Who plans timing of cruises in Australia?

[MMDown Under]

Who plans timing of cruises in Australia?  Someone local or someone in Head Office overseas?

 

Getting dressed for an afternoon matinee at the theatre in my first sleeveless dress of the season in 28c temperatures!  

 

Gold Coast is packed with visitors enjoying the hot weather.  

 

Thinking of the people freezing down south on cruises.

 

I was born in Brisbane and September was always a week's beach holidays!  

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

I imagine the itineraries are planned at a corporate level, liasing with locals about the various ports. 

 

I think with these restart cruises they tried to add a few different itineraries to entice people to do B2Bs. They may have looked at weather patterns from previous years and decided to take the risk. In the case of the current cruise it didn't work out. In the past when Princess did winter cruising, not counting the five standard big cruises, they stuck to tropical itineraries - Top End, PNG, Singapore from Perth etc.

 

We're still having fun despite the itinerary changes but I must admit I'm looking forward to heading back up to Queensland in just over a week.

[arxcards]

 

The current cruise down south was part of a bunch of thrown together itineraries in lieu of 2022 world cruise that wasn't going to happen. For Princess it is an anomaly, and just trying to keep some variety in a domestic schedule. At the time the itineraries were set, they had no options in the Pacific, so Newcastle, Eden and the current cruise have been done out of season. The two P&O ships in operation are currently on cruises involving Queensland, and I also think they are trying not to tread on each others toes. With some intelligence, Coral Princess spent her first 2 months based in Brisbane, departing for Sydney the day before Pacific Encounter arrived in Brisbane.

 

Hopefully it will all be normal scheduling next season. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, arxcards said:

 

The current cruise down south was part of a bunch of thrown together itineraries in lieu of 2022 world cruise that wasn't going to happen. For Princess it is an anomaly, and just trying to keep some variety in a domestic schedule. At the time the itineraries were set, they had no options in the Pacific, so Newcastle, Eden and the current cruise have been done out of season. The two P&O ships in operation are currently on cruises involving Queensland, and I also think they are trying not to tread on each others toes. With some intelligence, Coral Princess spent her first 2 months based in Brisbane, departing for Sydney the day before Pacific Encounter arrived in Brisbane.

 

Hopefully it will all be normal scheduling next season. 

The four September cruises replaced the cancelled Hawaii/Tahiti cruise not the World Cruise but, yes, they tried for variety. 

 

Brisbane was the logical place for the initial lot of restart cruises, even more so as it is officially Coral's home port for the next couple of years or more.

 

I think they've done very well given the limited number of ports here. 

[MMDown Under]

I think they need to start thinking outside the box. 

 

A given should be to cruise to ports in season.  

 

Why not have busses meet the ship to take passengers to the attractions - from Brisbane included longer tours could go to the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, or Stradbroke Island etc.

 

There are many ports overseas which have long bus trips to the attractions, such as Bangkok, Hanoi, etc.  

[arxcards]

21 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

There are many ports overseas which have long bus trips to the attractions, such as Bangkok, Hanoi, etc.  

It needs to be pretty special for us to get on a bus for more than 1hr on a day trip. Cruise tours for Brisbane have included Gold Coast theme parks and Australia Zoo close to the Sunshine Coast, neither of which I would do a rushed trip for.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

It needs to be pretty special for us to get on a bus for more than 1hr on a day trip. Cruise tours for Brisbane have included Gold Coast theme parks and Australia Zoo close to the Sunshine Coast, neither of which I would do a rushed trip for.

Agreed. It would have to be a long port visit departing at night.  

[arxcards]

11 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The four September cruises replaced the cancelled Hawaii/Tahiti cruise not the World Cruise but, yes, they tried for variety. 

 

Brisbane was the logical place for the initial lot of restart cruises, even more so as it is officially Coral's home port for the next couple of years or more.

 

I think they've done very well given the limited number of ports here. 

Including the whole of season so far, it also included the loss of the world cruise. All these short cruises are a novelty for a ship that would otherwise only have one visit to Sydney & Brisbane throughout the whole winter season.

 

Brisbane was logical, but she isn't based anywhere over the winter months next year - the big Pacific and World cruises can be started as return cruises from Sydney, Brisbane or Auckland.

[arxcards]

9 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Agreed. It would have to be a long port visit departing at night.  

An overnighter would be a different deal though, as it gives you several hours at the attraction.

 

As the home based ships continue to grow, it now seems Sunshine Coast & Gold Coast are off the radar again as cruise ports.

[MMDown Under]

7 hours ago, arxcards said:

An overnighter would be a different deal though, as it gives you several hours at the attraction.

 

As the home based ships continue to grow, it now seems Sunshine Coast & Gold Coast are off the radar again as cruise ports.

Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, being exposed Pacific oceanfront, are not suitable for ports.  Brisbane people regularly drive to the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, so think that is a feasible option from Brisbane port for cruise ship passengers.  

[arxcards]

27 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, being exposed Pacific oceanfront, are not suitable for ports.  Brisbane people regularly drive to the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, so think that is a feasible option from Brisbane port for cruise ship passengers.  

P&O did a few cruises that tendered to Mooloolaba, but yes, tendering was problematic. The larger ships make it even more challenging to get all passengers off and back. 

 

Not just the distance, but the time ashore. We could do Australia Zoo from Majestic next month - 3 hours on the road and just 4 hours at the zoo. Not us. If we were driving it from Brisbane, we would set off so we were there at opening time, and not have to leave until closing.

[OzKiwiJJ]

7 hours ago, arxcards said:

 

Brisbane was logical, but she isn't based anywhere over the winter months next year - the big Pacific and World cruises can be started as return cruises from Sydney, Brisbane or Auckland.

Regardless of the fact that she does the big cruises with multiple embarkation ports her homeport is officially Brisbane.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Despite thousands of kilometres of coastline Australia actually has surprisingly few sheltered ports capable of docking a cruise ship and with the facilities to support a cruise ship visit.