OzKiwiJJ

Drinks packages are very borderline with us. When Princess first offered drinks packages here we tried it on three cruises. On the first we got our money's worth as we would pick up a long cocktail on our way back to the Sanctuary after lunch. The second we barely broke even and the third we didn't quite get our money's worth - I caught a bad cold so didn't want much wine with dinner. But the worst thing with packages like that is usually the quality of the wines available by the glass under the package. There is never enough choice and they aren't goid quality. The current Princess Plus fare has become very borderline for us because we end up paying extra, albeit at 25% discount, for wines by the glass. But the increase in internet prices means we may stick with it as it still covers coffees, water, cocktails, and digestivs. We're very happy we booked Plus, at $40, when we booked our upcoming world cruise. We have no intention of upgrading it to the latest version of Plus, at $65, as there are no extra benefits that we would use. Instead we'll spend that extra on wine by the bottle which has the extra advantage of being able to get our glasses refilled when we want, not 15 minutes later.

Yep that's the same as the Coral Princess ones but the Coral suites don't have a dressing room, just extra space in the bedroom section. I tried the spa bath on Coral. It was lovely but a bit tricky to get in and out with my bad knees. Luckily it was a calm day so the bath water didn't slosh around much. We did have trouble with the shower one day in rough seas. It wasn't draining quickly enough so sloshed against the door which, in turn, leaked.

As in hardly at all! Of course it must be you who is keeping him young! 😊

Happy birthday Frank! I find it hard to believe he's 85, he doesn't look a day over 60!

Wow! Lucky you! Yes, the PG staterooms are long and thin but spacious enough, and with excellent storage - although the identical Princess ones have even more storage space as the two TVs are wall mounted instead of being placed in a unit, so that space in the unit is also available for storing stuff on Princess. The thing I particularly like is the open closet/dressing area, with lots of hanging space on one side, the bathroom door on the other side and a large cupboard with shelves and the safe at the end. This layout is also in most Princess Grand and Royal class cabins. I like this open setup as sometimes closets with doors aren't quite deep enough and clothes can get caught in the doors, or have to be a little bit squashed in. That QG bathroom layout sounds very similar to the Coral Princess suite bathrooms. A very sensible layout. Did the QG bathroom have two entrances? The nicest cabin we've ever had so far was on Regent Seven Seas Explorer. Essentially a mini-suite but wider than the Princess/QE ones. The bed faced out to the windows and there was a curtain between it and the sitting area. It also had a huge walking closet/dressing area with plenty of hanging space, plus shelves and drawers near the entrance. The bathroom was wonderful with a separate bath and shower and more than enough shelf space and drawers. I like bathrooms with drawers and even cupboards rather than just tiny shelves. Much tidier!

Retirement is great! 😁 We waited until the rain eased before heading down to the OPT. We've had two experiences of having to wait for an hour or more in pouring rain before being allowed to embark so didn't want to risk a third. Thank goodness for rain radar!

So did we. Which cruise were you on? We did the 7 night Tasmania cruise that departed from Sydney 15th Jan.

They way Princess is going with cutbacks it will be far below indulgence level soon.

Although we loved that balcony we're unlikely to cruise on a Royal class ship again, they are just too big for us. And since Princess is now sending bigger and bigger ships here we'll probably have to find alternatives. It's a shame Cunard won't be homeporting here in future, we really liked our recent cruise on QE.

No smoking allowed anywhere inside the ship in Australia, not even Churchills. There only outdoor smoking areas.

And that really is a big problem with Crown and the other Extended Grand Class ships. They added an extra deck of cabins, so 3080 lower berths instead of 2670, but the public areas, especially the dining areas weren't extended. So at peak holiday periods, when the passenger count is increased by 400-500 you can end up with 3500 passengers all vying for space in venues designed for several hundred less passengers. We experienced this on Ruby in 2019. Never again!

It depends on what you like to eat. If you're happy to have a burger or hot dog for lunch every day you'd probably be happy. Personally I would find that menu very boring as only four of the appetisers tempt me and none of the mains - yet I never had any trouble finding choices to enjoy from the old menus.

We were on Diamond in November around Japan, and had previously cruised on her in 2018. I really didn't notice any differences post-pandemic. Crooners was as crowded as usual, the Wheelhouse was usually quieter. They still had PES happy hour in Skywalkers. The MDRs were the same and the buffet was organized chaos as usual. We loved the Japanese additions to the menu and had a wonderful cruise.

We cruised in D424 on Majestic once. Great balcony!

The problem seems to be that this menu stays the same every day, except for maybe one or two items. Past menus were smaller but the whole menu changed every day with a repeat factor of around 14 days on longer cruises.

Possibly because there are either guarantees or waitlists for the type of cabins those people have. They're now using the bid system to see if they get enough interest from enough people to upgrade then they can allocate or sell their original cabins. We've tried a lowish bid for an upgrade to a mini-suite for the world cruise. I have my fingers crossed.

It's probably because you have an obstructed cabin. Someone has decreed that an unobstucted standard balcony is an upgrade. At least you do get the option to bid for an unobstructed Deluxe.

Not necessarily, a lot depends on the overall itinerary. Unfortunately the distances going from Australia around the Cape of Good Hope and up to where the Mediterranean joins the Atlantic are huge. The Island itinerary has been changed to give passengers as much of their original itinerary in the Mediterranean as possible, albeit in a different port order. Both Island and Coral itinerary changes start from when the ship are in Australia and Australia is a big country - it takes 7 days non-stop averaging 17 knots to get from Sydney to Fremantle. They pass through some notorious seas on this route so need to allow for this hence the lower average speed. Ships can't go direct from Australia to Capetown due to fuel capability, so they have to make one stop on the way even though it means it will take longer to get to Capetown. When the new Coral itinerary gets released in a couple of days I'm expecting we'll lose any Med ports but the we'll resume our Northern Europe and Baltics itinerary without any changes. I don't know what the original HAL itinerary was but I think it's safe to say they will probably be losing a number of Med. ports, that linked their Suez transit to the Atlantic, and that may give HAL more flexibility to add in more new ports. Plus they are coming down from Asia not across from the east of Australia so it's logical that they would have stops in places like the Maldives, Seychelles and Zanzibar.

We tried HAL Westerdam once, most of the time it was so sedate it was boring. But the one place I would have liked a bit of quiet was the Crows Nest, which was the only interesting place to sit and have a coffee during the day but it was always very noisy. We won't bother cruising HAL again.

You're welcome and, yes, the QE Grills area is lovely. Enjoy! I think the photo I saw of a PG cabin must have been the QM2 version as I got quite a surprise to discover a very familiar layout instead of the different one I was expecting.

Not quite, you get an offer to switch to another cruise, sometimes with a cabin upgrade, and get a serious amount of FCCs as well. Worth taking if you are flexible.

Try the Arnotts Chocolate Obsessions. They actually have decent chocolate on them. Four types - dark, milk, salted caramel, mint. They are very rich. I love a dark one with an espresso.

Apparently there are different gingernut recipes for each state. The NSW ones are too hard for me. Luckily my local Coles has an NZ section with Griffins gingernuts. They are the best! 😊

Portside in Hamilton, where the old cruise terminal used to be, has some accommodation (apartment hotel?). There is a small supermarket there plus plenty of restaurants and cafes. Also a ferry terminal if you do want to go into the city. Portside is essentially between the airport and the cruise terminal so easy to get to and from. There are also some motels nearby I think.

I'm not sure exactly, probably at least 30 minutes. We got there later than intended and the queue was huge.