F1guynz

Pre covid I always used to get an guest invoice email for cruise bookings and another for each cruise planner purchase. I was finding I would end up with 8-9 copies of the invoice. Post covid I find I get one when I contact Royal to book a new cruise but when I have used the best price guarantee they just update the price and do not send a new guest invoice. I can only tell they have made the changes I requested by checking the final payment amount has updated. Maybe it is a Australia/NZ thing.

I did look at this but with the exchange rate cruises are still cheaper in NZD and also include all gratuities. Last years Canaries trip on Independence seems like such a long time ago now. looking forward to getting back to cruising but I don’t think it will be until the 21/22 season starts down here.

This depends a lot on which country you live in. Here in NZ you cannot book refundable and move to non refundable at a later date. If the cruise does get cheaper and you have a refundable deposit you can cancel and rebook at the lower rate. However, the refundable fare price is quite a lot higher than non refundable so if the cruise does not get cheaper or in fact goes up you are stuck with paying the extra $ for the refundable fare. The deposit here for seven night or longer cruises is $400 NZD and the refundable cost can be up to $700 NZD so we still tend to book NRD and if the price drops significantly cancel and lose the deposit as sometimes this works out better. Our last Independence cruise was an example of this when the price of the Owners Suite dropped $2500 less than the GS we had booked at the time. Cancelled the GS and lost the deposit so save $2100 ($2500 - $400).

How many of these "new" bookings are bookings using FCC rather than additional cash? With the number of cruises being cancelled I would expect that a lot of the new bookings to actually been transferred without a great outlay of new cash. I wonder if they will open new seasons bookings earlier this year to generate an influx of new cash.

Lift and Shift works well for repetitive cruises like the 7 night Caribbean cruises but less so with ports with varied itineraries. We have a B2B cruise booked for November to NZ and the Pacific Islands respectively but now Royal have released next years cruises there is no equivalent cruise to shift to our 12 night cruise which has been replaced by an 11 night sailing. The only 12 night sailing in our window is the Christmas 2021 cruise which is specifically excluded in the terms and conditions. We will have to wait until our November cruises are cancelled by Royal and possibly take the FCC. Our final payment is August but I am not sure I want the much money tied up with Royal given the current financial climate.

I think the issue would be the crew on the ship. It is likely they would have to quarantine on arrival to Australia and NZ as they are not residents. Then how do you manage any replacement crew members. I think from a management point of view it will far easier for the government to just extend the ban.

I notice the family from America who are suing Royal Caribbean regarding the injuries they sustained while on White Island have retained MIchael Winkleman as their lawyer for the lawsuit. This lawyer is the same one who worked on behalf of the family whose baby fell from Freedom of the Seas. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12338900

Today we got our full refund for our March cruise. It took 59 days but I was fine with waiting as I knew they were busy. prior to the refund we received two emails, the first apologising for the delay, the second, received last week, advising they would be processing the refund that week and to check the account the following week. It looks like they pay them on Thursday’s as a friend on a different cruise also received his yesterday as well.

We have a B2B scheduled on Ovation for November. while our case count has been 0 the last couple of days it is still too soon to see how the cruise season might pan out. There is talk of a trans Tasman travel bubble but this would be limited to Australian and New Zealand citizens I think. i am not hopeful that our cruise will go ahead at this stage. I think it will be a couple of months at least before things will become clearer.about travel options and tourism in general.

Below is the principles of ACC New Zealand's accident compensation scheme provides accident insurance cover for accidental injuries to New Zealand citizens and residents and to temporary visitors to New Zealand. Most ACC claims involve physical injuries caused by accidents. However, sometimes nervous shock and other mental conditions are covered too (see “Nervous shock and other mental conditions: Sometimes covered”, under “When you're covered by ACC and when you're not”). Sometimes physical conditions may be covered even though they're caused gradually (for example, through long-term exposure at work to substances like asbestos: see “Conditions caused gradually: Covered only if work-related”, under “When you're covered by ACC and when you're not”). To make a claim, you don't have to show that some other person was at fault and caused your injury, and so ACC is sometimes described as “a no-fault scheme”. Whether you fell over at home, or twisted your knee playing sport, or were injured in a car accident when another driver failed to give way to you, you'll be covered by ACC. The ACC scheme has been running since the mid-1970s. When the scheme was introduced, it took away the right to sue in the courts for injuries covered by the scheme. However, if your injury isn't covered by ACC and was caused by someone else's actions, you can sue them in court for compensation (“damages”). For example, you might sue for negligence. Accident Compensation Act 2001, ss 317, 319 Note: In some cases, you may be able to sue in the courts for what are called “exemplary damages” even if your injury is covered by ACC. Exemplary damages are awarded by the courts for particularly blatant and reckless behaviour that causes an injury to someone. They're awarded to punish the wrongdoer (so they're sometimes called “punitive” damages), and they go over and above an amount that's necessary to compensate the person who was injured.

Our 28th March cruise was cancelled but we have not received any C&A points. We did opt for the full refund rather than a 125% FCC so that may have played a part in not getting any points.

We have two cruises booked Ovation scheduled for November but I am not hopeful that they will go ahead. NZ is currently in lockdown and we are getting close to eliminating the virus, we will find out today whether this lockdown has been extended and when we might expect to move into a lower level of isolating. Once the virus is eliminated or kept low the Government has warned that travel restrictions will remain in place, possibly until the end of this year. There maybe some limited travel between Australia and NZ but it is likely that there will be some isolation required. There is also a lot of anger towards the cruise industry due to the Ruby Princess which has indirectly caused a large number of cases in Australia and a few in NZ. I think people will be scared to let ships into their ports at least until there is a vaccine available. I personally don’t feel the cruise season will restart until the 2021/22 season in October next year. i think we will need to wait a couple more months before the situation gets a little clearer.

There are no restrictions that would prevent a cruise out of Auckland around NZ but generally if a cruise does depart Auckland it will either go to Australia or up to the a South Pacific. P&O, Princess and Celebrity occasionally depart Auckland and I have seen Royal once or twice but not recently. The main reasons I think it is not offered are cruises over 7 nights would be primarily limited to the North Island and the tip of the South Island due to time constraints Most Royal cruisers are Australian and with Auckland’s population being Just over 1 million it would not be economic to have regular cruises from here. P&O originally did have a ship home ported in Auckland but it moved to Australia so that suggests a better return on investment. it is cheap to fly around NZ so most kiwis would just fly or drive to see NZ. Also generally if we do travel we prefer to go overseas. a large part of our tourism is based on Australians coming here for their holidays. These are just my thoughts but I wouldn’t expect any Auckland departures in the near future.

Royal Caribbean has decided to use its own ships in Australia to repatriate Indonesian, Filipino, Chinese and Indian crew members to their countries. Three Royal Caribbean cruise ships based in Australia will embark to Asia very soon in order to return most of the crew back home. The company plans to embark 2584 crew from 5 Royal Caribbean ships which are currently at anchor in Australia, and use Spectrum of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas to set sail to Indonesia, Philippines and China. Royal Caribbean’s ships will be refueled and restocked with the healthy crew before departing to a long journey to Asia. P&O Australia and Princess cruises are also undertaking similar voyages. Link to the story: http://crew-center.com/royal-caribbean-use-three-australia-based-cruise-ships-repatriate-crew-members-home

Now that P&O Australia has been forced from their Sydney home port they are heading to the Philippines and Indonesia to bring their crew home. A nice gesture by them. http://crew-center.com/po-australia-fleet-sailing-philippines-and-indonesia?fbclid=IwAR1TZkVvJSDaaIZNhM_CCfYX24YJ9guTITub2zJNwHOQ8cI5nH5lqquqOkc

I personally don’t see NZ opening its borders this year without minimum isolation periods being enforced. We have already been advised that border controls will remain in place for some time. Air New Zealand is laying off 30% of workforce as an expectation that in 12 months time there will not be very much International travel from NZ and that it will mainly be a domestic airline. Countries around the world will be at different levels of containment and we can’t risk a new outbreak being imported again once we control it.

I assume the main reason you can’t transfer the fcc between brands is for accounting purposes. Even though RCI and Celebrity are owned by the same umbrella company I think they would each have their own accounting systems, P&L etc. You could end up with a situation where you originally purchased your cruise with Celebrity but have now switched to Royal. In that scenario you would have to start keeping track of the FCC and where it ended up being redeemed and then doing inter-company transfers of payments. Worst case you might have a whole lot of people switch to Royal but Celebrity having all the payments. Celebrity might then have a shortfall of cash. Unlikely I know but stranger things have happened. It is probably far simpler to keep the FCC to the issuing brand.

It seems odd to only single out the cruise industry when aeroplanes were flying people in with Covid-19 all the time, that is where most cases in NZ originated from. Should they be criminally liable for any deaths as a result of Covid-19 as well?

I am glad you got to enjoy your time down in this part of the world. We were only on a cruise 5 weeks ago, that seems like a lifetime ago. The virus was just something on the news in the background. Now we are locked down in our homes for the next 4 weeks trying to break the chain of infection. i am working from home but really look forward to the day when I can return to the office. We were also due to get married next month but have had to postpone the wedding until next year. Stay healthy twangster and everyone else in our online community.

They certainly make the cruise ships sound like the enemy ?

I also thinking cruising in general before the end of this year. I am referring to Australia/NZ which has a 7 month cruise season (Oct-Apr) and I just don’t think they will cruise here again until next year. i hope I am wrong as we have 3 cruises booked but with 2 weeks isolation in each country (if it is still in place) it will make cruising impractical.

New Zealand is expecting to have border restriction for the next 12-18 months which will prevent ships from coming here. Australia and New Zealand usually have similar policies so I suspect this will limit the viability of cruising. the South Pacific will not allow cruises for the foreseeable future so I don’t think it would be no cruises at the end of this year. The season only goes through to April so I don’t think there will be shorted season. there is also a lot of animosity towards the cruise industry at the moment due to the Ruby Princess causing the indirect infection of over 600 people.

I have attached a link to an update from Carnival Australia regarding the state of the industry in Australia and the demonising of the cruise business there. i think it is just as applicable to RCI as the world goes into panic mode and seeks to find someone to blame. Earlier this week P&O Explorer whose home port is Sydney was ordered out of harbour even without any cases of Covid-19 ever being reported on the ship. i don’t see the cruise season down under restarting until at least the end of 2021. I think RCI will postpone their plans for Lelepa until a future date. i also think they will delay the construction of Icon class ships because in the present climate, they will have too many ships for the number of destinations they will be able to serve. I hope we can get back to some sense of normality in the near future as I just want to go for a cruise. Pacific Explorer expelled from its home port. https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/carnival-cruises-boss-slams-decision-to-force-pacific-explorer-ship-off-shores/news-story/c432abd92c774a03db15490128be5253

Cruise Sale finder were the company we booked with on her first cruise all those years ago. They are now closing their doors due to the impact of Covid-19 on their business. They offered a great service and I am sorry to see them go. I feel we won’t see a cruise season down here until 2021/2022 due to a variety of factors. 1) New Zealand’s strategy with Covid-19 is to eliminate from our country which is why we are in lock down presently. If we are successful then our borders will maintain tight control to prevent a reoccurrence, which will likely include 14 days self isolation. This would effectively prevent ships from coming to NZ. I feel Australia will have a similar strategy and so too the Pacific Islands which do not have any any active cases of Covid-19. 2) There is a lot of animosity to towards the cruise ships in Sydney, mainly due to the government failing to prevent passengers disembarking from the Ruby Princess on arrival to Sydney. Even though there were cases of Covid-19 on board these passengers were allowed to disembark and head off all over Sydney and the rest of the world. These passengers were inadvertently responsible for the fast spread of Covid-19 in Sydney and around the world. There are now over 640 cases attributable to the Ruby Princess and health officials are now readying for the next next wave of cases due to the contacts with this group. 3) I constantly hear people refer to cruise ships as “floating Petri dishes” so I suspect people will very reluctant to cruise for a while yet. We have a B2B on Ovation scheduled for November this year but unfortunately I think it will be cancelled at some point in the future. These are difficult times but I do look forward to day when we can all get back to doing the thing we love, cruising.

My cruise sailing today still shows up in the cruise planner even though it is cancelled.