Stickman1990

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moules-frites The national dish of Belgium!

Are you sure you mean Cairns? There hasn’t been any changes to the port facilities there. I believe you mean Brisbane where one of the cruise terminals has been closed by the authorities - and getting access to the other terminal which is already heavily booked has proven difficult. That’s hardly Regents fault

I think you mean RSSC Explorer which is encountering issues with her hull and getting a clean bill of health from NZ authorities. She’s visiting an unplanned port, Gisborne, tomorrow and guests are waiting to hear where the itinerary will take them after that RSSC Splendor is in Central America at the moment

and Fries….gotta have the fries a la Belgian style Hope he got you some live New Zealand Green Lip mussels - they're the best - big and juicy Crystal had them available when they were down under and Regent had them available most of the time on our recent cruise on Explorer I'm afraid those little Black Mussels just don’t cut it

The Crystal Cruises board actually

What? - you’re closing the kitchen for the holidays? Taking a break huh As you know there’s plenty of ex Crystal people sailing Regent these days. It’s too long to wait for the new Crystal to startup and who knows if they’ll be sailing by the end of 2023 at this rate Seriously you’ll love Regent - we did the holidays on Explorer last month and have booked to do them again this year Good time to be booking with the 2 Cat upgrade offer available

That really does add insult to injury to suggest that a day in Auckland compensates for Bay of Islands - and missing Fiordland is simply irreplaceable. How could that possibly improve the experience?

It’s not an apples for apples comparison Remember the Viking base fare includes drinks with meals (we don’t know how much is a recognition of the costs of providing that) so the Silver package is an upgrade on that whereas the Holland and Royal Caribbean packages are priced from an included base of zero

Me too Here’s my take on the numbers. Based on receipt numbers issued yesterday I think they actually have around 7000-8000 deposits (as opposed to depositors). Interestingly I heard some people have made up to 10 open deposits - maybe they’re planning on taking a family group on one or more of the cruises The real leap of faith will be when people have to put up the 25% deposit for each cruise booking they make once bookings open - that’s certainly going to generate some cash

Care to share the news? So do I start packing my bags? - Although ours are already packed for all the other cruises we have booked - I’m certainly not waiting around for new Crystal to start sailing

Banks had that fee 12 months ago (and before) and will continue to do so going forward - the bank charge rate is a constant So the realised exchange rate change has been just short of 4% - so where’s the other 38% of the A$ price increase to SSP come from? (No need to answer as only Viking could answer that)

Yes my price for a particular cruise is locked in but I’ve been tracking my fare for that cruise for 6 months and it hasn’t risen in A$ price (base price that is) - of course “deals and offers” come and go but they’re typically on a range of cruises as opposed to the base price of the cruise My point was made in response to your comment which effectively suggested the SSP 42% increase was down to the A$ exchange rate against the US$ deteriorating - but the A$ has only deteriorated by less than 4% over the last 12 months against the US$

If that were the case then wouldn’t Aust $ fares also have risen by a similar amount (they haven’t) Currency may be a factor but doesn’t account for a 42% increase

Sure but a 28% increase is hardly just keeping pace with inflation - there’s a bit more than inflation in there Could be worse - the same package went up 42% in Australia

From Marine Traffic just now

So you can get that many bottles provided in your suite? Many lines limit you to 2 bottles of your choice which are replenished once drunk but it seems that’s not the case on Silversea? I’ll pass on the alcohol free gin! I’m guessing that doesn’t count against any quota 😂😂😂

Regent offer Tokyo - Vancouver and vice versa each year on RSSC Explorer - not cheap but definitely a luxury experience

and now the bush lawyers are circling…. Hard to make assumptions without access to the facts

Enough with the exaggerated panic statements How’s it going to do that? Of course it will impact profitability but they have many ships sailing sp one loss making voyage isn’t going to tip them over the edge - the last couple of years are more likely to have done that

So this raises the question of whether drink prices for pay as you go onboard are going to increase in line with these package increases Any word on that yet? I guess it might take a month or two to filter through but you have to expect it given the packages have increased significantly

Thats 41.5% isn’t it - $220 increase on $530 - thankfully not a $265 increase

Be thankful - the package has increased by 40% for Australians paying in A$ Certainly seems all over the place in terms of how they’ve adjusted different currencies Glad we locked our pricing in a few months ago for these packages

It would need to be local provisioning as nothings going to reach Auckland from elsewhere for re-provisioning on such short notice. So guests might see some non standard brands (maybe)

What domestic cruise industry? New Zealand doesn’t have one

So what is the compensation being offered? What would you deem reasonable compensation?