Jamesszy94

Sydney Harbor Bridge with the Cruise Ship and the Sydney Opera House

I mean... what's wrong with tomato sauce on waffles .... I saw someone on the Disney cruise do it, they put eggs on there too....

Cruise Day has arrived and I've yet to finish packing... boarding time is 1:30pm...

Icon, Star and now Legend. Maybe it's finally time Royal did it. Will they name Icon 4 - Celebrity of the Seas?

I know this isn't technically a Royal Caribbean ship but I still wanted to blog this.... I mean well.... Adventure of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean ship, but that's not the "Adventure" ship I'm talking about.... More specifically I'm talking about Carnival Adventure (well, she's not Carnival Adventure quite yet... she's still called "Pacific Adventure" until the end of March) Some context: In 2000, after various changes in the organisation of the P&O Group, the company de-merged all of its cruise ship operations. As a result, the Australian operations of P&O Cruises were split off into a separate cruise line, P&O Cruises Australia P&O Australia has had various ships throughout its 25 year run. Most of them were refurbished Princess Ships. P&O Australia was supposed to receive its first ever purpose built ship that would sail year round in Australia, but alas, during construction was transferred to Carnival and became the Carnival Panorama. She currently has a fleet of 3 ships - Pacific Explorer, Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter The Pacific Adventure and her sister ship the Pacific Encounter (originally the Golden Princess & Star Princess) were transferred from Princess Cruises to P&O in 2021... but we all know what happened that year, so they were never able to enter service, when the cruise industry finally restarted in 2022, they finally entered service as the Pacific Encounter & Pacific Adventure. Pacific Explorer (formerly the Dawn Princess) on the other hand was not so lucky and won't be joining the Carnival fleet as Carnival Explorer - instead she was sold to Resort World Cruises - where she will sail out of Singapore starting in March 2025. Hopefully they give her a good final few years as she's already 28 years old. LONG story short - P&O Cruises Australia is being absorbed back into Carnival Cruise Lines (its parent company) ______________ Anyway enough context... WHO IS GOING: Me, my mother, brother, SIL, niece (5) and nephew (3) ROOM: 1 Obstructed Oceanview and 1 non-obstructed Oceanview - I'm still waiting for an email to see if my bid to a balcony is accepted... even though we literally sail tomorrow (It was $1300 for my brother's family of 4 and $750 for me and my mum) Where: Basically out to nowhere, just gonna be 3 sea days, but it'll be nice to get away from civilization for a few days. And isn't the saying a day on a cruise ship is better than no days? I've sailed with P&O Australia before but that was almost 8 years ago and the ship that I sailed on was only about 55,000 gross tons - so even smaller than Grandeur, it'll be nice to get sail with P&O Australia one last time before they're absorbed back into Carnival. It's bittersweet because P&O Australia and Carnival are the only cruise lines to sail year round in Australia, but with the merge, it'll only be Carnival left.

I love the classic glazed donuts on Royal ships! Anyone know where I can get some for my own home?

Those chips look TO DIE FOR.... does anyone know if it would be weird if I bought my own chicken salt on board?

The release date for Royal Caribbean's 2026-2027 season for Australia has now been put on hold and is "TBD" Why do cruise lines keep treating Australia like crap. They're probably deciding which 25 year old leftover ship we're gonna get after Anthem and Voyager are done here. Who knows? Maybe they'll send us Rhapsody... would be a nice change I guess, or maybe they'll give Enchantment back to us. It's a bit of a kick in the guts knowing that cruise lines basically don't care about Australian's. I really do hope the delay is them working on new itineraries instead of the same: South Pacific Adelaide/Hobart/Cairns New Zealand But I'm highly doubtful at this point.

Honestly, I like having the physical copy of the cruise compass. I can highlight things I want to go to or just write other important information down. Unlike the app, I know the app gives you a reminder, but it's just not the same! I always ask my room attendant to give me paper compasses throughout my cruise.

I hope to try a suite on Royal one day... Looking forward to your blog!!

Generally people here know what you mean by chips as a side when you order a sandwhich.

Oh no! I hope that person is okay. During our NZ cruise last year, we had to sail full speed back to Sydney to offload a passenger who had fallen and hit his head in the Windjammer.

What you guys call crisps in the US, we also call chips. So fries = chips, but crisps = chips.

I can't tell if you really want to know or you're just joshing about the vegemite. Vegemite is nice.. in small doses. Do you guys get Vegemite on the cruises in the US? When I sailed on Ovation last year, they had little sachets of vegemite, is it because Ovation is sailing in Australia? So they cater to the Aussie market?

What are they called in the United States? Fries? I thought fries were the thin ones you get from McDonalds. But my favorite thing to eat on the cruise ship is chips and gravy. Imagine an American moving to Australia/UK and opening a "Fish and Fries" shop

Those chips look amazing (Yes. We call them "chips" in the land down under (Australia))

I'm getting on a cruise ship next Friday, and I'm already dreading all the amazing (hopefully) food on board....

Just out of curiosity, have you been on any of the Quantum ships?

The original Queen Mary sailed from 1936-1967 (this one was an ocean liner, but still counts) QE2 sailed from 1969-2008 - QE2 was converted into a cruise ship So definitely possible for a cruise ship to get more than 30+ years HMS Victory is on her 247th year of service.

That cactus is freaking adorable. Where can I get one?!

Afaik, no, there's no chance Oasis or Icon ships will ever come to Australia. We seem to be the country where cruise lines send their unwanted/unpopular ships.... or we get 15 year old ships. We're stuck with having to travel to the United States (ugh) or Europe to sail on Icon/Oasis class. Afaik. Brisbane Terminal can accommodate an Oasis-class but alas, Royal will never send us one. Like Chili said, we just don't have the population for it, and I don't think any of the ports that Royal sails to from Australia can dock an Oasis or Icon class.

Someone take lots photos of the beautiful Allure before we get all of the ugly slides! Those will be the last we ever see of the original Oasis-class ships! I still wish Royal kept Allure as the only non-amplified Oasis-class. My bucket list is to sail on Oasis and Allure before they inevitably retire from service.

Oh I meant the FlowRider being a rental

I do remember seeing that a while ago, I always just assumed it was a rental or something