jwattle

Look on your personalizer under "my account". It should be there. They don't deny ship issued credits. 🙂

It's all well and good to call it a US tipping culture, but we've been in Australia for two days now (LOVING it!! <3) and at EVERY restaurant and the cabs, our credit card receipts have a line for gratuity, bar none, full stop.

Looks like it's going great so far! Bon Voyage my friends!! ❤️

So, more on the lodging, for those who are curious: Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney, Business Class Room is a short jaunt (aka cab or car service) from Darling Harbour and the OPT (Overseas Passenger Terminal) in the CBD (Central Business District, not Canabinoid for my California contingent, myself included, who may get confused). Our room is literally right next to the Business Lounge which provides a tasty brekkie each morning, noshes all day and cocktails each evening with "snacks" which could double as a light supper. They also have the Lady Fairfax for heartier food at a buffet, with cook to order omelettes and a tremendous buffet, french press coffee and very nice service with small-jar condiments, to include Australian honey, dijon mustard, etc. Our room includes pillow spray, personal slippers (okay, is there any other kind? ewww!), robes, completely stocked mini bar with liquors, nuts, 375l of wine, glasses, nuts, sewing kits, shower caps, iron, torch, emery board, q tips, facial pads, shoe polish kit, and many more. I really have to give this room and hotel highest marks. @c-boy has a picture of the car that our service uses. I had some trepidation over using a service again after a negative experience with Opoli in Southern California (the limo was called off the night before due to "overbooking, and we're so sorry; we'll take $20 off your $130 bill, and send a minivan instead"); they sent a minivan instead of Escalade to pick up at the airport, with no explanation. This experience was total opposite; the driver texted his information a week ahead, another text was waiting when we landed at New Zealand, asking me to turn my phone on when we landed and apprise him of our status as we cleared baggage and customs. AMAZING! So...going great, and so relaxed!! Loving Sydney, the people, the mix of architecture, the beautiful purple jackaranda trees everywhere. Ta for now!

First day-ish in Sydney: We traveled through the night and landed at Sydney Airport around 11:30am local time. Not bad... yet. Let's get our luggage...easy peasy, great, right? Sure...no! Get your passport "okayed" by a machine, get your luggage and join the 10 mile march because... Everybody familiar with the fun little orange form that you film out prior to landing? "Name" "Are you bringing over 10k?" "Any criminal past?" "Any possible medicines that we might not like" "Any foods" Wait, slow your roll, what medications do you not like? We're a touch on the downhill side of 50, so there are a few in the bag. Thank you, we brought the original bottles and a listing from our doctor, but the checkbox bought us a new line in customs. We got sent over to first one who looked, then another, then another, etc., finally one who actually looked at our doctor's list and pointed us to a queue. When we got there, they had several of us stand in separate lanes with our luggage carts. One of the officers asked us (of course, it would be us) if we minded if he placed the "bait" on our cart as he was training his dog to expect a reward when he caught a find. Of course we didn't mind. So of course the dog hit on the bait the first time, but then he paid an inordinate amount of attention after, hoping there'd be something for another treat (we all laughed, but... really glad I was squeaky clean😉) . For those who say don't bring your bottles or a list of your meds, fish made a believer out of me. After an exhausting flight and the drama of luggage and customs, it was a joy to see our car service waiting, and Riaz holding a sign with our name. I literally hugged him and collapsed into the car. He was a great guide through the beautiful city, showing us the sights on the way to our hotel, the Radisson Blu Plaza. Soooo glad we have him for the rest of the journey! Check in was a breeze to our business class room, then off to a light lunch at 6Head at the Rocks, where we sat on the terrace sipping champagne and enjoying the view of the Majestic who was in port for her the day cruise prior to our embarkation. Mother Nature apparently thought we missed home and treated us to rain showers throughout, so e were thankful the terrace was covered as we sipped and noshed...and sipped (hey, don't judge, we're over 21 and on holiday, and it's been a hard 48 hours, what with customs and flying and time travel 😀 not that we need a reason). After that, we came back to our room for a quick nap before supper... that turned into bedtime. See y'all in the morning!

the amenities on our overnight onAir NZ, PremiumEconomy: toothbrush, toothpaste, pen, earplugs, hand cream and socks (which can double as eyeshades 😀)

Yes, and delicious!

And now, PE(they treated us really well) Delightful meals, snacks and service, plus we had the bulkhead, so the legroom was beyond!

A look at Business

I had to have my giggles 😃

Who's happy to be on holiday?

I had to laugh, it's just like our weather at home

Hey there, going our way?

You know me, pictures or it didn't happen! 😀

And we're getting ready to check in! Ken, open, open!

Now that we're on the road, I can divulge: we stayed at my Moms. 😂😂😂

And it's here; no more sleeps! What a comedy of wth's though...being the "let's make sure" type, two nights ago I went into my ETA's (electronic travel authority-visas) on my phone for NZ and Australia. Australia had an update for the app...that erased all existing ETA's when it came back up...so that was an hour of high blood pressure, uncouth language and figuring out how the sam h3ll to fix it. Yay for that... Next was the New Zealand ETA. Annnnd...piffle! same issue! But wait! It scanned our passports with my phone and brought our eta's right up with no poblems, didn't it? Or did it? Nope! That is NOT my last name. Oh, the humanity! I submitted the edit form. Checked yesterday, no response, cursed a little (a lot) more, bit the bullet (aka my knuckle) and deleted my eta from the phone, and scanned my passport again. The skies opened, the birds sang, and my last name came up! Before I knew it, we'd completed dinner in our undisclosed location and it was time to check in for our flight. Hey, who wants another heart stopper? Pick me! You guessed it! I checked both of our boxes, and it kept coming up unab le to check in online, check in at airport...well, guess who didn't sleep well with that little tidbit? Dirty rotten airline computer...and I tried multiple times...begging, bribing, swearing...nada! Then, this morning, an epiphany! Let's go one at a time. First, Tom: no problem, checked in. Then me: no problem, checked in. Are you kidding me? What the actual biscuits on toast?!?! So there wasn't a passport issue? Neither of us was confused with a wanted fugitive from "To Catch A Smuggler: South Pacific"? We just had to do one at a time...of the ever loving...huh! Well, who needs sleep the day of an all night flight anyway, right? 😄 Cheers, mates!

I looked them up and apparently their Harbour location is shuttered 😞

You know that if it got your recommendation that we will be there!! 😀

Good early morning! As said by Boeckli, no more testing required, but we're bringing a few "just in case" things change. 😉 We have reservations at 6Head, Pony The Rocks, Sgt. Lok, Caminetto, and Harbourfront Seafood. (Yum! for a Taste of Sydney via The Rocks Restaurants). Planning to do the Big Bus and then the Hop On bus to the Blue Mountains with our Go City pass, but at a relaxed pace, also sampling wines to send home. (Those of you who know us recall our...affection for the fruit of the vine). We have heard the wines are fair dinkum quality and price. We were informed that our bid for Premier Business on Air New Zealand was unsuccessful, but I'm fine with that, as I hear lovely things about Premier Economy on that line. We're looking forward to finding out for ourselves. Well, ta for now!

G'day mates, So...tomorrow we leave for our undisclosed location in Santa Rosa, CA; in 48 hours, we'll be "wheels up" (in our car) on the way to Sonoma Airport to take the former Airport Express, now Groome's Transportation (somebody had an absolute cranium failium) to SFO to see what Air New Zealand has in store for us. Then we get to soar through the night to the land down under. Thank you for joining us, and tolerating my attempts to integrate some Aussie slang along the way!

Should we do a sailaway get together? Or a meet up sometime? Looking forward to meeting everyone!

There will be pictures or it didn't happen 😂

I'll let you know if I see it on the Majestic 😄 My eyes will be wide open looking!!