New ships coming to Australian Waters

[jajsmom]

15 hours ago, gbenjo said:

Curious as to how  many CC’s are booked on a Disney cruise, considering we seem to be an “ older” group of cruisers. We  ( the company I work for) are doing the embark/ debark for them and just by the amount of training we will be doing it would appear the whole Disney experience will be very different ( in a good way) to anything we have previously seen in Australia .Obviously their cruises are aimed more at the younger family demographic so it will be interesting how many of us oldies will cruise with them.

Well, I'm older, but Disney is my cruise line of choice. With all of the current complaints with other cruise lines, the only complaint I have with Disney is the price.  We haven't sailed with our kids (now adults) in over 10 years, but we love the adult areas of the ship.  Disney has service like no other.  We're doing a B2B on Princess in Australia/New Zealand this year (23 nights) for half the price of a Disney Cruise.  For port intensive cruises, we choose Princess.  For sea days and a ship experience, we choose Disney.

[Johhno]

20 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Grand Princess isn't new to Australia, she was here last season homeporting in Melbourne. We cruised on her last March - Melbourne to Sydney via South Australia. 

 

We'll be trying Resilient Lady in February thanks to the Velocity points offer. 😊

We are currently on the Grand Princess heading to Hawaii and the rumour is onboard she’s going over to PO Cruises Aust later next year.

[arxcards]

4 hours ago, Johhno said:

We are currently on the Grand Princess heading to Hawaii and the rumour is onboard she’s going over to PO Cruises Aust later next year.

That rumour was going around last year too, and usually fits with a view of Aussie passengers that the ship is feeling a bit too old for Princess.

Princess have been selling cruises on her for Melbourne & Brisbane for "later next year" for the past 5 months, and are also selling a 2025 Alaska season. There are also forward port bookings for her to do yet another season in Brisbane in 2025/26. Things can change, but for this to happen a year from now gets a yeah-nah from me.

[ceeceeDee]

We have some young friends (late 20s) with whom we cruise semi regularly who are keen to try Disney. I suspect we will be pitchforked into it at some stage.😀 Who knows? We will probably enjoy it. We did when they dragged us to Disneyland Florida back in 2019.🤗

[icat2000]

I wanted to cruise Disney but Pete said no its for kids. So no Disney cruise for me. 😞 

[Ondine]

4 hours ago, arxcards said:

That rumour was going around last year too, and usually fits with a view of Aussie passengers that the ship is feeling a bit too old for Princess.

Princess have been selling cruises on her for Melbourne & Brisbane for "later next year" for the past 5 months, and are also selling a 2025 Alaska season. There are also forward port bookings for her to do yet another season in Brisbane in 2025/26. Things can change, but for this to happen a year from now gets a yeah-nah from me.

 

Later next year 2024/25 we have Diamond Princess here instead of Grand.  I think the Grand bookings for 2025/26 are just holding places at the moment.

 

P&O first started talking about getting Grand around 5 years ago so at some stage it will probably happen.  3 ships do not really fit into programming for Aust.  Ok having Adventure and Encounter for Brisbane and Sydney but Explorer is shared between Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland.  Makes for very short seasons in these ports.

 

However if Grand goes then it is one more smaller ship that is lost to Princess.  We are not going to get the new builds into Port Philip Bay.

[Ondine]

One other thing of interest was that when Grand Princess sailed here last season she had been fitted with Aussie power points prior to coming here.  I found this unusual.

I don't recall Golden having Aussie power points when she home ported Melbourne.  Memory could be failing me though.

[OzKiwiJJ]

22 minutes ago, Ondine said:

One other thing of interest was that when Grand Princess sailed here last season she had been fitted with Aussie power points prior to coming here.  I found this unusual.

I don't recall Golden having Aussie power points when she home ported Melbourne.  Memory could be failing me though.

All the cruise ships have a 220-240v circuit. It usually has a Euro socket but to change it to AU they probably only have to change the face plate - a very quick job. However on Coral it looks like they put in a whole new unit as those had the USB ports in them. Grand had USB ports in the bedlamps.

[Ondine]

The sockets were new on the desk top so not just a changeover of the European ones.

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 minutes ago, Ondine said:

The sockets were new on the desk top so not just a changeover of the European ones.

On Coral or Grand?

[arxcards]

34 minutes ago, Ondine said:

 

Later next year 2024/25 we have Diamond Princess here instead of Grand.  I think the Grand bookings for 2025/26 are just holding places at the moment.

 

P&O first started talking about getting Grand around 5 years ago so at some stage it will probably happen.  3 ships do not really fit into programming for Aust.  Ok having Adventure and Encounter for Brisbane and Sydney but Explorer is shared between Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland.  Makes for very short seasons in these ports.

 

However if Grand goes then it is one more smaller ship that is lost to Princess.  We are not going to get the new builds into Port Philip Bay.

They came and go. That is right about Grand next season. True that 25/26 could be a placeholder, but they need something there to replace Diamond that will be moving on after a single season. Short of anything fancy to announce, place markers are most likely the scheduled ship.

 

P&O was talking about Grand class more than 6 years ago, and some people assumed Grand Princess which was also the oldest of that class. After a bit of coin tossing, the Grand Class ship ended up being Golden. The following year it was Grand Princess being mentioned again, but was announced as Star Princess.

 

Princess could drop a ship or two at any time, but P&O doesn't have the market for another big ship. The tipping point isn't Perth, Adelaide or Melbourne - but Sydney. They will normally place two ships in Sydney for December & January, but are struggling to fill one. Next season, Princess is taking a ship away, Royal is taking a ship away, so P&O is not getting another next year. Regarding place markers, P&O doesn't have any for an extra ship, for which also hasn't been announced or available for sale.

 

Eventually, Auckland will get a full-time ship and Pac Explorer will be moved on, but neither will happen late next year.

[MicCanberra]

On 9/29/2023 at 1:14 PM, gbenjo said:

Curious as to how  many CC’s are booked on a Disney cruise, considering we seem to be an “ older” group of cruisers. We  ( the company I work for) are doing the embark/ debark for them and just by the amount of training we will be doing it would appear the whole Disney experience will be very different ( in a good way) to anything we have previously seen in Australia .Obviously their cruises are aimed more at the younger family demographic so it will be interesting how many of us oldies will cruise with them.

Not planning on cruising Disney or Virgin until they have an itinerary and the pricing is more enticing.

[gbenjo]

12 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Not planning on cruising Disney or Virgin until they have an itinerary and the pricing is more enticing.

This could be your achilles!

[Blackduck59]

I just drove past Brilliance of the Seas and Disney Wonder. They are both in Victoria North today.

[MicCanberra]

I found Victoria both brilliant and wonderful, so it is apt.

[gbenjo]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

I found Victoria both brilliant and wonderful, so it is apt.

Still in pain are we Mic? 😂😂😂😂😂

[Blackduck59]

Oops wrong information it's Radiance of the Seas, and apparently Westerdam will be here around 2000 hrs. for one of those appease the law stops. Too bad I would have liked to have seen her at least. Oh well I suspect she will be back next season.

[onlyslightlymad]

We were booked on Resilient Lady in December but had to cancel because of a change in work commitments. Happy to see that she is coming back for 2023/24 season so will try again.

I would like to try Disney but it's so expensive.  Actually, the prices on Celebrity have soared as well.  We are doing the Edge in February on a much deferred cruise (Covid), and I couldn't afford to book our room now.  The price has doubled.

[MicCanberra]

36 minutes ago, gbenjo said:

Still in pain are we Mic? 😂😂😂😂😂

Only when I read some postings 

[MicCanberra]

 

32 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

Oops wrong information it's Radiance of the Seas, and apparently Westerdam will be here around 2000 hrs. for one of those appease the law stops. Too bad I would have liked to have seen her at least. Oh well I suspect she will be back next season.

 

Victoria is both radiant and west of the dam, so it is still apt.

[ceeceeDee]

Getting back to which Princess MAY end up with P&O............ rumours always abound. When we were on Encounter in May, the scuttlebutt was that Coral Princess was coming across to P&O next year. I guess the only ones who know for sure would be the decision makers at Carnival and they may not have even considered moving any ships from Princess to P&O. Still, it can be interesting to speculate😀

[gbenjo]

59 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

Getting back to which Princess MAY end up with P&O............ rumours always abound. When we were on Encounter in May, the scuttlebutt was that Coral Princess was coming across to P&O next year. I guess the only ones who know for sure would be the decision makers at Carnival and they may not have even considered moving any ships from Princess to P&O. Still, it can be interesting to speculate😀

As I keep telling Chiliburn……….the Speculation of the Seas is here for another season.😁

[Chiliburn]

1 hour ago, gbenjo said:

As I keep telling Chiliburn……….the Speculation of the Seas is here for another season.😁

But they’re talking about Carnival ships Greyham ,isn’t Speculation of the seas a Royal Caribbean ship ?

[gbenjo]

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

But they’re talking about Carnival ships Greyham ,isn’t Speculation of the seas a Royal Caribbean ship ?

No, Sillyburn, It is a mythical ( does not exist  fyi ) vessel, owned by no one, that I happen to call the Speculation. It is full ( a shipload)  of assumptions/ speculation, based on unfounded hearsay, about vessels that may or may not come down under.

Edited October 1, 2023 by gbenjo

[Chiliburn]

48 minutes ago, gbenjo said:

No, Sillyburn, It is a mythical ( does not exist  fyi ) vessel, owned by no one, that I happen to call the Speculation. It is full ( a shipload)  of assumptions/ speculation, based on unfounded hearsay, about vessels that may or may not come down under.

It must be difficult going through life so serious.