OzKiwiJJ

My mother never drove and the only overseas trip she ever did after settling in NZ was to Australia before passports were required. So she never had a drivers licence or passport.

You're welcome. It really was a wonderful cruise and QE is just the size of ship we like. Don't expect a day-by-day account of the world cruise though. I'll probably just post on whatever thread is running for that cruise, when something interesting happens. From what I've seen of recent Princess menus the meals won't be worth commenting on for a start, unless they are worse than I expect.

When I lived in NZ people often asked me if I was from the UK. They were quite surprised to hear I was a born and bred Kiwi. Now I've added Aussie overtones to the mix! My Kiwi accent slips through occasionally here but NZ friends say I have an Aussie accent.

I didn't notice much of an accent but I grew up with a mother who came from Lancashire so the faint remnants of a northern England accent wouldn't sound out of place to me.

Google is showing a Bounce luggage storage facility in the old ferry terminal next to Queens Wharf.

We love the shower over the bath. There is so much more space than in a small shower cubicle. The bath in QE is quite low and even with my dodgy knee I found it very easy to get in and out of. There was a grab bar along the side of the bath to aid getting in and out, and that could be grabbed if your husband was feeling unsteady at any time.

Thanks. 😊

Summary. Overall I felt the Cunard Princess Grills experience was the best cruise experience we've ever had. It gave us the best of both worlds - luxury cruising on a bigger ship, so we had all the facilities of a mid-sized cruise ship but had the peacefulness and elegance of the Grills area for dining and relaxation. OK, Cunard doesn't win best mini-suite category, that goes to Regent Seven Seas Explorer with HAL Westerdam in second place, but we were very comfortable with the familiarity of it. We loved the traditional look of the ship overall, the panoramic Commodore's Club, the pub, and the beautiful Queens Room. Although we now read almost exclusively on our Kindles we enjoyed exploring the well-stocked library. Cunard had excellent trivia sessions with a wide and interesting range of questions. The one show we did get to was superb and the musicians we listened to in the Commodore's Club were excellent. The one slight negative was our cabin steward. He didn't introduce himself on embarkation day and didn't attempt to get our shower fixed. After a gentle hint he did make sure we had a good supply of bottled water in our cabin but missed replenishing the coffee pods once. However our cabin was always nicely cleaned and tidied so he did that part of his job well but there wasn't the same personal interaction that we've had on most other ships. Would we cruise Cunard again? Yes please, but it would be hard to not have the wonderful Grills experience.

Possibly, we didn't go to Manchester.

Day 8 - Disembarkation The alarm went off far too early! It didn't take us long to get dressed and pack the last of our bits and pieces in our carry-ons. Although we had been issued with the usual disembarkation luggage tags we had no idea what time slot our Light Blue 1 was. Not that it bothered us as we never rush off as soon as the group is called and we could always wait in the Grills Lounge if necessary. As it happened our group was called just as we were going up to breakfast. Tough! I'm having my brekkie first! I had hoped to have Eggs Benedict again but the menu on disembarkation day was limited so they weren't available. So I just had my usual, berries followed by fried eggs and hash browns, and one last pain au chocolate. Sadly we left the Princess Grills MDR for the last time and went straight down to disembark. Since this was a domestic cruise it was all very easy, just find the bags and head out to the pick-up area to call an Uber, which came very quickly. We were home by 9am. Much to our amusement as we reached the bottom of the escalator in the OPT the lady standing there took one look at our carry-ons and said "I know where your bags are!" We do have a very distinct logo hand-painted on all our luggage. That came in very useful at an airport once as someone tried to make off with one of our bags. Luckily one of the security guys spotted us standing waiting for the missing bag and also spotted someone else with a bag with that logo. The guy who took it still tried to insist it was his bag until the security guy pointed out our other bags. We just dumped our bags in our spare room. We had to go out shopping but I wanted another cup of tea first. Unpacking could wait until tomorrow!

That's interesting. I don't recall seeing a Golden Lion pub on our big UK trip in 2013 but I do recall seeing lots of Red Lions.

The entrance to the Golden Lion Pub. It's hard to believe this pub is on a cruise ship! The entrance to the Grills Lounge. The view from the Grills Lounge. The loungers and chairs had just been packed up for the night.

Day 7 - At Sea. I didn't sleep all that well so was a bit grumpy when the alarm went off. If it hadn't been my brand new phone it might have ended up overboard! 🤣 I had my usual breakfast of berries, fried eggs and hash browns. Our waiters are great at providing me with very strong tea for breakfast and I really needed it this morning. Trivia was in the Garden Room this morning. We were lucky to get a table but it wasn't our morning for trivia, we had the worst score of our whole cruise. We went back to our cabin to find the dreaded luggage cover over the bed. I guess we need to do some packing! We had just enough time to pack up all our dirty laundry before lunch. It fitted perfectly in one of our overnight bags, which we usually use for shoes. For lunch I started with an intriguing sounding dish - cucumber pannacotta with citrus cured salmon. Although it was a lovely, refreshing appetiser, the pannacotta had very little cucumber flavour and was just a tad too firm but the creaminess complemented the salmon beautifully. Then I had the crispy fish tacos. I expected crispy fish in a soft tortilla but what I got was a crispy bowl (but not the usual hard taco shell) filled with a tasty fish mix. I finished with a very nice creme caramel with vanilla bean mousse and plum compote. We headed back to our cabin with the intention of completing our packing before afternoon trivial but I was feeling so tired I had a snooze instead. Luckily I woke up in time and thank goodness for the espresso machine in our cabin. I needed a booster to get me trivia-ready. We joined up with another couple for trivia. The questions were a lot trickier than previous trivia sessions so although we scored reasonable well for us we didn't think it would be a top score. Much to our surprise we were first equal with another team. The trivia host only had one tie-breaker which, unfortunately, was a question that had been used in an earlier trivia session so both teams got it correct. So we were joint winners which was fine by us. ☺️ Unfortunately we really did have to finish the packing before dinner, as well as showering and changing. It took us a bit longer than we'd intended so we had to skip our pre-dinner cocktail. We had the escargots to start with. They were nice but needed a bit more garlic, after all escargots are just an excuse to indulge in lots of garlic butter! We both chose the Rack of Rare Breed Lamb which was lovely and seemed slightly different to the lamb we'd had earlier in the cruise. They never said what the rare breed was though. We had pre-ordered the Crepes Suzette for dessert and they were delicious. The sauce was made at the table and the crepes finished in it. It had just the right balance of citrus, mostly orange (zest, juice and flambeed Grand Marnier) but with a sneaky hint of lemon zest as well. Diego had found another Amaro for us to try so we adjourned to the Grills Lounge for a final nightcap. This Amaro was a lighter one than some of the ones we'd had before, quite different to the one we'd had a couple of nights ago. We got to bed later than we intended and we needed to have a reasonably early start as breakfast would finish at 8:30am.

But even with the new ship they'll only have four ships in their fleet. Two of those are relatively small at around 2000 lower berths, QM2 has just under 2700 lower berths, and their new ship has just under 3000 lower berths. I suspect there are a lot of factors that affected their decision to stop homeporting in Australia.

All NZ working ports, ie those where you are not allowed to walk off, provide free shuttles to get you off the wharf. Of course, the Lyttelton ones only go to the local township not to Christchurch.

Yes, it is. Ships now dock at a different place on the wharf than they used and you are no longer allowed to walk off. Wellington provides free shuttles but recent reports indicate they only drop off in Lambton Quay, near the Beehive. However that could change again - it's changed at least four times that I know of.

This was the Champagne / sparkling wine list on Diamond in November, cruising Japan.

Just let the champagne rest for a few days before drinking it. It won't be any more shaken up than if you'd bought it online and had it shipped. You don't need much bubble wrap. I just use a single layer, just as added cushioning

It's there but I fizzled out on updating it when we got Covid on the second cruise. The first cruise was very port intensive so I couldn't keep up with it on that cruise so I just got further and further behind. I have lots of notes so might have time to finish it one day if anyone is still interested. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970877-liveish-cruising-from-japan/

Look under the Roll Calls forum for the roll call for your world cruise. You'll get plenty of tips there. We're doing this year's world cruise which starts late April. There will probably be a world cruise thread started here close to the departure dates so you can ask questions there as well. Unfortunately Princess doesn't have great phone support, and our region has got some differences that most of the call centre staff don't understand, particularly things like gratuities.

Wines by the glass are $14-$29. There are about nine wines in the $14-$17 range but most of these wines are very basic - essentially De Bortoli cask wines. Gins are $12-$15 including tonic. Will you want internet during your cruise? If so then definitely go for the Plus fare. Internet has now gone up to about $38pp per day. The Plus fare upgrade is still only $65pp per day. One G&T and a glass of wine and essentially you've covered the cost. Also the drinks package under Plus includes espresso-based coffees, bottled water, cocktails and mocktails, beers,y juices and soft drinks. If you are unlikely to want internet then it's a harder decision to make.

I've brought plenty of red wine home in my suitcase on trips. Same packing rules apply and it has all arrived safely.

Onboard credit for a specific cruise shows up at the bottom of the Payments section in the Personalizer.

I trust a bottle of champagne more than a bottle of red wine! 🤣 Champagne bottles are designed to withstand the pressures.

On Diamond Princess around Japan late last year they didn't have the stupid parade, they had an event in the Atrium, about 10pm, where the galley and wait staff were acknowledged. Much better in my opinion.