Strong Pacific Sky Rumours!!!

There are strong rumours circulating that Pacific Sky has beeen sold and will be replaced by another ship next year.

The rumours also indicate that P&O will release the news today,Mon 19 Dec but nothing out yet.

These rumours are further strengthened at the P&O website as details of all sailings of Pacific Sky after 13 May 2006 have been removed from the site.

Outlines of cruise's till 2007 are still there but if you click for the details on anything after 13May it simply says ...page expired.

So lets see what today brings,and if the rumours are true.

Wouldn't surprise me at all. As the last steam turbine passenger ship built, she is very expensive to run, more and more difficult to find crewman experienced with that type of power plant, her gearboxes have been causing problems, and some of her hull plates have had to be replaced.

Too bad - as Sky Princess she was a lovely ship.

As it is still Sunday in the US and UK, perhaps the press release will be our tomorrow, your Tuesday!

this is true!!! never been on the sky but i really wanted to.. the regal princess is going to be coming to aus later next year.. so much for the asia cruises lol

http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/update.cfm

this is true!!! never been on the sky but i really wanted to.. the regal princess is going to be coming to aus later next year.. so much for the asia cruises lol

http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/update.cfm

Thanks for the link.That makes it all official.

So we get Regal Princess spring 2007.Thats a lovely ship and will do Australia proud.

I'm sure you folks "down under" will enjoy Regal Princess. We have sailed her twice, 1st time a West Coast repositioning, Vancouver to San Francisco, 9-92, and again, Singapore to Beijing, 3-01.

We are booked to sail her a 3rd time, Mar 06, Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, 'round Cape Horn.

I wonder where Regal Princess will call home...? Will it be :

Bris - Pacific Star

Syd - pacific Sun

Mel - Regal princess (half season elsewhere)

My guess is :

Bris - Pacific Star

Syd - Regal Princess

Mel - Pacific Sun (half season elsewhere)

I just had a quick look over the Regal Princess details... wow, that's a damn fine ship and will look awesome coming in / out of Sydney Harbour and anywhere else it goes...1999 build... great news for us cruise fanatics !

Whoey

Regal Princess was built in '91 according to google. We first sailed her in 92, and again in 02.

That '99 date I believe is when she had some refurbishing done - remodeled the dining room and patiserie(sp) area, among other things.

Druke has just beaten me...built 1991.

I just been going over a brochure I have on her,and she is going to be great .

*Over 180 staterooms with private balconies

*24 dining option(we will see about that one when P&O Aust get her)

*Lavish decks with 2 pools,four whirlpool spas and aswim up,in pool bar.

*Charming coffee and pastry cafe

*Wine and caviar bar

*Poolside bar

*Pizzeria

*Las Vegas style Casino

*Shopping gallery

*Lotus Spa featuring fitness,beautyand health facilities

*Youth and Teen centre

*One main dining room& five alternative dining options

*Two tiered Show Lounge

*Cinema *Atrium

*1,590 passengers

*70,000 gross tons

*811 feet in length.

I hope it does some sailing from Auckland.

have just had a phone call from our TA yes Pacific Sky no more cruises from May 30th. Ours has been cancelled the TA was notified at 9.00 this morning by fax. luckily we booked 18 mths ago for the one on 27th this month, otherwise it wld have been hell in our household with the kids not going away

narelle

this is true!!! never been on the sky but i really wanted to.. the regal princess is going to be coming to aus later next year.. so much for the asia cruises lol

http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/update.cfm

What a shame.... Would have like to go on her again, but with a cruise already booked (and about to be paid for) for March, I don't think that'll be posiible. Oh Well. :(

Another Princess ship leaving the fleet that I haven't had a chance to sail yet.

I hope it does some sailing from Auckland.

It's only a short flight to Sydney.

You can fly in the morning of departure,and go straight to the airport after disembarkation! Done it many times.

Auckland is closer to Sydney than many parts of Australia.

Kiwi Kruzer, flying is a LAST option for me. I suffer badly from ear pain and sinus pain and nothing the dr gives me does any good. I just cannot bear the pain to go through it again, unless I really really have to. I am going to try acupunture for it though and see if that eases it in any case. Here's hoping.

Sorry to hear that Rockie............

then Yes ,for your sake, and mine, hope the Regal will do an Auckland season .

The Star is doing an Auckland Season next May and I have have booked my cousin and her husband on a cruise .(She lost a leg this year when a driver fell asleep,crossed the centre line and wiped them off the road.If you're from Auckland you will know the death highway at Maramarua)It will be much better for them not having the hasssle of flying.

David.

Wow, what a neat holiday for them. There are some shocking stretches of road down that way, My cousin lost his 12 year old daughter on one a couple of years ago. He still hasn't got over it. The girls stepfather was driving and went to sleep as well.

Pacific Sky is going to be sold to the Spanish company Pullmantur

Cruises, where she will rejoin an old friend of hers, the original

Pacific Princess (which starred as the Love Boat in the tv show) which is operated by Pullmantur under the name Pacific.

Pullmantur have 3 other ships.. 2 of them are ex - 'R' ships - and

the other one is an old cruise ship called Oceanic.

The ships that go to Pullmantur seem to keep at least part of their old names (see www.pullmanturcruises.com). So maybe those of us who can afford it will be able to venture to spain and sail on Pullmantur Sky (or something similar).

Kym

yeah we got notification last night that our cruise has been cancelled. We are now trying to find another cruise out of Singapore at a reasonable price as we really wanted to do this area. Not happy.!!!

Mummsie

If you find one let me know. I have been looking yesterday but for the deal we got cant find anything in particular only 5 days on Gemini or Leo not keen on those ones. When we got told it was cancelled my husband thought that maybe whoever bought it might still be doing that route and get mailing list but have since found out that a spanish co has bought so dont think that will happen. When there are 4 of you to pay, for the deal we got airfare to Singapore and return with 14 nights cruise B2B for $2600 each it was a very affordable holiday. My husband and I did Syd - Bangkok earlier this year on Sapphire without the children but dont particulary want to cover exactly same tour again as wanted to see more of Asian places rather than top end of Australia again.

narelle

Hi Narelle, Looks like it will have to be the Leo or Gemini. I wanted more than 5 days but unless we do a b2b not many other choices. The Sky is being moved to the Mediterranian. Friends of our went on the Leo a couple of years ago and loved it so may not be too bad. Gayle

Gemini is a lovely ship and Star Cruises are great to cruise with.I cruised Gemini in 2005 and had a great time.At that stage they were marketing the ship to Brits,who would fly to Phuket have a few days there then cruise to Singapore and back to Phuket, and also to the Au/Nz market who would fly to Singapore and cruise up to Phuket and back.Running it this way it was all european food and entertainment on board.Some cruises on the other Star ships are aimed exclusively at the Asian market and are catered to accordingly.The Ports of Call are great as well.We hired taxis in each port and had a great time.

David.

Thank heavens our cruise out of Asia is March/April. Would be howling now if it was later in the year:eek: What a shame. Will the next ship be a "party ship" I wonder. :confused:

Kerri

We had no idea about Pac Sky being sold!Thank goodness we are going in April,it would be unbearable here as it took so much decision making to come up with a holiday that suits everyone in our family of 7.Sorry to all the disappointed cruisers who have to re-think. Pip.:(

I'm not sure where all of you are seeing 5-day itineraries on LEO and GEMINI. LEO isn't in the fleet any longer (now NORWEGIAN SPIRIT) and GEMINI's itineraries are in fact almost all 7-nights. The 5-night itineraries are on VIRGO (LEO's newer sister).

If you look here you can see all the Star Cruises itineraries from Singapore.

I have a friend who travels with Star very frequently and GEMINI is one of his favorite ships. She has just been given an extensive refit; he sent me photos and she looks great.

I think she should suit most PACIFIC SKY passengers well, though I don't know how her fares compare. Do note that she is about half the size of PACIFIC SKY though, so if you do not like small ships then I'd suggest looking elsewhere (like VIRGO, which is a huge ship by Asia-Pacific standards, bigger even than REGAL PRINCESS).

I cruised Gemini in 2005 and had a great time.

OOPS!!! That should have read 2000 and its too late to go back and edit.