Jamesszy94

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

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I saw all sorts of tiny humans with balloons on Indy and now it makes sense.

Also I was going to judge you for putting ketchup on your waffles then I realized it was strawberry

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?

1 hour ago, Cactus527 said:

Fries, obviously. But! Super crispy

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. 

4 hours ago, Cactus527 said:

I'm looking through the print copy of the Cruise Compass (I know, I'm ancient, but in my defense the digital one is not downloading for me correctly), does anyone know what this is?

EDIT: A quick Google search reveals that it is the snorkeling place! 

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!!

18 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Just joshing.

You learn something new everyday. I’m sure you don’t question it but that sounds very confusing, lol. If I order a sandwich with chips how do I know what I’m getting on the side?

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

35 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

7:50pm PST - The captain just announced that there is a passenger in need of medical evacuation. We are going to Ensenada at "full speed" to take care of the guest. Fingers crossed that this person will be okay, and thankfully we are not that far from Ensenada. 

 

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.

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

I’ve had this conversation with a couple UK friends so many times, lol. Pretty much any fried potatoes that aren’t crisps we call fries… shape & thickness don’t matter.

Now tell us how good vegemite is.  

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? 

33 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

I lived in the UK for awhile during college (study abroad). I was very familiar with the fish and chips shop just down the street from my flat.

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  

30 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

 

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

8 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

Lunch at Jamie's. I got a phone call yesterday afternoon that Chops was closed for lunch, which is where I had my reservation, but that I would go to Jamie's instead. I was rather confused as to what was going on, but in my head I assumed I was still going to get Chops, just have to sit in Jamie's. I get to Jamie's, let them know that I'm coming over from Chops, and they seat me and hand me a Jamie's menu. Okay, fine, I can make do, it wasn't what I expected though. Had lunch, then promptly went over to Chops to try to get my dinner reservation switched over to there since I had Jamie's scheduled for dinner. Of course, since it's a sea day and everybody and their brother want to eat specialty dining today, the only time they could fit me in is 8:45 p.m. Thank goodness for UDP and the opportunity to take advantage of Johnny Rockets and Playmakers again today! I wonder if I will even be hungry by the time I show up at 8:45...

Lunch: garlic bread, rocket salad, chicken burger, fries, and banana split. Oh, and the margarita.

Who DOESN'T love this garlic bread? I don't know what those crunchy things are on top but I want to take them home with me and start a relationship.

In my real non-cruising life, I'm a huge fan of salads. This one's pretty good, but not at the top of my list. I would still die for the one in Chops.

Pretty sure whoever made that chicken burger today was showing off.

I mean, look at how sexy that is with its charred bun top too. Mrawr, sandwich, I see you, I want you... This is taking a decidedly non-PG turn. Summary: good sandwich.

I haven't had a banana split in ages and so I thought I would give this one a try. It was not great. Whatever they have on top of the banana, which I think is just crystallized caramel, didn't work really well with the whole combination. I'm sure that there are people that would plow through that and call it amazing, it just wasn't for me.

And it was about this time that I decided I wanted to go try to get a reservation for dinner at Chops instead of coming back to Jamie's. 

I WILL say that the interior of Jamie's is my favorite of any restaurant fleet wide. It's light, bright, clean looking, and homey to me.

 

 

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?

On 1/12/2025 at 3:51 AM, JasonOasis said:

Is 30 years really the absolute age limit for cruise ship?  I'm asking because I honestly don't know and also because in the industry I work in the airline industry we thought 30 years was the limit for commercial aircraft before the would be sold off to either a cargo company or sold for scrap. Now days there are several airlines domestic and international including UA and DL and AA who have 30+ year old aircraft still in commercial service.  The maintenance cost is high on these 30+ year old aircraft as they require more maintenance, and maintenance checks at more frequent intervals.  The flip side is they are money makers for the airlines as they leverage these aircraft throughout their networks extracting the most value out of them in between those costly maintenance visits.  But even in the airline industry its a double edge sword as both United and Delta retired their 747-400s before they ever reached their 30th birthday because of high maintenance cost whereas both airlines have held on to their 757s, 767s (some of which are over 30 years old) and all 3 airlines AA, DL, and UA are flying A320s, and some 737-800s that are 30 years old and older. But it is easier now days to find places in the network where they can optimize 30+ year old 757s 737s and A320 than a 370+ seater 747-400. 

I get its apples to oranges but is 30 years really the limit in the cruise industry or can Royal squeeze out a few more years if necessary to give themselves more time to get Project Discovery right the first time right out of the gate?

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.

4 hours ago, Cactus527 said:

My flight from Vegas finally left at 6:15 p.m., putting me into Long Beach at 7:15. Got my luggage very quickly, took a Lyft over here to the hotel (Hyatt Regency Long Beach), and am now ensconced in my room for the night. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow morning of the main hotel area, but this is a very fancy hotel! Definitely high-end, which means I stick out like a sore thumb. My room has freaking artwork that has its own light switch! I have a beautiful view of the Long Beach harbor and the cute little swan boat pond that's right in front of the hotel. 

 

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

On 1/7/2025 at 8:51 PM, Wine Man said:

Looking to book my first cruise do Royal give you discount if you go party of 15 people plus? Also when will be cheapest time to book for next year are there still cruises to be added for 2026? Also any chance oasis or Icon ships come to Australia they look amazing? 

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.

On 1/1/2025 at 4:09 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Why on Earth would we rent a skunk? Lol

Oh I meant the FlowRider being a rental 

5 hours ago, JustMeJoe said:

I think they did !  But, a little skunk took it over when they were away last time !  

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