Royal ships for 2024/25 season.

[MicCanberra]

Royal Caribbean has listed Voyager of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas as new ships sailing out of Brisbane and Sydney.

[resordanis]

10 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Royal Caribbean has listed Voyager of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas as new ships sailing out of Brisbane and Sydney.

If Voyager can avoid tendering at places like Cairns, Port Vila and closer to town in Auckland, I might just cruise from Brisbane.

Anthem doesn’t hold any joy for me unfortunately.

[SinbadThePorter]

6 minutes ago, resordanis said:

If Voyager can avoid tendering at places like Cairns

 

I can't see that any ship over 290m length has gotten onto Cairns wharf.

 

Voyager is 311m.

[resordanis]

6 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I can't see that any ship over 290m length has gotten onto Cairns wharf.

 

Voyager is 311m.

I think I have been to Vila and Auckland though on Voyaget? I don’t want to tender in Yorkeys though, so my options are limited. I have a hold on a Crown Princess cruise, so that might be it for us it does say Cairns.

Edited April 8 by resordanis

[SinbadThePorter]

3 minutes ago, resordanis said:

I don’t want to tender in Yorkeys

 

Did Yorkey's last month on Quantum. Completely hopeless getting 4000 people off and on by tender. Never again.

[aussielozzie18]

Carnival Luminosa must have just scraped in - 293.5 in length and we docked in Cairns thankfully 

[resordanis]

1 minute ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Did Yorkey's last month on Quantum. Completely hopeless getting 4000 people off and on by tender. Never again.

Exactly. Our son lives in Cairns and have wasted at times 1/2 day getting off even with priority tendering. Doesn’t matter when Royal Caribbean or Princess too many people to get off!

[MicCanberra]

Anthem is basically the same as Quantum and an older version of Ovation and Spectrum, so even the ship isn't a draw card for me.

[ScottishRobbie]

Fingers crossed with Voyager supposedly coming to Brisbane we might get a few South Pacific itineraries to the ports that Quantum/Ovation (and presumably also Anthem) are too big to get in to. Looking forward to seeing We Will Rock You on Anthem (and also a slight change in restaurants, Johnny Rockets rather than Ovation's Fish & Ships for example).

[arxcards]

53 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I can't see that any ship over 290m length has gotten onto Cairns wharf.

 

Voyager is 311m.

Width in the channel is also a factor.

Voyager has had port entries for Yorkeys Knob for several months. To save on having 3 tender posts, they are overnighting at Yorkeys instead of going up to Port Douglas.

[arxcards]

19 minutes ago, ScottishRobbie said:

Fingers crossed with Voyager supposedly coming to Brisbane we might get a few South Pacific itineraries to the ports that Quantum/Ovation (and presumably also Anthem) are too big to get in to. Looking forward to seeing We Will Rock You on Anthem (and also a slight change in restaurants, Johnny Rockets rather than Ovation's Fish & Ships for example).

Fingers crossed for Lelepa, or it will be more of the same itineraries on a ship from the 20th century.

[MicCanberra]

26 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Fingers crossed for Lelepa, or it will be more of the same itineraries on a ship from the 20th century.

Yes, that may get me interested 

[SinbadThePorter]

29 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Fingers crossed for Lelepa

 

We can hope for the best, but the outrageous pricing at Coco Cay is not encouraging.

[Ozwoody]

I know I keep saying this,,,,, BUT why is there 3 princess cruises out of Sydney to Fiji in 2025, yet not even 1 from Brisbane?????

I know there is 1 Fiji cruise out of Brisbane by P&O, but what is Princess thinking that Brisbane only wants the same old ports, be great to have at least one more option than the same old same old.🤬

[rkmw]

33 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

I know I keep saying this,,,,, BUT why is there 3 princess cruises out of Sydney to Fiji in 2025, yet not even 1 from Brisbane?????

I know there is 1 Fiji cruise out of Brisbane by P&O, but what is Princess thinking that Brisbane only wants the same old ports, be great to have at least one more option than the same old same old.🤬

Princess is having one cruise to PNG in 2 years time but p&o go there quite a bit Brisbane and it would be nice if Royal can mix up the cruises a bit and go different ports instead of the same ones, South Pacific or Cairns 

[marquisite]

Speaking of Fiji, it would be cool if Royal Caribbean would call there during the 2025/2026 season (or beyond). 

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Ozwoody said:

I know I keep saying this,,,,, BUT why is there 3 princess cruises out of Sydney to Fiji in 2025, yet not even 1 from Brisbane?????

I know there is 1 Fiji cruise out of Brisbane by P&O, but what is Princess thinking that Brisbane only wants the same old ports, be great to have at least one more option than the same old same old.🤬

We are the minority John. The mainstream lines are catering to the boring bottom line and are selling cruises in a way to fill the ships. Sydney attracts international cruisers, and they help to fill these 2-week Pacific itineraries out of Sydney. 

 

Karen from Princess marketing things that anyone from QLD only wants to cruise for more than 9 nights if they are going to NZ. Aside from the dual porting of the long voyages, it is a bit of NZ, a bit of Tassie, one to the Pacific and one to PNG, Everything else is 8 nights and under. On top of that, your Princess QLD season shrinks rapidly with Coral Princess leaving.

 

Phyllis from P&O agrees. They do a few PNG with encounter, but mostly out of peak season which is also out of cyclone season. Encounter is your year-round ship, yet between now & early 2026 they go to Fiji once (in May) and a Bounty cruise in August. They are both off-season and outside of school holidays. Very few cruises longer than 7 nights. Short cruises from Brisbane are an easier sell for P&O.

 

Carrie from Carnival is in the same boat. The only local Luminosa cruises longer than 8 nights go to PNG, of which there are 3 over the next 2 seasons.

 

I haven't checked Royal, but suspect Voyager will be the same as it was for Quantum, with most cruises up to 8 nights.

 

It costs me less than $10 to get from home to OPT, yet we have cruised out of Brisbane in 2022, 2024 and have two cruises out of BICT next year. I actually like the option of doing 7-night cruises from Brisbane. It isn't that far back that Brisbane only had a single ship from P&O, so hopefully there are incredible alternatives ahead in the next few years.

 

[Ozwoody]

2 hours ago, rkmw said:

Princess is having one cruise to PNG in 2 years time but p&o go there quite a bit Brisbane and it would be nice if Royal can mix up the cruises a bit and go different ports instead of the same ones, South Pacific or Cairns 

Exactly

[Ozwoody]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

We are the minority John. The mainstream lines are catering to the boring bottom line and are selling cruises in a way to fill the ships. Sydney attracts international cruisers, and they help to fill these 2-week Pacific itineraries out of Sydney. 

 

Karen from Princess marketing things that anyone from QLD only wants to cruise for more than 9 nights if they are going to NZ. Aside from the dual porting of the long voyages, it is a bit of NZ, a bit of Tassie, one to the Pacific and one to PNG, Everything else is 8 nights and under. On top of that, your Princess QLD season shrinks rapidly with Coral Princess leaving.

 

Phyllis from P&O agrees. They do a few PNG with encounter, but mostly out of peak season which is also out of cyclone season. Encounter is your year-round ship, yet between now & early 2026 they go to Fiji once (in May) and a Bounty cruise in August. They are both off-season and outside of school holidays. Very few cruises longer than 7 nights. Short cruises from Brisbane are an easier sell for P&O.

 

Carrie from Carnival is in the same boat. The only local Luminosa cruises longer than 8 nights go to PNG, of which there are 3 over the next 2 seasons.

 

I haven't checked Royal, but suspect Voyager will be the same as it was for Quantum, with most cruises up to 8 nights.

 

It costs me less than $10 to get from home to OPT, yet we have cruised out of Brisbane in 2022, 2024 and have two cruises out of BICT next year. I actually like the option of doing 7-night cruises from Brisbane. It isn't that far back that Brisbane only had a single ship from P&O, so hopefully there are incredible alternatives ahead in the next few years.

 

I can see what you say, but if we have all of them doing the same thing, isn't that reducing their customer base if all the offerings are the same boring repeats??? If they had more options then people would not be going overseas to get more variation in cruising.🤷‍♂️

 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

I can see what you say, but if we have all of them doing the same thing, isn't that reducing their customer base if all the offerings are the same boring repeats??? If they had more options then people would not be going overseas to get more variation in cruising.🤷‍♂️

 

If they are cruising overseas for variety, as long as you choose their brand they still win. P&O lack the ability to have you cruising with them overseas, yet they also have less variety than they did a few years ago. Currently, for most brands, it is lowest common denominator cruising. That would appear to be driven by lower price point, and shorter itineraries fit with that. When I lament the lack of variety, I look at where Melbourne and Freo currently are and am happy to mostly settle for what is available from Sydney or Brisbane. For great island itineraries, look at Pacific Explorer ex-Auckland. They have pinched the good ones.

https://www.pocruises.com.au/cruises/fiji-encounter/x431 (plus 5 more dates).

https://www.pocruises.com.au/cruises/tongan-discovery/x532

 

[icat2000]

6 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

I know I keep saying this,,,,, BUT why is there 3 princess cruises out of Sydney to Fiji in 2025, yet not even 1 from Brisbane?????

I know there is 1 Fiji cruise out of Brisbane by P&O, but what is Princess thinking that Brisbane only wants the same old ports, be great to have at least one more option than the same old same old.🤬

Least you have a Princess ship. Try being Melbourne as your home port. Nada for us.

[Ozwoody]

8 hours ago, icat2000 said:

Least you have a Princess ship. Try being Melbourne as your home port. Nada for us.

Yes your right, I'm being greedy,🤦‍♂️              But would still like a Princess (or similar cruise line) Fiji from Brisy. Just not keen on P&O, to party ship for this oldie.😉

[MicCanberra]

Abc breakfast just had a comedian on who stated he was on a cruise ship doing shows. Couldn't name the line but the initials had a P and an O.

First day aboard, he meets a guy, drunk, shirtless and a neck tattoo, saying how rocky the ship was.

Turns out it was the Captain and they were still docked at White Bay. 

 

[colourbird]

They could have sent a Quantum ultra class ship to Sydney instead of an older ship. Virgin sent their newest ship to Australia. Other lines don't seem to be able to do that.

[MicCanberra]

1 minute ago, colourbird said:

They could have sent a Quantum ultra class ship to Sydney instead of an older ship. Virgin sent their newest ship to Australia. Other lines don't seem to be able to do that.

P&O always have their newest ships here.