F1guynz

New Caledonia and Vanuatu opening to cruise ships this month. https://cruisepassenger.com.au/news/new-calendonia-vanuatu-cruises-return/

IT will be interesting once Perfect Day is up and operational. Surely you would want more than one or two visits per week all year round to make it viable.

We are booked on Quantum next April in the RLS. Can't wait for that cruise, hopefully the Islands will be fully open by then. My parents are on Quantum in November. On our next cruise we are sailing on Ovation cruising to NZ (ironic after being locked up here in NZ for so long), it will just be nice to be back on the water.

My sweet sport would be 1 Quantum class, 1 Freedom class and 1 Radiance class. Disclaimer: I really enjoyed Independence of the Seas in Europe.

It is hard to find much information but I guess the underlying reasons for changes relate to these rules in some. Still doesn’t make immediate sense as to why two identical ships need to be swapped. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-07/cruise-liners-try-to-rewrite-climate-rules-despite-vows This is a quote from a document I found on the IMO website: What about speed as a measure? The initial GHG strategy adopted by IMO includes a range of candidate short-term measures – including: “consider and analyse the use of speed optimization and speed reduction as a measure, taking into account safety issues, distance travelled, distortion of the market or to trade and that such measure does not impact on shipping's capability to serve remote geographic areas”. So this is certainly something that Member States are discussing. The guidelines for the mandatory Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) already refer to "speed optimization" as a potential approach to improve the energy efficiency of the ship, recognizing that speed optimization can produce significant savings. The 2016 Guidelines for the development of a ship energy efficiency management plan (SEEMP) can be downloaded here. reducing emissions by 2030 seems to be the goal.

I have had my official notification plus a bonus that our cruise is now an extra day so very pleased.

Thanks Twangster, I am happy to move to Brilliance as I enjoy Radiance Class dining options.

We booked the Royal Suite on Enchantment for November 2023 so if it is Brilliance hopefully they will just transfer us to the same suite doing the same itinerary as this is one of the few we haven't done.

I was watching Harr Travel cruise news yesterday and somebody asked if they could book for an Australian. Danny said they were working on some partnerships which they hope to have sorted in the next 12 months. He did say if you have a US address to use that they could book on your behalf. Unless it is significantly cheaper even including gratuities I would stick with booking through Australia. Remember all your cruise planner purchases and shore tours will also be in American dollars. We booked through HK once and when they cancelled the cruise we ended up with a FCC in HK$ and and you don't have the option of changing currency.

The other thing to consider if comparing with US pricing is that gratuities are not included in the price as they are here in Australia/NZ so these will be on top of the quoted fare. Generally I found the Australian/NZ prices to be cheaper over all with the exchange rate factored in. I usually book with Royal directly on their website although there are other websites like www.thecruisecentre.com.au, they are a member of the helloworld.

I sailed on Independence of the Seas back in 2019 and loved it so I would be happy to see a Freedom class ship down this way.

I don't think this will be a requirement as it is not part of the Australian protocols as 95% of passengers will need to be vaccinated. It would be a bit odd that while leaving Australia you wouldn't wear a mask and then at some point you would need to put one on to satisfy NZ requirements. I think in practice if this was the case then a lot of Australian's would not come to NZ on a cruise. Also once they were here doing shore tours there are a lot of places were a mask is not required (bars, cafes, outdoors etc.) so it just wouldn't make sense (not that that stops politicians passing unworkable laws).

There was also some positive news from Chris Hipkins (our Covid minister) who has said he expects cruise ships to be welcomed back by October. Apparently they will be defining the protocols within the next few weeks. Maybe I can get excited for our Ovation cruise to NZ in October now.

I am concerned our Government is so slow and cautious that by the time they make the decision to allow cruises to resume it will be too late for Royal to commit to coming here. Our Government has extended its “red light” settings for another two weeks at which time it will review again. The expectation is we will move in “orange settings” towards the end of April and maintain that setting until possibly our summer. It is possible they will relax the need to wear masks in orange but currently under orange rules they are mandatory when indoors.

Did you receive this as an email? We are diamond plus and I haven’t seen anything yet. I was hoping to get a preview before we booked next week.

I have had this in the past and eventually the cruises were cancelled and then they refunded the cruise planner. At the time when the cruises disappeared I contacted Royal and they said they were doing some changes in the background which ended up being code for cancelling.

We are booked on this cruise. Originally it was a nine night but with lift and shift it became eleven for the same price. ‘NZ will be opening to Australians from April 12th and the rest of the world soon after so things are looking positive.

Yeah, I saw that, I wonder if they will do Fiji and maybe the Cook Islands as they are both open. Also now there is a restart date the unvaxxed in the Islands might be incentivised to get the jab so they can start welcoming tourists. It would appear that cruise passengers will be 95% vaxxed.

From P&O Facebook page.

Looks like finally some good news

What will be interesting will be when Perfect Day at Lelepa opens as it does not make sense to me to invest all that money and only have a couple of ships visit maybe a couple of times a week for 6 months. I would have thought at that point you would want at least one ship year round to make it viable. Maybe then we can get Oasis of the Seas as it is the oldest ship and the U.S will get Oasis 6.

Oh I missed that announcement about Allure, pity I am ready to try an Oasis class ship without having to go to the U.S I would be happy to go out of Auckland on Enchantment although apart from the odd P&O ship we don't really get many departures out of Auckland like we used to.

I think NZ will be on board as 75% of people want to see tourism resuming and cruising is a big part of that. We have a cruise booked to the Islands next year in the Royal Loft suite so fingers crossed it goes ahead. Seeing as Allure is missing from the US schedule I hope we get her down our way in 2023/24 when the new season is announced in a couple of weeks.

Hi, Yep no cruising and vaccine passports in use at the moment. No omicron in NZ yet but that will be here within the coming weeks I am sure. Hopefully the beginning of the end of restrictions and we just learn to live with it. I definitely agree about the GS on Quantum ships, I can see what the concept was when they put the wall in to separate the bed from the living space but it just makes the whole room feel so claustrophobic compared to the non-quantum ships even though the square footage is not that different. We have booked the Royal Loft Suite on Quantum next year to try something new, I don't think space will be an issue with this cabin , just have to hope the cruise will go ahead next April. We are also keen to book the Crystal Endeavor to the Antarctica some time in the next couple of years to experience a once in a lifetime holiday.

We have booked both Junior Suites and Grand Suites on Explorer and Voyager. Last time we were on Explorer the suite lounge was on deck 10 tucked away with with no windows so unless you really want a cabin with a little bit more room and a bigger bathroom I would stick with the JS. Otherwise you are paying quite a lot extra for access to a lounge and concierge which the primary amenity for GS and above. It would be cheaper to buy the unlimited drinks package than effectively pay for lounge access. Oh I do also remember you get access to Chops for breakfast in a GS if you don’t want to face the masses in Windjammer. ‘All that being said the Grand Suite is still a really nice option if you want to treat yourself. It really depends on what is important to you.