no go zones I believe.

 I used to work on trawlers out of cairns 40 years ago.In those day you could do just about anything you wanted.

In hindsight it was pretty bad the damage the trawl gear and even anchors did.
 

[bazzaw]

In this and other forums , I have many times heard reference to the Singaporean (no-stops) cruises being conducted. Some years ago we stayed in a  waterfront hotel in Hong Kong and were intrigued to see these smaller cruiseships leave harbour every night and return early morning . Turned out that they were/are gambling ships. Apparently Asian people (especially Chinese ) enjoy their gambling. I am wondering how much these "cruises to nowhere" in Singapore are based on gambling. I know that there are many here who would love to go on a cruise to nowhere out of Brisbane or Sydney, but don't know how popular/sustainable these would be in the longer run. I could certainly do with a short one right now - but only once 🙂 

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, bazzaw said:

In this and other forums , I have many times heard reference to the Singaporean (no-stops) cruises being conducted. Some years ago we stayed in a  waterfront hotel in Hong Kong and were intrigued to see these smaller cruiseships leave harbour every night and return early morning . Turned out that they were/are gambling ships. Apparently Asian people (especially Chinese ) enjoy their gambling. I am wondering how much these "cruises to nowhere" in Singapore are based on gambling. I know that there are many here who would love to go on a cruise to nowhere out of Brisbane or Sydney, but don't know how popular/sustainable these would be in the longer run. I could certainly do with a short one right now - but only once 🙂 

The newspaper report on the cruises out of Taiwan said that the casino didn't operate on these cruises. Knowing how popular gambling is, I wondered how they are selling enough cabins. There was no mention on whether the casinos are operating on cruises out of Singapore.

 

I would be happy to do a cruise to nowhere out of Brisbane and I would even do one to Cairns and Port Douglas - but maybe not in the wet season. 🙂 If all of Queensland is free of COVID, I don't see why they can't run intrastate cruises.

[SinbadThePorter]

36 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

If all of Queensland is free of COVID, I don't see why they can't run intrastate cruises.

 

I'm hoping this may happen, but I suspect that crewing the ships may cause problems with all the state governments (not just Qld). Even with the most stable ships, international crew are still coming and going.

 

They are all still scarred (and scared) by the Ruby Princess incident. It will take a lot of convincing to get them to accept any type of cruising.

 

Once the vaccines start kicking in, I think cruisers like us should start to lobby pollies of all stripes to allow cruising sooner rather than later. Maybe CC would be a good place to organise this from. The squeaky wheel gets the most oil.

Edited January 30, 2021 by SinbadThePorter

[ilikeanswers]

44 minutes ago, bazzaw said:

I am wondering how much these "cruises to nowhere" in Singapore are based on gambling. I know that there are many here who would love to go on a cruise to nowhere out of Brisbane or Sydney, but don't know how popular/sustainable these would be in the longer run. I could certainly do with a short one right now - but only once 🙂 

 

Gambling is pretty popular in Australia and apparently we loose a lot by world standards😂. I reckon you could make a sustainable cruise business based on gaming🤔. 

Edited January 30, 2021 by ilikeanswers

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Gambling is pretty popular in Australia and apparently we loose a lot by world standards😂. I reckon you could make a sustainable cruise business based on gaming🤔. 

Apparently the Americans gamble more than Aussies. I remember from years ago when a P&O executive told us that when the ships were brought to the Australian market they had to reduce the size of the casino and remove some of the sun lounges. He said that the Aussies don't spend a lot on gambling, but they do spend it on drink. However, on cruises out of NZ, not a lot is spent on either gambling or drinking.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Aus Traveller

[ilikeanswers]

18 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Apparently the Americans gamble more than Aussies. I remember from years ago when a P&O executive told us that when the ships were brought to the Australian market they had to reduce the size of the casino and remove some of the sun lounges. He said that the Aussies don't spend a lot on gambling, but they do spend it on drink. However, on cruises out of NZ, not a lot is spent on either gambling or drinking.

 

I don't know much about our spending on gambling just that apparently Australians are known for the biggest losses😳. Maybe it is because our gambling of choice is pokies which probably has the worst odds for winning🤔. 

[MicCanberra]

IMO, the biggest losers are any of those people that are gambling their money away.

[SinbadThePorter]

21 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

Maybe it is because our gambling of choice is pokies which probably has the worst odds for winning

 

As far as I know, cruise lines are not bound by any gambling laws or regulations while on the high seas. They are only as fair as they think they need to be.

[Esilef]

My question is with the vaccines. 
 

Do you think cruise lines in the future will be able to enforce the vaccine mandate that all crew and passengers are vaccinated? 
 

At the moment those whom are most at need are being vaccinated and this is not the demographic of cruise ship employees.

 

also we seem to have a world where different vaccines are being used, some are researched as being more effective than others.

 

this said will the cruise lines and the Australian boarder force be able to state for those cruising or entering this country or New Zealand, that vaccine xyz is required.

 

Should travel companies be able to purchase vaccines when supplies are available and have travellers vaccinated and approved before travel.

 

 

[onlyslightlymad]

Usually when your employer requires you to have a vaccine they pay for it.  Even the flu shot is often paid for by employers (I know it's not the same).  So I'd imagine the cruise ship companies would pay.  Although supplies are currently limited and will be for some time, eventually the vaccine(s) should be readily available.  I would imagine there would be a yearly booster to deal with new strains.  

I've thought about the vaccination issue and I wonder if it will become a condition of visas to enter certain countries.  If that is the case I can see that the days of visa free travel may be over.  This is highly speculative though.  

Edited January 30, 2021 by onlyslightlymad

[Aus Traveller]

20 minutes ago, Esilef said:

My question is with the vaccines. 
 

Do you think cruise lines in the future will be able to enforce the vaccine mandate that all crew and passengers are vaccinated? 
 

At the moment those whom are most at need are being vaccinated and this is not the demographic of cruise ship employees.

 

also we seem to have a world where different vaccines are being used, some are researched as being more effective than others.

 

this said will the cruise lines and the Australian boarder force be able to state for those cruising or entering this country or New Zealand, that vaccine xyz is required.

 

Should travel companies be able to purchase vaccines when supplies are available and have travellers vaccinated and approved before travel.

It is easy for cruise lines to mandate that all employees are vaccinated. I know that Princess has had the rule for years that all crew have to have a flu vaccination. If they can't show proof, they are vaccinated when they board.

 

I would not be surprised if all passengers are required to show proof of vaccination. Currently, Princess has said that they will not require people to be vaccinated. I think it is less likely that a particular brand of vaccine will be required either to cruise or to enter the country. If our regulatory authority (TGA) OKs a particular vaccine, they can hardly claim at a later time that it isn't good enough.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Current status on our planned Murray River cruise.

 

After discussion with the company they have sent me an email guaranteeing the return of the final payment amount, and an FCC for the deposit amount, should there still be restrictions at the SA border. However they have been told that the current restrictions will be dropped once NSW has 21 days of no community transmission which would be next Sunday all going well.

 

So unless there are new outbreaks here or in SA it might all happen, and if it doesn't we haven't lost much - at worst one night's accommodation in Hahndorf. If there are any issues we'll probably still go down to Hay as planned then bumble around NSW for a while. That's Plan B.

 

Keep your fingers crossed for us! 🤞

[Aus Traveller]

🤞 Hoping for the best for you.

[Porky55]

With Saga Cruiselines in the UK mandating Covid vaccine for crew/passengers, the AQSC has followed. Is this the future of cruising?

https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/5860/?source=99360&fbclid=IwAR3G8bmmml7D3X9qaY3k4XfYp0C6winIxIOp7EuvLE5PCMMdu0Prp_9liKE
 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Porky55

[lissie]

2 minutes ago, Porky55 said:

With Saga Cruiselines in the UK mandating Covid vaccine for crew/passengers, the AQSC has followed. Is this the future of cruising?

https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/5860/?source=99360&fbclid=IwAR3G8bmmml7D3X9qaY3k4XfYp0C6winIxIOp7EuvLE5PCMMdu0Prp_9liKE
 

Really hope so - sure beats social distancing and mask wearing 

[MicCanberra]

I think that would be the sensible approach.

[getting older slowly]

As a lot of people have touch on is  "proof of vaccination"

 

I wonder if anybody in power has given this any thought, a standard form across Australia..... ( I don't think so look at how well Scott left it all to the states )

 

So will it be up to the states ???   or up to Joe Blow down the road

 

An Elephant  stamp on your forehead ??

 

Or will we wait until vaccinations have started... then go Ohhhhhhh...

 

Another wait and see    Don