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woodscruise

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  • Location
    Sydney
  • Interests
    Cruising, Travel, Movies, Documentarys
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    HAL, RCCL, Celebrity, Princess, NCL
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Alaska, South Pacific, Carribean

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. Ovation was released with Spectrum and will be in homeported in China.
  2. Aren't 2 Radiance class ships still not allocated to a region after the AK season?
  3. Geoff, If the Red Sea is still a no go, could they run it via South Africa directly to Brisbane, as an alternative (maybe non rev)?
  4. Port of Darwin shows that it is flag in the Marshall Islands.
  5. Yes Brisbane Ports is still showing Voyager arriving 13December 2025
  6. Port of Los Angeles shipping schedule is show Quantum and Navigator both sailing from Los Angeles from October - December 2025. There is no advance port booking for 2026.
  7. Confirmed: RCI developing new ship class Royal Caribbean International (RCI) Chief Executive Michael Bayley (pictured) has confirmed the veracity of swirling rumours the cruise line is currently working on a new class of ships to follow its high-profile Icon-class. Bayley said the next phase of RCI’s ship development plan, currently in preliminary plan stages, will be to ultimately replace its ageing Vision- and Radiance-class vessels with a revamped model. “They are beautiful ships and beautifully constructed but like me and others they are getting older so we are now concepting thoughts and ideas about how we are going to replace those ships with a new class for Royal Caribbean,” he added. “We have already done a fair amount of work within the brand in terms of the concepting process, but these still have to go through the corporate machine, through the board and through a process, but we are actively working on trying to figure out what that would look like”. Bayley added from what he has seen from the early planning phases, the new class of RCI ships “look fantastic”. “We really do have some great ideas on the table and I could tell you a few now but I’m not going to,” he quipped. At a later immersion session, RCI Chief Product and Innovation Officer Jay Schneider declined to be drawn on the exact size of the new class, but confirmed it won’t be as large as the Icon class. “The new class of ships will not be the world’s largest class of ship, we are starting smaller and have not put a size to it yet but it will definitely be a ‘mic drop ship’ [like Icon],” Schneider noted. “It will take the same attention to detail [of Icon], that same level of focus on experience to achieve something like this but just at a different scale,” he added. RCI has two more Icon-class ships on order to launch next year (Star of the Seas) and in 2026. Schneider said the name of the third vessel has been chosen (CW 16 Jan), but has not yet been released to the public. Source Cruise Weekly 23January 2023
  8. Confirmed: RCI developing new ship class Royal Caribbean International (RCI) Chief Executive Michael Bayley (pictured) has confirmed the veracity of swirling rumours the cruise line is currently working on a new class of ships to follow its high-profile Icon-class. Bayley said the next phase of RCI’s ship development plan, currently in preliminary plan stages, will be to ultimately replace its ageing Vision- and Radiance-class vessels with a revamped model. “They are beautiful ships and beautifully constructed but like me and others they are getting older so we are now concepting thoughts and ideas about how we are going to replace those ships with a new class for Royal Caribbean,” he added. “We have already done a fair amount of work within the brand in terms of the concepting process, but these still have to go through the corporate machine, through the board and through a process, but we are actively working on trying to figure out what that would look like”. Bayley added from what he has seen from the early planning phases, the new class of RCI ships “look fantastic”. “We really do have some great ideas on the table and I could tell you a few now but I’m not going to,” he quipped. At a later immersion session, RCI Chief Product and Innovation Officer Jay Schneider declined to be drawn on the exact size of the new class, but confirmed it won’t be as large as the Icon class. “The new class of ships will not be the world’s largest class of ship, we are starting smaller and have not put a size to it yet but it will definitely be a ‘mic drop ship’ [like Icon],” Schneider noted. “It will take the same attention to detail [of Icon], that same level of focus on experience to achieve something like this but just at a different scale,” he added. RCI has two more Icon-class ships on order to launch next year (Star of the Seas) and in 2026. Schneider said the name of the third vessel has been chosen (CW 16 Jan), but has not yet been released to the public. Source Cruise Weekly 23January 2023
  9. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2976685-carnival-says-goodbye-to-melbourne/page/1/#comment-66522734:~:text=goodbye to Melbourne-,Carnival says goodbye to Melbourne,-By bazzaw%2C
  10. Check-in times for international departures is recommended as 3 hours. Bear in mind that if you are traveling to USA there is a secondary security check at the departure gate.
  11. An interesting article re cruising in Australian waters. Source is cruise weekly Thursday 14 February 2023. One year extension for cruise rules International cruise ships have been granted 12 months of additional certainty about their operations in Australian waters, under a ruling issued yesterday by Minister for Transport & Infrastructure Catherine King. The cruise sector has been waiting for some months for a decision on the ministerial exemption for cruise shipping to the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Act 2012, which allows foreign-flagged cruise ships to carry passengers between Australian ports. Under yesterday’s update, the exemption will now apply from 01 Jan-31 Dec 2024, a one year period, replacing the current fiveyear exemption issued in 2018, which ends later this month. The ruling applies to vessels in excess of 5,000 gross tonnes which are capable of a speed of at least 15 knots and capable of carrying at least 100 passengers, “used wholly or primarily for the carriage of passengers between any ports in states or territories, except between Victoria and Tasmania”, the document states. “COVID-19 really affected tourism and the cruise industry, so the Australian Government is continuing to support cruise tourism by guaranteeing another year of the exemption,” King said. “The exemption reduces red tape and costs while supporting THRIVE 2030, our national strategy for the long-term sustainable growth of the visitor economy,” she added. King said the 12-month exemption will provide additional time to consult on potential amendments to the Act to aid in the revitalisation of the Australian maritime industry. Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) hailed the extension of the provisions to give clarity to cruise passengers, cruise lines, and the Australian tourism industry. However, Managing Director Joel Katz noted that with cruise operations planned and scheduled several years in advance, “CLIA and cruise lines look forward to further urgent consultation with the Australian Government to provide longerterm certainty for cruising and to support the THRIVE 2030 national strategy for the sustainable growth of the visitor economy”. Australian Cruise Association CEO Jill Abel said the extension of the exemption is welcome. “We look forward to the opportunity for further consultation over the next 12 months to ensure the Act delivers the maximum benefits to Australian ports and destinations,” she added. B
  12. Todays Cruise weekly had 2 articles on Melbourne. Australia a “difficult” cruise market Australia is becoming a more difficult market to cruise from, Carnival Corporation Chief Strategy Officer Teresa Lloyd has revealed, stoking fears regarding the lackadaisical decisions recently made by state governments around the country. Lloyd, addressing the media earlier this week in the wake of the cessation of Carnival Corp’s Melbourne voyages of two of its cruise lines (see page 1), said the company is considering “all deployment everywhere” as margins become thinner around the industry. “Australia and this region is becoming more difficult since the restart,” she conceded. “Fuel is very expensive in this part of the world, the distances we have to travel to go to different ports is a long way, we have issues that compound operating in this region.” Carnival has asked for a meeting to fully brief ministers on the significance of the rate hikes, Lloyd said, and to explain what they mean, and what the impact is, indicating the company is not turning its back on Victoria. “We’re confident we’ll have a meeting with the minister soon, and we really look forward to having that discussion,” she said. “It’s too late for 25/26, but for the future, we want to bring the ships back.” Melbourne’s loss is the gain of other cruise destinations around Australia, Lloyd confirmed, with the company set to redeploy some of the lost voyages to Sydney and Brisbane, where it is less expensive to call. Cruise lines were first informed of the magnitude of the rate increase, which will apply from next year, a number of months ago, but only received formal confirmation last week. “A much more moderate increase would have been something that could have been accommodated, but this increase and the prospect of further significant increases is really what’s triggered this decision,” Lloyd said. She ominously added although Carnival Corp hopes it will reach a decision with the Victorian stakeholders soon, other cruise lines within the company are considering their own decisions for the coming seasons. The revelation is the latest wake-up call to just how precarious deployment prospects are in Australia - a roller coaster the industry rode back in May, when the Government of NSW ruled out the construction of a cruise ship terminal in Yarra Bay, without presenting an alternative option (CW 29 May). Cruise weekly 01Dec2023
  13. Voyager is showing up in Darwin port schedule on 07 December 2025 and then showing up frequently on the Brisbane port schedule from December 2025 to April 2026.
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