australian cruise

[snag]

Hi, has anyone heard if the Sun Princess is still cruising in Australia in March 2021? Thanks snag

[CruiserBruce]

A quick check on the Princess website shows March sailings for Sun Princess. Princess is not canceling out that far at this point. Haven't heard Sun was sold...the Princess board would be best for that. But if they had sold Sun, I suspect the schedule wouldn't show a March 8, 2021 cruise...

[snag]

Thanks for the info

 

[Aus Traveller]

On 9/5/2020 at 7:41 PM, snag said:

Hi, has anyone heard if the Sun Princess is still cruising in Australia in March 2021? Thanks snag

There is considerable doubt on whether there will be any cruises out of Australia in March 2021. Our government  has said that the international borders will remain closed until possibly July 2021.

 

With the issues surrounding COVID on the Ruby Princess, and also the Diamond earlier in the year, I don't know when the government will allow cruise ships back into Australian waters. I hope it is by the middle of 2021, but it all depends on COVID infection rates and the possibility of a vaccine.

[snag]

Thanks

[shel003]

My Princess consultant said Australia wouldn’t be open for cruising until late 2021.

[V_icki_e]

If you're talking about the Northern Explorer on the Sun, yes it is still technically going ahead at this stage.
We've been told by our TA that it's likely that the PNG port will be cancelled and substituted for another Australian port so that the entire cruise is within Australian waters.  My concern with this one is going to be internal state border closures, particularly WA and QLD.  It's going to cost us more to quarantine for 14 days in each state than what the total cruise cost is (we live in Brisbane).   That said, I'm hedging bets the whole thing will be cancelled....  

[V_icki_e]

6 hours ago, shel003 said:

My Princess consultant said Australia wouldn’t be open for cruising until late 2021.

 

That's interesting.  I'm presuming they were talking from the point of view that international flights won't be operating until then?  I'm more hopeful that Australians will be able to sail within our own waters long before the end of 2021.  

[Cruise Wonderland]

On 9/5/2020 at 9:14 PM, CruiserBruce said:

A quick check on the Princess website shows March sailings for Sun Princess. Princess is not canceling out that far at this point. Haven't heard Sun was sold...the Princess board would be best for that. But if they had sold Sun, I suspect the schedule wouldn't show a March 8, 2021 cruise...

 

I won't be surprised if Princess announces the selling of Sun / Sea Princess next week or next month or in a near future, although I don't want to see that...

 

But if they had sold Sun, I suspect the schedule wouldn't show a March 8, 2021 cruise...

Carnival Cruise Line recently sold two ships Fantasy and Inspiration and sent them to scrapyards. They only announced the news when the two ships are already on the way to the scrapyard, and the fans already clearly knew their final destinations from some ship tracking website... So it is possible that even the ships are already sold, the cruise line will not announce the news immediately (and even still taking new bookings on those ships...)

[caribill]

On 9/12/2020 at 2:38 AM, Cruise Wonderland said:

 

I won't be surprised if Princess announces the selling of Sun / Sea Princess next week or next month or in a near future, although I don't want to see that...

 

But if they had sold Sun, I suspect the schedule wouldn't show a March 8, 2021 cruise...

Carnival Cruise Line recently sold two ships Fantasy and Inspiration and sent them to scrapyards. They only announced the news when the two ships are already on the way to the scrapyard, and the fans already clearly knew their final destinations from some ship tracking website... So it is possible that even the ships are already sold, the cruise line will not announce the news immediately (and even still taking new bookings on those ships...)

 

 

And HAL, another Carnival Corp brand, eliminated several ships from the fleet and just cancelled the very many future bookings they had for those ships. The HAL board has posts from many very unhappy people.

[Hlitner]

The issue with Australia is whether that country will even open to any cruise ship in 2021 much less by the Spring.  The Aussie government has been imposing some very strict COVID measures (and New Zealand is even tougher) and some Aussies that post to these boards have speculated that there may be no cruises in Australia until their is a safe/effective vaccine.  That is also a policy that has been discussed (even by their Prime Minister) in New Zealand.    I have also heard speculation that if Australia were to reopen to cruises they might restrict the cruisers to only Aussies and possibly Kiwis.

 

Hank

[casofilia]

Unless there is a change of government here in NZ or a major "change of heart" if the Labour party is returned I cannot see there being any chance of general cruising in NZ waters till there is a vaccine.   I imagine Australia would be the same.

 

A problem I see are the crew of a ship.  It is possible that the initial crew could be covered for isolation if they have taken 14 days at sea with repeated testing.   However there could be no replacements flown in without 14 days isolation and Covid free tests.  That would mean no changes of entertainers too.

[Thrak]

We're hoping to book Australia/New Zealand in 2022. 2020 was a bust for us and we are extremely disappointed but understand why our cruises were cancelled. Given the way things are we won't try to book for 2021 but are really hoping the world is no longer insane in 2022. We got email today regarding future sailings and my wife is checking out the various options and has sent me a listing of things she feels might work for us if they are allowed. I'll be perusing that information tomorrow and we'll get together on what we think looks like our best option. Whether or not that option is actually possible is not up to us. All we can do is to hope and dream.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Thrak

[Ombud]

On 9/5/2020 at 2:41 AM, snag said:

Hi, has anyone heard if the Sun Princess is still cruising in Australia in March 2021? Thanks snag

IMHO No one is cruising Australia in March 2021. But things are dire for Sun and Sea anyway. Bookings for Sea are available through Aug 14, 2021 and Sun available through Nov 09, 2021. Website has cruises in Australia / New Zealand through May 2022 so it looks like those ships are being sold or transferred to another CCL line

 

Cancelation compensation is way down in case you've got a Sun Princess booking. My last comp was 200 OBC (Sky TA redeployed)

[Cruise Wonderland]

According to Hong Kong Cruise Society, Japanese cruise line Peace Boat will charter a new ship Pacific World starting from spring 2021. The image on the promotional materials is a Sun Class ship. And the descriptions (tonnage, capacity) provided by Peace Boat match with those of Sun Princess.