madnsneaky

There are some nice pubs within view of the line for the shuttles, I found one of those the best place to wait ;)

On a 5 night QLD sampler cruise on RCL in 2013 the casino did open when we were out of ports and a certain distance from Australia.

I have also had this problem, but only from cruise ships. Never had it from using the family boat for skiing or fishing, which we did a lot of when I was younger. On my first cruise which was 5 nights it lasted about 2 weeks, every time I sat down I felt like I was falling backwards. On my second cruise, which was 9 nights, it lasted the same amount of time, I ended up getting medication for it, which helped a little.

I have just disembarked from my last cruise a few days ago, which was 13 nights, and I feel great, a little wobbly the first couple of days, but no falling back sensation. I am very happy as I thought being a longer cruise it would be worse, but it has been a very quick adjustment. This for me was the worst part of cruising. Maybe I just need to take longer or more cruises haha.

We hired a van for six people (actually seats 8) from rent a dent, was waiting for us right outside the port gates, just had to sign and off we went, left van in same spot when we returned. Was a very easy process and only $150. We thought we might get a real bomb considering the name of the company, but it was pure luxury with electric everything and beautiful plush seats that laid right back. I would have taken that van home if I could. Would definitely recommend and use again. This was just last week.

Atta boy!!! And a cool $100 into the bargain. Great odds. Pretty rare I would think.

Haha, maybe not that rare, I cheekily bet $2 of his winnings on a race at Ascot and Yoshi Noxious came in at $81 for the win, another $100, very happy :)

Atta boy!!! And a cool $100 into the bargain. Great odds. Pretty rare I would think.

You got it, only the 4th time a 100 to 1 come in for the cup, when I told him, he said "I'm a part of that history" lol

Btw, absolutely perfect weather here today :)

And an exciting race, and big congrats to the first winning female jockey. Fantastic!!

Also good to see a local win it!

Was absolutely floored to see it come in, asked my 12 year old to pick a horse, picked the winner, because it was trained locally , had a female jockey and had barrier number 1. Shocked me how much he knew about the horses, even knew how they picked the barriers. Put a sneaky $1 each way on it and he's come out $100 the better for it. Still shocked, all my bets lost :(

It is the weekend here and we have the Rugby World Cup final so expect answers in a couple of days time.

 

 

 

Seriously the country has come to a virtual stop :rolleyes: lol

Ahaaaa, thank you for that, hopefully they are in fantastic moods now and are kind to me :)

Kia ora,

 

What sort of fishing are you looking for? Trout, big game, snapper?

 

Aquarians

Hi there Aquarians,

Any of those sound great, I'm no expert at fishing, but do enjoy it. This is really for my Dad, who loves to fish. He used to own a boat and enjoy deep sea fishing. Now he mostly does rock fishing or fishing from a pier. I thought a charter would be more fun for everyone and give him a chance to fish from a boat like he used to.

I have emailed 2 of those companies, but haven't got an answer yet.

Cheers

Thank you Te Aroha and Kiwi Kruzer, those links are very helpful. The Red Boats has great prices, but we are limited as we don't get into Auckland until 10am. Will shoot off an email to them and a couple of others today to see what our options might be. Cheers.

I am looking for some advice on doing a fishing trip while in NZ. In Auckland, Gisborne or Akaroa, going late Nov/early Dec. There will be 5 of us, looking at about 4 to 5 hrs of fishing, and obviously will need rods, tackle etc. I did check with one charter service in Auckland, but nearly fell over with a price of $230 each, especially since we don't get to eat whatever we might catch :)

Any ideas on something a little cheaper?

I noticed last night that Princess' website now includes an Australian AIBP, with Aussie prices.

From the website.

All-Inclusive Beverage Package - Australia

On select Australia voyages; the All-Inclusive Beverage Package is only available on voyages 8 nights and longer. Enjoy the convenience of our All-inclusive Package featuring any drink up to $14 AUD including cocktails, wine, beer, bottled water, sodas, specialty coffees & more! A 40% discount on bottles of wine (below $100 AUD retail) is also offered on bottles purchased in bars, dining rooms or specialty restaurants. Excludes in-room services, souvenir, mini-bar and vending machine items. Terms and conditions may apply.Item #2419$59.00 AUD

per person/

per day

Good to see it's official on the website now.

On Rhapsody in March, sailing to the South Pacific, they ran out of Blantons, Wild Turkey and Makers Mark.

This thread is making me hungry lol

I eat just about everything and will try most things, but you wouldn't get me anywhere near durian, blech.

Spoke to Princess rep yesterday, and it was confirmed by a Princess rep in Australia. Took a while for both the US rep and the Aust rep to work it out but the current AIBP showing on our Personalisers is a mistake, should not be there. Its the US model. You would think after identifying that it is showing up on Australian Personalisers that they would have removed it quickly. However being the weekend I suppose they don't have their IT people working.

 

 

 

They confirmed that the $59 package is what we have and is definitely only going to be available for purchase on board for drinks up to $14.

 

 

 

Princess was most apologetic about the mistake, I hope people don't fall for it and buy the packages and if they do that Princess fix it for them.

Thank you for this, The $10 drink limit was confusing me.

Just bumping this one back up to see if anyone has been on a Australian based Princess cruise yet and got an All inclusive drink package.

 

 

 

Just checked our personaliser for our next two Princess cruises, Dawn and Emerald, both are offering the package for purchase online at $73.74AUD:eek:

 

bit of a jump from the $59 that is discussed here.

 

 

 

Still better value than our next cruises on the Voyager and Explorer.....at $87AUD, and Princess include everything, so wondering if anyone has experienced it first hand yet.

 

 

 

Chez

How strange, I just checked the personaliser on our next cruise on the Golden and the price for all inclusive beverage package is AU $64.90. It says for drinks up to $10. Will still be waiting until we are on board, but would be great to have an exact amount so we can budget for it.

When I went to Mare in March, we were advised that you were not allowed to walk the island (though many did), so we took the 20 minute bus ride to the same beach OzKiwi mentioned, with market stalls and great snorkelling. Do not recall any tours being offered anywhere.

Duck Island in Noumea is lovely, pretty good snorkelling, a nice restaurant and lots of fantastic sculptures scattered around the island. It's quite small and can be walked around in about 10 minutes. Not too sure about how you might go with someone who is not very able bodied, as it is mostly sand and coral.

Went on a fantastic tour on Isle of Pines to a natural aquarium for snorkelling, but has a good 2 km walk to it, some through water. Best snorkelling of my whole trip, and only cost $20 p.p.

Update: my Mum was not asked for any paperwork for my son, besides his passport, they have different surnames.

Not sure if this is proper procedure, but seems to have worked. My son, 12, is travelling with his grandmother to the South Pacific. I sent with him a letter from myself and his father consenting to him travelling with his grandmother. Included was the countries he would visit, his name and date of birth, dates of travel, our names, dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers, my Mum's name, date of birth, address and phone number. I had this certified by a Justice of the Peace (witness to us signing and dating, he signs, dates and stamps). I also sent a copy of my son's birth certificate and a medicare card. They have successfully boarded the ship, once I speak to my Mum, I will come back to tell if they were asked for it or if there were any issues. Hope this helps someone.

Not always. Our team won a bottle of sham-pagne on the Island this past February.. Fun.

And I always thought it was sham-pain...

I would also be interested in the answer to this for international travel.

To be honest, that's why I prefer different kind of trivia where someone can't just look up the answer - recognizing music, for example. I've played ones with TV theme songs (although it would be nice for them use a TV show made after the 70s for a change), or 80s' one-hit wonders. Obviously, someone who's been doing b2b cruises might still remember the answers, though.

This may not stop the cheaters, there is an app you can get on your phone which will tell you what song is playing in the room. Very handy for me, but not for cheating at trivia :)

When I visited Lifou, we did a guided tour that was booked just behind the beach near the undercover market. We drove in a mini bus to the vanilla plantation and had a guided tour, met the owner of the plantation and had some vanilla tea and coffee. This was an easy walk with no hills, but the ground can be very knobbly, with roots running everywhere. We also stopped at a beautiful church and got to see a chief's hut. There was one part where we went down about 200 steps near the hut to a fantastic snorkelling spot, but some of the group stayed back, the views are great there. This tour was well worth the $30 we paid.

Agree with the other posters about Mare, the HOHO bus is great in Noumea.

It just happened to be on RCI......marmite......it is absolutely disgusting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha, Marmite is disgusting, should have been Vegemite.....yummy

The "shrimp cocktail" that's always available on NCL (Dawn). I made the mistake of ordering it the first night, and it looked like it'd come out of a can. And I practically needed a magnifying glass to see the "shrimp".

 

Actually, any "scallop" dish, as well. Again, TINY TINY TINY. Their "scallop salad" had three scallops about the size of dimes. Maybe I'm spoiled since I go to culinary school, but that's not exactly what I think of when ordering scallops.

 

Most of the food was very unmemorable...and me and my boyfriend agreed that while we were always full, we were never satisfied. It was like we were eating just to eat.

Love this thread, very funny. Have only cruised with RCCL and enjoyed everything I ate. But oh those sad excuses for a scallop, I would need 10 to make 1 of what I am used to. Tasted fine, but the smallest I have ever seen or eaten.

I would have to say the deep fried bacon ...... Yuck [emoji21] carnival spirit heard they cater food for us Aussies so y in the hell are they deep frying bacon wt .... That just kills a good price of bacon anyway who needs more fat in their bacon [emoji13]

Have to agree about the bacon, looked like some kind of jerky, all stiff as a board. Thankfully they had English style bacon as well, always had a line for it too.

My Mum ordered a chocolate soufflé in the MDR that was truly awful, more like chocolate bread.

Next cruise is Princess, can't wait to get eating.