Royal Caribbean are "thinking" about building smaller cruise ships!

[Hogbay]

Did not Brisbane open a World Class Cruise Terminal that even now has a coffee shop .

[Chiliburn]

5 hours ago, Hogbay said:

Did not Brisbane open a World Class Cruise Terminal that even now has a coffee shop .

Maybe the coffee shop is the famous Lelepa ?

[Chiliburn]

Rumours are Royal Caribbean will be signing a contract and announcing a new class of ship early next year ,  a mid size ship , Discovery of the seas.

Meyer Werft in Germany have been working on it for a couple of years as the rumours go. The source of the rumours is supposed to be Meyer Werft staff 
It supposed to be starting when they finish the Disney ships in 2027.

[ceeceeDee]

On 8/2/2023 at 12:46 PM, arxcards said:

I thought it was a leper colony, but apparently it is a one-of-a-kind private island for cruising. It must be nothing like Conflict Islands if it is the only one of its' kind in the southern hemisphere. I hear that they only have perfect days there.

Perfect Day at Lelepa | Royal Caribbean Cruises

 

Bit like our less-than-Perfect Day at Coco Cay, courtesy of Hurricane Dorian.😂

[ceeceeDee]

On 8/8/2023 at 12:36 PM, Hogbay said:

Did not Brisbane open a World Class Cruise Terminal that even now has a coffee shop .

An improvement on the coffee cart🙂 Now, if they could just do something about the waste land around the Terminal..............😂

[ceeceeDee]

On 8/8/2023 at 6:21 PM, Chiliburn said:

Maybe the coffee shop is the famous Lelepa ?

Wouldn't like to spend a day in it!😂

[arxcards]

10 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Rumours are Royal Caribbean will be signing a contract and announcing a new class of ship early next year ,  a mid size ship , Discovery of the seas.

Meyer Werft in Germany have been working on it for a couple of years as the rumours go. The source of the rumours is supposed to be Meyer Werft staff 
It supposed to be starting when they finish the Disney ships in 2027.

How big is mid size?

[bazzaw]

On 8/4/2023 at 4:52 PM, arxcards said:

I am well and truly off the P&O wagon these days,

During our recent cruise on P&O Pacific Endeavor. I witnessed and took part in the longest queue that I have ever seen on a cruiseship - for people to collect bus tickets for the Noumea dockyard that afternoon and tender tickets for the following day at Lifou. I guess it must have been the first time that P&O have visited these ports? 

[Chiliburn]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

How big is mid size?

I don’t know, I suppose 300 meters or so  . Small enough to get through the Panama Canal I would say 

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, Chiliburn said:

I don’t know, I suppose 300 meters or so  . Small enough to get through the Panama Canal I would say 

When a ship can get under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  Used to be a big ship before mega ships.

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, bazzaw said:

During our recent cruise on P&O Pacific Endeavor. I witnessed and took part in the longest queue that I have ever seen on a cruiseship - for people to collect bus tickets for the Noumea dockyard that afternoon and tender tickets for the following day at Lifou. I guess it must have been the first time that P&O have visited these ports? 

Lol. P&O has visited Lifou nearly every other week (lockdown aside) for at least the past dozen years. The container dock in Noumea is nothing new either. The key there is the number of buses. P&O might scrimp on that, or it could be just a post covid shortage of drivers. We haven't ever had to join long queues in either place on various other lines. For Lifou though, the main bottleneck is the tender wharf on the island. The bigger the ship, the longer it takes to get ashore there.

[arxcards]

3 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

I don’t know, I suppose 300 meters or so  . Small enough to get through the Panama Canal I would say 

I sort of picture a Vision/Radiance hybrid with a bit of Royal WOW under the bonnet. But I wonder if anything under 200K GRT is a medium ship to Royal.

[Chiliburn]

2 minutes ago, arxcards said:

I sort of picture a Vision/Radiance hybrid with a bit of Royal WOW under the bonnet. But I wonder if anything under 200K GRT is a medium ship to Royal.

Probably a Celebrity edge chassis with a family friendly WOW top on it.

[gbenjo]

3 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Probably a Celebrity edge chassis with a family friendly WOW top on it.

Ahhh…the Rumour of the Seas…….a sister ship to the Speculation of the Seas 😂😂😂😂😂

[bazzaw]

3 hours ago, arxcards said:

Lol. P&O has visited Lifou nearly every other week (lockdown aside) for at least the past dozen years. The container dock in Noumea is nothing new either. The key there is the number of buses. P&O might scrimp on that, or it could be just a post covid shortage of drivers. We haven't ever had to join long queues in either place on various other lines. For Lifou though, the main bottleneck is the tender wharf on the island. The bigger the ship, the longer it takes to get ashore there.

We never know what difficulties are in the background. What appears simple to us - is complicated by things we are not aware of. But trying to be all things to all people never works. The problem itself is quite simple - how to physically get 3000 tickets to people who want to go ashore?  Some want to go as a group - some sleep late- some want to have breakfast before they leave . !!! Impossible!!!! The problem is this case was simply physically getting tickets to the large number of people onboard. You would have to have seen/experienced this queue to understand me - it took me 30 minutes to even find the end of the queue. What was "queue" and what was people standing around?? How many passengers were on the ship???  What has happened on previous cruises? Is this the norm??? This was our 26th cruise - all around the World on different ships and cruiselines. I have never experienced anything like this before. 

[Chiliburn]

59 minutes ago, gbenjo said:

Ahhh…the Rumour of the Seas…….a sister ship to the Speculation of the Seas 😂😂😂😂😂

That’s exactly what I was thinking Graham,we must be related somehow.

I have been thinking all my life that they swapped babies in the hospital.

Did you mum have twins? I might be your twin brother.

[gbenjo]

12 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

That’s exactly what I was thinking Graham,we must be related somehow.

I have been thinking all my life that they swapped babies in the hospital.

Did you mum have twins? I might be your twin brother.

OMG…..Danny….I hope not 😱😱😱😱

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, bazzaw said:

We never know what difficulties are in the background. What appears simple to us - is complicated by things we are not aware of. But trying to be all things to all people never works. The problem itself is quite simple - how to physically get 3000 tickets to people who want to go ashore?  Some want to go as a group - some sleep late- some want to have breakfast before they leave . !!! Impossible!!!! The problem is this case was simply physically getting tickets to the large number of people onboard. You would have to have seen/experienced this queue to understand me - it took me 30 minutes to even find the end of the queue. What was "queue" and what was people standing around?? How many passengers were on the ship???  What has happened on previous cruises? Is this the norm??? This was our 26th cruise - all around the World on different ships and cruiselines. I have never experienced anything like this before. 

I have seen those queues Barry, and P&O does queues at least as good as anyone. 😁

Bigger ship/more passengers doesn't help,

being P&O doesn't help,

the jumble of post-covid with insufficient or inexperienced people involved doesn't help,

marginal conditions for tendering days doesn't help.

 

On a good day it can be frustrating, on a day where you get all of the above it becomes unbearable. I am not a fan of tender ports on big ships unless I can have access to front of queue from loyalty or cabin type. P&O does lots of tender ports though, so should be well practiced. Alas, they continue to find more straws for their camel.

 

In keeping with this topic, I like that some cruise lines are looking to regress their ship size. Bigger isn't always better, especially in ports that you can't just walk off. Brilliance of the Seas will be in Newcastle tomorrow, and they will be relying on a free shuttle to get around to Queens Wharf like Pacific Encounter does for Noumea. I would expect the only queues will be while the gangway is being readied, but can't really know how much is due to the port and how much is due to the ship

 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

That’s exactly what I was thinking Graham,we must be related somehow.

I have been thinking all my life that they swapped babies in the hospital.

Did you mum have twins? I might be your twin brother.

You have lots in common, just like the movie 😮

[Chiliburn]

3 minutes ago, arxcards said:

You have lots in common, just like the movie 😮

Yeah,we have a kind of telepathic link . I bet Graham has a identical wardrobe to me.

Same car ,same pets ,same hair cut but I’m going to have to grow a moe .

[Chiliburn]

The rumours coming from Meyer Weft ship yard in Germany are getting stronger.

We should have something public on a new class of ship and it’s supposed to be something totally different.

Im hoping they keep the royal promenade and bring back the Viking crown lounge.

 

Here a dumbed down image that’s getting around to tease us 

 

 

[springaussie]

10 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

The rumours coming from Meyer Weft ship yard in Germany are getting stronger.

We should have something public on a new class of ship and it’s supposed to be something totally different.

Im hoping they keep the royal promenade and bring back the Viking crown lounge.

 

Here a dumbed down image that’s getting around to tease us 

 

 

Looks bigger than I imagined! 

[MMDown Under]

18 minutes ago, springaussie said:

Looks bigger than I imagined! 

There should be definitions of what is a small cruise ship, medium cruise ship, large cruise ship, and mega cruise ship.

[arxcards]

8 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

There should be definitions of what is a small cruise ship, medium cruise ship, large cruise ship, and mega cruise ship.

There are

[arxcards]

41 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

The rumours coming from Meyer Weft ship yard in Germany are getting stronger.

We should have something public on a new class of ship and it’s supposed to be something totally different.

Im hoping they keep the royal promenade and bring back the Viking crown lounge.

 

Here a dumbed down image that’s getting around to tease us 

 

 

Looks like Radiance with a light blue hull added.