OzKiwiJJ

Look out for a blonde vision impaired lady and her hubby. That's our friends Jennifer and Russell. Say hi to them from me! Have a great cruise!

Well it will be interesting! Whether it is good interesting or not so good interesting remains to be seen. I must say I really didn't have any interest in doing a Virgin cruise but if it's free ... 🤣

Thanks. I've just applied for it. Hopefully we can get on one of the Sydney return departures to Tassie.

I didn't get that offer and I have more than enough points. Damn!

Oh no! I hope you recover quickly. Bummer about having to cancel your trip.

In the past whenever you had a speciality dinner as a perk it was always a voucher in your cabin and a preselected restaurant, date and time, so that hasn't really changed. If you didn't like the preselection you just called the Dine Line and changed it. What has changed is they can no longer control how many "included" dinners they have to deal with, especially on the smaller ships.

They certainly had a gorgeous day for the changeover - hot with low humidity but a bit windy. Bon voyage to those heading off to Hawaii and Tahiti.

I thought they closed the schools because of potential bush fire risks in those areas.

Yes, you can use debit cards.

If he needs a reference I'll vouch for him and his wife. 😊

I guess I'll find out in November. I have a Citibank Premier card which is being transitioned to NAB, and the new NAB insurance rules apply to that. I spoke to someone at Citibank the other week and they are still evaluating existing conditions but can't do that until the new rules come into play. It would be a bit pointless upping the age limit to 81 if they aren't going to cover existing medical condition that are usual for us older folk.

You have to advise them of existing medical conditions and sometimes pay a bit to have them covered.

NAB are changing their credit card travel insurance rules, effective 1st November, to cover people up to the age of 81. They might also be doing that with the debit card - it might be worth giving them a call.

I would hope the wines were a lot better than the pathetic selection offered under Princess Plus. I haven't seen the current Celebrity wine lists but we always found it necessary in the past to upgrade the drnks package onboard to get a good selection of wines.

And Busselton / Margaret River also has too many things to offer than can be seen in a day visit. But that's not the point. Not everyone will be able to spend the time and/or money on a land trip to either of those places. By visiting them on a cruise at least we get a glimpse of some of the interesting places near those ports. I've only been to Broome once (I missed going there again last year as I caught Covid just as we arrived there) however I really enjoyed seeing the old town and visiting Cable Beach. But the one thing that really sticks in my memory is walking out of a cafe on Short St just as a small plane was coming in for a landing! I swear its wheels clipped the top of the tree next to where I was standing! We did a land trip to Margaret River many years ago, staying there for about five nights and that was barely enough time there. Unfortunately land trips are becoming very expensive, and as we get older they are harder to do. 🙁

Could we, should we, ask @LauraS to change the name of this thread to " re Meat Pies (in memory of GUT2407)" ?

You can pick up some very good deals on the luxury lines at times though. Both the Crystal cruise we did in 2018 and the Regent cruise we're doing in November worked out not much more than some of the mainstream cruises we've done once I added in all the things that were included on the luxury lines.

So sad to hear of GUT's passing. I always enjoyed chatting with him through this forum. He will be sorely missed. My deepest condolences go to his family and his beloved Maxie. 😪😪😪

A lot of people stopped using cash during the pandemic and that has really hurt small businesses. So to make up for the additional costs from credit card fees they either added a surcharge for credit cards or just put their prices up. The only winners are the banks!

We did an excursion to Bangkok once where we were late back due to an accident on the motorway. Luckily it was a Princess excursion! In fact the ship left an hour or two later than scheduled so there must have been a few bus loads snarled in the traffic jam. In Naples we watched a limo pull up and two people frantically running to the gangway. Then we laughed as a bus load pulled in shortly afterwards! But those people in the limo could have been in trouble if it wasn't for that - traffic in Naples is notoriously bad.

Let's face it! No matter which cruise line you choose there will always be complainers.

I remember going to the US in 1993. Luckily I did have an Amex card as some of the department stores would only accept their own store card or Amex. Thank goodness that has all changed now.

No, although the name of the ship is similar. He's on a ship called Explora 1 operated by Explora Journeys. It sounds excellent.

@Stickman1990 is the one to ask but he's currently somewhere between Iceland and Greenland cruising on a new cruise line.

We did a cruise on Crystal pre-Covid and that was all-inclusive except for excursions. Of course that cruise line now has new owners but reports of the first post-Covid voyage are promising. We doing a 14 night cruise plus post cruise land package on Regent in two months. Fully inclusive including most excursions. I'll probable do a "Live From" thread for that trip, which also includes 9 night Princess cruise, so you'll hear what I think of Regent as we go.