Belmont Babe

About 50% of cruises in to Fjordland fail to make into the fjords due to adverse weather or sea conditions. In that case your land excursion is kaput. Just bear this in mind, so you are aware.🙂

I have heard ( so don't depend on it being set in stone) that if you wait until you board and then buy the upgraded package, you need only buy one for the passenger who drinks. However that doesn't cover the other one of you for the other parts of the package that don't involve alcohol. You would have to do the maths for that. Can you get by with only one wi-fi connection? Do you need the soda package? etc etc etc.

Are the port stops in NZ the same for both cruises ? And what time of year?

So I get from that - if an individual passenger is both ex-military and a shareholder they get one or the other not both, but if one passenger in the cabin is a shareholder and the other is ex-military they get both.

If it's just for underwear and socks etc, use the shower gel or liquid hand soap supplied in your cabin bathroom. The active ingredient in all of them is detergent.

While I am not casting aspersions on your driving skills, are you confident driving on the left? A good percentage of the roads to Hobbiton will be winding, two lane roads. There are numerous occasions where, because of the lack of traffic setting an example, tourist drivers have exited a place of interest and commenced driving on the wrong side of the road, with ensuing chaos.

Noordam is still stuck in Wellington by bad weather, but I suppose being forced to stay tied up is better than tossing around trying to get in, for the passengers. Not a nice day to be doing touristy things in Wellington today!

Looks to be about 200m from gangway at Princes wharf to meeting point at Queens wharf, easy walk along the waterfront. You can "walk" it on GoogleMaps streetview.

Reading with great interest as we are on the same itinerary 26 January.

If you like it a bit quirky - we recently stayed at the Mercantile Hotel 25 George St, The Rocks. Just a little further up the hill from Rydges. Very easy, downhill walk to the OPT. It's Edwardian era. Get a Queen room, with private bathroom. Our huge bathroom had a spa bath, and separate shower. Our bedroom had the most beautiful cast iron fireplace with decorative tiles and carved mantlepiece. You would have to be reasonable mobile as there is one flight stairs and no lift. It was comfortable and clean. It cost us $129 AUD for the night. We were there on a Sunday night. There is an Irish pub on the ground floor, with live music. It stopped at 9.30pm. The street outside is closed from Friday morning to Sunday evening to set up for the Markets.

Try an email to solutions@princesscruises.com.au It took a few days but I got the answer in "writing" to use as support if I ever needed to escalate it.

Thanks for that info, I hadn't noticed that feature on Princess.com (probably never scrolled down that far 😁)

I've searched this forum and can see a number of you have used this feature on FB. Anybody tried recently? I keep getting this message despite it being during their operating hours. "Thank you for your inquiry. Our service hours are 9am-5pm PST, Monday-Friday." (Please don't suggest I contact my Princess Cruise Planner, that person is half the problem.)🙄

Well, there's one company, which I booked through Booking.com (their suggestion) called GoCatch. AVOID! I wish I'd read their reviews before I continued with the booking, but I trusted Booking.com to use a reputable company. In fact, I think I'd done the booking before I was informed of the company providing the service. This is my review --- "The instructions were as follows - Your driver will arrive when your flight lands and wait for 45 minutes. 1 After passport control and baggage claim, make your way to Arrivals. 2 Look out for your driver who will be holding a sign with your name on it. I thought I paid for a personalized service! I was expecting the driver to be IN THE TERMINAL with the sign with our names on it. We waited and waited. Finally we managed to contact the service by some stranger letting us use his phone. (We don't have mobile roaming) The driver had been waiting for us in some area we had no knowledge of and had left because we "hadn't turned up" The instructions should have stated where to meet the driver. We managed to get there in the end with a replacement driver from the taxi company, but we were very worried for sometime, that we had been "scammed".

And it's the same $12.00 for 20's (Marlboro and others) and 25's(Winfield) but if you smoke menthol you are out of luck, they don't sell them.

Signed up before we left port in Sydney, 12 days, $120 debited to my onboard account with the 50% discount, so $10 (exactly) a day.

Thanks, I'll try Ozwoody's one first as it is AU (I'm regionally biased) if I get no joy I'll try yours Carole, thanks all!

Yes, now you mention it, the $88 was what I was going to be charged in NZ dollars if I bought it preboarding. Because we had so much OBC I waited and bought it on board and paid $ AUD120. (Or rather Princess paid themselves, and I held on to my own money)

Would that be directed to the AU office because it's come from this neck of the woods, or dealt with in the US or Philippines? (And it's not a reservation issue . . . )

I'm having issues, and I need to get a written reply rather than a phone call which I can't record. Contact details on their website don't give me any option but freecall phone numbers. Can any one shed some light please?

Yes. It would have been $240 if I wasn't.

That is not my experience on the Coral Princess recently. $88 for 12 days if purchased before the cruise ( for 1 device) versus $120 charged on board, and was told this was 50% off for elite.

And "You're welcome". Didn't much like William either, seemed to treat us like little children, with his treacle-like Hellos. Thankfully gone to Sapphire Princess. By a country mile, the best entertainment staff was Joseph. Did his own trivia questions, played the piano, taught Japanese lessons etc etc etc.

The price for elite for 12 days was $88 if you bought it pre-cruise. It was $120 if you waited until after boarding, so quite a bit more. I chose to buy onboard because I had a large amount of OBC to use up.

Currently, New Zealand Customs and Immigration ( air arrivals only) are issuing 5 pack RATs per person free of charge to all international arrivals. The requirements/recommendations are to test the day after arrival, and at day 5, and report if positive. This, of course, may change with which way Covid goes, but its nice to know that one does not have to incur any expense in respect of Covid testing.