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Be careful to ask if you will retain the same booking number when re-pricing IF double CAS points are involved.  

Losing the deposit historically meant one cruise was cancelled and a new cruise was created.  Depending on the Oz double CAS points promo there could be implications to this type of repricing.  

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On 8/24/2022 at 5:07 PM, mattymay said:

Everyone on here needs to book Quantum out of Brisbane to help the cause!

We were really upset when we heard that Radiance wasn't coming to Australia. We like the smaller ships (Legend was our favourite). and find that many people share that view.  While we're going on Quantum, we'd definitely prefer a smaller ship.

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9 hours ago, ampqld said:

That still doesn't appear to cover cruise ships. Two links I tried resulted in 404 errors (ie the page isn't there).

I don’t think vanuatu had a cruise ship specific ban ,it was just a blanket ban .

Here’s a old newspaper article,I believe the ban ended on the 1st of July.

 

https://www.dailypost.vu/news/international-border-closure-ends-this-week/article_fd865883-5787-540d-b514-a933d829c819.html

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20 hours ago, ampqld said:

That still doesn't appear to cover cruise ships.

If you go into that website, click onto the pease click here and scroll through all the pages, the last two pages talk about arrives by sea port.

15.05.22 Industry release - News, Updates and information

  • The Ministry of Health has updated the Roadmap to Safe Border Reopening (Version 3 – 11 May 2022), which also highlights the new travel protocols and testing regime, under Recovery Level 1 (lift most restrictions), ahead of the border reopening in July 2022. For more information, please click HERE.

 

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Woohoo finally able to check in for our October cruise. It's been a long two years waiting to be able to cruise again.

Also as a bonus New Zealand has dropped all Covid restrictions completely. (apart from aged and healthcare facilities).

I'm finally getting excited.

 

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Honolulu has some curious  port bookings for our 23-24 season 

Ovation has 3 Honolulu bookings at the same time it it supposed to be doing the trans pacific and while in Sydney. 22,29 October and 5th November.

Navigator looks like it could be doing a trans pacific in February 2024, from Los Angeles-Honolulu on the 21 - westbound?

 Apparently Ovation is due for a dry dock about that time and I’m thinking it may do a couple of cruises out of Hawaii and then off to Singapore for a dry dock.
If so what’s going to replace it in sydney?

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48 minutes ago, Chili said:

Honolulu has some curious  port bookings for our 23-24 season 

Ovation has 3 Honolulu bookings at the same time it it supposed to be doing the trans pacific and while in Sydney. 22,29 October and 5th November.

Navigator looks like it could be doing a trans pacific in February 2024, from Los Angeles-Honolulu on the 21 - westbound?

 Apparently Ovation is due for a dry dock about that time and I’m thinking it may do a couple of cruises out of Hawaii and then off to Singapore for a dry dock.
If so what’s going to replace it in sydney?

Ovation had a dry dock in March 2021 so technically it wouldn't be due again until 2026 unless there is an unscheduled one. Ovation's 3 bookings in HNL could also be a placeholder for something else too. It is interesting Navigator showing up there though. Guess we wait and see. 

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16 minutes ago, Shanenz84 said:

Ovation had a dry dock in March 2021 so technically it wouldn't be due again until 2026 unless there is an unscheduled one. Ovation's 3 bookings in HNL could also be a placeholder for something else too. It is interesting Navigator showing up there though. Guess we wait and see. 

I wasn’t aware it had a dry dock last year, was that in Singapore?

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4 hours ago, Chili said:

It looks like Eden will be upgraded for Quantam and Oasis class.

There been some canceled stops this season because of work.

 

getContent?AttachRef=SSI-7734-MOD-3!2022

Yes sure is. Email received today Eden cancelled on my Nov 9 Quantum cruise. Swapped with an overnight in Sydney instead. Interesting thing is that on the 2nd day Quantum has to move out to the "ancourage" in Sydney Harbour as the Overseas Passenger Terminal has Majestic Princess that day. 

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All checked in with vaccine certificates approved.

our check in time is 1pm which was the earliest available.

We received an email from Royal and Ovation is now not leaving Sydney until 8pm. The latest arrival time for check in is 6pm for the wellness check.

I guess the Kate check in times are so the ship can be thoroughly cleaned of TP bugs before we board for the first sailing.

 

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2 hours ago, F1guynz said:

heck in time is 1pm which was the earliest available.

It was the same for the upcoming Quantum. It too changed to 1pm

We also got the 1pm boarding for the Ovation, but we are B2B, so curious if we will be allowed to board earlier and have our complimentary Chops lunch. Also this would effect the Key guests. 

The latest check in time on the app is 6.00pm, but the email we got today say to be on board by 4pm. You think the various department's would talk to each other? 

See you around the ship

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7 hours ago, Chili said:

How about Navigator?

It looks like it could be doing a trans pacific in February 2024.

Old ships have to do a technical dry dock every 2.5 years.  

Unless something changes the authorities define "old" as 20 years.  Once 20 they can no longer use an annual bottom survey as a mean to supplement the dry dock schedule of 2.5 years like "new" ships can.  She launched in January 2002.

Her amplification was Feb 2019.  In April 2021 (during the shutdown) she went into dry dock to get shore power added to be California CARB compliant and presumably for some other technical work.

 I see a break in her schedule Feb 12, 2024 through April 12, 2024 which would be in the natural dry dock cycle from the Feb 2019 dry dock.    She has four LA based cruises after that break in her schedule. 

Singapore would be a presumed shipyard for a spring 2024 visit.  They could easily dump those four April 2024 LA based cruises and redeploy her after a spring 2024 dry dock.  It would be odd to send her through Hawaii down to Oz and then send her to Singapore for a dry dock.  If this Feb -Apr 2024 break is for a dry dock I would think they would send her direct to Singapore empty and then do something with her rather than bringing her back to LA.

Time will tell.  

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On 8/22/2022 at 2:07 PM, JasonOasis said:

Oh no they won't struggle to find places to deploy them in the Norther hemisphere winter season. The number of ports in the Caribbean that can accommodate an Oasis Class ship has grown over the past several years.  It is my understanding that Royal continues to work with Islands in the Caribbean on port upgrades so Oasis class vessels can visit more islands. 

For the northern hemisphere's winter 2024/2025 season a deployment could for example look like this: 

Harmony, Galveston 7 night Western Caribbean cruises;

Wonder, Port Canaveral 7 night Eastern and Western cruises; 

Allure, Port Canaveral 3 and 4 night Bahamas/ CocoCay cruises;  

Symphony and Oasis, Port Everglades 6 and 8 night Eastern and Southern Caribbean Cruises;

Utopia and Icon, Port Miami 7 night Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises.   

 

I hope at some point you all Down Under do get an Oasis Class ship I really do.  However, I still think any chance Australia has of getting an Oasis Class ship is directly tied to both China and Hong Kong.  Both of these markets when they reopen need to see strong demand for cruising because Wonder of the Seas could then cruise the Chinese and Honk Kong markets from mid-April through early-October before repositioning to Australia from mid-October through early April for Southern Hemisphere's spring/summer season.  

IMO - I prefer Oasis class ships in the Caribbean.  As we've experienced most of the off-shore island offerings, we make the ship the destination and Oasis class ships deliver.  We sailed the Med on Symphony, and as we spent most of our waking hours touring, we couldn't enjoy the ship as much.  We have a couple of bookings from Galveston on Oasis class ships, and I doubt we'll even get off the ship at the stops.  If we want port intensive tours, we'll go to a smaller ship and line.  [Analogy:  If you're planning to tour desireable/historical land sites, do you need to stay in a 5-star hotel?  Or if you're in a very  nice resort (as your vacation focus),  do you really plan  tour the surrounding land sites?  So we formed our opinion in if the focus is the shore destinations, ship amenities are the focus, and vice versa, if the shore offerings are the most attractive, the ship is our destination.  Just a thought.]

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10 hours ago, Chili said:

First quantum out of Brisbane is supposed to do Vanuatu but is a week earlier than those dates. Bit disappointing but no word yet on change of itinerary. 

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2 hours ago, khas said:

First quantum out of Brisbane is supposed to do Vanuatu but is a week earlier than those dates. Bit disappointing but no word yet on change of itinerary. 

In the article it said Royal’s sending management there , I think you should be OK.

 Hopefully while RC management is there they might do something about getting Lelepa on the move.

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On 9/14/2022 at 10:37 AM, F1guynz said:

Woohoo finally able to check in for our October cruise. It's been a long two years waiting to be able to cruise again.

Also as a bonus New Zealand has dropped all Covid restrictions completely. (apart from aged and healthcare facilities).

I'm finally getting excited.

 

Did you have to declare your vaccination or anything?

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I have noticed our 29th October cruise on Ovation has disappeared from the Royal website. Hopefully it has just sold out and there is nothing to be concerned about. I always get an uneasy feeling when a cruise disappears as in my experience that is usually followed by a cancellation. 

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47 minutes ago, F1guynz said:

I have noticed our 29th October cruise on Ovation has disappeared from the Royal website. Hopefully it has just sold out and there is nothing to be concerned about. I always get an uneasy feeling when a cruise disappears as in my experience that is usually followed by a cancellation. 

Hmmmm....I checked the CruisingPower website and it is showing all categories as "closed".  I can't really guess what that means, but it is reminiscent of the way the cruises used to look whenever they were being COVID-cancelled.  I'm not trying to alarm anyone.  It might just be that the cruise truly IS completely booked but this kind of ship-wide status has, in the past, been an omen.

I sure hope everything is ok....this would be super late to be cancelling a cruise.  Perhaps they're just updating something with the cruise database and have temporarily closed it.  That has happened in the past as well.

🙏

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8 hours ago, F1guynz said:

I have noticed our 29th October cruise on Ovation has disappeared from the Royal website. Hopefully it has just sold out and there is nothing to be concerned about. I always get an uneasy feeling when a cruise disappears as in my experience that is usually followed by a cancellation. 

Same thing happened to my sailing a few weeks ago. It still showed in my cruise planner though and also on the app. A few days later it reappeared on the RCCL website.

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8 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Hmmmm....I checked the CruisingPower website and it is showing all categories as "closed".  I can't really guess what that means, but it is reminiscent of the way the cruises used to look whenever they were being COVID-cancelled.  I'm not trying to alarm anyone.  It might just be that the cruise truly IS completely booked but this kind of ship-wide status has, in the past, been an omen.

I sure hope everything is ok....this would be super late to be cancelling a cruise.  Perhaps they're just updating something with the cruise database and have temporarily closed it.  That has happened in the past as well.

🙏

Most of Ovation’s cruises are just about booked out but the ones to noumea seem to have plenty of vacancies.

I suppose people are a bit cautious about the islands being open.

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Royal has been trying to get permission to restart cruises in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has just scrapped most of their Covid rules,so my guess is Spectrum will be going to Hong Kong in the new year.

What’s going to replace Spectrum in Singapore???

Wonder is in the Mediterranean ?

 

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/194910/HK-may-lose-spot-as-cruise-hub-as-Royal-Caribbean-abandons-ship-for-Singapore

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5 hours ago, Chili said:

Royal has been trying to get permission to restart cruises in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has just scrapped most of their Covid rules,so my guess is Spectrum will be going to Hong Kong in the new year.

What’s going to replace Spectrum in Singapore???

Wonder is in the Mediterranean ?

 

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/194910/HK-may-lose-spot-as-cruise-hub-as-Royal-Caribbean-abandons-ship-for-Singapore

I hope not. I'm booked on Spectrum in Jan 2024

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On 9/23/2022 at 4:36 AM, F1guynz said:

I have noticed our 29th October cruise on Ovation has disappeared from the Royal website. Hopefully it has just sold out and there is nothing to be concerned about. I always get an uneasy feeling when a cruise disappears as in my experience that is usually followed by a cancellation. 

We're all checked in too & prepped w all the visas, monitored test kits, etc to print out our set of boarding passes for Ovation b2b from Vancouver BC to Sydney - further along than the same cancelled back in 2020. So hope it's not cancelled again! Did see Bora-Bora banned all large ships resulting in 2 nights in Moorea Oct 15 & 16 but which Bay she'll be anchoring isn't appearing on the Moorea port schedule. Reserved a couple Viator activities but not sure yet where they are to pick us up as we don't see if Ovation is anchoring in Cook's Bay or Opunohu Bay with different tender dropoff/pickup locations.

Any insights?

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13 hours ago, Chili said:

Most of Ovation’s cruises are just about booked out but the ones to noumea seem to have plenty of vacancies.

I suppose people are a bit cautious about the islands being open.

Probably because Noumea can be a dull port to repeatedly go back to. A lot of people I know if they’ve been on 2 or more South Pacific cruises don’t even bother getting off the ship in Noumea anymore so I can see why it isn’t selling.

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2 hours ago, khas said:

Probably because Noumea can be a dull port to repeatedly go back to. A lot of people I know if they’ve been on 2 or more South Pacific cruises don’t even bother getting off the ship in Noumea anymore so I can see why it isn’t selling.

It can be pretty unimpressive, I think they were doing the area up around the cruise terminal on the promenade. Water front cafes and restaurants and such.    It needs a bit of thought put into the town.

But as someone said it’s just a mining town that happens to be I the middle of the pacific.

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It’s not much but Royal Caribbean is showing some engagement with Lelepa.

I believe some of their management will be their now or soon.

So hopefully we may get a announcement about the resort.

 

https://www.dailypost.vu/news/royal-caribbean-supports-students-of-lelepa-primary-school/article_86f8cc4c-93d3-5948-82a9-a2239922803e.html

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