OzKiwiJJ

I think it might have been. Quite a few of the other passengers decided not to go ashore. We went ashore with a small group of friends and had a short wander around then went back to the ship.

Not that wonderful. 😒

It didn't feel spooky, just boring. There was none of the "colour" that locals bring to a town. No vignettes of daily life. I didn't actually figure out why until we were back on the ship.

The ship is there waiting for us. The weather isn't the greatest for embarkation though.

When we did a San Francisco to New York Panama Canal cruise we loved the stops in Mexico, Guatamala and Costa Rica but Nicaragua was a bit weird. We stopped at San Juan del Sur which was a beautiful spot but it felt like the place had been sanitised. The only locals we saw were operating the bars, shops, souvenir stalls or taxis, the streets were empty.

No, we're only doing the first two but I thought it would be good to include all the September itineraries. After those I think Coral goes straight into the Round Australia cruise.

Are they all under the same group now - Passport Control (ie Border Control) and Duty Free / Biosecurity. I guess it makes sense.

Let me know if they still have the great little jewellery stand inside the Darwin cruise terminal. They used to have some great stuff at very cheap prices. Often old stock from places like Swarovski. Since I don't care if it's in fashion or not it's great to get nice stuff at a bargain price.

No, we stuffed everything in our usual suitcases. It's only a few layers for both of us and one warmer pair of jeans for me. Regardless of where we are going we always pack a rain jacket and a light fleece - we were caught out a couple of times many years ago so come prepared for all weathers now. I'm planning a very lazy day on the changeover day. Hopefully we won't even have to leave the ship but if we do we'll just wander up the Rocks for a coffee.

Well, we've cleared the first hurdle - the battle of the suitcases. I won after a bit of a tussle! 🤣 We're doing the first two B2B - north first so hopefully warm, the south which could still be cold, especially Melbourne which has thrown a few freezing days at me in the past even in mid-summer.

I thought I'd start new live reporting thread for the next round of cruises: 3rd Sept - 10 nights Queensland 13th Sept - 9 nights South Australia 22nd Sept - 4 nights NSW Hunter and Sapphire Coast 26th Sept - 12 nights Queensland & Conflict Islands Hopefully a few other "reporters" will add their comments to mine.

Are you one of those people who sleeps through anything? I wouldn't get any sleep at all in one of those cabins. We had an aft-facing cabin on Carnival Legend once and it was quite noisy when the ship was running at full tilt which it did one night after a med-evac

We did the 35 nights in an inside cabin. Never again! Maybe for very short cruises in the future but not for long ones.

That's customs then, not border security. I know there was a customs check when we disembarked in Brisbane early July after a Willis Island visit but I think the B2Bers stayed onboard then. Oh well, I'll find out for myself in eleven more days.

The Grüner Veltliner was on the Princess wine list in 2019 so it should be on Majestic. We drank several bottles of it during the 35 night cruise we did on Sea Princess that year.

Maybe they're doing more port stops around Europe and the Baltics. The 2024 world cruise is three days longer than usual but I'm not sure how that cruise compares to others on number of ports stops. Princess does seem to vary the itineraries year to year so another "right turn" may be on an itinerary some year soon.

Yes, the real world will hit again in March for us.🤣🤣🤣 Still, this has been a wonderful opportunity to try the best the ship can offer cabin-wise. We used to cruise quite a bit in inside cabins but these days I want a balcony, just in case. Being unwell when you're in an inside cabin is pretty depressing.

It's wonderful. I can't wait to get back onboard for some more great Club Class dining on Saturday. Because we booked this cruise after the 22nd August cruise was stuffed up we could only get a regular mini-suite. I asked my PVP to waitlist us for a Club Class one. Late Tuesday afternoon I got an email "Waitlistmatch...". We're very happy about that! 😊

Bummer! Did Dora go to an overseas port? If not border authorities usually aren't involved. We're doing B2B on Coral Princess, boarding the first one on Saturday. It will be interesting to see what happens at the end of that cruise. In Brisbane the B2Bers were allowed to stay onboard. If NSW is different it's probably NSW Health being too officious after their balls up in 2020.

Because Australia is south of the equator. Turning north would certainly be more interesting but would add many more days to the itinerary. South lets them line up for the run across to Tahiti etc.

Yes, that's what many of the extra dishes are.

If you like it I recommend an Australian winery that makes that variety - Landhaus. Pricey but they have regular sales, thank goodness. It's our new favourite white wine! 😊

FB. Someone on that cruise posted the change there. Check your email, Irene, you probably got a notice of the change. It may show as a booking confirmation.

No, they go to Busselton first then back to Freo. Busselton is replacing Geraldton. Freo is a reprovisioning port so harder to change apparently.

See the other thread. 😊