OzKiwiJJ

Just now, SinbadThePorter said:

I missed that turn because we were inside doing trivia. At least we won. 😇

It was probably more impressive watching it than it would have been doing it.

Congrats on winning trivia. We're doing OK on Coral but with just two of us we don't have much hope of winning against the bigger teams. We're also doing progressive trivia and the trivia host for that is just plain evil, in a nice way of course.🤣

Explorer looked quite impressive doing the 180° turn before heading out.

Bon voyage!

I think it was more to spread out the flow of people outside the terminal. Pacific Explorer was also in port, doing a changeover by the number of passengers arriving with suitcases as we were heading out for the day. It was a bit chaotic. The disembarkation groups on Coral moved fairly quickly so it wasn't a big issue.

You really don't need to tip the waiters on Australian cruises, especially not American-style tipping of a token amount every time you see them. However if you do get a waiter that is especially good it would be better to remember their name and mention them in the post-cruise survey.

If you really want to tip then $20 at the end of the cruise is always appreciated but not necessary.

Just now, SinbadThePorter said:

I'm onboard Explorer right now in Fremantle about to cast off.

 

Weather is sunny, if a bit cool. The ship is looking surprisingly good. Coral Princess is tied up next door. 

 

The food is unsurprisingly poor, so far.

We're on Coral parked right next to you  😊

The food on Coral has been excellent.

1 hour ago, Blackduck59 said:

I am a pretty big guy and several years ago we decided if we couldn't afford at least Premium Economy we couldn't afford the trip. For others they would prefer to save that money for something else. We will be getting serious about booking our down under flight sometime in June. Right now we are leaning towards Qantas Premium Economy, with a direct flight Vancouver to Sydney. If we can get a good deal we may upgrade to Business class. That flight will be in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. We decided to eliminate the return flight by cruising home.

Check what deals the cruise line is offering for your flight. Sometimes it can work out cheaper than booking direct with the airline. For example we got a business class fare Sydney to Auckland on Qatar, which codeshares with Qantas, at only a little more than Qantas wanted for an economy seat on the same flight. The Qantas business class fare for that flight was several hundred dollars more.

We're just passing to the north of Rottnest Island heading east, directly into Fremantle Port.

Just now, Yaya_in_Oz said:

Thanks.  I do have the paperwork but they just give a final price not an itemised list of excursions. The ones I've paid for are listed in my travel summary so I've printed that off too. If Princess are aware of it hopefully it will be sorted out by the time I board. Its more the principle of it. You shouldn't be asked for more money once you've paid in full.

The value charged for each excursion will show individually on your folio but with no description alongside it. 

Anyway proof of the total you paid and the new total of your booked excursions should be enough.

Unfortunately I would not rely on Princess to sort it out automatically. I think you will have to go to the Excursions Desk and request them to fix it.

Just now, Yaya_in_Oz said:

These are plus fares. Standard fares are a lot cheaper and a still showing 7K for a solo balcony, I assume "E" grade which is what I paid 3 weeks ago.

All up with cruise, airfare, transfers, a night at the Pullman pre cruise it comes in under 10K solo so I'm more than happy with that and I got $250 OBC. I've just added these details as there maybe people reading the thread and considering it. I certainly won't be mentioning it once on board, 🤐

 

Having said that, its a great itinerary. Some sea days at the beginning to get over any jet lag then lots of ports. I wouldn't book a cruise because its cheap, eg. I couldn't cope with all those sea days going across to CPT on the first leg, even though it was also a bargain. I've also paid more than I thought was reasonable for a cruise because I really wanted to go to those places.

 

Yes, I forgot to change the setting to Standard. 

They've got plenty on to keep us amused on the sea days so far. However it's been quite cold and windy so apart from poking our noses through our balcony door we've stayed inside. 

We've got a bit of "rock and roll" today, just enough to be annoying when moving around the ship. 

Just now, mr walker said:

I don't think that anyone could ever understand the Princess booking system. When onboard Majestic back in Feb, we made a booking for Grand Princess for Oct '25 with the onboard booking lady - she could only offer guarantee. Upon return called our PCP and she at first said the same thing & then suddenly she was able to book us a specific balcony in our preferred location at same fare - she knew what we wanted from past experience. ????

I'm not sure that even Princess understands its booking system!!!!

Just now, Jean C said:

And  while I'm on a roll, I fully understand the traditional guarantee cabin, I just don't like the new fangled option to choose your own cabin, usually for a fee, only to have Princess say there are none to select in that location and they guarantee you a cabin there or similar 🙁

It's not really a fee. In some cases they don't offer the lowest category, eg BF, for selection. The cabins you can select start with the BE category so show as a slightly higher price. This is stupid, IMHO, as some people actually want to select BF cabins. 

And when there are only a few cabins in the next available category to select they may get snapped up quickly so the fare for selecting is then the next highest category.

Just now, Blackduck59 said:

 @OzKiwiJJ sorry I'm late to the parade...again. I bid you fair winds and a trailing sea. As others have mentioned, maybe get some Twinings English breakfast in Freo, that way you don't have to use all your precious blend. You should be able to make it stretch through the entire voyage. You will be able to get Twinings teas of all varieties at any of the Canadian ports. 

We look forward to following along your voyage.

Thanks, Lyle. I think I'll have enough teabags to last me through. I usually only drink tea with breakfast, or occasionally with lunch in the buffet. It's not worth buying more unless I have to. Besides my favourite blend is actually nicer than Twinings EB. 

Those fares are quite different to those showing on the Princess website.

13 hours ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

I was looking to do a European cruise when I saw this so I booked and bought a ticket about 3 weeks ago, so I'll be joining you on a short sojourn from CPT to London. The airfare was the price of a ticket to Europe (in economy of course) but I have to go the long way through Dubai as I want to go on Emirates to maximise my time on an A380 and also they've always given me good service.

 

I appreciate your info @OzKiwiJJ and last night I was printing off my receipts for excursions as I notice they've all gone up about $30 since I paid for them (only 5) and they might want more money. My CC has been debited for my medallion and I'll pack next week. Max 17-18 kg that I can manage and 5 kg in carryon. I'll see you all in about 2 weeks although I don't surface much on sea days. I look forward to sailing across the TOCapricorn, Equator, TOCancer while reading a book or playing games and sitting in the sun on my balcony, then we hit the ports and away we go. I'll be following your blog each day until then.

Bring a record of the original prices you paid for your excursions, if you can, then go to the Excursions Desk once onboard. They know about this issue but it appears they are only dealing with it on a one by one basis if you complain. Which stinks! They should have resolve the issue at corporate level.

I'm waiting to see what happens with the excursions that have been billed to our folio so far - any payments by credit/debit card go on your folio as a credit then the excursions are charged to your folio when they are ticketed. We have our excursions tickets up to Dover so far. Apparently we'll either get OBC for the overcharged amount or a refund.

That pricing for an outside cabin is a bit weird - a typo perhaps?

It's the best part of our itinerary in my opinion. 

2 hours ago, bazzaw said:

I am old and I don't know what a Ghibli is!! But we saw this clock in our wanderings and saw that it played a few times per day so we came back at an appropriate time. I was more impressed by it's existence than by what it did. 🙂 But I have to admit that at my age, I am not easily impressed anymore.  What did impress me was that somebody paid for this installation for the public to see. We are both tight arsed and unimaginative in this country - if it doesn't produce a measurable positive  monetary outcome we don't want to know about  it!!!

We couldn't help but see it - the above ground exit from our hotel came our right opposite it. It was an unexpected delight.

Just now, Yaya_in_Oz said:

I'm surprised it hasn't sold out by now but I guess airfares/routes would become limited close to sailing.

Plus it only went on offer a couple of months ago after people cancelled because the ship wasn't going to Civitavecchia.

Just now, Jean C said:

I've always chosen a cabin number too, however I have to book well in advance. I wish Princess would show all available cabins rather than hedging their bets and saying they guarantee a room in the selected or a comparable location.

It's not quite that simple as just holding back cabins for guarantees. Often they leave as many cabins open for selection until they reach a "magic" number of selected cabins plus guaranteed cabins. At this point they might still offer that category of cabin as a guarantee as they know there will be cancellations prior to the start of the cruise. Often a category available as a guarantee may only have one nominal cabin available and once that guarantee is booked that category becomes sold out. Remember the guarantee is for that cabin category or better so they have a bit of leeway there.

1 hour ago, Cbtours said:

Cruising home was what we wanted to do re capetown but talking with princess you can’t disembark cape on RTW. Only if doing a segment.

but got a good research project for next couple weeks before I have to confirm 😁

As far as I know the Princess world cruises don't go that way around so it would be impossible to do Capetown to Australia as a segment. Some Cunard ones may come south through the Atlantic to Capetown then across to Australia but not Princess 

11 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Checked wth my friend.  She tried online and with a TA.  Online said cabins will be allocated and would be issued just prior to sailing.  Then she checked with a friend TA who said that is how Princess does bookings.  So she selected Royal Caribbean as she could pick her cabin.  

The TA doesn't know what s/he is talking about.

We've always chosen our cabin on all our Princess cruises.

8 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

I should also add for white wine drinkers, the Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio included on the Plus package is Canyon Road for cruises from North America. That is really swill and undrinkable for me (and nope not a high end wine drinker).

 

 

I think they must have been the ones they were offering on Diamond around Japan last November. Swill indeed! I took one sip of the pinot grigio and nearly spat it out. We bought wines by the bottle at the Plus 25% discount for the rest of that cruise.

Just now, Cbtours said:

Thanks to your excitement stirring us along, I have just booked a half world lol London to Sydney July 2026! Well I’ve got a cabin on hold til 17 May to research and decide lol.

Would visit family in Uk first.

not quite your round the world but half way. Just researching insurance initially cos that’s a huge one for an 85 (well 87 by then !!!!) and of course CC will be my first source of info 🥳🥳🥰

 

Good on you! And better to fly first and cruise home.

Quute a few people on our cruise are only doing sectors - we've chatted to a few who are just going through to Dover.

Just now, ekka49 said:

Twinings English Breakfast  tea bags are now available in Horizon Court

Yes, I saw those this morning, and used one for my first cup of tea, but by the time I went back for my second cup of tea they'd vanished again. Luckily I had one of my own teabags in my pocket.

Just now, Jean C said:

I think part of the problem is when Princess sells cruises with multiple embarkation and disembarkation ports. For example, for the 2026 cruise you can't choose a specific cabin from Auckland while there are many to choose from Sydney. They only allocate a few for Auckland and I suppose they juggle allocations later 😔 

Yes, that is part of the problem and that is easily checked by seeing if there are cabins available from the other embarkation ports. But at least Princess does offer the option of multiple embarkation ports where they can. I don't think other cruise lines do that very often if at all.