22nd August Coral Princess Conflict Islands Cancelled

[Belmont Babe]

I have read on another forum that the Aus govt has just limited cruises to a maximum of 8 days. Not sure where the poster got his info, but it might be true?

"The problem lies with the Australian government. they have banned all cruises greater than 8 days!!!!!! Nice of them to tell us!"

[OzKiwiJJ]

9 minutes ago, Ondine said:

I don't think the length of the cruise is a problem because if they allow you to stay onboard for B2B2B they it is the same length as the original booking.

True but 12 nights B2B2B is quite a different thing to 12 nights on a single itinerary even if you don't have to leave the ship on the changeover days.

 

On B2Bs the MDR menus will probably repeat on each cruise ie the Day 1 menu will be the same on all three cruises, the day 2 menu on the first cruise will also repeat, as will the final night menu. The shows will probably repeat. The Movies Under the Stars will probably repeat.

 

Also short itineraries tend to attract more booze cruisers.

 

I'm not sure if there will be any formal nights, perhaps one on the five night cruise.

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 minutes ago, Belmont Babe said:

I have read on another forum that the Aus govt has just limited cruises to a maximum of 8 days. Not sure where the poster got his info, but it might be true?

"The problem lies with the Australian government. they have banned all cruises greater than 8 days!!!!!! Nice of them to tell us!"

I saw that too but don't know how accurate it is. There doesn't appear to be any mention of recent restrictions when I Google it.

[NSWP]

3 minutes ago, Belmont Babe said:

I have read on another forum that the Aus govt has just limited cruises to a maximum of 8 days. Not sure where the poster got his info, but it might be true?

"The problem lies with the Australian government. they have banned all cruises greater than 8 days!!!!!! Nice of them to tell us!"

Figures, scared of covid numbers exploding and media getting hold of it., but most will do 3 or 4 back to backs, the same really.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, NSWP said:

Figures, scared of covid numbers exploding and media getting hold of it., but most will do 3 or 4 back to backs, the same really.

Yes, probably.

 

BTW what Westerdam cruise are you doing?

[Chiliburn]

17 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Figures, scared of covid numbers exploding and media getting hold of it., but most will do 3 or 4 back to backs, the same really.

Over the side.

 

[MicCanberra]

A shame people's cruises are being cancelled/replaced with several smaller ones, I feel for all those affected and do wonder what the reasoning is.

[MicCanberra]

52 minutes ago, Belmont Babe said:

I have read on another forum that the Aus govt has just limited cruises to a maximum of 8 days. Not sure where the poster got his info, but it might be true?

"The problem lies with the Australian government. they have banned all cruises greater than 8 days!!!!!! Nice of them to tell us!"

Surely tif that is the total reasoning more cruises will be affected.

[Aus Traveller]

53 minutes ago, Belmont Babe said:

I have read on another forum that the Aus govt has just limited cruises to a maximum of 8 days. Not sure where the poster got his info, but it might be true?

"The problem lies with the Australian government. they have banned all cruises greater than 8 days!!!!!! Nice of them to tell us!"

Might be true and might not be. 😁 We know that the cruise lines reached agreement with the state/fed governments on the protocols required to re-start cruising. As to what exactly was agreed, we only know the requirements re vaccination, testing and mask wearing. In addition the ships have to carry out extra cleaning and have enhanced medical facilities. It is possible that the government wants the first number of cruises to be restricted to a certain length, but we don't know.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, probably.

 

BTW what Westerdam cruise are you doing?

Julie, 23 Nov, domestic,  Eden, Tas, Vic, south australia back to Sydney13 days, that could be canned too. Carnival might not even send the ship over now, who knows, that is if they are canning the longer cruises.

[NSWP]

19 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

A shame people's cruises are being cancelled/replaced with several smaller ones, I feel for all those affected and do wonder what the reasoning is.

I think there may have been a covid explosion on the  cruises thus far,  but being kept under wraps. I may be wrong but all this sounds a funny colour.

[arxcards]

6 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I was thinking it was maybe the covid situation in PNG. That Princess had not cleared these cruises with the PNG government and now time has run out.

 

The problem with this theory is that it would have been easier for Princess to take out the Conflict Islands and still leave a 12 day Qld cruise, than to chop up the cruise into 3 small cruises.

 

Now I'm thinking maybe Princess has been spooked by the high covid rates on US cruises and is dropping all long duration cruises. What long duration would mean I don't know, but presumably 12 days is too long. 😟

 

The problem with this theory is that the 28 day Round Australia is coming up in October.

 

We shall see.

Pacific Explorer's is currently parked for 2 days in Sydney. That is following an intended 10 day cruise that they decided to shorten to 8 days. The reason given aboard the first cruise was that the crew had been working extra hard and needed a break. Really, how dumb do they think we are, this was decided on their first cruise back. I think you are on the ball, they didn't want to risk a chain of positives aboard a longer cruise. Still, I don't know if it was the ship or health authorities that made that decision for them.

 

As for this cruise, yes, it may not have been able to go to Conflict Islands. That in itself is disappointing! To then split it in 3 is ridiculous. Even split in two would give an 8 night Qld cruise and a 3 nighter, so you would at least get a part holiday out of it.

 

And if the concern is about covid spread over 12 nights, how is that really solved by having a large number of passengers keeping their bookings and doing a B2B2B anyway.

 

We are booked on the cruise previous to this, which I guess is pretty safe as a 3 nighter. Still, we then look ahead to our 11 night North Queensland cruise in October with all fingers and toes crossed.

Edited June 23, 2022 by arxcards

[OzKiwiJJ]

36 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Julie, 23 Nov, domestic,  Eden, Tas, Vic, south australia back to Sydney13 days, that could be canned too. Carnival might not even send the ship over now, who knows, that is if they are canning the longer cruises.

We're thinking of doing the Christmas cruise, Auckland to Sydney. We have a Princess cruise booked late Jan on Majestic but are thinking of cancelling that. Majestic isn't my favourite ship. Westerdam looks nice. The only downside is onboard costs in USD. 

[Aus Traveller]

58 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

A shame people's cruises are being cancelled/replaced with several smaller ones, I feel for all those affected and do wonder what the reasoning is.

Maybe COVID running rampant in PNG?

[maponus]

14 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Maybe COVID running rampant in PNG?

if it was that they wouldn't have split the 12 night NSW and Qld one into 2 as well - really looks like >7 nights is being blocked by govt or something

[Auscruisefam]

We have decided to cancel this cruise and requested a refund. Had a look at the Princess website and nothing is making sense. I find it difficult to believe all those cruises that say “unavailable” are sold out completely. Might just wait a few more months till things settle down. 

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, maponus said:

if it was that they wouldn't have split the 12 night NSW and Qld one into 2 as well - really looks like >7 nights is being blocked by govt or something

Maybe this is by agreement between the Princess and P&O (the only ones that have re-started) and the relevant governments. Alternatively, Princess could be ultra-cautious.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, Auscruisefam said:

We have decided to cancel this cruise and requested a refund. Had a look at the Princess website and nothing is making sense. I find it difficult to believe all those cruises that say “unavailable” are sold out completely. Might just wait a few more months till things settle down. 

Probably in a couple of days all will become clear on the Princess website. This has been happening a bit while things are shuffled around.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Belmont Babe said:

I have read on another forum that the Aus govt has just limited cruises to a maximum of 8 days. Not sure where the poster got his info, but it might be true?

"The problem lies with the Australian government. they have banned all cruises greater than 8 days!!!!!! Nice of them to tell us!"

They have applied a fair bit of assumption, and it is not federal government. NSW, QLD & Vic have aligned their governments for a shared set of protocols. Pacific Explorer was supposed to be on the final day of a 10 night cruise, which was shorted to 8 nights three weeks ago. There is a presumption based on that, otherwise the 10 nighter would never have been offered when the ban was lifted in April.

 

As for not being told, when P&O announced the change, they said nothing about it being protocol related. I presume anyone who was unfortunate to receive this email from Princess this morning also haven't been told that health authorities made them do it.

 

Official reasons - P&O said their crew needed a rest, Princess say they can't go to Conflict Islands. It would seem the cruise lines are more guarded in not announcing there is a considerable covid risk on cruises longer than 7 nights.

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

I think there may have been a covid explosion on the  cruises thus far,  but being kept under wraps. I may be wrong but all this sounds a funny colour.

Explosion, no. Potential explosion on a longer cruise - you betcha.

[vozzie]

Noticed the Explorer 10 night cruise in July is still being marketed. HOWEVER...if I click on the cruise details it just takes me to their Privacy Policy ?????? 

Edited June 23, 2022 by vozzie

[eamondzhang]

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I saw that too but don't know how accurate it is. There doesn't appear to be any mention of recent restrictions when I Google it.

Sounds about right as they also splitted Coral's 10 July 12-niter Queensland cruise into a 7-nighter and 5-nighter

 

Michael

Edited June 23, 2022 by eamondzhang

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, eamondzhang said:

Sounds about right as they also splitted Coral's 10 July 12-niter Queensland cruise into a 7-nighter and 5-nighter

 

Michael

No mention about restrictions in Coral's communication, except that around borders (PNG).

Princess just calls it "operational considerations" which could mean whatever you want it to mean.

[arxcards]

10 hours ago, Ondine said:

I don't think the length of the cruise is a problem because if they allow you to stay onboard for B2B2B they it is the same length as the original booking.

That was my initial thought too, but there is one difference.

Based on the nominal capacity of 2000 passengers and 895 crew, any more than 87 positive cases in the 12 days would place the ship as code red, and likely a more stringent set of protocols, possibly parked, and a media reaction.

 

With plenty doing B2B2B, if 20 test positive on the first cruise, 30 on the second, 40 on the third - that is 90 positives over the 12 days - but the reportable number is no higher than 40. The state government protocols put the onboard management of covid into the hands of the cruise lines, and having shorter cruises may not reduce the infection risk, but is a way of managing the numbers and keeping them below their 3% target.

[NSWP]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

That was my initial thought too, but there is one difference.

Based on the nominal capacity of 2000 passengers and 895 crew, any more than 87 positive cases in the 12 days would place the ship as code red, and likely a more stringent set of protocols, possibly parked, and a media reaction.

 

With plenty doing B2B2B, if 20 test positive on the first cruise, 30 on the second, 40 on the third - that is 90 positives over the 12 days - but the reportable number is no higher than 40. The state government protocols put the onboard management of covid into the hands of the cruise lines, and having shorter cruises may not reduce the infection risk, but is a way of managing the numbers and keeping them below their 3% target.

Spot on there Geoff, playing with the numbers for sure to keep the governments and media quiet.

Edited June 23, 2022 by NSWP