SinbadThePorter

An excellent idea. There could be a morning shift from say 6am to 2pm and an evening shift from 3pm to 11pm. They would need to move people off and on more quickly, but it would seem on the face of it to be doable. It would double capacity without the need for building anything.

As I understand it (and I might not understand it), P&O are offering balcony cabins for the price of obstructed window cabins on some cruises, but only if you select either the Value or Value Plus option. Not the Go Fare option. You had to select a balcony. It will then offer it at a price equal to an OV cabin (plus $100 OBC/cabin). If you bought an OV with the Value option, I would give P&O a call and see if they can do anything. You are right though, it seems ridiculously convoluted to me. To avoid these sort of confusions with P&O and to select a particular cabin in the booking process, I usually don't book on the P&O website, but go elsewhere. It makes me feel like a guru.

Given all the whinging over the location of the new Brisbane Terminal, I was expecting the same for any Botany Bay cruise terminal. So at least we miss out on that.

But for purists it's the old locks or nothing. 🙂

1/ Also Princess. 2/ Royal Caribbean which charges in USD onboard, does not charge gratuities for Australia/NZ cruises. 3/ The exchange rate is a killer at the moment. $US1 = $A1.50.

It's about halfway between Townsville and Cairns a long way north of the Whitsundays. It's hard to get to, but well worth it.

Best island of all, Hinchinbrook Island. Most Hawaii like of all our islands. Honourable mention to Broughton Island as the only offshore NSW island that has a sheltered beach to land on and a proper camping ground. Thanks to Terry for all these posts. I've been reading them for years and they are always fun.

I don't think that Insure and Go do annual policies any more.

It's worth doing from a boat, but it's a long, lonely swim out to the wrecks from the beach.

If it's any help, I use Qantas. Which resells NIB travel insurance, but I get points though Qantas. They seem reasonably priced and not punitive with age.

This schedule from Ports North may be useful: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/os-data-2/portsnorth-com-au/listingforms/page615/230508_cruise_schedule_-_2023.pdf If your Pacific Adventure (290 meter length) cruise is arriving in Cairns on the 16th June, the answer is yes it will dock. The following ships are the ones that will be anchoring off Yorkey's Knob later in 2023 (they are all over 300 meters in length): Quantum of the Seas Celebrity Solstice Royal Princess Celebrity Edge

For a group of teenagers, I would pick Quantum of the Seas. Compared with the other Brisbane ships, she is far more action oriented.

Almost everything on Luminosa was on a through corridor. 😁

Don't forget the bay islands. Moreton and North Stradbroke islands are well worth a visit.

Edge looks interesting as does Virgin's Resilient Lady, but the itineraries are very staid.

Just my opinion, but even though all cruise lines do a bit of "nickel and dimeing", NCL is widely held up as the worst example of it. Then there is this. https://consumerrescue.org/cruise-fiascos/norwegian-cruise-line-cancel-familys-cruise-over-ground-transfer/ A company that can do that to a customer doesn't inspire confidence in me.

I've tried Holland, Royal, Carnival and P&O Oz, but my preference is for Princess. I agree with you that flying overseas is a major hassle and cost, and that local itineraries are getting a bit stale. I think my next step may be a circumnavigation of Australia with Princess. That or a Tahiti/Hawaii round trip. Never been on NCL, but the way I've heard they do things gives me pause as to sailing with them.

If your preference is to sail from Auckland visiting New Caledonia and/or Fiji and returning to Auckland, then probably your only real option is on P&O Pacific Explorer. P&O is usually regarded as a budget cruise line. It is generally more family oriented than other cruise lines, so you tend to see more young adults and children on board. For a quieter cruise I would recommend Princess or Celebrity, however they may not have the itineraries you want.

Don't know about iPads, but as far as I know mobile phones cannot act as a router for anything other than the mobile connection. In other words they cannot transfer data between wifi networks. A Windows 10/11 laptop has no trouble doing this. You can also get proper mini routers that will do the job for about $30.

Exactly, the cruise lines would have undoubtedly preferred to make grats mandatory, rather than continue to let Australians remove them. They were discouraged from doing this because of pending or existing consumer law. So they were eventually forced to fold the grats into the fare for local cruises. The other thing to remember is that Australian law does not apply outside of Australia (except in rare cases). So things purchased in the US from US companies are not subject to the same conditions as those purchased in Australia from Australian companies (which may be subsidiaries of US companies).

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 came into effect on the 1st January 2011. The ACCC initiated action in Federal Court against Jetstar and Virgin for "price dripping" in 2014, successfully fining Virgin in 2016 and Jetstar in 2017. The cruise lines removed gratuities between 2010 and 2016. The two timelines are highly coincident, so it's no wonder people make the assumption that they are related. I tend to think that the 2010 Act and subsequent legal actions informed the decision to remove gratuities, even if it wasn't the only factor. Of course that is only my opinion. What the legislation definitely did do was remove the option of separate mandatory gratuities, which were not included in the advertised fare, for the cruise lines. If Australians prior to 2010 were removing grats and the cruise lines wanted in future to require grats, then their only legal option was to advertise cruise fares which included grats. Those lines that do not include grats in their fares are required to ensure that the grats are removable. Otherwise they are in breach of consumer law.

If transiting Brisbane, stay near the airport. If shopping before boarding, stay at the Skygate Novotel. If sightseeing in Brisbane, stay in the CBD or South Bank.

Hate be a downer, but these guys cannot make money at those prices. The next time we hear about them will be a news story about a boat full of passengers sold into slavery on the Skeleton Coast. 🥸

To my understanding, gratuities are only included in the fare on cruises purchased within Australia and NZ for some Carnival Corp lines. If you buy in the US, then grats are charged as they would be in the US even if in AUD.

If you are happy on RCI, then that is probably the way to go, although I think Princess tends to be the more popular cruise line locally. From Sydney there are four main cruise regions. The Queensland coast and Great Barrier Reef. The islands of the South Pacific, including New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji. New Zealand. Southern Australia, including Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. As well, there are the very popular cruises that circumnavigate Australia. This takes about four weeks and is mostly done by Princess. This would be my personal choice, but you need to have the time for it. The best two week cruise would be New Zealand. Culturally NZ is very familiar to Australians, but scenically it's a whole different ball game. Milford Sound is definitely worth a look. If you want to do some warm weather cruising while here, I would favour the South Pacific islands over the Great Barrier Reef. The coral is more accessible and the ports are more exotic.