KWofPerth

Sydney port has got Anthem and Celebrity Edge booked for the 27-28 season. Plus solstice is there with the usual suspects.
 
If anyone missed it , Lelepa begins construction later this year.

That would be awesome and with Voyager coming back into the Pacific later this year maybe the stars are aligning for a year round ship in Australia.
Navigator has a dry dock and non-revenue repositioning sailing in March 2027.  April 23 she pops up somewhere ready to be in service. Lelepa is said to begin service "early 2027". With no guests on board the repositioning voyage from the shipyard in Singapore can be direct with no stops on the way.   
Voyager had a dry dock Nov. 2024.  Now that she is under the every 2.5 year requirement for shipyard visits due to her age, that puts the next Voyager dry dock in the May 2027 time frame.  If Voyager was meant to be part of the Lelepa kick off it seems odd to open Lelepa "early 2027" then send Voyager to Singapore for a dry dock soon after.  It's likely Voyager heads to Singapore after her LA/Mexico stint ending in April 2027 for the dry dock she will need.  That just leaves the question what does she do when the dry dock is over mid to late May.  Will they keep her in Singapore to take over from Navigator?  
They likely won't keep two ships year round in Australia, at least not at first, so a year round ship in the warmer Queensland climate doing runs that include Lelepa and the South Pacific regular ports of call visits makes a lot of sense.
With the more chill nature of Lelepa and no pier in favor of tendering, it may not need as long of a construction cycle so the "early 2027" time frame should be realistic. 
Why open early in 2027 if they didn't mean to keep going there through the middle of 2027 when traditionally ships have finished their Australia season?  We've seen references to Lelepa and year round service so maybe it's all coming together for Navigator from Brisbane year round with a Quantum class still operating from Sydney seasonally.

Navigator from Singapore has been released. The 10 nighter on 2nd of January would've been my choice, but for a family of 4 it strecthes the budget just that little bit too far.

Couldn't resist getting back to French Polynesia and Australia so I booked the Quantum 25 night plus a couple before and after.  
For any solo cruisers, especiall;y 340+ CAS members, the website isn't reflecting the reduced single supplement for TA/TP cruises but after a phone call they manually applied the 125% single supplement to the 25 night TP.  That makes for a pretty dramatic price difference.  Make sure to call to get the correct single supplement applied.  

Fiona, if you were to take any of the South Pacific cruises on offer currently, you would have a fabulous time. The islands are beautiful, the weather is generally very pleasant, you can't go wrong.
But if you've done that several times over a number of years, you want a little variety, right? That's where we Aussies are coming from. The removal of Fiji from the itineraries removes some of that variety. 'Spice of life', that's all.

Was anyone really expecting to get different ports? 
It was only a matter of time before we got the same ports.

Guurghhh, more of the same. I'll wait for Singapore next week.

IMO Navigator got the best AMP in this class.  I'm hoping they bring it down after the Singapore season since it's so close.  Freedom class is probably a better fit size wise but at the moment it isn't so convenient moving ships between the major oceans.  I'm pretty sure Voyager and Freedom can't use Panama and now with the Suez route being impaired it's a long way to go and a short time to get there.   

Fiji is the main one for me. That used to be a great destination.
Also, there is only one sailing that goes for longer than 9 nights.  11-12 nights is the sweet spot for me.
I'd also prefer to have two different class of ships. A Radiance class would be great, or a Voyager class.
One further point. The NZ cruises now seem to have excluded visits to both Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound.
So in short @twangster , we have seen an erosion in choice of ports, choice of ships, and length of cruises.  As a family of 4 that literally has to fly across a continent to get to the departure port, these factors have been deal breakers for me for a number of years now. Singapore is just as close to me as Sydney and tends to be slightly cheaper, so if I see something that interests me there, I jump at it.

I am not sure what is the maximum size of cruise ship that could visit Fiji. I know Princess and Carnival both go there as well as Celebrity.
My soft spot is for Independence class as it is slightly bigger than Voyager and has a good mix of amenities on the ship.
The main reason I think Quantum is overrated is because when you dig a little deeper the attractions are more flashy than substantive.
Once you have North Star there is no compulsion to do it again, the bumper cars are okay, the iFly was okay but I don’t bother doing it anymore. Apart from Wonderland the other restaurants also okay but Izumi feels like you are sitting in a corridor. I miss the ice shows and mini golf. I realise this is all subjective as others may love the iFly. Having stayed in the RLS suite twice on Quantum I will say this was a highlight.
 

Signs that the 26-27 season is being loaded but not quite yet available to book.
Doubtful, Dusky and Milford on three Anthem dates so far.
Should be fully loaded soon.  

It's still curious to me that test loads exist.  Isn't that why IT has prod and test?  
Despite that rhetorical question, I think it's coming next week.  Quantum from Brisbane and Anthem from Sydney. 

I saw these and thought yes finally deploying in Australia starting... Took away this morning like candy from a baby.. 😭 

I was wondering why that sailing was so cheap. I might book even if it is only 9 days. I would like to visit Dunedin, missed out last year.
I'm not surprised in the slightest. 
 
Yes. I went to visit all of these ports last year on my 10 day cruise. They were indeed all industrial working ports and were almost like a 25-40 minute bus trip to/from the port. I'm glad I got to see Dusky, Milford and Doubtful then if they really are banning cruise ships from entering the Sounds. 

Looks like it's either happened, or Royal has seen the writing on the wall and doesn't want to advertise what it can't deliver.

I've said before and I'll say again, visiting NZ by cruise just doesn't do it justice. It's the perfect road trip holiday.
Saying that, a cruise is a cruise and will still be enjoyable. 

If it’s true , going to hurt their bookings . The only reason I would go to the South Island is to see the sounds . The rest are all ugly industrial ports .

Looks like it's either happened, or Royal has seen the writing on the wall and doesn't want to advertise what it can't deliver.

It’s looking like Navigator is going to Singapore as there’s a few port bookings in Hong Kong for it.
It looks like a possible pacific transit via Japan in October and back in April????
 

Know one knows?
Going from port bookings across the pacific there’s no evidence either way .
Brisbane still has Voyager booked for the 26-27 season.
Quantum has port bookings in Cairns and 2 odd ones in Brisbane .November/ March which could be a trans pacific to Singapore.
Its your guess.
 

Nobody would fall for it at this point.

April fools joke would be my guess. It's already the 1st of April down there, isn't it? 😂

I wouldn't be much shocked by anything at this point.