OzKiwiJJ

Everything we had was overcooked and tasteless except for one appetiser - prawns I think. I haven't had much luck with ethnic speciality restaurants on cruise ships, Italian excepted and also Umi Uma on Crystal. Although with Cajun / Creole cuisine I wouldn't know how authentic it was. I'm still fuming over the totally bland Hunan Beef we had on Solstice, there wasn't speck of chilli in it and Hunan is one of the spiciest of the Chinese cuisines.

I don't put the rosemary on the steak, but do put it on the accompanying potatoes sometimes.

No sign of ours either.

So did we, twice, and the dishes we tried were very interesting and different but looking at the menu now it's much more westernized. Still we might try it next year if only for the duck salad which is still on the menu.

Would they risk hosting TAs before the first cruise?

And lamb.

I've tried something like that but thinner. Rolf isn't all that fond of them done that way though. Sometimes I cube them, toss them in oil, then sprinkle salt flakes and chopped rosemary over them.

The speciality restaurant prices don't actually change when the ships come down here which is great for us. It's more of a token charge and I guess they've worked out that those prices are what people are happy to pay. The Sanctuary prices are the other thing that doesn't change - $40 pp full day or $20pp half day whether in USD or AUD.

It will be interesting to see how popular the Bayou Cafe is here. After looking at the sample menu on the Princess website I have to say it doesn't really entice me to eat there but we'll probably try it on one of our cruises. We were disappointed the one time we tried the Crab Shack. We may have chosen the wrong things but, to me, half of it was inedible. I'd much rather have a Crown Grill instead. I'm going to miss the Black and Blue Onion Soup. 😪

Yes. I was actually surprised that Sabatinis was a bit cheaper as I think $29 was the standard price for a couple of years before cruising stopped in 2020.

$29pp I think. Sabatinis was $25pp. You can see the prices in the app if you look at making a booking.

If you are doing a one way cruise from Auckland to Sydney the ship will enter Dusky sound first thing in the morning. Dusky Sound links to the Acheron Passage giving a one way transit through there. Around the middle of the day the ship will enter Doubtful Sound which links to Thompson Sound for another one way transit. Late afternoon the ship will enter Milford Sound, go to the end, turn around and maybe wait for passengers who have done the two day excursion from Dunedin to reboard, then head back out to the Tasman Sea and across to Australia. High seas or severe winds can stop the ships getting into the sounds, especially Milford. It's just the luck of the draw. We've been lucky to have good conditions on all three of the NZ cruises we've done.

BTW I saw some comments on FB that the Medallion fits into Apple Airpod accessories so have just bought a couple of these. They should clip easily onto bely loops or bra straps and are half the price of Princess clip holders.

And it was only $100 or so dearer than the usual price for an aft balcony cabin. The price doubled after our booking went through. Talk about scoring a winning deal!

We managed to get to elite just before our last pre-pandemic cruise. We did it in 8 cruises but some of them were longer ones so we got to elite on days not cruise credits.

All the minis on Sun/Sea/Dawn would have been considered full suites on newer builds. The only suite we've had so far was an amazing last minute deal on Carnival Legend. An aft Vista suite which was huge. None of this "curtains between bedroom and living areas" nonsense, it had doors, and a corridor which also had the balcony door off it. There was a dressing room and a walk-in robe, and a huge bathroom. The balcony wrapped around the side of the ship. It was a bit shabby around the edges but it was still wonderful.

Ours isn't either.

We've got a Premium suite on our June 26th cruise and a Vista suite on the Sept 13th cruise. When we booked the June cruise through our planner I didn't realise there would be such a huge price jump between the Vista and Premium suites for what is essentially just a difference in location. But since it's our first post-pandemic cruise we decided to stick with it despite the screaming from the debit card. 🤣🤣🤣 Don't forget to book your free first night speciality dining. It's very easy through the app.

This is more my size of steak. It's about 200g of tenderloin cooked crusty on the outside and still a bit rare inside. Served with home made oven chips and salad. Usually I prefer the scotch fillet from my butcher but our local Coles supermarket occasionally has middle cut tenderloins, about 750-800g, which gives me two very nice steaks plus enough left to freeze for two stirfry meals, and not much dearer than two steaks from the butcher. Beef is getting very expensive here.

Start in NZ in mid to late February, then cruise to Australia which will be reasonably OK for travel to places like Uluru.

I agree. Fiordland scenic cruising is a rare pleasure as the scenery is spectacular. Also Dusky Sound can only be accessed by water and is a fantastic example of pristine NZ waterways. Dunedin - little Edinburgh - blends Scots heritage with modern NZ living, spectacular scenery and a chance to see a bit of inland NZ on the Taieri Gorge train trip. Mind you, I'm a bit biases, I lived there as a child and my brother still lives there. Yes, do go to Hobbiton, it is amazing. Andvit's a lovely trip over from Tauranga. Auckland was my home for 15 years and is a lovely city plus the ships dock right at the downtown area of the city. Napier is amazing if you like Art Deco architecture. Late February or early March is the best time for NZ cruising.

I'll let you know what I think of Princess suites in a couple of months, but I don't know what the Celebrity ones are like, theyvwere waybout of our price range. Yes, I agree about Princess food but we found the speciality restaurants on Solstice were a bit hit and miss, brilliant some times and just OK at other times, plus they are much more expensive than Princess. Princess speciality restaurants don't quite make the fine dining cut, and the servings are way too big, but they are more consistent in quality. On Celebrity you get the bill shock when you book these days.

I don't think so but I tend not to go to lectures very often.

Princess is similar to Celebrity, some things are better, some aren't as good. Personally I think the public areas - bars, lounges, dining areas - are nicer than Celebrity. Celebrity cabins are slightly nicer, especially the bathrooms, but Princess has better storage. The big advantage of Princess over the other lines you have cruised on is that onboard costs are in AUD not USD so not so much exchange rate shock to the NZD.

Yes, it was a move-over from a cancelled 2022 Round Australia cruise to a 2024 itinerary. When we decided to do the 2024 world cruise we shifted the Round Australia cruise to October 2023. If it was a freebie it would still be showing in our Personalizer. It will be interesting to see when the cruise booked today shows up in the app.