arxcards

As they are the middle-man for your booking, the extra time is to make sure your payment has cleared their systems in time to be paid onto the cruise line. Some of the larger places like to do their cruise remittances in weekly batches so they aren't spending their days working like an ATM. Good T/A's will refund as quick as the cruise line, also considering the payment has to get to them first. Some do have onerous terms, cancellation fees, slow response times - I won't book through those agencies.

I am happy to have a trusted TA who is an expert at booking cruises. In most cases it is cheaper than booking direct and/or comes with additional OBC. I am happy to concentrate on my part of the deal - spending the money.

Thought you might like this. I think this was the day Adventure arrived in Sydney for the first time.

Indeed, and for other Grand class ships that may be surplus to Princess in the near future. These ships are already north of 20 years old, and I would be surprised if the Carnival "beards" see any place for them in the US. The original Jubilee spent plenty of years down here as Pacific Sun. We would consider trading Encounter for the new Jubilee.😁

Even a 6:30pm departure from OPT should not delay the ship into Melbourne. The transfers in Sydney usually accommodate earlier flights, in Brisbane they don't. I have only used tram/skybus in Melbourne, so can't help with the timing of their transfers. When we have booked transfers on Princess, we do it aboard at guest services. If it fits book it, if not go with your initial plan of a taxi.

How is the mood on the ship? Cruising as usual?

Most of the interest is for a couple of their smaller ports that can't take the newer & bigger ships - sort of like it used to be at Portside in Brisbane.

There will be lots of like for like. Not just as it was for P&O, but also how the ship was used for Princess. I believe Serenity will be the tiered aft decks on 12 & 14, where P&O has their Oasis. I think Byron will be linked to Carnival's spa cabins.

They will not have anyone available to read, moderate and respond, so it makes sense. All hands on deck to take care of cancellations and to prepare for a handover and winding up of the office roles. You can try direct messaging, but a reply will depend on how important they view your message. This is on their DM screen: Thank you for contacting us. We are receiving a high volume of enquiries during this time & are doing our best to respond as quickly as we can.

Most provisions will still be sourced via their offices in North Sydney, as is currently the case on Splendor. Like P&O, they will still have soft drink from the Philippines, and plenty of cereals and the like from Asia. Fresh food ingredients will still be sourced locally, as well as wines, beers, etc. I have found on Princess, Carnival & HAL that ships recently arrived from the US initially have US supplied longlife products, but they gradually move over to an Australian equivalent when their pantry runs dry. As an example, we used to go hunting for Smuckers grape jelly sachets for our daughter at breakfast time. Supplies are often exhausted late in the season and replaced with an Aussie jam. There are exceptions such as ketchup instead of tomato sauce, but in most cases it would be more expensive to be provisioning their ship via Miami. But yes, if not to start with, Carnival will become more American, but I already appreciate that on Princess, HAL & Royal.

Yes, I am sure they will have something for Encounter & Adventure, as well as Pacific Explorer departing Fremantle. Then they have much fanfare again a couple of weeks later when Encounter & Adventure get a red stripe.

For me, it was an award condition rolled into an enterprise. The enterprise predates me, and I have been at the same establishment for 31 years. Certainly can't be described as public service or heavily unionised though. I am aware that many do miss out, but other sectors have had all of their entitlements rolled into a fixed salary at some stage in the past.

Fancy getting paid extra to go on holidays. How awesome. 😂

This is a key feature of accessing the 2nd terminal at White Bay. The main terminal in Circular Quay is 100% booked each summer, with several lines competing for a berth. As Golden Princess, this picture was not possible. The height of the exhaust and cowl was reduced when converted to Pacific Adventure. The 160 feet is also conditional, as there is a safety margin and a tidal factor. This will be the only Carnival ship currently based in Australia that can transit under the bridge. To take this ship out of Sydney would cause chaos for all of the Carnival brands fighting over the main terminal - won't happen. Perhaps you can rebrand Pacific Explorer with a red stripe, as she can fit in any of the three height restricted ports without modification. 😉

Dora will be already up for sale. Even if she has a buyer, they won't announce anything, and it is usually up to the buyer to spruik that If she doesn't have an afterlife at the time she departs, she will be heading to Aliaga for recycling. Her younger sister, the former Oceana, has been up for sale for some time with no takers, and Carnival is not about to lay her up to await a buyer. Have a look at NCL for Melbourne. I do think that in time Carnival will do short seasons in Melbourne. Unlikely for 2025/6, but very possible beyond that.

During covid, they scrapped 6 ships. That allowed Royal Caribbean to take their mantle of the biggest cruise fleet. The rebranding of Costa ships and P&O Australia is as much about hubris and regaining their mantle.

Correct. Scale is everything. I am taking a shot at the way this is being spun. CLIA say it is booming here, yet we are losing ships which suggests that isn't true but just an isolated stat to spin. Similarly, the US is apparently booming, yet none of the cruise lines are turning a profit. Specific to, Carnival, they are taking in Costa ships, yet they have only partly replaced the capacity of the 6 ships they scrapped during covid. Booming? The industry is just talking themselves up.

If your itinerary is unaffected, it would be business as usual and nothing to communicate. Yes, they could have sent a blanket email to everyone in their contact list, but I presume they are going to be run off their feet just responding to passengers who have had their cruises cancelled. In early 2025 P&O Cruises Australia brand will be sunset and its operations integrated into sister line, Carnival Cruise Line. As a result, the following itineraries are affected. Pacific Explorer – discontinued operations from 2nd March 2025 Pacific Adventure: Itineraries cancelled: V515, V516, V517, V518 Operated by Carnival Cruise Line after April 2025 Pacific Encounter: Itineraries cancelled: I512, I513, I514 Operated by Carnival Cruise Line after April 2025 If you are booked on one of these itineraries you will be contacted by Guest Services in the coming days with refund details. We apologise that this change has been necessary. If you are booked on any other P&O Cruises Australia itinerary your cruise is unaffected by this announcement and we look forward to welcoming you onboard soon. No Carnival Cruise Line itineraries are impacted by this announcement. Notice of Cruise Cancellations and Changes to Operating Brand | P&O Cruises Australia (pocruises.com.au)

I am just speculating, or maybe just reading this a bit different, but I think that is unlikely. They could have taken Splendor away this winter if that were the case and wouldn't need to dissolve P&O to achieve that. As is current with the announcement, we are losing a ship with the retirement of Pacific Explorer. They would have kept her longer, but there was no point spending excess dollars on her for converting to Carnival Explorer livery. In time, I believe they will keep the Brisbane ship here full-time, with summer in Brisbane and the off season in Freo, Auckland & Melbourne. That still reduces the P&O/Carnival fleet from 3 x P&O + 1.5 Carnival to a fleet of 4.x Carnival. They dumped a shock news release on Tuesday. They will now be looking to buoy the market by drip feeding pieces of positive news,

Pinched from the Carnival discussion of this topic, which was pinched from elsewhere. Not an official render:

As it reads, it just means that any cruise you do on Carnival will count to their loyalty program, which is somewhat of a new concept for 100% P&O cruisers. Keep hoping, there is quite a bit of conjecture about past cruises counting. They haven't said yes, they haven't said no. There is no way they that past cruises can count to double-dipping on both Princess and Carnival. If they took Princess points away to do this for Carnival, there will be a lot of unhappy cruisers out there to. This has been all the talk overnight. Looking at JH's Q&A session, everyone talking about yesterday's news is asking about VIFP credits for past P&O cruises.

Wasn't there a CLIA article a couple of months back saying how much cruising was booming here too.

Explorer's younger sister (the former Oceana) has been laid up awaiting a buyer for some time. Apparently in better shape, nobody has snapped her up - perhaps the price is too high. There are also two of Royal's Vision class ships that have been on the market for a while. I would agree that Aliaga is not a done deal, but I can't see a future for Explorer either. Despite the irony, I can't even see Explorer being reunited with Zoltina at Margaritaville.

I hope so. I thought there was a lot of unresolved stuff waiting for someone to spend the time on it. That will make it tougher for Chris to ply his craft down here - no Cunard or P&O history lectures.

Same - O on the platinum bit. If they take them out of Princess CC, I will still hold my status there, but I would imagine their will be plenty of others hoping their past P&O stays on their CC status.