aussielozzie18

Glad our IT dept has spent 2hrs trying to fix my work computer. Meant I can catch up on the fab reviews like yours. Glad your accident does not prevent from you from enjoying the finer things in life on board. Be warned having a solo cabin is addictive.

Fabulous review from a wonderful trip.. Been dipping in and out but need to read again in it’s entirety. Beautiful resort & Hawaii photos. Love your cabinet display of ship models and the latest model with the North Star.

From the bushwalk, it’s a short drive to West Head lookout. view of Lion Island View of Pittwater View of Barrenjoey Headland & Lighthouse that we walked up to again recently. The strip of land between Barrenjoey Headland and Palm Beach contains Palm Beach Golf Course.

Beautiful morning in Sydney for a bushwalk in Ku-ring-Gai Chase National Park

@ReneeFLL Enjoying your TR and look forward to following along. I would have reached out to you before now if I was able to meet up with you on the 29th. And I see from your TR you are in Sydney after NZ, we are away interstate on those dates. I do hope you have a great time in Sydney & New Zealand.

@Luckynana So sorry about Jim’s health issues on board and your stressful experience disembarking due to lack of communication. Pleased to hear Jim was well taken care of in Canada and now is resting comfortably at home.

You certainly get an interesting cross section of people if you do a bit of travel by Greyhound bus in the US.

The guest speaker on my friend’s Coral Explorer Cruise from Broome to Darwin earlier this year was the only one who tested positive to Covid on board. He wasn’t thrilled to be confined to his cabin. Wouldn’t surprise me if staff are encouraged to chat with solos.

No I didn’t. I’ll give it a week, then follow up with Princess if it’s still there.

Shared a table in the Buffet a couple of times at my request due to lack of tables - no issue. I would always seek a smaller table so as not to hog space for others. If anyone had asked to join me at the table in the buffet area I would have happily said yes. Each to their own but I didn’t feel like a Neville no friends or a dork dining solo in MDR.

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I think I know the answer to this but going to ask anyway. Just checked my bank account. Onboard final bill has gone through. Also a separate Princess charge for $100. I am assuming this is the holding fee that will eventually be reversed or drop off? Previous holding fees from hotels have been listed as pending so that’s why I am asking. Thanks,

Sorry, I am at work & missed your post. Re the MDR food, just remember that I was only on board for 3 nights. It’s just my experience from a short cruise. I did comment in the survey though. I usually do a massive amount of research before our family land holidays and I remember doing so much research prior to our first 3 family cruises with Royal on different ships, then my solos with Carnival & Holland America. For this one, being a short cruise, I just made sure I had the right docs, MDR bookings and at least a partial port tour and didn’t stress about the rest. Studying the ship layout would have been really helpful though. My booking was a last minute booking, I paid in full upfront. Glad you were able to pay the deposit you were comfortable with.

Definitely nice to chat to those next to you if you want to. Like you had a lovely couple that I ended up chatting to, so much so we almost ran late for the theatre performance. I just commented because if you were new to Princess-and wanted conversational privacy for whatever reason, you would be disappointed initially. Although I am sure the waiters would be more than happy to move you to a more private location, if the restaurant is not close to capacity and other tables are available.

Sounds like you really need to do your research before booking if you want a standard balcony cabin with cover on the Coral Princess

Princess were happy to put me on a share table and kept offering one at the restaurant entrance. So even though I booked a private table it wasn’t a problem to join a share table at the last minute if I wanted to (for dining early at 5.20pm at least).

The problem with being a solo diner is the waitstaff bring out your food too quickly (this has occurred on other lines too). Because you are not chatting, you finish your dish quicker. I now know to ask the waiters to give me a break between serving each course. Holland America (Noordam) had nice gaps between private tables in the area I was seated on the first two nights. Rest of the cruise was spent on a table of four with another couple.

Sounds wonderful. Look forward to doing it ourselves in 2024.

Being new to the ship and a short cruise, I really struggled with orientation. I actually only discovered that whole area that had the International cafe, Effys, the photo displays and the desk selling the medallion trinkets - the night before we disembarked... Many thanks for answering my questions before the cruise and for that valuable info you just provided. in August 2020, we were due to do our first Princess cruise as a one way from Vancouver to Whittier then a road trip around Alaska. That is back on the agenda. I book for itinerary & price. If Princess offered me an interesting itinerary and a decent price, I wouldn’t hesitate to book with Princess Australia again,

Didn’t have to go to guest services on the night before disembarkation to pay final bill. It was charged automatically to card linked to my account. Woke up to my emailed account statement this morning as well as a comprehensive post cruise survey to complete which I have done.

An upgrade to be a big balcony would be wonderful! I know what you mean about the look of the balconies. Photo of the AFT balconies. You can see the entire row where my cabin was located had no cover.

Next cruise with be with my young adult daughter on the “new” Carnival Luminosa from Brisbane to the Great Barrier Reef. I selected an AFT balcony cabin each for us on that one 🤣. Going to study the floor plan so I don’t get lost so much on that one…. Thanks for following my TR. Hopefully it was been useful for any other Princess newbies out there.

Despite the weather on the way down, had a lovely cruise. 3 nights and one port day was a really good first cruise back experience. I didn’t make full use of the Medallion. I couldn’t get it to work on my phone. My dining companions also first time to Princess loved ordering their drinks & room service on it. I am sure next time I cruise with a family member who is app smarter than me, I will make full use of it. Certainly it automatically unlocking the cabin door on approach was cool and not having to go to guest services when your room card stopped working was great. Only time I needed to go to guest services was to hopefully retrieve my jacket that I left behind during the boarding x-ray and thankfully they had it in lost property. I did this cruise after a bad few months of vertigo earlier in the year. Despite the bad weather, I found the Coral Princess very stable. Only time I noticed movement was at bedtime and It was a lovely gentle rocking me to sleep feeling during the trip down to Eden.

Before the cruise ships returned to Australia I said I wouldn’t do a cruise if I had to wear a mask all the time onboard and I didn’t actually realise before we boarded thatwe had to wear a mask all the time except when physically eating/drinking. But because I an fortunate not to have tested positive for Covid since the pandemic I ended up being appreciative of the mask requirement and really it was no hassle at all - except for the first afternoon when I exited the second lift and realised I wasn’t wearing my mask and had to walk all the way back to the AFT cabin to retrieve it. Didn’t do that again!

AFT means you do a lot of walking. I like walking but I probably won’t voluntarily choose an AFT if it’s the first time on that ship. Despite the walking and the lack of balcony cover, I was really happy with my cabin. Lifts were fast, never had to wait long (except for return from port day which is to be expected), often had lifts to myself but when others were in them everyone was very friendly and wearing masks. Only time there wasn’t a mask worn was a young girl about 11 and her mother was extremely apologetic saying her daughter had just broken the mask and they were heading back to their cabin to get another one (not that anyone said anything to the mum).