Jamesszy94

Another live blog for me to live vicariously through... until either:

a) Royal gives us Aussies an Oasis/Icon class ship. I refuse to fly to the US just to get on a 7 day cruise on an Oasis class. I have money, but I'm not THAT rich.

b) I can experience a suite... I'm not poor or anything, but I don't have as much disposable income as some others... 

I think we might be on the same cruise. Cruising to New Zealand 10 nights? If so yay! It depends when you get there, if you get there between say 10am to 1pm, that's usually when the lines are the longest, cause people wanna get onto the ship as early as possible and get to the pools, buffet etc. If you go after 2pm, there's usually no line. On all of my Royal sailings, I got to the port at around 1pm, and there was still a line, but it wasn't insane. 

YMMV.

On 2/12/2024 at 9:00 PM, Chili said:

I just watched that Carl , Sydney cruise schedule has removed Anthem and has now got    Unknown vessel— Royal Caribbean.

Allure to Galveston? You would think they are are full of the big ships and would give us one.

We might get Navigator !!!  Are you ready for a repo from Hell . A . to Sydney.

Maybe they'll send us Utopia  (Last minute changes are always possible!) As long as we get a new class of ship or something different that isn't a QN class, I'll be happy.

I do hope that we get more exotic/different destinations. South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand cruises are starting to get boring, there's only so many times you can visit those ports. 

But then again... people visit PDCC many times...

47 minutes ago, mattymay said:

Well there are OPT port bookings for 25/26, so hypothetically even if the captain of Independence was correct, he's talking at least 26/27 season. I'm sure lots can change in 3 years.

Yeah, that's like still a long time, let's just focus on the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 season first!

Here's hoping once Allure's finished getting her amp, they send her down to Australia! I guess everyone should sail Ovation/Quantum? one last time before she inevitably leaves the Australian market for good.

46 minutes ago, F1guynz said:

I don’t think we will see an Oasis class ship in the foreseeable future due to the number of tender ports which severely limit where it could go.

You never know! Stranger things have happened. 

8 hours ago, mattymay said:

The only way there would be no RCL Quantum class sailing out of Sydney harbour is if something bigger were coming that couldn't fit there. 

3 Icon and 6 Oasis in the next few years, it's getting a bit top heavy in the northern hemisphere lol. You never know I guess!

Either that or they're sending us Voyager and possibly a Radiance class... OR they're designing one of the "Discovery" class just for Australia market.. I guess we'll see in 2 months when Royal release their deployment!

8 hours ago, mattymay said:

The only way there would be no RCL Quantum class sailing out of Sydney harbour is if something bigger were coming that couldn't fit there. 

3 Icon and 6 Oasis in the next few years, it's getting a bit top heavy in the northern hemisphere lol. You never know I guess!

But which port would Icon/Oasis homeport in? The OPT isn't exactly suited to host an Icon/Oasis sized ship... and White Bay is almost impossible lol

5 hours ago, Chili said:

Maybe Allure ? It’s going in for pretty big refit early next year. Almost 2 months worth I read somewhere.
They might convert it to duel fuel ,Apparently we are making marine methanol here soon.

I've always said they should give us Allure!!

Maybe the dry dock will remove the plants in the Royal Promenade! 

My bid for an Oceanview got accepted..

2 minutes ago, steverk said:

I'm nit sure what's going on, but that price doesn't make sense to me. I live in Houston and sail Galveston a lot. I've never paid that much.

For example, I've got a 6 night on Voyager at the end of April. Jr. Suite 3 people. I paid $2165usd plus port and gratuities.

In Oct 2025 I have an A2 2br aqua suite 4 people on Harnony for $9156 plus port. Since it's star class it includes gratuities, dining, drink and internet packages.

I don't have to fly, but the prices I see aren't anywhere near $4500 per interior room.

 

Those prices I listed  are in Australian Dollar, but also it's for a sailing that's in 2 months.

2 hours ago, Chili said:

 Carnival group just has old flee bag ships with bad food,worst that Royal.

But! Carnival has Mardi Gras, Celebration and Jubilee! Also the 

2 hours ago, Chili said:

Another thing to consider,we are a safe destination in a troubled world.

Are we really that safe though? 

-deleted-

When will cruise lines realise that there's a market for cruising in Australia (at least in Sydney, probably Brisbane too, if they changed up the itineraries or went to more exotic ports from Brisbane) and have better destinations/send better ships/send more ships/dock here year round. It's just P&O and Carnival that we're stuck with year round...

P&O is a bit yikes to say the least and don't even get me started on Carnival, but then if we want to sail on any of the other cruise lines (Royal, Princess, Celebrity, Disney etc) we have to spend even more money to fly!! (During the southern autumn/winter season)

I would have tried Virigin, if she sailed from Sydney and if they did weekend cruises - Friday - Monday and went to more exotic locations. But their locations are just like every other cruise line that operates in Australia

- New Zealand

- Some combination of Adelaide/Tasmania/Melbourne/Brisbane/Eden

But alas, 95% of their cruises left from Melbourne, but it also doesn't help that most of their cruises were one way and not a round trip.

1 hour ago, Chili said:

There’s a pretty strong rumour Virgin is pulling out of Australia.

Reports,the sales desk onboard saying they are assessing next season and apparently there’s port bookings in the Caribbean.

Thats a bit less competition for Royal Caribbean and we might get our two ships back in Sydney.

Where are you hearing this rumor? I mean... it doesn't help that most of their sailings leave from Melbourne.

10 minutes ago, twangster said:

Pretty sure Vision class was too dirty for Alaska so they replaced her with Serenade the year she was supposed to do Alaska leaving EN in the Atlantic.  The following year Brilliance became the 2nd RD class Vancouver based ship for Alaska.  She (EN) probably would have failed to qualify for the NZ sounds as well.  

IIRC (I could be wrong)- Most of the Enchantment sailings were Sydney > Adelaide > Hobart > Sydney (or some combination of this) or to the South Pacific. I guess it makes sense that she was bad for Alaska and had to be replaced. 

I feel so bad for the Vision class ships... it's like when a parent plays favourites. Royal is focusing all their attention on Oasis and Icon and basically feels like they're abandoning the others. (Vision and to some extent Radiance and Voyager class)

Imagine if Royal ever sent Grandeur or Rhapsody to Australia and were like "take it or leave it" 

I know Enchantment was supposed to come to Sydney during the 2023-2024 cruise season but she was replaced with Brilliance, did Royal ever say what the reason for that was? 

8 hours ago, Chili said:

Isn’t L.A short cruise going to be released this month?

They can’t fill a Quantum in Brisbane and it’s to big to get into  some of the islands .

A Voyager would be more practical for Brisbane. It can dock in Vila also Melbourne plus there’s rumours Cairns may allow a Voyager to dock soon.

Hey ,it could even tender to the mysterious Lelepa 

But let's say *hypothetically* Voyager goes to Brisbane instead, what would Sydney get?!

Utopia? Star? Wonder? Allure?! (I wish! But let me cope)

How likely are they to send us Anthem (since they seem dead-set on only giving us QN class and they'd never give us Spectrum or Odyssey!) or a Freedom-class

We've had Voyager in Sydney before right? I remember looking at cruises many years ago and Voyager of the Seas was one of the options.

10 hours ago, mattymay said:

Probably just more of the same South Pacific and New Zealand.

Not sure if it's a size thing or covid, but hopefully Voyager can get into some of the other ports - Lifou, Mare, Isle of Pines, Santo, Suva, Port Denarau, Dravuni Island. That would definitely interest me.

Probably just a COVID thing but maybe also a size thing? The P&O ships are significantly smaller than Ovation and Quantum and I know they sail to Dravuni Island and Lautoka.

Likewise. It would be a nice change of itineraries. I remember on my last cruise asking the NC person why all the itineraries are the same

- Tasmania/Adelaide

- New Zealand

- South Pacific

And she said it's just whatever Royal decides which make sense, but she also said she agreed with me and wishes Royal would change up the itineraries. I really do hope Royal does go to more exotic ports. Maybe over to Perth, up to PNG, Solomon Islands, Norfolk Island. I guess it's hard for the bigger ships though

Maybe we'll finally get more exotic ports when Voyager comes?returns? to Australia

2 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

We were on Oasis last summer and the entire ship seemed to be in great shape including our cabin. 

Liberty on the other hand is showing her she pretty bad. We had an absolute blast sailing on her, so much fun but she needs attention soon. 

Hopefully she and the other's that missed their amplifications will get them soon... (Adventure, Allure, Explorer and Liberty)

1 hour ago, mattymay said:

No idea to be honest.

But based on the number of dates for Sydney I am guessing only one ship.

Same for Brisbane, might not be Voyager like it states but is still only enough bookings for one ship.

Yikes.. Unnamed Vessel, okay then. I guess Australia will forever be stuck with Quantum ships... until a bigger terminal is built for an Oasis-class. Hopefully they're not all just South Pacific cruises...

I wonder if Royal ever sent us an Oasis class ship if there'd be more bookings from Brisbane...

52 minutes ago, F1guynz said:

This seems to be common across the cruise lines at the moment, but you will get a nice email full of platitudes about how important your cruise holiday is to them.

We have to wait until April to see the Australia 2025/26 itineraries and even longer if we want to cruise Asia. Some cruise lines already have these available so why do we have to wait so long as they must already be planned with the ports booked.

Maybe they want people talking about Icon and they want all the focus to be on Icon right now. At least that's my guess

12 hours ago, mattymay said:

Based off the information so far there are currently 4 ships in the mix:

Preceding Alaska season with Quantum, Anthem and Radiance.

Brisbane port bookings for Voyager.

So Quantum/Anthem for Sydney? 

Radiance for Brisbane and Sydney

Voyager for Brisbane only? 

To me it sounds like they're going with a theme. Icon is like a thing or person that people know, a Star is also similar to that

My bet for Icon 3 is something along the lines of Fame of the Seas or something

Idol of the Seas?

What do we think they'll name Icon 3? One of the 24 trademarked ones? Or something new?