Australia/NZ Cruising News

[Chili]

9 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Either way, I think Royal needs to either:

- Give us a new ship that's not a Quantum-class or give us a different Quantum class

- Change up the itineraries so it's not always South Pacific, Queensland or New Zealand

- Have one of their ships home port in Sydney/Brisbane all year around

I don’t know of any other destinations they could have. If they had a smaller ship here over winter P.N.G and the Solomon Islands would be a change.Cairns as a home  port over winter would be nice.

But I think we will see Royal downsizing and consolidating back to the U.S until they work out how to reduce Carbon emissions. There’s now talk of ramping up the reduction time to 2035 instead of 2050.

Another thing to bring into the equation is airline emissions ,they are being hit with the same carbon laws . It’s going to cost a lot more to come to Australia by air making it a less desirable destination.

As for alternative fuels,port Kembla and Tauranga has L.N.G ??
I think our best option is the talk of synthetic Ethanol being made here. I believe it’s made from water with solar power,similar to hydrogen.

The older ships could be converted to a Diesel / Ethanol fuel a bit like the E10 we put in our cars.

[Jamesszy94]

2 hours ago, Chili said:

I don’t know of any other destinations they could have. If they had a smaller ship here over winter P.N.G and the Solomon Islands would be a change.Cairns as a home  port over winter would be nice.

But I think we will see Royal downsizing and consolidating back to the U.S until they work out how to reduce Carbon emissions. There’s now talk of ramping up the reduction time to 2035 instead of 2050.

Another thing to bring into the equation is airline emissions ,they are being hit with the same carbon laws . It’s going to cost a lot more to come to Australia by air making it a less desirable destination.

As for alternative fuels,port Kembla and Tauranga has L.N.G ??
I think our best option is the talk of synthetic Ethanol being made here. I believe it’s made from water with solar power,similar to hydrogen.

The older ships could be converted to a Diesel / Ethanol fuel a bit like the E10 we put in our cars.

They had cruises to Asia back in 2016-2017, they could go to Asia again. Singapore, China, Japan etc.

[Chili]

Celebrity Edge in Sydney this morning.

 

[JasonOasis]

On 12/8/2023 at 6:42 AM, Jamesszy94 said:

Either way, I think Royal needs to either:

- Give us a new ship that's not a Quantum-class or give us a different Quantum class

- Change up the itineraries so it's not always South Pacific, Queensland or New Zealand

- Have one of their ships home port in Sydney/Brisbane all year around

I don't know if any of this will happen any time soon.  The US is Royals biggest market and according to a few surveys done in recent years between 70% - 85% of American's have never been on a cruise ship.  If we go with 70% that means 30% of us have been on a cruise ship however between 8% -10% have taken their first cruise within the past 24 months.

 The number of first time cruisers in this country has just exploded in recent years and I think its driving Royals decisions not only in Australia/New Zealand but if you look at Europe Royal isn't sending as many ships to Europe in 2024 or 2025 as they've done in the past.  Instead they choosing to keep more ships here stateside as a result of that insatiable demand here in the US.  

When Royal finally settled on Icon's size and also order 2 additional Oasis Class ships their original plan wasn't to have this much capacity here in the US.  Yet here we are just weeks away from Icon launching and months away from Utopia launching.  Royal will have 6 Oasis Class ships and an Icon Class ship sailing from the US to somewhere in the Caribbean come mid-November 2024 when Royal ends their European season for the winter.  It's looking like come winter (November) of 2025 there will be 2 Icon Class and 6 Oasis Class ships sailing from ports here in the US.  I don't know if anyone prior to the pandemic shutdown thought we'd see this type of demand from the US.  And its largely being driven and sustained by first time cruisers.  Many of those first time cruisers are experiencing this form of vacation simply based on word of mouth from people they know and trust. 

For people like you and even like me (I love to travel the world its one of the reason's I decided to work for an airline) Royal focusing more on first time cruisers, the ship being the destination, families with small children means we have less options when it come to the ports we can visit. For you and people in Europe that means less ships, less options less ports.  I do believe at some point this phase the cruise industry is in here in the US will come to an end.  I think it could happen by 2027 or 2028 which I'll admit is a long ways away but I don't think we've yet hit the peak of this insatiable demand here in the US.  Once we hit that peak and demand starts to wane Royal will once again have to look at destinations and offer more of a variety of cruises especially as those first time cruisers become repeat cruisers.

[mattymay]

I've solved the lack of variety issue by booking Star of the Seas for 2026. Used up the entire years cruise budget in one go! 

[Chili]

38 minutes ago, mattymay said:

I've solved the lack of variety issue by booking Star of the Seas for 2026. Used up the entire years cruise budget in one go! 

You will find some more money for voyager

[Jamesszy94]

52 minutes ago, mattymay said:

I've solved the lack of variety issue by booking Star of the Seas for 2026. Used up the entire years cruise budget in one go! 

Let's hope Qantas doesn't lose all your luggage again

[mattymay]

40 minutes ago, Chili said:

You will find some more money for voyager

This is true!

27 minutes ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Let's hope Qantas doesn't lose all your luggage again

Haha.. will be doing my best to avoid Qantas. Our luggage showed up 10 days later, after we got off Wonder we had to drive to MCO airport and collect them from American Airlines baggage services. 

[ScottishRobbie]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:42 PM, Jamesszy94 said:

Have one of their ships home port in Sydney/Brisbane all year around

Speaking to the captain on Quantum this morning, that may well be the plan for Voyager  

[Jamesszy94]

20 minutes ago, ScottishRobbie said:

Speaking to the captain on Quantum this morning, that may well be the plan for Voyager  

If I remember correctly, Voyager has home ported in Sydney before... I remember we've had a Voyager class here before, but can't remember which one. But that would be good if they homeported all year around. We only have P&O and Carnival that homeport all year around... don't get me wrong P&O and Carnival are nice, but nowhere near the same as RCI..

I just hope that Voyager takes us to more exotic destinations - like Fiji or Asia

How likely is it that once Icon, Utopia and Star come online, they send us an Oasis-class ship...

[Chili]

4 minutes ago, Jamesszy94 said:

If I remember correctly, Voyager has home ported in Sydney before... I remember we've had a Voyager class here before, but can't remember which one. But that would be good if they homeported all year around. We only have P&O and Carnival that homeport all year around... don't get me wrong P&O and Carnival are nice, but nowhere near the same as RCI..

I just hope that Voyager takes us to more exotic destinations - like Fiji or Asia

Voyager is a bit of a old wreck but it has class.

The first mega ship and I love the venation glass in the theatre.

[Jamesszy94]

2 hours ago, mattymay said:

I've solved the lack of variety issue by booking Star of the Seas for 2026. Used up the entire years cruise budget in one go! 

But was it in a suite????

11 minutes ago, Chili said:

Voyager is a bit of a old wreck but it has class.

The first mega ship and I love the venation glass in the theatre.

What do you mean bit of an old wreck?? Her maiden Voyage was in 1999... of course she's going to show her age. As long as her interiors still look good and Royal Caribbean take care of her, that's all that matters. But also wasn't she literally removated amplified back in 2019???? I'm sure she's still got a good 10-15 years. I'm worried that they'll scrap the Vision class ships slowly in the next few years though... since they can longer keep up with the latest and greatest... hopefully Royal doesn't just stick to building bigger ships, would be nice if they started building medium sized ships again (smaller than Quantum/larger than Freedom)

[Chili]

11 minutes ago, Jamesszy94 said:

But was it in a suite????

What do you mean bit of an old wreck?? Her maiden Voyage was in 1999... of course she's going to show her age. As long as her interiors still look good and Royal Caribbean take care of her, that's all that matters. But also wasn't she literally amplified back in 2019???? I'm sure she's still got a good 10-15 years. I'm worried that they'll scrap the Vision class ships slowly in the next few years though... since they can longer keep up with the latest and greatest... hopefully Royal doesn't just stick to building bigger ships, would be nice if they started building medium sized ships again (smaller than Quantum/larger than Freedom)

I was on  it after the amp that you mentioned and what a botch they did.

I think they did the important legal stuff and run out of money.

Half the seats were recovered,some carpet was replaced but there was lots of ugly stuff. The suite lounge was only half painted and there was still masking tape hanging off the ceiling for months.
They supposed to put in a couple of new bars,like lime and coconut,playmaker but didn’t.

All that happened was a heap of new cabins where the solarium was and a water slide.

I believe they had another go at it in Europe recently but I don’t know about that.

[Big Tule]

5 hours ago, Chili said:

I was on  it after the amp that you mentioned and what a botch they did.

I think they did the important legal stuff and run out of money.

Half the seats were recovered,some carpet was replaced but there was lots of ugly stuff. The suite lounge was only half painted and there was still masking tape hanging off the ceiling for months.
They supposed to put in a couple of new bars,like lime and coconut,playmaker but didn’t.

All that happened was a heap of new cabins where the solarium was and a water slide.

I believe they had another go at it in Europe recently but I don’t know about that.

I have to agree.We were a tad underwhelmed at the upgrade, it was more of a cram in more cabins to allow more passengers.The suite lounge was great though  and the staff fantastic as usual

[Jamesszy94]

15 hours ago, Chili said:

I was on  it after the amp that you mentioned and what a botch they did.

I think they did the important legal stuff and run out of money.

Half the seats were recovered,some carpet was replaced but there was lots of ugly stuff. The suite lounge was only half painted and there was still masking tape hanging off the ceiling for months.
They supposed to put in a couple of new bars,like lime and coconut,playmaker but didn’t.

All that happened was a heap of new cabins where the solarium was and a water slide.

I believe they had another go at it in Europe recently but I don’t know about that.

Shame. Hopefully by the time Voyager comes to Australia, all of the problems will have been fixed. 

[CruisingOz]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:42 PM, Jamesszy94 said:

different Quantum class

Anthem will be here next season. Quantum is off to a full dry dock and Ovation is also due within the next uear or two

[Jamesszy94]

1 minute ago, CruisingOz said:

Anthem will be here next season. Quantum is off to a full dry dock and Ovation is also due within the next uear or two

I thought Ovation was here until 2025? At least according to Royal's website... but then again, they've changed ships before last minute. I mean... I guess Anthem is a change? It is still a Quantum-class though, but I guess the entertainment might be slightly different and the decor... Is Anthem going to be based in Brisbane or Sydney?

[CruisingOz]

On 12/9/2023 at 7:15 AM, F1guynz said:

currently the itineraries are very limited

I recieved a survey from Royal which was all about South Pacific options and to rate them. Places like Solomon Is. PNG, Apia, etc 

[CruisingOz]

16 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

oyager has home ported in Sydney before

We jumped onto Voyager end of November for the first cruise after the repositiong from Singapore. We loved the addition to the slides and Diamond liubge becoming the Suite lounge. We are booked on her in 2025 for Europe  

[Jamesszy94]

8 minutes ago, CruisingOz said:

I recieved a survey from Royal which was all about South Pacific options and to rate them. Places like Solomon Is. PNG, Apia, etc 

My dad really wants to visit Tuvalu.. because of the current rising sea levels...Too bad no cruise lines really go there.

I've never been to Noumea, Mystery Island, Vanuatu etc. They sound like great places, but every cruise line that cruises to the South Pacific is almost always those destinations and the occasional Fiji one... would be nice to visit other destinations in the Pacific... Nauru, Norfolk Island, PNG, Samoa etc.

[CruisingOz]

1 minute ago, Jamesszy94 said:

visit Tuvalu.. because of the current rising sea levels

I would let dad not to worry about rising sea level. The Fort Denison high tide water marks since 1886 have virtyally no change over this time. Anyway not the place to discuss this. 

 

We are fortunate to have visited the usual islands a few times, so new destinations would be fantastic

[Chili]

1 hour ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Shame. Hopefully by the time Voyager comes to Australia, all of the problems will have been fixed. 

Don’t get me wrong,it’s a great ship in a nostalgic way . I would be on it in a second and it was great value.

[F1guynz]

57 minutes ago, CruisingOz said:

We are booked on her in 2025 for Europe

Yeah, we also booked an Italy and Croatia cruise in 2025 on Voyager.

[Chili]

1 hour ago, F1guynz said:

Yeah, we also booked an Italy and Croatia cruise in 2025 on Voyager.

It looks like voyager might be doing a relocation the end of October/november.

You could extend it with the Suez Canal and fly back from Dubai .

[mattymay]

7 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

I thought Ovation was here until 2025? At least according to Royal's website... but then again, they've changed ships before last minute. I mean... I guess Anthem is a change? It is still a Quantum-class though, but I guess the entertainment might be slightly different and the decor... Is Anthem going to be based in Brisbane or Sydney?

I think he meant 25/26 season. Anthem is in Singapore until Mar 2025, then heads to Alaska to replace Ovation until Sep 2025.

The question is where does Anthem go after that? If you base the answer off previous years, then Alaska ships come to Australia, which would be Anthem and Quantum. But...throw in the poor Quantum sales, the carbon reduction @Chili has info on, and the Voyager returning rumor.. it's really hard to say!

Do we get 2 Quantum's and 1 Voyager? or will they reduce capacity and go with 1 Quantum and 1 Voyager?.. and if so which Quantum?

My uneducated guess is... that they have been reading this blog and see our constant whinging about the same old ships. So... it's Anthem in Sydney and Voyager in Brisbane. It's a long wait until April to find out.. although there might be some hints along the based on other releases.

[mattymay]

8 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Shame. Hopefully by the time Voyager comes to Australia, all of the problems will have been fixed. 

It just never got the Amp that Mariner and Navigator got which disappointed a lot of people here. 

"Maybe if we paint the hull RCI blue they won't notice" - someone at RCI

 

I have a Resilient Lady cruise next week out of Melbourne. Feel like I'm cheating on someone , but this is what happens when you don't change things up, people want to try new things. I am hopeful of the Voyager return.

[F1guynz]

8 hours ago, Chili said:

You could extend it with the Suez Canal and fly back from Dubai .

Unfortunately time is an issue. Our cruise is in September and we need to get back for work.We are on Quantum out of Brisbane in early 2025 so that’s our holidays all used up

[Jamesszy94]

3 hours ago, mattymay said:

I think he meant 25/26 season. Anthem is in Singapore until Mar 2025, then heads to Alaska to replace Ovation until Sep 2025.

The question is where does Anthem go after that? If you base the answer off previous years, then Alaska ships come to Australia, which would be Anthem and Quantum. But...throw in the poor Quantum sales, the carbon reduction @Chili has info on, and the Voyager returning rumor.. it's really hard to say!

Do we get 2 Quantum's and 1 Voyager? or will they reduce capacity and go with 1 Quantum and 1 Voyager?.. and if so which Quantum?

My uneducated guess is... that they have been reading this blog and see our constant whinging about the same old ships. So... it's Anthem in Sydney and Voyager in Brisbane. It's a long wait until April to find out.. although there might be some hints along the based on other releases.

Does that mean that after March 2025, Ovation will no longer come back to Sydney? Thank goodness! I mean don't get me wrong. I've sailed her twice and I like her a lot, but it's about time Royal changed it up a bit. I guess Aussies are just stuck with Quantum class for the foreseeable future!

(Come on Royal! Give us an Oasis-class or even a Freedom-class; at this point, I'll take Oasis... heck even Allure)

I feel like cruises sell better in Sydney, so they might give a Quantum to Sydney and then leaver Voyager in Brisbane like you said. Two Quantum's would also be nice I guess, one could go to the regular South Pacific/Australia/New Zealand cruises, and maybe the other one can go to Asia/more exotic destinations. I guess we have Brilliance here in Sydney too, but I think she's only down here for 2023/24? What even was the point of that? I know she replaced Enchantment, but was Enchantment supposed to homeport in Sydney long-term or something?

3 hours ago, mattymay said:

It just never got the Amp that Mariner and Navigator got which disappointed a lot of people here. 

"Maybe if we paint the hull RCI blue they won't notice" - someone at RCI

 

I have a Resilient Lady cruise next week out of Melbourne. Feel like I'm cheating on someone , but this is what happens when you don't change things up, people want to try new things. I am hopeful of the Voyager return.

Omg! I hope you enjoy your Resilient Lady cruise! Been looking at maybe sailing her, but prices are very expensive....

[steverk]

14 hours ago, CruisingOz said:

We jumped onto Voyager end of November for the first cruise after the repositiong from Singapore. We loved the addition to the slides and Diamond liubge becoming the Suite lounge. We are booked on her in 2025 for Europe  

I like Voyager too. In fact, I'm sailing on her this afternoon. 

[mattymay]

10 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Does that mean that after March 2025, Ovation will no longer come back to Sydney?

Ovation is a strange one. It does the usual Transpacific (Sydney-Honolulu-Vancouver) in Apr 2025, but then it doesn't make it to Alaska. That means there are 3 (Anthem, Quantum, Ovation) on the US west coast. So there is a chance that any of them could come back I guess, but Ovation has to go 'somewhere' for that 6 months? We might know more in Feb if they show up on the next round of releases.

[Jamesszy94]

1 hour ago, mattymay said:

Ovation is a strange one. It does the usual Transpacific (Sydney-Honolulu-Vancouver) in Apr 2025, but then it doesn't make it to Alaska. That means there are 3 (Anthem, Quantum, Ovation) on the US west coast. So there is a chance that any of them could come back I guess, but Ovation has to go 'somewhere' for that 6 months? We might know more in Feb if they show up on the next round of releases.

I'm thinking maybe she's going into 6 months of dry dock so she can get upgrades or something maybe. Then at the end of 2025, she'll be back in Sydney with Quantum/Anthem and then Voyager goes back to US in April 2026? I guess like you said, we'll find out in Feb

[Chili]

2 hours ago, mattymay said:

Ovation is a strange one. It does the usual Transpacific (Sydney-Honolulu-Vancouver) in Apr 2025, but then it doesn't make it to Alaska. That means there are 3 (Anthem, Quantum, Ovation) on the US west coast. So there is a chance that any of them could come back I guess, but Ovation has to go 'somewhere' for that 6 months? We might know more in Feb if they show up on the next round of releases.

I have a hunch that a Quantum might go to Ravenna and it’s probably Ovation.

Royal is building a new terminal there and I think they will increase capacity with a larger ship with a extended season.

And Voyager whose home port is Ravenna  is supposed to be coming here.

[Jamesszy94]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

I have a hunch that a Quantum might go to Ravenna and it’s probably Ovation.

Royal is building a new terminal there and I think they will increase capacity with a larger ship with a extended season.

And Voyager whose home port is Ravenna  is supposed to be coming here.

Why can't Royal build a new terminal in Australia!!! The OPT really needs a revamp!!! When will major corporations of the world realise we matter!!!! I feel like Australia never gets anything new!! Can Brisbane even fit an Oasis-class?

[F1guynz]

2 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

I'm thinking maybe she's going into 6 months of dry dock

Six months seems like a long time for a dry dock and I don't recall any ship being out of service that long.

I think any dry dock will be more of a technical update/ refresh rather than adding anything new. Odyssey is the newest Quantum (ultra) class, and it basically has mostly the same features as Ovation.

This website compares the two ships.

Odyssey of the Seas vs Ovation of the Seas - Ship Comparison (cruisespotlight.com)

[Chili]

46 minutes ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Why can't Royal build a new terminal in Australia!!! The OPT really needs a revamp!!! When will major corporations of the world realise we matter!!!! I feel like Australia never gets anything new!! Can Brisbane even fit an Oasis-class?

We are just a hillbilly backwater,nobody cares about us .   LOL

 

Theres strong possibility port Kembla may get a terminal. Don’t know how big a ship can get into Kembla but the Wharf looks like it will take a Oasis class.

Plus Andrew Forest is currently building a L.N.G. Facility there .

[Jamesszy94]

21 minutes ago, Chili said:

We are just a hillbilly backwater,nobody cares about us .   LOL

 

Theres strong possibility port Kembla may get a terminal. Don’t know how big a ship can get into Kembla but the Wharf looks like it will take a Oasis class.

Plus Andrew Forest is currently building a L.N.G. Facility there .

Yeah but hasn't the Kembla cruise terminal been in the works for the past 3 years now... I've heard about it since the start of the pandemic and nothing has come to fruition.

Yeah, you're right about us being a hillbilly backwater country - nobody does care about us! It's not like we have the 14th highest GDP in the world...

[Jamesszy94]

44 minutes ago, F1guynz said:

Six months seems like a long time for a dry dock and I don't recall any ship being out of service that long.

I think any dry dock will be more of a technical update/ refresh rather than adding anything new. Odyssey is the newest Quantum (ultra) class, and it basically has mostly the same features as Ovation.

This website compares the two ships.

Odyssey of the Seas vs Ovation of the Seas - Ship Comparison (cruisespotlight.com)

Yeah, you're right. 6 months is a long time for a dry dock. I guess during those 6 months she'll just be sent somewhere else...

[Chili]

31 minutes ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Yeah but hasn't the Kembla cruise terminal been in the works for the past 3 years now... I've heard about it since the start of the pandemic and nothing has come to fruition.

Yeah, you're right about us being a hillbilly backwater country - nobody does care about us! It's not like we have the 14th highest GDP in the world...

How many fingers have you got , I have 11  . LOL.

 

I believe Royal and our state Gov was assessing a terminal at Kembla before COVID.

I think we should get a plan for something in the new year.

Brisbane is supposed to be Oasis capable but it’s can’t fill Quantam .

OPT is supposed to be Oasis capable but I doubt the terminal could process 6,000 people.

But Kembla with a nice terminal with a train station in it would make sense. It’s quite  a nice train ride and a destination in itself.

 

 

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/port-kembla-port-5085

[Jamesszy94]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

How many fingers have you got , I have 11  . LOL.

 

I believe Royal and our state Gov was assessing a terminal at Kembla before COVID.

I think we should get a plan for something in the new year.

Brisbane is supposed to be Oasis capable but it’s can’t fill Quantam .

OPT is supposed to be Oasis capable but I doubt the terminal could process 6,000 people.

But Kembla with a nice terminal with a train station in it would make sense. It’s quite  a nice train ride and a destination in itself.

 

 

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/port-kembla-port-5085

I've got a feeling the reason that Brisbane can't fill up Quantum is because the destinations that it goes to are pretty much all the same, it's literally just some combination of Tasmania/Queensland and/or South Pacific. For most people those destinations are one and done. There's no variety, so people are going to pay less money to cruise to somewhere they've been before...

The thing is, Kembla is based in Wollongong - which is still about a 45min-1 hour train ride. 

Honestly my last cruise back in March - the checkin and embarkation process at the OPT was a complete s**tshow (for lack of better word). They didn't have enough counters open, and then when we finally got a spot at one of the checkin counters, they couldn't verify our identities which meant we had to wait even longer because other people also couldn't verify their identities. People were waiting in line for almost an hour, there was no ventilation inside. Just an unpleasant checkin experience. So yeah, you're probably right, it probably won't be able to handle 6,000 passengers... which is why OPT needs a seriously multi-million dollar revamp, or just build an entirely new port altogether. But we all know what the government has been spending their money on recently.... 

[steverk]

I have a quick question for all of the Australia/New Zealand cruisers on the board!

I'm flying from the United States to Sydney for a Celebrity cruise that ends in Auckland. What currency should I use to tip the crew while on board?