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11 minutes ago, Chili said:

Who is the cruise director? I believe Jof eaton is on Anthem. 
(No great loss )

John Grantham until early December then Chris Brown (an Aussie, I believe). Interesting re Joff, everything else I've read suggests he's one of the best.

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1 hour ago, ScottishRobbie said:

John Grantham until early December then Chris Brown (an Aussie, I believe). Interesting re Joff, everything else I've read suggests he's one of the best.

As someone said ,Joff is acquire taste. The British seem to love him.
I think I had Chris on Explorer ,quite bubbly.

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On 11/1/2022 at 10:40 AM, ScottishRobbie said:

John Grantham until early December then Chris Brown (an Aussie, I believe). Interesting re Joff, everything else I've read suggests he's one of the best.

I was just looking at my invoice and itinerary from my agent and it says Ovation can’t dock at Vila, it has to tender.
 

That rules out a Oasis class docking in Vila.

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Cruising for passengers feels largely the same as pre-pandemic to me. It has been a fun cruise so far. I think the crew is a little light as some things take a little longer than normal and some of the crew have been asked to take shorter breaks between contracts (6 weeks).

Apart from bumper cars at the start of the session there always seem to be tables available in venues and windjammer so I don’t think the ship is sold out even though that is what the website indicated pre-sailing. 

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BOOKED MY FIRST AUSTRALIA CRUISE AND SOUTH PACIFIC CRUISE!!!! Royal Caribbean Blog will finally have a live blog and content from Australia! 😎

One year away. The excitement is high. Any tips or advice?!

On a side note, this will be my 6th continent. I think it's time to start planning a cruise to Antarctica. 😄

Going to Adelaide, Melbourne, Eden, Kangaroo Island, Noumea, Lifou, Mare, Isle of Pines, and Mystery Island

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1 hour ago, JennaRCB said:

BOOKED MY FIRST AUSTRALIA CRUISE AND SOUTH PACIFIC CRUISE!!!! Royal Caribbean Blog will finally have a live blog and content from Australia! 😎

One year away. The excitement is high. Any tips or advice?!

On a side note, this will be my 6th continent. I think it's time to start planning a cruise to Antarctica. 😄

Going to Adelaide, Melbourne, Eden, Kangaroo Island, Noumea, Lifou, Mare, Isle of Pines, and Mystery Island

Will Ferrell Reaction GIF

I love reading about the cruises outside the Caribbean, and Australia is one we've wanted to do even before Europe!

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2 hours ago, JennaRCB said:

BOOKED MY FIRST AUSTRALIA CRUISE AND SOUTH PACIFIC CRUISE!!!! Royal Caribbean Blog will finally have a live blog and content from Australia! 😎

One year away. The excitement is high. Any tips or advice?!

On a side note, this will be my 6th continent. I think it's time to start planning a cruise to Antarctica. 😄

Going to Adelaide, Melbourne, Eden, Kangaroo Island, Noumea, Lifou, Mare, Isle of Pines, and Mystery Island

Nice one Jenna. If you're cruising out of Sydney, I recommend booking a hotel at The Rocks (name of the area, not the hotel). It's right on Circular Quay so conveniently close to the terminal, as well as views of the Opera House and Bridge.

I've been to all of those island destinations, but the Australian part of the itinerary I have only ever been to Melbourne. Hit me up if you have any questions about those ports. 

How exciting!

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4 hours ago, JennaRCB said:

BOOKED MY FIRST AUSTRALIA CRUISE AND SOUTH PACIFIC CRUISE!!!! Royal Caribbean Blog will finally have a live blog and content from Australia! 😎

One year away. The excitement is high. Any tips or advice?!

On a side note, this will be my 6th continent. I think it's time to start planning a cruise to Antarctica. 😄

Going to Adelaide, Melbourne, Eden, Kangaroo Island, Noumea, Lifou, Mare, Isle of Pines, and Mystery Island

Kangaroo Island is lovely. The port area here in Adelaide isn't the nicest, very industrial and isn't anywhere near the city itself. Although there is a train station right outside the port which takes you into Adelaide itself. Would highly recommend a tour visiting one of the wineries, it's just about all we're famous for 😂

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We are doing a cruise to those Australian ports in November next year on Brilliance of the Seas. I did do a blog for one of our 3 night Australian cruises a few years ago.

Excited for you getting to tick off another continent, travel is so good for the soul.

We are planning our Antarctic adventure some time in 2025/26 which will be our 5th continent. We need to plan a trip to South America or Africa for number 6.

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11 hours ago, JennaRCB said:

BOOKED MY FIRST AUSTRALIA CRUISE AND SOUTH PACIFIC CRUISE!!!! Royal Caribbean Blog will finally have a live blog and content from Australia! 😎

One year away. The excitement is high. Any tips or advice?!

On a side note, this will be my 6th continent. I think it's time to start planning a cruise to Antarctica. 😄

Going to Adelaide, Melbourne, Eden, Kangaroo Island, Noumea, Lifou, Mare, Isle of Pines, and Mystery Island

One tip I would add - if budget and scheduling allows, also incorporate a New Zealand cruise into your travels.  Australia is a long way to come, so you may as well make it a cost-efficient exercise (one flight, two cruises). As @twangster can attest, NZ will offer some spectacular scenery.

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So I have a bit of a mystery that has me baffled.

Im on a cruise in a couple of weeks which has a overnight in Port Vila on Ovation.

I just found out Quantum class can’t dock and it’s going to be a tender. It’s going to be a nightmare tendering overnight in Vila.  Plus as anyone who has been there knows the wharf there is a #hit fight.

Why would Royal do that? 

Now I have just counted 8 overnights with Quantum and Ovation in Port Vila this season plus about the same single day visits.

Why wouldn’t they do the overnights in Noumea where they can dock?

 

Here’s the itinerary, I hope it’s a mistake.

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18 minutes ago, Chili said:

 

Why wouldn’t they do the overnights in Noumea where they can dock?

 

 

.... Port fees, I bet Port Vila port fees are a lot less than Noumea.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there is also some deal in place regarding the private island that includes 'x' number of port visits over the next 'y' years in Vanuatu... I certainly would have included something like that in the negotiations if I was the Vanuatu government.

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12 hours ago, EmersonNZ said:

.... Port fees, I bet Port Vila port fees are a lot less than Noumea.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there is also some deal in place regarding the private island that includes 'x' number of port visits over the next 'y' years in Vanuatu... I certainly would have included something like that in the negotiations if I was the Vanuatu government.

It probably is a agreement in the lease to have so many visits to vanuatu.

But tendering at night is going to be a bit risky especially if people have been sampling the local nightlife heavily.

Probably have people put life jackets on after dark.

 

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2 hours ago, Chili said:

It probably is a agreement in the lease to have so many visits to vanuatu.

But tendering at night is going to be a bit risky especially if people have been sampling the local nightlife heavily.

Probably have people put life jackets on after dark.

 

Overnight tendering isn't a problem in US ports like Maui or Cabo.  Grated I think most Aussies could drink most seppo's under the table.  Except for @Big Dawg Ron.

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8 hours ago, twangster said:

Overnight tendering isn't a problem in US ports like Maui or Cabo.  Grated I think most Aussies could drink most seppo's under the table.  Except for @Big Dawg Ron.

So how does a overnight tender port ,do they cut it off about 9:00 ?

Most Ozzie’s would be getting their second wind about then.

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2 hours ago, Chili said:

So how does a overnight tender port ,do they cut it off about 9:00 ?

Most Ozzie’s would be getting their second wind about then.

Probably depends on the port and distance/time cycle for one round trip but in Maui for example they drop it down to hourly service overnight.  In Maui all it takes is one boat to load, boat in, unload, load, boat out, unload and that fits nicely into a one hour cycle time. 

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Our cruise on Ovation has ended so I thought I would give my final thoughts.

It was great to be back on Royal after two years of shut down. Apart from the initial confusion during the boarding process they rest of the cruise has been very smooth and felt like any pre-pandemic cruise. The ship had around 3000 guests so was not full. This was great as there was always seats available in the Windjammer and other venues and at no time did the ship fell crowded. The crew is a couple of hundred short of normal so wait times could be a little longer than usual but not as issue for us.

The main disappointment I have is that Royal now charge for the North Star and iFly during non port days when previously this was complementary, bumper cars are still included.

The crew have worked very hard and some of them will be returning home in the coming months as their contracts end. Due to staff shortages the time between contracts is very short and the ones returning will be back after around 6 to 8 weeks. This is quite hard for some of them as the family time is very short.

The cruise following ours is a country and western/rock charter and the ship will be near capacity so that will be more of a challenge for the lovely crew.

While one cruise has ended we can now look forward to our next holiday on Quantum early next year knowing what a great experience that will be.

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7 hours ago, twangster said:

Lessons have always incurred a charge.  Group lesson and the more expensive private lesson. 

twangster, a few years ago you could iMessage a friend who had another Apple device without the internet package.
Can you still do that or have they blocked it?

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On 11/8/2022 at 4:07 PM, Looksee said:

Hey there. Is anyone on Ovation or Quantum at the moment who can tell me what beer they have? Hubby is convinced they'll have Corona but I can only see one drinks menu on the App and it doesn't include Corona. Thanks!

Got off quantum today and can confirm plenty of Corona on board!

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8 hours ago, Chili said:

twangster, a few years ago you could iMessage a friend who had another Apple device without the internet package.
Can you still do that or have they blocked it?

Only if you have the internet package or insite of a cellphone power (Or at least that was as at March 2020..... oh so long ago).

 

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8 hours ago, Chili said:

twangster, a few years ago you could iMessage a friend who had another Apple device without the internet package.
Can you still do that or have they blocked it?

That was a side effect of the old Royal IQ app, or more accurately the ability for the Royal IQ chat feature to receive notifications when someone texted you if you had purchased the chat feature in the old Royal IQ app.

Fast forward to the new Royal app and Royal could never figure out how to make notifications work without opening the side door that allows iMessage to work.  They determined that blocking iMessage was more important than having notifications when you get a text inside the Royal app so they blocked iMessage (and notifications) in order to motivate guests to pay for Voom.  

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Good things never last.


I remember one season my daughter got all these iMessages on her Apple phone in the middle of the Tasman sea from her friends in Australia.

I asked how she is doing that without the internet package.She said she didn’t know but it works.

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So going by the Alaska deployment this is clues to the transpacific cruises back from Alaska after the 2024 season. So going by that it looks like its "status quo" for 2024-25 of Ovation, Quantum and Brilliance. All showing the voyage from Vancouver/Seattle to Hawaii Sept/Oct 2024. I guess no possibility of an O Class until 2025-26 then.. 

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