mattymay

It's a no from me.
 
 

Disney are now sending a ship to Australia in 2024-25. 
And a new Carnival ship by the end of this year to replace the old Carnival Spirit in Brisbane.
Royal are gonna have to lift their game in a few years. The competition is really heating up. 
 

I’m currently on pacific explorer and we are doing the first Anchorage and tender in Australia since the lock downs.
And what everyone says about P&O Australia is true ,what a wreck.
Come on Ovation,give me Royal Caribbean any day.

https://www.coaster101.com/2019/06/22/inside-360-degree-universal-sphere-dome-theater/
 
 

One week to go.. anyone booked on Pacific Explorer?
Only requiring a self RAT test 24 hours before! Too easy!

Looks kind of similar to the Universal Sphere video above.
 

It's great for socially awkward people.. I'll walk half the ship to start up a conversation with Bionic Barman! 
 
Also he doesn't give you dirty looks for ordering 2 drinks in 5 mins.
 

It’s going to have the biggest prices onboard.

Like in 2026.. 
Bayley: Hey Gav, we've built two new Oasis and three new Icon class. I told Dick before he left we had nowhere to park them. Got any idea where we can offload some old ships ? 
Smith: I know just the place Mike!
 
 
On a serious note: a year round ship is most likely to be a Quantum out of Brisbane I believe. Warmer climate in winter and a colder weather ship, just makes sense. With 3 new Icon's they should be able to spare a Quantum sized ship.

Like in 2026.. 
Bayley: Hey Gav, we've built two new Oasis and three new Icon class. I told Dick before he left we had nowhere to park them. Got any idea where we can offload some old ships ? 
Smith: I know just the place Mike!
 
 
On a serious note: a year round ship is most likely to be a Quantum out of Brisbane I believe. Warmer climate in winter and a colder weather ship, just makes sense. With 3 new Icon's they should be able to spare a Quantum sized ship.

It could be earlier than 2026.
Odyssey 2021, Wonder 2022, Icon 2023, Utopia 2024, Unnamed (Icon Class), 2025, Unnamed (Icon Class) 2026.
Looking at the delivery schedule and the total number of ships Royal will have in their fleet I think Royal could potentially be sailing year around from Australia starting in 2024.   And with three Icon Class ship coming also can see Royal home-porting either the second or third Icon Class ship in Australia.
I know in the past I've link Australia's chances of getting an Oasis Class ship to the recovery of the Chinese cruise market. However if by the time Utopia launches Royal is not seeing the demand in China they may send her to the U.S. like they did with Wonder which may cause some reshuffling. With either Ovation or Quantum remaining in Australia year around, Royal isn't going to give up that summertime capacity in Alaska with Alaska cruises being so popular.  I'm thinking they move Anthem to the West Coast to replace either Ovation or Quantum for the 2024 Alaska cruise season. Icon would leave Florida go to Europe for the European cruise season (South Hampton) and Oasis would leave Florida going to New York for the summer season. At the end of the Northern Hemisphere's summer Anthem could be moved down from Alaska to Los Angeles (or maybe San Francisco (Carnival is launching cruises from San Francisco, Royal may want a piece of that action)), Oasis goes back to Miami and Icon comes back to the US and replaces Anthem in New York (since Icon will be an all weather ship), and Australia gets its year around Quantum Class ship starting in 2024.   

Like in 2026.. 
Bayley: Hey Gav, we've built two new Oasis and three new Icon class. I told Dick before he left we had nowhere to park them. Got any idea where we can offload some old ships ? 
Smith: I know just the place Mike!
 
 
On a serious note: a year round ship is most likely to be a Quantum out of Brisbane I believe. Warmer climate in winter and a colder weather ship, just makes sense. With 3 new Icon's they should be able to spare a Quantum sized ship.

Like in 2026.. 
Bayley: Hey Gav, we've built two new Oasis and three new Icon class. I told Dick before he left we had nowhere to park them. Got any idea where we can offload some old ships ? 
Smith: I know just the place Mike!
 
 
On a serious note: a year round ship is most likely to be a Quantum out of Brisbane I believe. Warmer climate in winter and a colder weather ship, just makes sense. With 3 new Icon's they should be able to spare a Quantum sized ship.

As much as I would love to see that happen unfortunately it will not. 
Here in the US Virgin Voyages entrance into this market had no impact on prices in fact Virgin on many of their 4 night cruises from Miami is more expensive than Royal and in some cases even Celebrity on 7 night cruises.   And don't be fooled by their all inclusive drinks and wifi.  The all inclusive Wifi is the basic/slowest Wifi when can only open simple pages  or emails and after a certain point they begin throttling your usage. If you want faster Wifi for streaming, working or if you use a lot of data you have to purchase it  The all inclusive drinks does not include alcoholic drinks, fresh pressed juices, or speciality crafted coffees and they do not provide any "traditional" drink packages.  You have an account that you can load $200, $300, dollars or more on and you are charged for each alcoholic drink at full price. If you are a person who likes to drink when on vacation you bar tab will get expensive VERY QUICKLY ( I know someone a coworker of mine who did a 5 night cruise and end up with a $1000 bar tab because they love to drink on vacation). Sometimes they do run specials where if you load $100 dollars on your bar tab pre-cruise they will credit your account with an additional $50 dollars.  HOWEVER be warned if you do load money on your bar tab pre-cruise and do NOT use the entire tab any money that remains on the tab even if it is your money not a credit from Virgin is NONREFUNDABLE. 
Some people I know who've cruise with Virgin Voyages absolutely love them and others not so much.  One of the biggest complaints I've heard from people who've cruise them but are seasoned cruisers is their staterooms are small and their bathrooms are especially small compared to most other cruise lines and there is little to no in room storage in any non-suite stateroom.  Nearly every person I've spoken to who has actually cruised with Virgin says the food is amazing but portion sizes can run small.  
I am interested in trying out Virgin Voyages it won't happen this year, maybe in 2023 just so I can see for myself and draw my own conclusions but my suggestion would be do your homework don't just buy into their advertising campaign because they have there pros and cons. 

The curse of the Ruby Princess continues.. 

Following 73 on the previous cruise so trending the wrong direction, yet what the raw numbers don't tell is that they are all minor symptoms like common colds, yet "cases" and "cruise ships' are words that are just way too juicy for the media to resist.  
Our VP is now positive with no symptoms and we have government officials dismissing it suggesting "zero cases was never a goal".  

Interesting Virgin are home porting Resilient Lady in Melbourne. Over to you Royal Caribbean.. 

I booked the 2 nighter to Tasmania just to test it out. 

Interesting Virgin are home porting Resilient Lady in Melbourne. Over to you Royal Caribbean..