Stowaways snails on Coral Princess

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

We drove through a plague of locusts in rural NSW en route to Broken Hill.  A local stopped us and told us to go to Bunnings?  to buy netting to protect our engine parts.  We had never seen anything like it!

We were lucky to just catch the edge of it so it wasn't too bad but quite scary for a few moments.

[NeilonBoard]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

With half the number of passengers on Coral Princess who probably pay double or more pp in fares Viking can probably afford to be very generous in compensation.

 

Personally I think Princess has also been generous, as they have been ever since the restart. After all the passengers on that cruise are still being accommodated, fed, and entertained for the full length of the cruise they booked. If they booked with Plus or Premium fares they are still getting full benefits of those packages. Yes, they are missing Dunedin and Fiordland which is sad but there is always the risk of missing one or both of those due to adverse weather conditions.

The $100 in credit is probably a refund of the port fees for Dunedin which is the only port they will miss. It's not unusual to miss Fiordland. Cruise companies cover the possibility of missed ports very carefully in their fine print. I wonder what everyone is doing today on Christmas Day in Christchurch. With probably nothing open and minimal public transport it's probably not worth getting off the ship. Might as well be just another sea day after 5 sea days from Brisbane.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, NeilonBoard said:

The $100 in credit is probably a refund of the port fees for Dunedin which is the only port they will miss. It's not unusual to miss Fiordland. Cruise companies cover the possibility of missed ports very carefully in their fine print. I wonder what everyone is doing today on Christmas Day in Christchurch. With probably nothing open and minimal public transport it's probably not worth getting off the ship. Might as well be just another sea day after 5 sea days from Brisbane.

No, the port fees will be a separate credit. We had OBC and FCC on two recent Coral cruises when ports were missed and the refunded port fees showed separately on our account.

 

I'm sure they will have the shuttle buses as they are required to get off the wharf. There may not be much open in Lyttelton but there will be things to do in Christchurch including ship's excursions.

Edited December 25, 2022 by OzKiwiJJ

[Pushka]

8 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

With half the number of passengers on Coral Princess who probably pay double or more pp in fares Viking can probably afford to be very generous in compensation.

 

Personally I think Princess has also been generous, as they have been ever since the restart. After all the passengers on that cruise are still being accommodated, fed, and entertained for the full length of the cruise they booked. If they booked with Plus or Premium fares they are still getting full benefits of those packages. Yes, they are missing Dunedin and Fiordland which is sad but there is always the risk of missing one or both of those due to adverse weather conditions.

I've been on both Viking and Princess and Viking was the more expensive for an Alaskan cruise. Certainly less passengers though. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 hours ago, Pushka said:

I've been on both Viking and Princess and Viking was the more expensive for an Alaskan cruise. Certainly less passengers though. 

Yes, that was what I meant but after rereading it my post was a bit confusing.

[boeckli]

On 12/25/2022 at 10:46 AM, arxcards said:

It is possible they may need to refuel.

 

Not just a refuel stop. Per AIS, Orion arrived at 08:20 this morning and is still there now (16:00 NZ time).

AIS now shows Adelaide as next port of call with an ETA of 31/12 at 06:00.

Interestingly she shares the wharf in Wellington with Coral Princess ...

 

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, boeckli said:

 

Not just a refuel stop. Per AIS, Orion arrived at 08:20 this morning and is still there now (16:00 NZ time).

AIS now shows Adelaide as next port of call with an ETA of 31/12 at 06:00.

Interestingly she shares the wharf in Wellington with Coral Princess ...

 

Just doesn't seem consistent with being banned from NZ ports to then call at a NZ port. Unlike other ships, Orion wasn't scheduled to do the fiords so it isn't just about keeping "dirty" ships out of there.

 

So the plan would be to fix the problem, then onto Melbourne & Sydney - or are the passengers flying home from Wellington today?