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Deployment 2018-19 booking season begins

MADflyer

By MADflyer,
in Royal Caribbean International

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CRUISEBOY305

CRUISEBOY305

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Posted
From a Sydney Newspaper.

Daily Telegraph.

 

In a major blow to the country’s fastest-growing tourism sector that will have major economic ramifications for NSW, cruise companies are bypassing our city in favour of Melbourne and Brisbane, New Zealand and even further afield in Asia *because Sydney Harbour’s Overseas Passenger Terminal is at capacity.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the country’s second biggest cruise company Royal Caribbean Cruises will no longer send its 15-deck Voyager of the Seas ‘mini-city’ to Australia because of the issue. Instead the major cruiseliner will remain in Singapore and China for a year-round season.

It’s the first time in 10 years a major cruise operator has cut a service.

Managing director Adam Armstrong also said its 12-deck ship Radiance of the Seas will also no longer stop in Sydney, bypassing the Harbour City for Melbourne and New Zealand. “We’ve been talking about one day Sydney will be full. That day has come,” he said. “Sydney will lose 65,000 guests a year from Voyager of the Seas and around $32 million in passenger spend.”

Mr Armstrong said China and Singapore will benefit from having the Voyager in their markets rather than in Australia. “It’s extremely frustrating. There is no berthing solution in Sydney. In the interim, Singapore, Hong Kong and China have all built world-class terminals,” he said.

“Brisbane will have a solution *before Sydney does.”

Cruising is Australia’s fastest growth tourism industry, worth $5 billion to the NSW economy and supporting 20,000 jobs. In 2015-16, there were 325 cruise ships visiting NSW.

Australia’s biggest cruise company, Carnival Australia, which represents seven cruise brands in the market, *including P & O Cruises and Princess Cruises, is also struggling to berth in Sydney, with some ships moving to Brisbane and Melbourne. Carnival Legend will have 10 voyages from Melbourne in 2018 that could have been in Sydney.

Carnival Australia will base Queen Elizabeth in Australia for a record two months between February and April 2019 — it’s the longest time any of its current fleet of Queens have been in Australia. But, while the company’s preference was to set sail from Sydney, there were no berths available and, so for the first time, three of its cruises will be from Melbourne.

Carnival Australia executive chairman Ann Sherry said the city desperately needs new berthing capacity on the eastern side of the Harbour Bridge. “We are finding ourselves *increasingly basing ships in other *cities,” she said. “I will keep encouraging discussion at both a state and federal level. This is the last big piece of the tourism puzzle now we have agreement on the second airport and have rebuilt the convention and exhibition centre in Sydney.”

Ms Sherry said the best solution to the cruise-ship crisis was sharing *access to Garden Island with the Royal Australian Navy. “We are nearing crunch point where we need to find a way to unblock the stalemate in Sydney Harbour and find a way of sharing the Garden Island *facility between Navy and cruising for the benefit of Sydney,” she said.

Mr Armstrong said Royal Caribbean had helped fund cruise terminals in Miami, Fort Lauderdale in Barcelona, Hong Kong and Singapore — and was willing to throw potentially tens of millions of dollars to build a new cruise terminal in Botany Bay.”

 

 

That's for sharing this. This certainly explains why the Australia and Singapore deployment has been delayed

 

 

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Biker19

Biker19

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Mr Armstrong said Royal Caribbean had helped fund cruise terminals in Miami, Fort Lauderdale in Barcelona, Hong Kong and Singapore — and was willing to throw potentially tens of millions of dollars to build a new cruise terminal in Botany Bay.”

In the mean time:

 

http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/is-double-stacking-the-short-term-answer-to-sydney-s-berthing-crisis.html?highlight=WyJzeWRuZXkiLCJzeWRuZXkncyIsIidzeWRuZXkiLCJzeWRuZXknIiwiJ3N5ZG5leSciXQ==

 

While the debate about where to build another cruise terminal for ships too big to go under the Sydney Harbour Bridge continues, the Port Authority of New South Wales is working on a new booking system for double stacking.

 

It has been reported there will be a ban on overnights in the new booking system to be unveiled on July 1. However, a spokesperson for the Authority told Seatrade Cruise News there are no plans to ban overnights and the release date for the report ‘is still being determined.’

 

The new stacking system involves two ships using the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Sydney Cove on the same day—one arriving in the early hours and the other arriving later in the day.

 

A trial was carried out on February 1 when Seabourn Encore arrived 60 minutes after Emerald Princess had left.

 

Facilities at the OPT have been upgraded to accommodate double stacking and the startup target is the 2019/20 wave season, although it could be introduced earlier.

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geoff2802

geoff2802

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Royal already holds plenty of port bookings in Sydney OPT for the 4 ships currently home ported in Sydney, so they don't need to move ships away for this reason.

It's an aggressive move by Royal to make the NSW state government get off it's lazy butt and take some action to increase port capacity. Infrastructure is built 20+ years too late in Sydney.

I think the answer is to move the Navy to Botany or Jervis Bay and redevelop that land as a cruise terminal. Carnival's idea of sharing with the Navy is a joke - it's a military facility. Woollongong (Port Kembla) is too far from Sydney population and the airport to be a home port.

Good for Brisbane and Melbourne until (if?) a solution is found.

 

Springaussie, we're moving to Bribie Island in 4 years when I retire, just after the new Brisbane terminal is (hopefully) opened. [emoji3]

 

 

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woodscruise

woodscruise

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It is interesting the article that was shared by Springaussie. I have just check Sydney Ports website and they do have bookings for Voyager and Radiance in the 2019/2020 cruising season. I do also believe it has to do with the NSW government not able to make a decision on cruise ports east of the harbour bridge, but also the local ports infrastructure. After all RCCL has stopped calling at Isle de Pines, and am wondering if other island ports in the area are bucking up with the "mega ships" visits.

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Clarea

Clarea

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The Press Release from Royal Caribbean today. Mariner of the Seas repositioning to Miami after going to Dubai and Barcelona.

 

https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1317/royal-caribbeans-newest-quantum-ultra-class-ship-to-sail-from-asia-pacific-in-2019/

Good to hear Mariner is coming home.

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J_Busworth

J_Busworth

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Confirmed by Royal on Facebook here in Oz this morning. Explorer and Ovarion for Sydney and Radiance between Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland with a number of Open-Jaw sailings. Confirms Voyager is in Asia year around. Sales from May 16 https://secure.royalcaribbean.com.au/media/pdf/reports/RCI_201819_ProgrammeRelease_FA_Final.pdf

Edited by J_Busworth
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Biker19

Biker19

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A bit weird that in the press release they named Passion as Ultra class vs. the previous Plus nomenclature.

 

That may also mean that when Pulse is also made Asia specific, Quantum will be de-Asianised and returns to the US like Mariner.

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Ashland

Ashland

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So now there's only Voyager sailing from Singapore, not even year round... That's disappointing...

 

 

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I'm disappointed too...I was hoping for a Singapore-Shanghai again but on a Quantum class this time...now not even sure it's going to be available on the Voyager.

 

Also not excited about Japan itineraries from Shanghai either.

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geoff2802

geoff2802

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Confirmed by Royal on Facebook here in Oz this morning. Explorer and Ovarion for Sydney and Radiance between Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland with a number of Open-Jaw sailings. Confirms Voyager is in Asia year around. Sales from May 16 https://secure.royalcaribbean.com.au/media/pdf/reports/RCI_201819_ProgrammeRelease_FA_Final.pdf

 

 

Good detail in that release - thanks.

Radiance has 1 departure from Melbourne and 3 from Auckland. Royal is testing some new ideas which is good to see for a change.

She has 15 departures from Sydney, so it's not a redeployment.

 

 

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MsDolly

MsDolly

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Confirmed by Royal on Facebook here in Oz this morning. Explorer and Ovarion for Sydney and Radiance between Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland with a number of Open-Jaw sailings. Confirms Voyager is in Asia year around. Sales from May 16 https://secure.royalcaribbean.com.au/media/pdf/reports/RCI_201819_ProgrammeRelease_FA_Final.pdf

 

Good to see finally, thanks for posting!

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Guest012

Guest012

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Good to hear Mariner is coming home.

 

We did the Barcelona - Dubai sector when she repositioned to Asia, out of all the Voyager sisters we like her the best, even with the builders onboard readying her for Asia :'):') looking forward to a sector or 2 or maybe even booking all 3.

 

Thanks everyone for all the information you guys are great :*:):)

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crzndeb

crzndeb

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Any word on Apr '19 Transpacific for Explorer?

 

Since it's the 27th in Australia, it is listed for Apr 23, 2019 in the link from J Busworth above. The US should have it available tomorrow as was posted a while back. Not sure if available at Crown and Anchor.

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