Australia/New Zealand question

[icat2000]

Another update about what happening in the Land of OZ

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9548073/New-South-Wales-records-one-new-Covid-case-state-reveals-new-restrictions-including-masks-indoors.html

New South Wales brings in new restrictions including indoor masks and no more than 20 in a home after recording one new case of Indian Covid strain in BBQ man's wife and tracing infection to US traveller.

The new restrictions come into effect at midday on Thursday, will be enforceable from 5pm, and will stay in place for the course of the weekend. 

 

So they be watching this very closely. I be watching to see whether other States slam their internal borders shut. 

[NavyVeteran]

It looks like we may be OK for our March 2023 Australia and New Zealand 23-day B2B on the Grand Princess. We're really looking forward to seeing both Australia and New Zealand again, and it looks like booking for 2023 may have been a good choice.

 

If you want maximum choice of cabins, it may be a good idea to go ahead and book 2023 now, since availability may be limited if there is a large pent-up demand.

 

suspect booking the 2023 cruises now was a good idea because there may be a large demand once things open up again. By booking for 2023 in March this year, I was able to get the same cabin on the Fiesta Deck for the entire 23-day B2B - I know this will not be possible as the cruise gets closer.

[NSWP]

5 minutes ago, NavyVeteran said:

It looks like we may be OK for our March 2023 Australia and New Zealand 23-day B2B on the Grand Princess. We're really looking forward to seeing both Australia and New Zealand again, and it looks like booking for 2023 may have been a good choice.

 

If you want maximum choice of cabins, it may be a good idea to go ahead and book 2023 now, since availability may be limited if there is a large pent-up demand.

 

suspect booking the 2023 cruises now was a good idea because there may be a large demand once things open up again. By booking for 2023 in March this year, I was able to get the same cabin on the Fiesta Deck for the entire 23-day B2B - I know this will not be possible as the cruise gets closer.

Good advice there. Many pax have cancelled their 2022 Coral Princess World Cruise, due to leave Sydney in May 2022. Many have opted for the 2023 Worldie on Coral. so cabins on that will be tough to get, well they are now !!  If Princess cancels the May 2022 Worldie I bet they do it after final payment is due, so as they can get the big money in, like $100,000 for a couple.

 

If Australia/NZ borders remain closed until mid 2022, then the cruise lines will not deploy their ships to this region.

[OzKiwiJJ]

54 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Good advice there. Many pax have cancelled their 2022 Coral Princess World Cruise, due to leave Sydney in May 2022. Many have opted for the 2023 Worldie on Coral. so cabins on that will be tough to get, well they are now !!  If Princess cancels the May 2022 Worldie I bet they do it after final payment is due, so as they can get the big money in, like $100,000 for a couple.

 

If Australia/NZ borders remain closed until mid 2022, then the cruise lines will not deploy their ships to this region.

Princess have been quite good re cancelling before final payments were due in most cases. And it's only 80,000 for a balcony including full internet and drinks packages, for two. I just checked it out of curiosity.

[trbarton]

On 4/11/2021 at 10:53 PM, willtup5 said:

Currently booked on Sapphire Princess out of Melbourne January 10th 2022. How likely is this cruise going to happen? Your opinions are much appreciated!

You might also want to post your questions on the Australian/New Zealand board since you’ll find a lot of people from there. . 
 

Tom😀

[Ombud]

9 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

push your trip out again to 2023 or 2024.

Just did to 2023. December 2021 is probably out. 

[AZjohn]

45 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Just did to 2023. December 2021 is probably out. 

Doing the same thing this morning as soon as our TA starts work this morning.

 

I always gave our cruise a small chance of going. We booked our cruise last December just to have something to look forward to post Covid. Problem is, it doesn't matter if we are vaccinated, Australia/NZ needs to vaccinate. They are running so behind compared to some other countries.

 

We will be happy to wait to visit them when they are all safe 🙂

 

Cheers,

John 

Edited May 6, 2021 by AZjohn

[Blazza]

The view from the Australian Tourism Minister is very pessimistic: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australia-says-international-borders-might-not-fully-reopen-until-mid-to-late-2022

 

As a kiwi, I suspect that the New Zealand situation will continue to closely mirror that of Australia. The COVID elimination strategy employed both countries will likely be very hard to exit from. 

[AZjohn]

Well, made it official and cancelled our Jan 2022 B2B on Emerald and booked the Grand Feb 2023.

If Australia and NZ don't have things opened up by then we will give up on our #1 bucket list adventure and will have to explore somewhere new to visit.

 

In all sincerity, both countries did an outstanding job isolating from the rest of the world to keep safe from the Virus. I really hope they can join the rest who are vaccinated soon 🙂

 

And @Ombud, it would be great to meet you onboard sometime and hope you consider (if you have to) switching to the Grand Feb 23 2023.

 

Cheers,

John

 

[Ombud]

 @AZjohnthat was the last cruise I took (11-12/2019). Nice walk in Tauranga stop around Mount Maunganui and kayak rentals immediately after going through security. 

 

Decided on a March 2023 from Sydney to HK. Catch you on another one

[nocl]

On 5/6/2021 at 11:11 PM, Blazza said:

The view from the Australian Tourism Minister is very pessimistic: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australia-says-international-borders-might-not-fully-reopen-until-mid-to-late-2022

 

As a kiwi, I suspect that the New Zealand situation will continue to closely mirror that of Australia. The COVID elimination strategy employed both countries will likely be very hard to exit from. 

I read an article from New Zealand that was discussing that areas that depended on large numbers of foreign tourist need to change their business focus away from international tourism as it existed pre covid.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/06/new-zealand-tourism-changes-environment-milford-sound

Edited May 12, 2021 by nocl

[Credit 00]

On 4/12/2021 at 7:11 PM, leck57 said:

I am booked on the Royal from Singapore to Brisbane in mid October which I doubt will happen. My fall back option is one of the Sapphire or Royal cruises within Australia or to NZ in November. If the cruises that bring the Royal or Sapphire to this part of the world are cancelled, will Princess bring any ships here at all? I am just waiting for now. 

I've had one dose of the AZ vaccine with the second one in July but now with the over hyped scare about AZ, who knows which way the minority will steer this process now.

 

We just cancelled this and booked on the Emerald leaving Sydney Oct 30 this year to NZ and back.

[nini]

Found this:

 

Australia’s new timeline for allowing visitors

Australia’s finance minister, Simon Birmingham, has shared an update regarding Australia reopening its borders, ahead of the federal budget being delivered this week. With the government’s latest plan, Australia doesn’t plan to reopen its borders at the start of 2022, but rather plans to reopen borders later in 2022 at the earliest.

 

 

https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/covid-australia-s-borders-to-remain-closed-indefinitely-says-pm-morrison-121050900416_1.html

[Aus Traveller]

The Australian government has stated that the international borders MAY open in the middle of 2022, with a clear indication that it will not be earlier.☹️ Most of us would prefer it to be earlier.

[nini]

On 5/5/2021 at 7:47 PM, NavyVeteran said:

It looks like we may be OK for our March 2023 Australia and New Zealand 23-day B2B on the Grand Princess. We're really looking forward to seeing both Australia and New Zealand again, and it looks like booking for 2023 may have been a good choice.

 

If you want maximum choice of cabins, it may be a good idea to go ahead and book 2023 now, since availability may be limited if there is a large pent-up demand.

 

suspect booking the 2023 cruises now was a good idea because there may be a large demand once things open up again. By booking for 2023 in March this year, I was able to get the same cabin on the Fiesta Deck for the entire 23-day B2B - I know this will not be possible as the cruise gets closer.

We will be on the TP from Sydney to San Francisco!

[caribill]

10 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

The Australian government has stated that the international borders MAY open in the middle of 2022, with a clear indication that it will not be earlier.☹️ Most of us would prefer it to be earlier.

 

Princess cancelled out March, 2022 sailing from Sydney to Tokyo by selling the ship.

 

Looks like Australia would not have allowed us into the country to take that cruise anyway.

[Reina del Mar]

Not sure what to do about our Round Australia , Coral Princess cruise in March 2022.

 

Whilst I think the cruise may go ahead, not so sure if we will be allowed into Australia. So many people have mentioned borders will be closed till Mid 2022.

 

We are hanging on, at the moment, in the hope it may be earlier.

 

Don’t want to lose our cabin if it is possible,  but when it comes to flights and final payment will have to make a decision...if Princess don’t make it for us.

[Aus Traveller]

16 minutes ago, Reina del Mar said:

Not sure what to do about our Round Australia , Coral Princess cruise in March 2022.

 

Whilst I think the cruise may go ahead, not so sure if we will be allowed into Australia. So many people have mentioned borders will be closed till Mid 2022.

 

We are hanging on, at the moment, in the hope it may be earlier.

 

Don’t want to lose our cabin if it is possible,  but when it comes to flights and final payment will have to make a decision...if Princess don’t make it for us.

If I was in your position, I would cancel before I reached the penalty period. Is that six months before the cruise? Maybe you could book the same itinerary for the following year.

 

Last September I booked the world cruise on the Coral Princess for 2022, but I have become increasingly concerned that it won't go ahead or there might be so many restrictions that it would take away a lot of the enjoyment. A couple of weeks ago I booked the similar itinerary for 2023. I will end up cancelling one of them.

[Reina del Mar]

5 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

If I was in your position, I would cancel before I reached the penalty period. Is that six months before the cruise? Maybe you could book the same itinerary for the following year.

 

Last September I booked the world cruise on the Coral Princess for 2022, but I have become increasingly concerned that it won't go ahead or there might be so many restrictions that it would take away a lot of the enjoyment. A couple of weeks ago I booked the similar itinerary for 2023. I will end up cancelling one of them.

 

We thought of that, but the 2023 cruise is ‘Currently unavailable’ which I think might mean fully booked.  We have something else booked for March 2023 anyway, so there’d be quite a bit of re shuffling. Might have to be 2024 if and when that becomes available.

 

Thanks for your suggestion though.

[MamaFej]

3 hours ago, Reina del Mar said:

 

We thought of that, but the 2023 cruise is ‘Currently unavailable’ which I think might mean fully booked.  We have something else booked for March 2023 anyway, so there’d be quite a bit of re shuffling. Might have to be 2024 if and when that becomes available.

 

Thanks for your suggestion though.

We are booked on that March 2022 circumnavigation cruise as well, along with several Celebrity cruises in January - April 2022, each beginning in either Australia or New Zealand. I'm confident we will not be allowed in either country to board, even if the other island nations on the itineraries would allow us in. One was a Lift and Shift from 2021. 

 

We are several months from the first Final Payments being due, so we are letting things ride for now. I'll be glad when we finally hear from the cruise lines about cancelations. I've run into the "Currently Unavalable" designation on the following year, too. 

[tonymc]

Frustratingly we are in the same position, having had our cruise in March this year cancelled and moved to February 2022, now thinking it may be worth transferring to 2023. The downside is that we would probably have a shorter cruise in 2023 due to annual holiday allowances (we would have to "straddle" March and April) but the upside is that we would finish in Auckland and be able to spend some time there before flying back to the UK.

[nocl]

On 5/6/2021 at 11:11 PM, Blazza said:

The view from the Australian Tourism Minister is very pessimistic: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australia-says-international-borders-might-not-fully-reopen-until-mid-to-late-2022

 

As a kiwi, I suspect that the New Zealand situation will continue to closely mirror that of Australia. The COVID elimination strategy employed both countries will likely be very hard to exit from. 

The easiest way for them to exit would be to make vaccination mandatory.  

[icat2000]

 

Home Affairs boss Michael Pezzullo has confirmed there will be no significant reopening of the international border before June 2022, but says discussions about travel bubbles with Singapore and Pacific countries are still a possibility before then.

 

Source: www.theage.com.au

 

[Rassa]

On 5/17/2021 at 7:36 PM, Reina del Mar said:

Not sure what to do about our Round Australia , Coral Princess cruise in March 2022.

 

Whilst I think the cruise may go ahead, not so sure if we will be allowed into Australia. So many people have mentioned borders will be closed till Mid 2022.

 

I am booked for that also.   The penalty period is September so I am cancelling if the ships are not on their way to Australia.   

[CeeCee59]

On 5/5/2021 at 7:47 PM, NavyVeteran said:

It looks like we may be OK for our March 2023 Australia and New Zealand 23-day B2B on the Grand Princess. We're really looking forward to seeing both Australia and New Zealand again, and it looks like booking for 2023 may have been a good choice.

 

If you want maximum choice of cabins, it may be a good idea to go ahead and book 2023 now, since availability may be limited if there is a large pent-up demand.

 

suspect booking the 2023 cruises now was a good idea because there may be a large demand once things open up again. By booking for 2023 in March this year, I was able to get the same cabin on the Fiesta Deck for the entire 23-day B2B - I know this will not be possible as the cruise gets closer.

We are booked on the same cruise and hope that by then everything will be as back to normal as one can expect after a pandemic.