P&O New Build for Australia in 2019

[Brisbane41]

Of course the Yanks like newer ships, so we get the old ones.

 

I got off Island Princess last week, lot of Elites on board, 1100 of them, they were not happy with Majestic Princess going to Japan/China, nuff said. Nor was our cabin steward, going to train in Barcelona for Majestic, Japanese/Chinese, no tip he said.

 

They probably say the same thing about us. No tips from Australians!

[MicCanberra]

Surprising news today: This didn't last long. The newbuild is no longer being deployed to Australia and will instead join the Carnival US fleet when completed, due to projected growth there.

 

P&O say that a 3,000 pax ship is more appropriate for our market (compared to the 4200 of this newbuild), due to growth and infrastructure. Hence Carnival Splendor will instead be joining P&O instead of the new build.

 

No huge surprise, we are always so obliging and they treat us with contempt at times with their second hand relics.

[MicCanberra]

They probably say the same thing about us. No tips from Australians!

 

Not the feed back I have received from crew, they love the Aussies and cruising here as the gratuities are generally prepaid and we drink so much so they make bucket loads on the drink gratuities.:D

[Brisbane41]

No huge surprise, we are always so obliging and they treat us with contempt at times with their second hand relics.

 

I have always said that about Australian cruisers. They kick us up the backside and shaft us with rusty old hand-me-downs and Australians then bend over and say "kick me again but next time harder". Then they offer up more cash for the humiliation.

[woodscruise]

Interesting this was announced today, the day that RCCL's Ovation of the Seas arrives to homeport in Sydney. I guess Carnival was hoping that no one would have notice the news about sending down another second hand ship.

[Ship Drongo]

I agree. I avoid ships with more than 2,500 passengers

[MicCanberra]

Interesting this was announced today, the day that RCCL's Ovation of the Seas arrives to homeport in Sydney. I guess Carnival was hoping that no one would have notice the news about sending down another second hand ship.

 

Certainly seems that way.

[CroNich]

What a bloody cop-out, I knew this was too good to be true, I guess we don't deserve a new build for ourselves yet, maybe in the next 10 years.

[gbenjo]

Apparently P&O cancelled the new build because they could not find a second furniture store able to supply them with enough product to make the ship look like one of theirs :D

[MicCanberra]

Apparently P&O cancelled the new build because they could not find a second furniture store able to supply them with enough product to make the ship look like one of theirs :D

 

LOL, The bogan boutique has a good number of items that can be dusted off.:p

[The_Big_M]

Is the Splendor still having operational issues, as it has a pretty dodgy history?

 

No, she's been okay. Just a major issue early on, but seems isolated.

[Mr&MrsCookie]

No, she's been okay. Just a major issue early on, but seems isolated.

 

Her main issue apparently is that she is very pink!:eek:

[cme2c]

Will they have a name competition like the HAL hand me downs? At least this is white!! How about "Pacific Disappointment"? Maybe after the lead ship in it's class? That , unfortunately, was the Costa Concordia. If they spelled "Splendour" correctly they could just paint the funnel blue , cross out "Carnival" and make it the "Pacific Splendour" That should save a few bucks! Look, we've always had a good time on P&O ships, but there have always been issues probably to do with the age of the ships. Also, if the majority of the market just looks at the headline price of a cruise, and Carnival Corporation can keep the ships full or close to it, it's difficult to argue with the business case.

[Brisbane41]

Maybe this is a sign that P&O Australia are struggling in the face of strong competition and strong internal competition. Lets face it we have Royal Caribbean literally pooping all over P&O Australia who have set up in a short space of time and take more passengers than P&O Australia ever get. Then there are the two Carnival ships here already not to mention all the Princess ships and the Celebrity ships that come. Maybe the passenger numbers for P&O Australia are just not great that Carnival realised they could never fill the ship unless they got rid of all the older ships. Even worst Carnival may have realised that all P&O Australia passengers would have flocked to the new ship and left the old hand-me-downs empty. I guess that it is true that Australians embrace mediocrity and cheer when we get screwed over.

[NSWP]

They probably say the same thing about us. No tips from Australians!

They do say that, tight Aussies they said, no want to work on the Aussie ships.

[Cruise ship fan]

Maybe this is a sign that P&O Australia are struggling in the face of strong competition and strong internal competition. Lets face it we have Royal Caribbean literally pooping all over P&O Australia who have set up in a short space of time and take more passengers than P&O Australia ever get. Then there are the two Carnival ships here already not to mention all the Princess ships and the Celebrity ships that come. Maybe the passenger numbers for P&O Australia are just not great that Carnival realised they could never fill the ship unless they got rid of all the older ships. Even worst Carnival may have realised that all P&O Australia passengers would have flocked to the new ship and left the old hand-me-downs empty. I guess that it is true that Australians embrace mediocrity and cheer when we get screwed over.

No I say it has more to do with the Ovation not doing as well as originally thought. The extra added on cruises have not been selling anywhere near as good as the initial set were. So still have a large amount of cabins left. Royal has had to significantly reduce the price to try and fill it up. We have canceled our cruise multiple times to get the new much lower price. I think we have gone through 6 booking numbers. For an obstructed balcony for 3 people we have saved $2000 by doing this.

 

Still performing well, but not the huge hit it was made out to be originally.

 

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Edited December 16, 2016 by Cruise ship fan

[Kiwi Kruzer]

No I say it has more to do with the Ovation not doing as well as originally thought. The extra added on cruises have not been selling anywhere near as good as the initial set were. So still have a large amount of cabins left. Royal has had to significantly reduce the price to try and fill it up. We have canceled our cruise multiple times to get the new much lower price. I think we have gone through 6 booking numbers. For an obstructed balcony for 3 people we have saved $2000 by doing this.

 

Still performing well, but not the huge hit it was made out to be originally.

 

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For the return re positioning cruise ,Sydney to Singapore , TA's are offering $99 air fares for the return flight from Singapore....and they are not being rushed. The price could easily come down even more yet.

[MicCanberra]

For the return re positioning cruise ,Sydney to Singapore , TA's are offering $99 air fares for the return flight from Singapore....and they are not being rushed. The price could easily come down even more yet.

 

I saw that but I think the main reason is that there are so few stops along the way.

[Cruise ship fan]

I saw that but I think the main reason is that there are so few stops along the way.

The original repositioning cruise was practically sold out.

 

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Edited December 16, 2016 by Cruise ship fan

[Brisbane41]

No I say it has more to do with the Ovation not doing as well as originally thought. The extra added on cruises have not been selling anywhere near as good as the initial set were. So still have a large amount of cabins left. Royal has had to significantly reduce the price to try and fill it up. We have canceled our cruise multiple times to get the new much lower price. I think we have gone through 6 booking numbers. For an obstructed balcony for 3 people we have saved $2000 by doing this.

 

Still performing well, but not the huge hit it was made out to be originally.

 

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

Its a different company. I doubt that Royal Caribbean would kindly share information with Carnival about its sales.

 

However I feel the reason Ovation of the Seas is not selling well is because they left it too late to add in extra cruises and many people had planned their holidays already.

 

When I looked at Ovation of the Seas I was really keen to try it but when I looked at the itinerary I thought "same old", "same old" repetitive boring itinerary that has been done to death. They would have been better off doing more South Pacific itineraries instead of New Zealand which I do not intend to go back to for another 5 years as I have been there so much.

[Cruise ship fan]

Its a different company. I doubt that Royal Caribbean would kindly share information with Carnival about its sales.

 

However I feel the reason Ovation of the Seas is not selling well is because they left it too late to add in extra cruises and many people had planned their holidays already.

 

When I looked at Ovation of the Seas I was really keen to try it but when I looked at the itinerary I thought "same old", "same old" repetitive boring itinerary that has been done to death. They would have been better off doing more South Pacific itineraries instead of New Zealand which I do not intend to go back to for another 5 years as I have been there so much.

Carnival don't really need to know exact details but they can get enough information from the Royal website and talking to travel agents.

 

Although part of the reason would be that they made such a big change so late, it really shouldn't of made such a big difference. The bigger reason is the lack of variation in the cruises, which pretty much comes down to the ship struggling to get into ports due to its size and passenger numbers. When they canceled our relocation cruise we would of canceled our booking but we really wanted to see the ship, plus we were a little interested to see how the ship would handle going to Mystery Island. As the cruise we ended up on just goes to the regular places.

 

This is where I see truth in their statement saying that infrastructure has not progressed enough. This seems true since there is hardly anywhere for the ship to go so they had to cut back on the size of the ship, to fit existing infrastructure. Rather then face the issues the Ovation has with itineraries.

 

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[Kiwi Kruzer]

And there in lies the catch 22 situation.

Infrastructure for the big ships is expensive to put in, so they have decide wisely where it will be built and then you have the same old complaint that they keep going the same old places.

Thats why they have to make the ship ..the destination.

[MicCanberra]

Its a different company. I doubt that Royal Caribbean would kindly share information with Carnival about its sales.

 

However I feel the reason Ovation of the Seas is not selling well is because they left it too late to add in extra cruises and many people had planned their holidays already.

 

When I looked at Ovation of the Seas I was really keen to try it but when I looked at the itinerary I thought "same old", "same old" repetitive boring itinerary that has been done to death. They would have been better off doing more South Pacific itineraries instead of New Zealand which I do not intend to go back to for another 5 years as I have been there so much.

 

The Ovation is too big to tender efficiently so that limits itineraries considerably, especially for the South Pacific.

[The_Big_M]

Maybe this is a sign that P&O Australia are struggling in the face of strong competition and strong internal competition.

 

...And maybe not.

 

They're developing and launching new itineraries, and revitalising their fleet. And they still have by far the highest number of passengers, ports and sailings in our market.

 

Would you also say that it's a sign that e.g. Qantas are struggling because they bought the 787 most recently instead of the A380, and dropped options on the A380. Since the A380 has much more capacity, which is the only basis for your assessment...

 

As per example, the goal is getting the size right for your market and itineraries. It's disappointing news to P&O, but it's nothing to do with them "struggling".

[The_Big_M]

No I say it has more to do with the Ovation not doing as well as originally thought. The extra added on cruises have not been selling anywhere near as good as the initial set were. So still have a large amount of cabins left. Royal has had to significantly reduce the price to try and fill it up. We have canceled our cruise multiple times to get the new much lower price. I think we have gone through 6 booking numbers. For an obstructed balcony for 3 people we have saved $2000 by doing this.

 

Still performing well, but not the huge hit it was made out to be originally.

 

That isn't surprising, and isn't a case of not doing well either. Feb and Mar are off peak periods and sailings often have availability there - especially when they're one way. Look at the crazy cheap prices that the Princess cruises from Asia to Australia have sold at.

 

The early cruises sold well because they were so limited, yet offered so much more, so were expected to do well. You had lots of demand squeeze into a very limited supply - and over the peak holiday period no less!

 

What RCL is doing is comparing against the returns they get from where they would otherwise be in China. That period is still Winter so also off-peak and prices come down a lot there.

 

They are still getting a much better return from sailing here than they would there, which is what counts to them. Prices coming down a bit from already high prices isn't a big deal; compared to the relative revenue return across the fleet, and at original deployment location, it's still a very good earner.