Relaxing Robbies

We were on this cruise and disembarked in Sydney on Sunday. Coral reported Tier 2 after 500 passengers disembarked in Brisbane, including some positive cases. Who knows what the tier would have been if those 500 passengers had not been replaced by 500 newbies. There were also a similar number of passengers who disembarked in Sydney. I did not walk many hallways, but there were certainly many covid tables on Baja mid to aft locations, and also reports of positive staff. Staff wore masks for the entire cruise. Masks for passengers were not required initially. I wonder whether the multiple embarkation points of some Princess cruises contributes to the seemingly higher number of positive cases that Princess has reported this season. The Grand has had many cruises this year with embarkations in Melbourne or Adelaide, and Coral has done longer cruises with embarkations in Sydney or Brisbane. These cruises mean that the ship does have a higher number of continuing passengers and does not return to a mostly clean newbie passenger status as often.

Interesting that Diamond has turnarounds in Melbourne scheduled for September to December 2024, before the Grand reappears in January 2025.

It probably depends on the terms of the ticket contract at the time the cruise was booked. Pre covid there used to be a clause in the Australian contract that allowed one free change. The current contract valid from November 2022 does not have that clause. I am not sure when the clause was deleted.

I changed one booking to a different cruise by phoning Carnival last year and had no problems. The new cruise deposit was more, so I had to pay the difference in deposit.

You must spend $$$ in the casino.Showing $3969 for me plus grats and USD spending onboard. No thanks.

The $15 corkage appears at item 24 Alcohol and Gambling in the Passage Contract for a cruise I booked this month. Those Terms and Conditions were updated in December 2022. Item 2 says that a legally binding agreement on these terms and conditions becomes effective when they receive the first payment for the cruise eg deposit. I don’t see how they can increase the corkage charge for any currently booked cruises. They had better not try, or I will be having a big argument with them on March 16. I purchased the Plus Package for my 4 cruises since covid, but the latest price increase is too much for the amount of alcohol I think it is sensible to consume daily. The new wine prices are too high for very ordinary wines, so I will be taking my own and paying the corkage. I might add the soda package to cover mocktails if the new price is reasonable. I do not drink coffee.

Hi Geoff, If you have a chance, could you please check the new price for mocktails like a virgin pina colada or virgin mojito. Also do you know what the new price is for a “Soda and More” package? No problem if you are busy enjoying your cruise and don’t get around to it. Julie

We were on 4th November cruise. Our isolation FCC appeared in our account in early February. We did not receive any notification; I just found it when I was checking my Future Cruise Deposits. I am not sure how the amount was calculated, but it appeared to be based on fare less taxes and charges.

I got off the Grand on January 27th. At the unhosted mahjong in Michelangelo there was only one mahjong set provided. The set was missing 2 tiles and had extra tiles of a few others.

All three MDRs have been open on the Grand for dinner. Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Da Vinci is the MDR being opened for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea.

We disembarked Grand Princess in Melbourne in November after a cruise to New Zealand. My husband was covid positive, so we were among the last groups off the ship. We had to complete our incoming passenger card and it was collected from our cabin by Princess staff the night before disembarkation. I am sure that our cards would have been sighted and processed by border force and customs staff, but we did not actually see them. It was very strange. We had claimed through the TRS scheme on departure, so we had to tick yes to one of the questions on the incoming passenger form. We were not questioned by anyone on why we ticked yes. We could have brought in extra duty free alcohol or excess goods and not paid any duty.

You had me going there. We are boarding on the 22nd when you disembark and I am still washing and ironing clothes to pack. I actually went to check the date to make sure I was not a day out. You must be very relaxed -the sign of a good holiday.😀

We use 28 Degrees credit card with no problems. Also we have an ING bank account we use for ATMwithdrawals and small tap and go payments. If you meet their account conditions ING pay good interest rates and reimburse ATM Fees and use good exchange rates.

Those NZ dogs are very well trained and have good sense of smell. We had apples in my bag and ate them at Melbourne airport before flying to NZ. When we arrived in Auckland a dog came up to me 3 times. I was very confused until the border force person asked me what I had carried in the bag during the last few days. When I mentioned the apples she rewarded the dog, but did not even search my bag. i must look honest.

We are still waiting for cheques for the balance of our onboard account, and casino balance we were unable to cash in due to being put in covid isolation. We disembarked 17th November. We are also still waiting to see our future cruise credits for covid isolation. Nothing happens quickly with refunds from Princess.

We are booked on April 2024 cruise from Sydney to Tokyo on Royal. Definitely AUD onboard and we are not expecting daily gratuities to be charged.

Escargot were available on the 2nd formal night on our 4th November cruise to NZ.

Cruise lines also take flu seriously. We were on a Princess cruise in 2017, someone we know was unwell so the medical centre tested him. He was diagnosed with Influenza A and ordered to isolate in his cabin, with the threat that if he left his cabin he would be thrown off the ship at the next port.

The Grand does not put tables outside doors of positive passengers like Coral does.

One of the inclusions of the Premier package is reserved seating in the theatre. If some seating is reserved, then there is less available to be used by those who have not paid $95 per day for that package.

We certainly will not be interested at $65 per day. We have paid forthe package on 3 cruises this year and 2 future cruises, and got value from it. However the 5 or 6 drinks we consumed per day when we had the package is more alcohol than we think it is healthy to drink per day. I do not drink coffee ever, and do not drink bottled water because the cruiseship water tastes ok to me. I understand that the $65 is still value to those who like to party, but not for me thanks.

They collect the declaration forms for those people who are positive and their companions. My husband tested positive on the Grand near the end of the cruise, so they collected our forms late in the afternoon the day before disembarking. When we disembarked in Melbourne we did not have to go through any passport or customs control at all. On our customs declaration we had ticked that we had duty free goods over the limit ( we had claimed under the TRS when we embarked and were informed that we must tick this box even though we were within our duty free allowance). We wished that we had splurged and bought excess duty free alcohol, because we could have had any amount and no one would have questioned us.

Sometimes I will order 2 entrees or soup and entree, but no main if I want to make sure I have room for a favourite dessert.

On the Grand we could order a double Baileys and it was covered by the package. Also had Sambuca on the rocks.

Thanks Julie