marinating

Our 13 day cruise departs in 2 days, I bid for an upgrade from mini suite to front facing mini suite. Last week informed I had been outbid and asked if I wanted to bid more which I declined, today received an email offering me a Penthouse suite for a fixed price, no bidding! Keeping my fingers crossed and checking my email every 5 minutes, I guess they probably sent out hundreds of emails and first in probably will win!

Boarding her on the 19th November, NZ here we come again….

Got a bargain on Queen Elizabeth, 5 nights Sydney, Melbourne, Burnie back to Sydney in a balcony for $610 per person! Went straight back in to book for a friend but not available!

A few years ago we were lucky to pick up a UK P&O ship from Melbourne for a four day segment of a World Cruise, I double checked prior that there were no Formal nights as our group love to get dressed up in Dinner suits. Unfortunately there was a Formal night, the guys were not allowed in wearing smart pants and jackets but us ladies were invited to stay as we were appropriately dressed! Even though I produced the email confirming there would not be a Formal the guys were asked to leave, what was hilarious was the loud comments from many of the Brits sitting nearby, comments ranging from what would you expect from Australians to they don’t know how to dress in the Colonies! Whilst us girls enjoyed lobster the men went off to the buffet!

We were on the 12 night cruise prior to this cruise, every morning found cigarette butts on our balcony as did the cabin next to us, reported it to guest services. Had an interesting chat with a passenger on her first cruise, she was leaning over her balcony having a cigarette when security knocked on her door! Apparently she was spotted by an Officer on the Bridge, given a warning.

My sister and I leave Sydney tomorrow for 12 nights to the South Pacific, we’re told that Covid cover mandatory for New Caledonia, we paid $274 for the two of us with Qantas, neither of us have pre-existing conditions and are under 65. Another option is if you have free travel insurance with your debit/credit card and you paid the required amount using your card towards the holiday. I opened a NAB Platinum Debit account and used their free travel insurance for NZ and coastal Australia, this included Covid Cover and cruise cover. My husband has many pre-existing conditions and I paid $750 for 16 days with Qantas insurance, he is 73. Hope this helps.

We are sailing tomorrow as well, doing a B2B! Catching the train up from Canberra in the morning!

No need to worry about not having appropriate clothing! I always support the local fashion industry in ports! NZ has some great fashion labels.

Always an interesting subject! NIB wouldn’t cover my husband [73] yet Qantas travel insurance [same underwriter] would! I found Qantas a few hundreds dollars cheaper than other insurers for an 11 night cruise.

We take our own miniature pepper and salt grinders! Lot’s of yukky behaviour, masks on the table whilst eating/drinking!

Hi, spoke to his nurse this morning, still needing to be on oxygen and having IV antivirals, his blood pressure keeps dropping so they have had to take him of most of his cardiac meds at this stage. See what the next 24 hours brings, thanks for asking after Dennis.

Thank you, initially I felt like it was just like a bad hay fever day however the rebound Covid has made me really unwell. Hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll feel a little better.

Thanks very much.

Yes I had the antivirals, apparently there are questions around whether 5 day course is long enough. ‘Thank you for your kind thoughts regarding my husband.

Thank you.