OzKiwiJJ

It's pretty well back to pre-Covid status now, it's just treated as any other respiratory virus. No screening, no vaccination requirements, no refunds if you have to cancel due to Covid, and charges for medical treatment if you catch it onboard. If you do catch it onboard isolation is 5 days from onset of symptoms. Unfortunately too many people don't report having symptoms and just carry on enjoying themselves so there are minor outbreaks on some cruises. Make sure you have travel insurance.

One way car hire is possible but usually more expensive. Four weeks is plenty of time to do the round trip ex Sydney. Lake Macquarie and the Blue Mountains are just day trips from Sydney. Then you could go to Canberra which is just over 3 hours drive, stay 2 nights minimum, then on to Melbourne on the Hume Highway (7 hours). After a few days in Melbourne you should do the Great Ocean Rd down to Warrnambool then cut inland and come back via Ballarat or vice versa, so maybe 3-4 days for this. Finally travel back to Sydney along the coastal route allowing you to stop at Bateman's Bay - I'd allow three days for this including one night at Bateman's Bay, more if you want to explore along the way. There's about 10 days actual travel in that leaving plenty of extra days for Sydney, Melbourne, and anywhere else you want to stop.

The bid offer has just come out for the world cruise. From $6525pp for an upgrade from a regular balcony to a mini-suite for the 110 days. On the Sydney embarkation there are over 20 mini-suites showing as unsold.

Apart from cruises Rolf hadn't used his much since he retired at the end of 2014, and I think he bought them long before that. He was well overdue for a new pair. Luckily his only started to disintegrate as we were leaving the MDR.

It was strange - the first A380 (Sydney to Singapore) had very hard seats. So much so that I had a sore bottom at the end of the flight. But the one coming home seemed to have a much more comfortable seat, apart from the angle of the footwell. I've got a wonky knee which acts up at times, just damage from sports when I was young, but it can get painful at times especially in cramped conditions.

I agree the service and meals were excellent but I had real problems with those seats. On the way over I ended up pulling a muscle in my back which didn't come right until I paid for an extremely expensive (and extremely good) massage about two weeks later on the Regent cruise. It wasn't so much adjusting the seat that was the problem, it was putting the seat cover on. That's impossible to do until the seat is extended and you're not sitting on it. In some ways I was disappointed. I'd been really looking forward to a comfy trip to and from Japan but it just wasn't what I expected. Part of that was the very short overnight flights, especially the one coming home where they did a full course meal service at the start of a 6 hour flight, then started serving a refreshment about 90 minutes before landing. Since I'm a very light sleeper I can't really get to sleep until the plane quietens down, even with earplugs, so I only got about 2 hours of uncomfortable sleep on that flight.

But much prettier!

For starters they won't let you board until they've cleared the previous cruise. I believe the check-in windows are for all passengers BUT I've heard if you turn up around 11:30am they may have started the check-ins by then. You can drop your luggage off any time from about 8:30am. If you get there and it doesn't look like check-ins are happening (usually in this case they don't let you into the terminal building) then just go up yo the Rocks and have a coffee. The priority lane is in the terminal, not usually at the entrance.

Singapore Airlines. On the A380 they give you a seat cover, duvet and pillow. The footwell was off to one side, in my case my right, which meant you had to lie at a very odd angle. Even sitting with feet up was not quite comfortable. You had to stand up to set the seat into flat mode and put the seat cover on, then wriggle back into the seat. The Boeing 777 had the footwell on the other side and the angle wasn't quite as awkward especially for sitting. However with this plane you had to get the flight attendant to convert the seat to a bed as the back of the seat folded down. In the past (ten years ago or so) the seats were staggered in the rows ie in the middle section the two seats were right next to each other on one row but the seats in the next row were closer to the aisle, and so on. So the footwell was always directly in front of the seat. But I don't think those seats reclined fully flat. They were more comfortable though.

We had just finished dinner on our Grand Princess cruise last March and had started heading back to our cabin when the sole of one of Rolf's dress shoes started parting company from the upper. Admittedly they were at least 15 years old or maybe even older. Luckily the next day was an Adelaide port stop so we caught the train into the city, and went shoe shopping at Myers. I immediately picked one pair of shoes in his favourite brand out as being the most elegant but, of course, Rolf had try on several others before finally decided the ones I picked were perfect! 😊

Many, many years ago when I was doing a bit of camping I modified our tent to add full flyscreening - door with a zip, windows, even the air vents at the top. All hand sewn in.

I know what you mean. We really struggled with the flights to and from Japan last year and we were flying business class. Mind you we had two short overnight flights, Singapore - Haneda and Singapore - Sydney, both too short to get any decent sleep especially with the weird angles of the seats in flat mode. I think I preferred the older style seats. They may not have reclined fully flat but at least you were lying straight instead of like a pretzel! We're hoping we have one more overseas trip left in us as we want to go to Europe in 2025. If we do I shall make sure we don't have any short overnight flights even if it means transiting in the Middle East or stopping over somewhere for the night.

I saw those when I was on my way to the airport in Orlando many years ago. It seemed a very sensible idea to me. I'm surprised it hasnt caught on in parts of Australia.

It depends on the length of the cruise. For the world cruise it's 115 days (US time) which is today. I haven't been able to see the minimums yet though.

The MDR was open for breakfast on the five cruises we did on Coral in 2022, on Grand last March and on Diamond in November. I think the times are earlier than regular cruise days though.

After many years I finally woke up the the fact that the disembarkation group only indicates the earliest time you can disembark. There is nothing stopping you disembarking a bit later. We leave our cabin by 8am as requested, have a leisurely breakfast in the MDR then disembark. Admittedly we request the latest set of time slots but they always allocate us to the earliest one of that set. Usually we're off within 30 minutes of our time so not delaying things too much. There are usually still groups being called as we leave.

I've been looking at it as I'm curious to see what upgrades they offer for the world cruise, if any. I can't see them yet though.

Probably but then you'd lose the effect and ambience of the fisherman's fibre shack.

The email comes from Princess but the bidding actually goes through a separate company. You can see that if you click on the Upgrade link in the Personalizer as it opens separate windows for info etc on the bidding.

We were on the West Coast once, having lunch at a cafe, and a blasted pukeko jumped up on the (outdoor) table and tried to steal our lunch! Cheeky bugger!

We've also had some of our first Princess bags disintegrate. I guess they are meant to be biodegradable so don't last for ever. We have gained a few since the restart. About 3 or 4 out of 7 cruises.

True but if you're only worried about the bugs they are an expensive option.

I don't recall ever encountering them in the North Island. Certainly not around Auckland or north of there.

Why? Hopefully Princess will read it and get a reality check.

On Coral the mini-suites and suites are mostly on decks 9 & 10. There are a few on decks 11 & 12 but they are on the midships bump. The only risk is the ones forward with no balconies.