COVID19 update number 15

 Well, no surprises, P&O have extended their "pause" in cruise operations to 3 March 2022, which means our 80's seabreak cruise is not happening.

Another issue has also raised its ugly head in the meantime - the state government is talking about only allowing NSW residents onto cruises leaving from Sydney, which would also exclude us from our March 2022 cruise.  Hopefully they decide that this is one of the situations where the ACT is just part of NSW.  

Anyway, time will tell.

COVID19 update number 14

 I forgot that when they cancelled our P&O cruise, they wouldn't refund the money to us - Paul, Adam and I each got a $49 Future Cruise Credit instead.  Impossible to use really, because they're still insisting that to use it, the cruise has to be booked by 31 December this year - i.e. only about 6 weeks away - and taken by 31 December 2022.  At this point, I still expect to be working full-time for all of 2022, and I've already got three cruises booked in 2022 so taking another one would be a bit of an issue.

The obvious thing to do is to lose the $49.  In my case, this same $49 has been the deposit on I think three different cruises already, and I had written it off as a loss long ago.

Instead, I've booked us a long weekend cruise from Sydney - leaving on Friday night 25 February 2022 and returns on Sunday morning after spending the weekend sailing around, probably just outside Sydney Heads.  Apparently celebrating the 80's although not a lot of detail - and the fact that the advertisement shows a 70's disco ball is a interesting!  Anyway, if it all happens, this one will now be my first cruise in more than two years.  And, I'd only need to take one day off work, which is also a bonus when we're still trying to work our way through house renovations.

Have to say though, the chances of it happening seem to be low.  Although the powers that be are finally at least talking about allowing cruise ships back into the country and admitting that it needs to happen:

• The Australian Government is inexplicably claiming that they need the State governments to act first, even though the  State governments have absolutely no control over the Australian government's long-standing ban on cruise ships and it would make zero sense for the States to start making cruise-related announcements while that ban is in place.
• The State Governments claim to be keen, but interstate travel is still highly problematic.  I mean, at the moment, the only States I can go to freely are NSW and Victoria.  Queensland I can go to if I want to spend 14 days in quarantine and maybe NT is the same.  The rest, absolutely not.  And the NSW Health department was absolutely and quite unfairly savaged about the Ruby Princess, so they're going to be less than co-operative, I'd think.
• It's generally conceded that it will take a cruise line 60 to 90 days to get a cruise ship that's in a warm shut-down to the point where it's ready to take passengers.  As of today it's only 97 days until this cruise.  
• And, the ship in question couldn't be much further away from us - it's currently somewhere near Trieste in Italy where it has spent some time being changed from the Golden Princess to the Pacific Adventure.

Still, you have to be hopeful, so, here's to our upcoming 80's weekend!