KarateMan

I think Princess are lying to you. There are no laws that prevent Princess from doing what they want the moment the ship leaves the Australian immigration zone and transits to international waters. It is not an Australian flagged ship and not subject to Australian laws in international waters. The only time it has to obey Australian laws is when the ship is tied up in an Australian port or transiting Australia without going international.

I hate it when they try to upgrade us too.

My wife and I love our inside Lido deck cabin and we have chosen the same cabin for 5 straight cruises. We love the location, we love the convenience of knowing exactly where everything is from our room, and we love how dark the room is for our 5pm-630pm pre-dinner nap. When we get back from the excursions or day at the pool there is nothing like 90 minutes of napping in the cool pitch black room, then a fresh shower, and off to the 8pm dinner and late night of dancing! We actually twice had a Princess rep argue with us that the ocean view room or obstructed balcony they wanted to put us in for an upgrade was better. We said NO. We love our cabin and don't want anything else!

Stop the upgrade fairy!!! :eek:

I am in the same position as you. I absolutely love Lido Deck cabins and go for the inside cabin. It is an excellent location being on that deck and not too far walk from the pools and deck food outlets and the prime viewing areas when scenic cruising or entering or leaving port.

I had a bad experience just this year when around 4 days before sailing I received an upgrade notification from Princess. In my view it was actually a "downgrade" to an obstructed view cabin on E deck. In my opinion a lousy location compared to what I already had. Despite the face there was a window these cabins have no atmosphere and are no different to insides. For me the choice is simple either a balcony cabin or an inside cabin. The lack of ability to get fresh air in an outside cabin kind of makes them less desirable.

When I rang Princess to ask for my original cabin back I was actually abused by the Princess call centre staff for wanting my original cabin back. I was told I had to take it and was yelled at that it was a good upgrade. I told her straight back she was talking BS and that after well over 25 cruises and elite status I knew a hell of a lot more about ship cabins than she could ever hope to learn.

I ended up getting my cabin back but there are some myths that people don't realise.

The moment you are upgraded your cabin is immediately allocated to someone else and Princess has to then remove them from your cabin. The reason I know this is because there was someone else's name on my cabin door, the beds were in the wrong configuration and I had other passengers baggage delivered to my cabin with them thinking they had secured an upgrade. To make matters worst all of my welcome letters, shore excursion tickets and elite party invitations were delivered to the wrong cabin and I had to physically go to each desk on the ship getting printouts of what went missing.

I am on Diamond at the moment. All announcements are in English. the Japanese baths have both nude and bathing suit times. The menu started with the always available side Japanese food but has now changed back to what we Aussies are used to. The cruise director Dan is really good. We are having a great time and would recommend the ship.

There was NEVER any changes to the menu on the Diamond Princess ever. I was on that ship in Japan and can assure you that the menu was still 100% the Princess menu. There was never any changes for the Japanese market. The reason I know this is because I can read Japanese.

On the menu under always available they put Romanised Japanese words like Tori-niku, Buta-niku, Gyuu-niku etc. To the people that cant speak the language these may look like different styles but when you translate it the meaning becomes clear.

Tori-Niku spelled 鶏肉 with two Chinese symbols literally translates to "bird" "meat" which is what the Japanese call "chicken"

Buta-niku 豚肉 again with two Chinese symbols literally translates to "pig" "meat" with the word "buta" meaning "pig" and by now it should be obvious what "niku" means.

Gyuu-niku 牛肉 again two Chinese symbols meaning beef. Literally translates to "cow" "meat"

The interesting thing about their language is that the word for cow 牛 is Ushi. The proceeding symbol on its own is pronounced "ushi", however when the symbol is combined with another symbol the phonetic sound changes and it becomes "gyuu"

It is the same with all Chinese borrowed Japanese characters.

This symbol here can have many meanings despite the fact it is the same symbol. 空 Depending on the context it can be pronounced "kuu", "sora" or "kara"

空港 - In this sequence it is airport - Kuukou

空 - Alone it can mean sky - sora

空 Alone it can mean empty - kara

I thoroughly examined that menu on the Diamond Princess and it was exactly the same as it always has been, just translated into Japanese and made to look more fancy for us by Romanising Japanese words.

No, I did not tell you that I think that nor did I imply it, but thank you for trying to read my mind :D I think a solution would be to indeed have those three shows a night that you mention. They used to do that but now they seem to have cut back to two, for the last few cruises I've been on. Also, since we are talking facts, it is simply not true that the Princess Theater is empty besides that 90 minutes a day. I have seen it used for movies, naturalist talks, cooking demonstrations, dance lessons, lectures, talks/tours with the singers and dancers, shopping talks, port talks, gemstone shows, etc., depending on the itinerary -- and it is also used by the performers for their rehearsals, which seems like a perfectly valid and important use of that "massive empty theater."

Three shows seems reasonable.

I for one would hate back row seats in that theatre so expanding it would probably not win them any fans. Even with the first quoted number of seats there is no way three shows would cater to all passengers.

I suspect the idea around the theatre size was the realisation that they also have the mid-ship and aft show lounges to run shows simultaneously.

Perhaps the sense of contracting known popular performers to three shows an evening would be idea.

Of my observations of the ship I know its theatre size is very generous compared to some ships. Check out how big the theatre is on the Sun class.

Even if the numbers are off the complaint is valid WRT Golden: we arrived 30 minutes before that same magic show and it was already full. We had to stand along the side for those 30 minutes plus the entire show time.

So you mean to tell me you think Princess should have built a bigger theatre sacrificing other passenger deck space for events that only occur for a total duration of 90 minutes (3x 30 minute shows) and then have a massive empty theatre not being used the rest of the time. I personally think it is a fairly decent size considering the size of the ship.

3) The showroom. This is a problem we've noticed on all Princess ships--the Showroom is far too small in scale for the number of passengers onboard. If these sites are correct...

 

http://archives.starbulletin.com/2002/03/31/travel/story3.html

 

http://www.dandgmedia.com/ships/golden-princess

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lyng883/sets/72157594427771930/comments/

 

...it seats only 748 passengers for a show. The ship sails with over 3,000 passengers onboard. The result is that there is clearly nowhere near the needed seating, even with two shows a night. On a three night cruise with only one port stop, people actually want to go to the shows. We showed up TWENTY MINUTES before the curtain on the second night for the magician's 8:15 show and there was already not an available seat in the house--not even a handicapped seat for my sister who was just coming off back surgery immediately prior to the cruise. We only got "lucky" in that there was a group of 18 hearing impaired people onboard and someone had blocked off a large group of seats in the front corner for them--and, when some didn't show just a couple of minutes prior to show time, they conceded us the last two seats in the first two rows...

The issue I take with this part is that you have given the incorrect information about the number of passengers on the ship.

Golden Princess can only take around 2,600. It is the Crown, Emerald, Ruby and Caribbean that have an extra deck on top which enable them to carry well over 3,300 passengers.

The complaint about the theatre would be more fitting for those ships.

Also out of all the ships I have sailed on the size is pretty standard and you cannot get much bigger on many other ships. Then again the Golden Princess at 109,000 tons is of no comparison to ships like the Oasis at around 220,000tons.

I think the adds are totally poxy, bizarre, peculiar and downright strange. If it was my favourite lines doing the adds I would never confess to cruising with them and deny all association.

No one is talking about removing the thread only removing themselves from it

So could you please explain how (quote put an end to it once and for all un quote) would be policed , do you have to go through a counselling session before you board and have your bank account checked so as you have enough money to compensate all the other passengers? and to check peoples wills so that it is included

But wait a minute lets not stop there what about Class Actions against people who board knowing they are carry some sort of virus and don't fill out the medical declaration truthfully and some fellow passengers are confined to there cabins for days after contracting there virus I suppose you think that's not a selfish act??? then we could take class actions against the selfish people who wont use the hand sanitisers

Also cruise lines could forget about OBC and instead offer onboard free Legal advice maybe through in a solicitor as the bingo jackpot prize ???

I think at the end of the day the cruise lines will have to take notice of what is going on. There are certain factors which may all relate to these situations and there may be warning signs for the cruise lines to take notice of.

Things like 1.) medical conditions, 2.) travel insurance status which may indicate a pattern in this behaviour. Cruise lines would have their own statistics and warning signs of what to look out for and hopefully address the issue.

I love the cruise industry, I love cruise ships and I hate to see something I love with a passion dragged through the media like this.

Denial of boarding to certain people without insurance may eventually happen if it is the case that they have terminal illnesses and have been denied insurance.

When I criticise I think of the impact it has on society as a whole and the people involved that are effected for a long time after dealing with such depressing acts.

LOL! So true! I agree with you that the Golden is in good shape, though maybe not the best in the fleet. (Not sure how you would determine that anyway.) My theory is that all those short coastals she has been doing are bringing on more passengers (approx. 2000 x 8 times a month) so there is a bigger pool of reviewers. More reviews=more attention, so the focus on her faults is magnified. The Golden has not been my favorite ship, but I've been on her so much lately, I've come to appreciate her more.

All I can say was 31 nights around South America is that I had a great time on the ship and could not fault the ship in any way at all.

All of the so called faults that many people posting here claim to have seen I did not see at all. I had plenty of time to find faults and would have found them but did not find any. I even had several consecutive sea days on that cruise so if there were faults they would not have escaped me.

OK "Gentlemen", back to your corners.:)

I am actually laughing at some of the negative posts I read. It doesn't make me angry, they just make me laugh uncontrollably.

I was on the Golden Princess for 31 nights just this year around South America. From people who know what I post I am not afraid to speak my mind and wont hold back criticism where it is due.

Complaints about the ship being in a state of disrepair are literally making me laugh.

Sorry I missed all that. I was too busy still laughing about the comment that the Golden was in the best shape of the entire fleet. LOL

 

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I actually find it laughable and quite bizarre that anyone would think the ship is in dire need of a dry dock.

LMAO! Best shape of the entire fleet? Seriously.... Perhaps an Optometrist might help.

 

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I would bet my eyes are sharper than yours, plus I have got age on my side here. I have got to be one of the youngest elite cruisers on Princess so its not as if I spend little time on ships. I am also under 40. My standards are very high. I never stay in hotels that are rated less than 5 star. I never fly with budget airlines and I despise cheapness and backpacker accommodation. I refuse to ride in taxis and only book chauffer driven cars. I have high standards and I would never be afraid to publicly criticise a cruise line if it were not up to my expectations. I am probably a harsh critic. In fact I have deemed Island Princess unfit for further cruises after its upcoming refit due to its shameful grab of public space.

I want to point out that I was also on Diamond Princess this August and it is just out of refit doing Japan at the time. In all honesty I could say Golden Princess was on par with Diamond Princess.

The ship was in Fantastic shape.

Having sailed on her half a dozen times over the last year I can simply say she is a tired ship in desperate need of drydock.

 

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I could honestly say I think the ship was in the best shape of the entire Princess fleet. An outstanding ship with a great cruise experience.

Perhaps you were on another ship???

As part of my work I have had to been cleared with criminal background checks. They basically print you a certificate saying "at the date of issue there are no discloseable court outcomes recorded" I keep .pdf files saved in my laptop of such documents. This day and age with all the banned people you would hate to be denied entry over a name mix-up as well.

 

With the above AU authorities do not share information with U.S for anything other than serious matters, If a person has a conviction that is "spent" (10 years after completion of sentence) they have a legal right to tick "no" to criminal convictions on any documentation with just a few exceptions dependant on some Govnt job application types or conviction type like paedophilia and murder which are never "Spent, an AFP police clearance shows no convictions when a conviction is "Spent"

 

In USA there is no such thing as spent conviction.

If your legally entitled to tick no to criminal convictions or arrests then you should tick no.

I have seen news stories where people have been denied entry because they were silly enough to tick "yes" when all they had were driving infringements. I cant recall the details but once they applied for a visa and it was established they were also treated for mental illness it was goodbye and see you later, your not coming into USA. From what I read of the report was that the person was legally entitled to tick no to all the questions and enter under the VWP. I believe it was a British news story and not Australian.

Also I forgot to mention a criminal record can prevent travel to the USA. If you have a record you are likely to have to go through the visa application process and leave it up to them if they want you.

Communicable diseases is another factor that can prevent entry as well as a list of other "undesirable" qualities the US does not want in their country.

On the ESTA website there is a list of questions. If you tick yes to any of them then you need to apply for a visa.

As part of my work I have had to been cleared with criminal background checks. They basically print you a certificate saying "at the date of issue there are no discloseable court outcomes recorded" I keep .pdf files saved in my laptop of such documents. This day and age with all the banned people you would hate to be denied entry over a name mix-up as well.

They don't muck around when it comes to banning people from their country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_barred_or_excluded_from_the_United_States

They have banned people like the current Prime Minister of India who has just recently been in Australia. Even singer Cat Stevens was banned and deported because he "changed his name"

It would be an extremely foolish and irresponsible thing not to get an ESTA. You will be denied entry into the USA without one. Things like this ruin peoples holidays all because they are cheap and want to save a few $$$ by avoiding the processing fee.

The law is very clear on this and the USA is very strict on immigration procedures and do not turn a blind eye to anyone.

Any travel to USA regardless of who you are with you require an ESTA if you are an Australian citizen and passport holder. That includes transit flights.

I'm with you Karateman but what other choice will we have? Seems most companies are going the same way. When we did around Australia on Solstice recently (122000 tonnes) the only ports we could get into on the west coast were Fremantle and Port Hedland. No Geralton, Broome or Exmouth. It was embarrassing with so many international visitors onboard to dock in Port Hedland. The only tour was of BHP. It will take a major revamping of most Aussie ports to take ships of that size.

There will be choices that fill the gap when cruise ships and lines get too large. Lesser known cruise lines will probably start making an impact giving people more choice, or people will fork out extra cash for luxury lines like Regent and Crystal in the face of overwhelming competition.

I do foresee that luxury lines like Crystal and Regent will make a big impact in years to come and the major lines are forcing that to happen. With all the extra charges like alcohol packages, drink packages, excursions, special areas on the ship to pay to use, with all of these pay for extra perks people will soon realise why not pay one up front fee and get it all on a luxury ship. The mass market lines have opened the door for paying for more things. It is inevitable that they will destroy their own product forcing the true cruise loving people onto other lines.

It basically means one day I will be looking for a new cruise line.

Ships with about 2,600 passengers and about the size of the current Grand class 109,000tons are my limit. I have no time or desire to cruise on a ship that has over 3,000 passengers let alone 4,000 passengers.

I began cruising on ships that were 76,000tons and 1,800 passengers. I liked that size a lot. The biggest I can tolerate is the Grand class.

Unfortunately if cruise lines decide to go for bigger is better I will be searching for a new line that caters to normal size.

Its an outstanding ship and one of the best Princess ships in the fleet today.

It is traditional Princess style. The Sun, Dawn and Sea have simply been changed to represent Australian traditions of not tipping. Obviously Australians sent the message loud and clear by constantly removing tips so Princess was forced to change for ships based here. That is the only difference.

I was on it on the 31st August sailing out of Tokyo and was very impressed with it. It is in excellent condition and had had a major refit. TV is now programs and movies on demand, layout is similar to other Princess ships. There is no International Café in the Atrium meaning that it is less crowded with people forming lines to get food. There are slight differences to other Princess ships.

For its Asian cruises it went Japanese style. They now have Japanese baths where the children's centre used to be. Also on the Promenade deck next to Sabatini's they have introduced Kai Sushi which literally translates to the word Ocean - 海　with the kanji symbol giving its name. Normally that symbol on its own is pronounced "umi", again meaning ocean. The Japanese have almost two names for every word depending on the context of how they are used.

As for the cost of things on board and US dollars being used. Who cares. You are there to enjoy yourself. You are not going to have a good time dwelling on the trivial and insignificant like currency used and worrying about saving a few dollars is only going to give you a headache and prevent you having any fun.

I don't mind the self promotion of someone who risked their life for my freedom. They have a valid reason to be proud of their accomplishments.

What I tend to admire is the modesty of WWII veterans these days. Their medals only ever come out of special occasions and dates of significance. Since WWII I can honestly say that there has never been a war that matches its horrors and toll on humanity and the sacrifice that people took.

I have been on many cruises where I have found out many passengers were WWII veterans. They seem to lead by example on this. You never see them flaunting their medals ever. Personally I would never dare put mine on in the face of a WWII veteran that does not have theirs on.

This line of thinking is probably due to my military service. Even medals there where were times and places that they could only be worn. The large medals rarely made an appearance. Most occasions it was just ribbons. If you were in non dress/formal uniform then it was no medals or ribbons at all.

What do people think of the wearing of your Military Service Ribbons or Minature Medals to the ship's formal nights. I have seen some passengers wearing their medals (Minature) to these functions. Is it appropriate or not. If it is appropriate I may wear mine on my next cruise.

My personal thoughts it should only be done on a significant historical date of remembrance. At other times it is blatant self promotion.

Some countries have strict rules about the wearing of them and also service uniforms. In Australia you are forbidden to wear a military uniform unless you are representing the service you are in on an official capacity. It is also a criminal offence to wear the uniform when you are discharged and you can be charged with impersonation even though you used to be a member. I believe it is the same rules for Britain as it is here in Australia.

America I believe the rules are somewhat different and I am guessing it is a traditional thing to wear the service uniform as a mark of respect to the nation.

As far as medals go the only time they should be worn is on full dress uniform or if it is a significant historical date.

To be perfectly honest here the term "mini suite" should be taken with scepticism. To be extremely honest a few years back these were just standard balcony cabins. Princess simply changed the name to "mini suite" to make them sound more appealing. All it is that you have been given is just a slightly different standard balcony cabin in probably a better location with a fancier name.

In all my years travelling the term suite is a crass insult to the word. Most cruise ship suites are smaller than the bathrooms of leading hotel suites.

Outstanding ship and in excellent condition.

In March I did the 31 night South America cruise from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles. I could not fault the ship at all and had a fantastic time.

I cant explain bad reviews, perhaps some people are so far up themselves that they see the need to big-note their life and elude to the fact that they are used to having better. Some people are never happy unless they are criticising things.

Its best just to go with the flow over here and you will be right. It is easy to understand the situation better when you are here. I believe some years ago Princess did integrate tips into the fares as too many Australians removed the auto-deductions. Still to this day and age there are Australians who have no idea what "tipping" is.

No matter who you ask you will get a totally different answer. All I can say is that Australia is traditionally a non-tipping country. I did not know what a "tip" was until I was 20 years old. There are some people who don't understand it and may think it is weird or strange for someone to slip them cash. Many Australians do not understand the concept of it so it is best not to ask and to just watch and see how things are done and just go along.

I can guarantee no matter how many Australians respond to questions like this they will all have different answers, ideas and opinions of it.

When I did the Kuranda Scenic Railway in 2008 it was part of the Aurora world Cruise where I did a sector from Sydney to Hong Kong.

In the weeks leading up to my visit, Queensland got an absolute drenching with rain and there was plenty of floodwater around the surrounding areas. The waterfall at Stoney Creek and Barron Falls was gushing due to excessive rain.

Overall I was very impressed with the railway. I could possibly do it again if I was there. The Sky Rail does seem interesting now by all accounts I have read here.