OzKiwiJJ

Thanks for letting us know, Jo. Hope it gets fixed soon. Are there any signs on Covid onboard? We were on the Round Australia cruise last year that had a big outbreak so I'm interested to know what is happening now. Numbers were still high in NSW when Coral departed but have dropped in the last week.

We had the Aldi Thai red curry chicken pies for lunch today. Very tasty!

Essentially they are similar to gummy worms but a lot bigger.

They were in Coles or Woollies a year ago but I haven't noticed if they are still there. We only buy them when we're doing long distance road travel - they are ideal for munching on when driving because of the size, and give that little sugar hit when needed.

You will need to pack warm layers for NZ as the weather can be very variable there. I recall one cruise where it was 30°C (86°F) in Akaroa one day and 14°C (57°F) in Dunedin next day. It can also be very cold cruising through Fiordland first thing in the morning, but often warms up in the afternoon so layers are needed and I recommend a warm hat, scarf and gloves as well. Casual is fine during the day but most people do make an effort to look a bit smarter in the evenings - a pretty dress or top and nice skirt/pants for ladies, long pants and a nice shirt or polo shirt for men.

And a killer python removed one of my crowns on the first day of our South Australia trip two years ago. Luckily I wasn't driving at the time.

There was actually a tiny spot of snow on one of the peaks but it took full zoom to see it!

This is the view from Glacier Rock lookout which I think is just above the greyish bit on the small knob at the middle left of Cruiser3775's top photo. It's an easy walk to the lookout but with a short climb up to it at the end.

I use my Kindle as a night light. It's on a low setting so just bright enough to see where I'm going but doesn't make me wide awake thank goodness. If I get woken by a bright light in the middle of the night it can take 2-3 hours before I get back to sleep.

They're at the point where an outbreak would start to become apparent if people had brought Covid on, unwittingly or not, when they embarked and shared it around. Jo hasn't updated her blog in the last few days.

Unfortunately overnight stops don't solve the problem of creaky, painful knees in cramped economy seats on those 12+ hour flights. A couple of times in the past I could barely walk off the plane. So for us it soon might be the end of international cruises as adding business class onto cruise fares will make it too expensive.

And we picked up a cabin on that same Round Australia cruise a mere six days before it started. 😊

I imagine the governments are keeping a close eye on Covid numbers on ships operating here. If there aren't any more big outbreaks then they'll probably relax the protocols and restrictions. In some ways I think this would be a mistake after having been on cruises pre-Covid where respiratory illnesses ran riot through the ship but most people just carried on mingling in public. Unfortunately from what I've seen on cruises in the past year most people didn't learn a thing from the pandemic and are acting the same way when they catch whatever viruses are being shared onboard. Oh well, we'll continue to carry a supply of masks with us on cruises in case we need them! It's going to be interesting to hear what is happening on the current Coral Princess world cruise in this respect.

It was very interesting as an excursion because we went to Cradle Mountain one way and came back a different way, so got to see quite a bit of the countryside along the way. We had a stop at Sheffield which has some amazing murals around the main street. We were very lucky with the weather so enjoyed going up to the Glacier Rock Lookout at Dove Lake with spectacular views of the mountain. We also visited the Waldheim Chalet, built by the guy that fought to get Cradle Mountain listed as a National Park. The only disappointment was the lunch at the Cradle Mountain hotel. Nice side dishes but the BBQ meat options consisted of shoe leather steak, hockey puck burger patties, and slightly overcooked sausages (but at least they were edible).

You will find plenty of comments for this cruise on the appropriate threads in the Roll Call section of CruiseCritic:

That's good to hear. I imagine they would provide free tests regardless as denying boarding without proof of having Covid wouldn't be in the cruise line's interest.

I use Webjet or similar to get an idea of fares on various airlines then usually book direct with the airline. However if I'm flying to and/or from a cruise, particularly if I just need a one way fare, I've now learnt to check what the cruise line offers. A couple of times I've found one way business class seats cheaper than some economy fares.

However you do get 25% of any wines by the bottle with Plus/Premier and that has to be taken into consideration as most of the wines by the glass are rubbish. Also you only pay the extra for drinks over the limit which means we can indulge in the odd glass of Remy Martin XO for just an extra AU $3. 😊 For our upcoming Japan cruise we're getting the Plus package. It's only 9 nights. I don't want to cart wine from Australia to take onboard. I don't know what wines they will have by the glass on that cruise but with having the package if we don't like one we can just order something else. We tend to have a cocktail before dinner, wine with dinner, and a digestif or cognac after dinner so will probably break even on the package even though we're also Elite. On some cruises the Elite drinks have been too early for us - we're late diners. We got the Plus package for $40 for the 2024 World Cruise so it will be even easier to break even on that cruise. I doubt we'll get the Plus package on future cruises though unless they seriously improve their wine list.

That's good to know. When we went there we did it privately from Auckland before our cruise started.

Yeah. It took me a while to click on to that but when I did it made me feel a bit happier. I'm still grumping about having to pay an extra $15 per day for the same crappy wines plus two things I'll never use - revolting special desserts and fitness classes. Word of warning to those who do have USD cruises booked: work out what the exchange rate is for the prepaid grats offer, and then keep a close eye on the current exchange rate. Don't prepay the grats too soon. The AUD is improving against the USD. In thecpast Princess fixed the exchange rate for things like prepaid grats and buying OBC at time of booking. I'm not sure if that has changed. I'm keeping a close eye of those things for my late October Japan cruise.

However we pay the Plus or Premier daily cost in AUD, ie $65 for Plus (about US $45 depending on the exchange rate), whereas those booking elsewhere pay the US $65 cost. So we pay US $20 less which is more than the daily gratuities. So as long as the AUD doesn't go up to far against the USD we win! 😊

Great to hear you had an enjoyable get-together Lyndon and Lyle. We're going to have to arrange a huge get-together (or two or three) when Lyle and Lynn finally make it to Australia.

I could handle that for a few hours, as long as I could get a swim or a cool shower afterwards. For some reason I'm really feeling the cold this winter. I think it's the coldest winter I've known since I moved to Sydney. Of course NZ winters were colder but I've acclimatised to the Sydney climate after 25+ years here.

Just be aware that once you reach the Hobbiton Tour Start, The Shire's Rest, you will change to the Hobbiton tour buses so your small group will probably be combined with other groups or individuals for the actual Hobbiton tour. I hope you get to go there. It is a fascinating place to visit and very beautiful.