Vader1111

The big advantage of catching the train (rather than the tram) is the view you get from the platform. It's a great way of seeing the ship for the first time, and taking photos of the ship with the coathanger in the background. For me, the photo stop far outweighs any consideration about taking luggage through the lifts - but each to their own!

My mistake... I thought you were talking about the turn upon exiting the Sound. Yes, I guess it's possible that the ship could be wind affected there.

That's what I would have expected, which would have made it similar to my own experience on Radiance (albeit more severe). However, it has invariably been described as having occurred within Milford Sound, not as they turned on exiting.

A similar thing happened on a cruise I did on Radiance of the Seas, albeit not as extreme as what was shown in the videos from Crown Princess. Radiance was coming out of the last of the Sounds (Doubtful or Dusky), and turned left to head around the bottom of NZ. In the process she went from bow on to the wind, to side on. The side of a ship is like a big sail, and she started to tilt quite noticeably - my guess would be ~5 degrees. The Captain came on over the PA, explaining what had happened. The solution was pumping water around in the bilge and/or fuel tanks, which returned the ship to an even keel after a few minutes. I can easily understand how it can happen when a ship emerges from the relatively sheltered waters of the Sounds, and turns broadside on to the prevailing (westerly) winds. I'm not sure how it happens in the middle of Milford Sound.

I wouldn't have thought so. Firstly, aircraft fly well above the clouds, though I'm not sure what the winds would be like at flight altitudes. That assumes you're flying in a large jet aircraft - smaller aircraft (e.g. prop-jet) wouldn't be flying at 40,000 ft). Secondly, they would probably divert the aircraft to a more inland flight path, thus avoiding the worst of the cyclonic winds.

They must have formed over tropical waters, but they are still cyclones once they move out of the tropics. For reference, Rockhampton is almost exactly on the Tropic of Capricorn. For it to be a cyclone, it must maintain a wind speed of 119 kph or higher. Below 119 kph it's referred to as a Tropical Storm, and below 62 kph it's a Tropical Depression.

Both teams have a bye in R3. They will probably re-schedule the match for then.

As I said... a little bit soggy.

Cairns is a bit soggy at present too...

I was aware that the Isle of Pines was off the menu. Probably a good thing, given the horrendous environmental damage done by all the cruisers in the Kanumera Rock area. I wasn't aware that Mare was also off the itinerary now. It's a real pity, as these are the only 2 nice ports in New Caledonia (OK - I've never been to Oovea). Lifou, and (particularly) Noumea are ports where it's not worth getting off the ship.

The staff told us, and it was reflected in our experience, that they only had 2 menus (which we'll call A & B), and that they rotated between them every 3 days. There was no menu C on that cruise. Maybe P&O added it after that time. It wouldn't be the only time P&No have made changes to the menu since COVID - Eggs Benedict was free on Dora in March 2023, but was a paid extra on Adventure in June 2023. The Eggs Benedict decision was the straw which broke the camel's back for me, ending my cruising with P&No.

It varies. The ship sails relatively close to the land, so it is often possible to get a reasonable signal - but I certainly wouldn't guarantee it. It depends on where the ship is (i.e. proximity to any land-based mobile phone towers), how high up you are on the ship (higher is better), inside or outside the ship (outside is better), and which side of the ship you're on (landward side is better). Most of the time the signal is strong enough to get internet access off the mobile phone towers (make sure you don't have global roaming enabled, or your phone will default to the ship's mobile phone network). The internet access was spotty, and sometimes quite slow, but it was adequate for my purposes (I wasn't making calls, or streaming videos). Phone calls may be possible, but only occasionally.

Interesting... there were only 2 on Pacific Adventure in July 2023.

All correct, except that there is no menu C. It just goes A-B-A-B. It's all good if you're on a short cruise, with no repetition required for cruises of 6 nights or less. If you're on board for 7+ nights then you will definitely see the menus repeated.

HAL have an even older demographic - their primary target demographic appears to be the parents of the Princess cruisers. HAL doesn't have the same reputation for Norovirus that Princess does.

This is exactly the point I'm making. Princess ships have been famously Noro-riddled since long before COVID - at least that's the perception (even if reality is slightly different). Why has it been such a problem for Princess, for so long, compared with other peer cruise lines?

It's 10 years since I was on a Carnival ship (Carnival Spirit). The Carnival experience of 2014 was far, far, far superior to the P&O experience of 2023. I can't see how Carnival could make the current P&O experience any worse. Then again, Carnival responds with "hold my beer"...

I'm another who got his cruising floaties with P&O - my first cruises were on Pacific Sun & Pacific Dawn, and I loved it both times. Sadly, post-COVID P&O became one of the worst cases of "enshittification" in corporate Australia. I'd never heard that word until Macquarie Dictionary made it their word of the year - but it fits the P&O experience perfectly. I will have fond memories of my early cruising days with P&O, but I will not miss the cruise line that they became in their later years.

It really is remarkable how almost every time Norovirus is mentioned in conjunction with a cruise ship, it's Princess involved. Rarely is it RCI, P&O (soon to be RIP), HAL, or Carnival - it's almost always Princess. It may be a perception thing, but 90% of reported Noro cases seem to be on Princess ships. I get that part of this is a self-fulfilling prophecy - Noro is associated with Princess ships, so when it happens it gets reported, whereas other cruise lines don't have the same PR problem. However, there has to be more to it than just that... I don't believe it's a long cruise vs short cruise thing, given that lines like RCI, HAL & Carnival don't have the same problem. It has to be something fundamentally wrong with Princess' health management systems, and it's clearly something systemic given that it affects so many Princess ships on such a regular basis.

The Captain Cook dry dock is at Garden Island.

My version is... P&O Australia and Carnival both target bogan families Royal Caribbean target middle class families Princess targets the baby boomers Holland America targets the baby boomers' parents

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

According to the P&O website, Back to School is only done on cruises of 7+ nights - so it won't be held on a 4 night cruise. Also, Island Night replaces Back to School night, as of 22nd June. That's the date for Encounter - the other ships make the change earlier in June.

RCI are VERY American

My first cruise was also on the Pacific Sun, back in 2007. While the P&O ships have improved since then, the service has gone backwards at a rapid rate of knots. I doubt they will be missed, by the time they are subsumed into the Carnival megaline.