OzKiwiJJ

Good to hear you've recovered quickly. There haven't been any signs of Covid currently on Coral Princess that I've seen or heard of. Not much coughing, and most people are still wearing masks. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

I don't think that's correct. They only work for Princess and only handle cruises, plus immediate travel associated with that cruise if required. They are technically classed as travel agents so you have to go through them to change or cancel bookings but they aren't travel agents in the usual sense of that term.

My Princess Cruise Planner is American and lives in Nevada. She works from home.

Happy anniversary Rosie! I'd wish you the same as you've had the lovely Rosie in your life for 34 years so every day would have been a celebration! But happy anniversary anyway.😉

That was in my Kiwi Insanity era! 🤣🤣🤣

I also did the triple challenge in Queenstown once. Later on they made it a quadruple challenge by adding in a bungy jump as well. I actually did the Skippers Canyon bungy jump once. We were on a bus trip into Skippers and there was a bit of disappointment that nobody was doing the bungy jump when we got to the bridge. I'd done a smaller one before so I said I do it. I wore the tshirt to the pub that night and all the young guys were amazed that someone of my advanced years (I was around 40 at the time), and female, had done that jump! I thought it was hilarious!

We're at Port Douglas at the moment and it's sunny and very hot. We didn't go ashore this time, we're just relaxing in the Sanctuary - or I should say in the Sanctuary pool much of the time as it's almost too hot sitting in the sun. We'll go to the late show and will aim to get there about half an hour before the show starts. That's worked well for us on previous cruises but the evening pattern is a bit different on this one.

That isn't guaranteed. We didn't get any OBC for a couple of cruises we booked through our planner. We got great OBC booking through the Future Cruise Sales office a couple of weeks ago though - my planner was on holiday so missed out on that booking.

It was cod that time. Normally I don't like cod much as it can be watery but that lot was beautiful. They have some wonderful salmon dishes on Coral. It's always available but they vary the sauces and accompaniments.

The fancy ones like the one we went on in Hawaii are very smooth. No shaking at all.

Just turn up when you're ready to dine. You should have no problems getting a table around 8pm or later. We have no bookings at all because of problems with the app due to the short turnaround between our cruises but we never have to wait for a table as long as we avoid the queues.

No Club Class this time, just the regular MDRs. We still tend to go to Bordeaux, mainly because we usually have our predinner cocktail at Good Spirits.

A different dining demographic at least. No change to menus but more different ones, of course, on longer cruises.

Save you from sitting on the phone for six hours when a new itinerary release causes the Princess website to crash? That's the main readon we switched to using one. Plus she was able to extend the final payment date on a replacement cruise when the FCCs took a while to come through.

My Princess Planner is very good at getting the cabins we want when itineraries are released but not so good at communicating by email, she seem to prefer phone calls.

We had the pub lunch in the MDR that time as well. The fish was very, very good. I don't think the peas were true mushy peas, they were just mashed up regular green peas.

Just switch your WiFi back on, it will connect automatically.

Yes, they feel very safe but they move differently to a plane especially when circling points of interest. Take-off was very smooth though.

It sounds like it will be a great concert. Unfortunately I'll have to make do with the Variety Show in the Princess Theatre on Coral tonight.

We've noticed something a bit strange on this cruise. On the other cruises the evening dining seemed to be spread fairly evenly throughout the evening. On this cruise there is a mad rush, resulting in big queues, around 7:15pm. I just had a chat to Yalcin, the Club Class Head Waiter, and he ran out of tables the other night as everyone arrived at once. It was the first time that's happened to him. We wait until around 8pm to get a table now. That suits us OK as we always used to choose Late Dining on ships with traditional dining and that was often at 8:30pm.

The batter on that halibut looks super-crispy. Yum!

Helicopters are fun! My birthday treat in 2019 was a helicopter flight over the volcanic national park in Hawaii. The helicopter was gorgeous with a very luxurious interior.

It's the 1st October today so does that mean Dora isn't going there for another month?

Not from us, we're not going to many shows on this cruise. I'd rather listen to Paul C McD in Crooners - he has me in fits, better than any stage comedian!

The Sanctuary pool is refreshingly cool at the moment. It took me a bit to get in fully but once in it's lovely for a short dip.