SinbadThePorter

When I have a look the P&O site tells me that balconies for the June cruise are sold out. P&O are perennial discounters. I would wait for the next Flash Sale, which should be along any time now. Your cruise will definitely be cheaper then. I've been on a couple of P&O PNG cruises and they don't seem to me to be any more popular than their other cruises. You need to be careful with P&O pricing. For instance you may get $100 OBC per person with a Value Fare, but the Go Fare could be $270 per person cheaper than that. I don't know about price drops. With P&O I always buy late from Flash Sales and never saw a price drop from that.

I've got one with NIB via Qantas that covers both.

Who's Will, and what has he done to upset everyone?

The relevant legislation is the Australian Competition and Consumer Act (2010), which came into effect on the 1st January 2011. Under the legislation all businesses in Australia must display the total price of a product or service as a single figure. This price must be the minimum total cost, the lowest amount a customer could pay, including any taxes, duties and unavoidable or pre-selected extra fees. If the pre-selected fee is avoidable, e.g. voluntary gratuities, then it doesn't need to be shown as part of the advertised total cost. So the only legally permissible gratuities in Australia are those folded into the total cruise cost, or those that can be removed at the discretion of the customer. Mandatory gratuities not shown as part of the total cruise cost at the time of purchase are not allowed. Were those gratuities refundable on request? Otherwise, if this was booked in Australia and the advertising did not include the gratuities in the total cost for that Celebrity cruise, then it would appear on the face of it to be contrary to the Act. But as any lawyer will tell you (and I'm not one), it ain't illegal until a court says it's illegal.

Why not just ask the room steward for them?

Also German, French and Spanish. I don't know why they don't just make one announcement in Esperanto.

Naturally! 😁

If you are looking for a particular card with good insurance, it can be an uphill battle just getting a bank to give you the credit card if you are no longer working. 😡 Banks don't like retired people getting credit cards, we pay them off too quickly.

I'll go against the grain and say it's not that difficult. Ovation is supposed to arrive at Circular Quay at 6:30am. If you can get off the ship before 8am, and are willing to schlep your luggage to the train at Circular Quay station, you could be at the airport by 8:30am. Almost two hours before your flight. I've done it for a 10:30am flight back to Brisbane. Trying to get from ship to airport by road during peak hour might be more problematic.

Just got back from Noumea. It's called Johnston now, but I noticed that they are building a new section in the back corner. Maybe for wine. It's hard to see how a store that big would not be selling French wine in Noumea.

On the Encounter I found that the app was not very connected to reality and it was much better to book face to face.

Too true. It barely even beats New Zealand!

Next time you are there, check out the wine section of the Casino supermarket, you may be surprised.

How about tomorrow? On the Luminosa between Suva and Noumea. Seas are moderate at the moment, but it looks like a swell is building.

I don't know about prices, but the range of French wine in Noumea is pretty impressive.

In this region, covid insurance coverage is required for travel to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji. If cruising to those countries, you'll usually be asked for paper proof of covid coverage as part of embarkation. Outside of those countries, minimal coverage is acceptable.

Have you tried Qantas travel insurance?

I last saw it a few years ago. After dark they set up three or four long lines of people next to the jetty and each person waits in the queue for their turn to be given a fish and feed a dolphin. Each feed takes a few seconds. I wouldn't say it's worth it, but then I'm biased against feeding wild animals.

Personally I'm a bit more selfish than that. I want to not have my cruise interrupted by intubated unjabbed passengers having to be emergency medevaced from my ship. Since the covid vaccine minimises the risk of that, I'm all for requiring them of passengers.

If we'd have stayed out in the islands, the problem was that when it would have been time to come home, the cyclone would have been between us and Brisbane.

On Luminosa watching a medevac on a RC ship off Port Macquarie right now.

In my opinion the best mass market cruise line in Australia is Princess. If you are looking for something a bit exotic, I would suggest a Papua New Guinea cruise from Brisbane. For scenery, PNG is like a tropical NZ, except that the best and easiest way to see it is by ship. You can easily follow that up with a North Queensland cruise to see the Great Barrier Reef. A bit left field, but you might not have thought of a visit to Lord Howe Island and/or Norfolk Island. Wonderful places that you can fly to from Sydney.

We're off Brisbane at the moment. Heading slowly south along the coast. Sometime Fri or Sat we should turn around and get back to Brissie Sunday morning. Cyclone permitting. A seven day cruise to nowhere. Oy Vey!

$200 obc plus 50% cruise credit offered.

About 12km (or 8 miles). There is no public transport, only taxi, uber and whatever shuttle buses the cruise line may (or may not) provide. Taxi would be around A$30-$40 each way. There are no facilities at the port or anywhere around it.