ceeceeDee

The media is already sounding the death knell for poor old Dora.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/travel-stories/inside-the-creepy-cruise-ship-boneyard-the-will-house-po-pacific-explorer/news-story/ecfbdf18c27d51f4aadeefb96000e9c3

21 hours ago, reeves35 said:

The wording from Carnival is decommissioned which tends to suggest scrapping.  Of course, it is always possible that a last minute buyer is found such as what happened with Pacific Dawn which was snapped up by Ambassador at the death knell. 

 

If it were to happen, you'd probably be thinking of cruise-lines like Ambassador or Celestyal as being candidates but they have both expanded a lot in the past couple of years and may want to bed down their current fleet before attempting another expansion.

 

What we don't know is what the real condition of Explorer is.  We know her public areas are pretty good having been updated by P&O when she came over from Princess.  We also know the cabins are pretty much unchanged from when she was launched 27 years ago.  The real unknown is her engineering condition.  Major parts may be wearing out meaning any new life is not economic.

 

Judging by some recent photos on another forum, poor old Dora's public areas are getting shabby - torn upholstery on couches and what looks like some of the lining stripped off the lift doors in one instance. Can't speak to the engineering side of things, not something Joe Public sees.

Can't comment on HAL, but regardless of targets there always seems to be a fair cross section of all demographics on the others.

39 minutes ago, Vader1111 said:

Leave Loading hasn't been available in the Australian Public Service for 20+ years.  Not sure about the various state public services though.

To my knowledge, State public service still pays leave loading. It wasn't paid when you took leave, but was paid out on a yearly basis (sort of like a bonus) at Christmas.

1 hour ago, CountessCookie said:

Yeah, I've been doing some reading over in the Carnival form (some of the attitudes have remindedme we I stay out of there). Seems a lot are excited for the possibilities the two "new" ships will bring. But they really aren't new. Wasn't P&O Australia basically been the retirement home for Princes ships? 

 

Edit: shoutout to the Aussies defending us in the other pages. 

Yes, I usually stay right out of forums other than Australia and New Zealand for the same reason, Countess. I also had the same thought, what are the yanks getting excited about? A couple of tired old ships when they have brand new ones and fairly recent builds at their finger tips. I suppose in some cases it might be nostalgia for those who sailed on Golden and Star back in the day, but really I imagine it would be a let down given that Adventure and Encounter are well past their prime.

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

Yes, the emails telling us our cruise remains unaffected, but what about the vibe?

Yes, a downer

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

Spoke too soon. I just got the same email as you, confirming my December cruise is still on.  A bit cheeky to tell us we should now be booking last minute P & O cruises for 2024, so we don't miss out on saying farewell.

When's your December cruise, Cruiser?

Better late than never (or else P&O are reading this forum and me whinging).

Just received this email:

15 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Except Princess isn't hanging around all year round

True ☹️

Oh, dear.

Out of curiosity I just nipped across to the Carnival forum to see the reaction to Carnival absorbing P&O Australia. Many of the posters are rubbing their hands in glee and speculating which ships they are going to get. Ye gods and little fishes. Don't they have enough choice as it is? 🙄

At the rate cruise lines are 'dumping' Australia (Cunard and Virgin I'm looking at you) we may have to settle for a ferry ride to Bribie Island! 😂

On 6/4/2024 at 10:12 AM, jsglow said:

Actually quite exciting. For reference, the two ships Carnival is getting are the former Golden Princess and Star Princess; Grand Class ships that were built in 2000-01. I've personally sailed Golden to Alaska and she's a spectacular long distance cruiser. I particularly loved the high mounted aft bar/nightclub where you can oversee the entire length of the ship plus all the surrounding beauty of the nearby scenery as you pass by. It was truly the perfect  Alaska platform. There were mods made to her upon transfer to P&O Aus. back about 2019 to make her a tad more 'family friendly' (I think water slides and some family staterooms were added) but she is a wonderful ship approximating 109k tons for 2600 passengers. Star Princess is her slightly younger sister. 

Don't get too excited, we're trying to hang onto them Down Under!

13 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing that article.

 

As for whether they're staying in Australia, I found this quote from the article you quoted above quite telling (emphasis mine):

 

Duffy said cost was a ‘big headwind’ that helped lead to the decision to absorb the P&O Australia ships, given higher operating and regulatory costs and operating a small brand that can’t move its vessels out of the region.

 

So, if part of the reason why P&O was gobbled up is that they couldn't move their ships, and Carnival is a brand that operates worldwide and moves their ships around quite often, it seems to me that eventually there's going to be some movement by the Australian ships Carnival controls.  They won't do it before March 2025, and the ex-P&O ships might stick around for a year or two after that.  But I'm convinced there will be some changes there.

A lot of us in Australia think just that.

7 minutes ago, CountessCookie said:

I'm now imagining everyone on the last few P&O sailing decked out in full victorian mourning gear. An absolutely halarious mental image.

Maybe Bianco Night will be Noire Night

15 minutes ago, reeves35 said:

I guess that, since your cruise is well in advance of P&O's scheduled "sunset", you are unlikely to hear anything from P&O.  For you, hopefully, the cruise will be just as you had booked.  I assume those that are being contacted are where the cruise is being cancelled which is all Explorer cruises post-March and a couple Adventure and Encounter cruises across March.

 

Yes, we're well within the cutoff point so our cruise is not affected per se. Just that with a major change like that in the not so distant future, it would be good PR to send current cruisers a blanket email with the announcement. Then again, I guess the care factor at this stage is fast approaching zero. Given that P&O Australia's parent company is Carnival, one could be forgiven for thinking that P&O customers might rate a bit of PR to give them confidence in the changeover next March. At this point, other cruise lines are looking good.

Just a thought. I wonder if the P&O fan sites members are slashing their wrists yet or at the very least donning black and going into mourning.

We've sailed on Encounter, but never less than 7 days. It would appear from past experience that Gatsby is usually held on the last night of the cruise and Bianco and Back to School earlier in the cruise. This, of course, may be different on the shorter cruises.

The 'pay for' show is Blanc de Blanc and I think one of the fare included shows is Seven. We saw Blanc de Blanc. A bit ho hum really unless you are into bare bums and boobs. The production values were good, but I wouldn't rave about the show. We weren't shocked (not that we went there expecting to be), but I didn't really find it all that entertaining.

On 6/4/2024 at 1:08 PM, Vader1111 said:

Hard to go any further downhill, from where the company is already.

To misquote Sherlock Holmes.....

It depends on how much heat is applied to the butter to equate to how far the parsley sinks

On 6/4/2024 at 11:49 AM, Gwendy said:

So sad, cheap and cheerful and can sail from home port.  Tried Carnival once, not impressed.  Have two cruises booked with P&O, bet everything goes downhill fast.

Yep. We're on Encounter at Christmas. Wouldn't be surprised if our already low expectations drop a further notch or two. Have never been a fan of Carnival. The decor alone is enough to cause sea sickness

2 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I'm booked on a P & O cruise this December, which I gather is still going ahead. However, P & O hasn't bothered to let me know. Instead I got a message from my travel insurer, with the details of the changes.

Yep, we're on Encounter in December. Silence from P&O is deafening. We got a message from a travel insurer we haven't even used! Obviously I'm somehow on their mailing list. Only thing from P&O was an email a few days back advising a change to embarkation and disembarkation times. Don't know about Cruislings, I think we're Mushrooms.🙄

4 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

No doubt P&O will be missed, despite many not liking to sail on her. With Carnival taking over, time will tell if they change things too much but I doubt people who cruised regularly with P&O will just stop cruising altogether. They may not like it as much but I think with no other choice they will just cruise Carnival.

Depends how they stack up against Princess

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

I found my husband's account number with Carnival but not mine so I phoned them this morning. The answer was simple. They had my birthdate incorrectly recorded. It is the 5th December, but Carnival had it as the 12th May 🤣 so when I entered my details to search for the number, of course the system couldn't find it. All fixed now.

Mine's December 6th! Go the Sagitterians 🙂

3 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

This is the key to it - "However, given the strategic reality of the South Pacific's small population and significantly higher operating and regulatory costs, we're adjusting our approach," he said.

 

That's coded for - Down under is a small market and not as profitable. Add to that, NZ is becoming problematic for them and other regulatory issues.. and Aus is the backwater where they want to squeeze a better return out of with less ships. Expect fewer options and increased fares I would think. 

And there is the possibility that the will deploy ships elsewhere so there is a possibility that we won't have ships here year round. Who knows? Speculation of the Seas here we come/.

6 minutes ago, gbenjo said:

Carnival said it was because of the regulations that they have to operate under in Australia that was a reason for the merge but wouldn’t the same regulations apply to any ship operating in Australia regardless of which line was operating it?

I would have thought so.

1 minute ago, Jim_P said:

The horrible Egyptian theme was the Carnival Spirit. I remember it well, being my first time on a Carnival cruise. 

Even if you don't normally get sea sick, that would do it!

2 minutes ago, reeves35 said:

From a marketing point of view, I would have to question how Carnival has handled this announcement.  Surely, they would have foreseen that not everyone would be thrilled by the announcement so it is puzzling that there was nothing new or interesting contained with it. 

 

A smarter move may have been to combine the closure (and Explorer retirement) announcement with something upbeat and positive like a fleet addition, a special series of farewell sailings...anything!  Instead, all we got was a dry piece of PR babble obviously written by a marketing department operative in Miami who probably hadn't heard of P&O Australia until being asked to write the press release. 

Yes, the whole thing is about as exciting as a soggy, stale biscuit. The press release is hardly likely to fill die hard P&O cruisers with enthusiasm.