Plant

BTW, I don't believe that any of the twin beds are truly twin in size. I've always felt they were a bit more narrow than a true twin, thus, somewhere in between a queen and a king.

I agree, the "twin" beds are what we used to call "junior" beds. Bigger than a crib, smaller than a twin :).

I've also never heard of a true queen on any cruise line. I agree that the Room Steward may have forgotten to put the foam piece between the bed's.

It took a while, but I finally learned to fill in the 30 day hold online, then call our local PO and ask for the extra hold. So far, so good... .

When we visited Sydney in 2013 two of my Son's friends were staying at Merton Service Apts (we were at the Hilton). We visited them and found the apartments were spacious with kitchen and small dining table for four as well as bedrooms. Only disadvantage was the location was farther away from things, requiring more walking.

There are many Meriton Apartment's in the Sydney area. We enjoyed the one on Kent Street, but other people would like another area, depending on what's important to them. From the review's I've read, they're all nice and reasonably priced.

When we visited Sydney in 2013 two of my Son's friends were staying at Merton Service Apts (we were at the Hilton). We visited them and found the apartments were spacious with kitchen and small dining table for four as well as bedrooms. Only disadvantage was the location was farther away from things, requiring more walking.

hTTT

Yea! I'm happy to hear she's still alive :) !

Absolutely! We love having our laundry done and would hate to have to go back to the laundry room ourselves. So many arguments take place in those rooms. I don't care what else they take away. We have never waited any more than one day and really appreciate lighter packing and more time to relax. Trust me, we have paid for the privilege and have never abused it.

We also have "paid for the privilege and never abused it", but we didn't get one day service or anything close.

Many moons ago, way before I was even dreaming of getting a black card, I used to marvel at how light others could pack as they explained they got free laundry services onboard. Fast forward to the black card and I have yet to send out even one bag of laundry for complimentary cleaning. I have simply learned how to pack efficiently and believe it or not, have also learned how to pack my clothing so it ends up relatively wrinkle free!!

I really do appreciate that Princess offers this perk .... but doubt if I will ever be one to really utilize it to the extent where others would be affected. ???

We got Australian visa's through our TA for no charge. It seemed that they were never checked, but we learned later that they show up on the computer's when you enter Australia. I'm not sure how our TA got the visa's, but I wouldn't pay for them!

We use a copy of our "Proxy Vote" to prove ownership. We don't have to cover any information.

As the OP I want to put in my 2 cent's worth! I really just wanted the perks that Princess offered for Elite passengers. I didn't want any "extra's or any "freebies". If Princess (or any cruise line, etc.) offer's perks I DO expect them to be honored.

JMHO

You were on a 29 day trans Pacific cruise. Only experienced, older, long time cruisers would take this route so many, many Elites were on board I'm sure, hence the delay in laundry. They can't expand the ships laundry just because a lot of Elites are on board. You never hear of a tale like this on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean voyage.

No, I didn't expect an expansion of the laundry! I do understand the lack of the laundry perk. What I expected was that Elite passenger's would be given free laundry tokens to do their own laundry. In our 29 day's I did enough laundry to cost about $100.00 US. ($3.00 per load to wash and $3.00 per load to dry, plus buying laundry soap and dryer sheet's that I didn't plan on having to buy.)

Again, it's not a big problem, just aggravating when you expect the perks that are promised... .

On our last cruise there were a lot of Elite cruiser's. We were notified on the first day that the free laundry perk would take at least 3 days (a lady I met in the guest laundry said she'd been waiting 5 days to get hers back!). We don't pack enough clothes to wait that long. We were also notified that the priority debarkation at the port's wouldn't be available (not a problem for us as we get off late), but it must have messed up some people's non-cruise excursions.

These aren't problems that would keep us from cruising Princess, but maybe they could have given out free tokens to use the Laundromat's for Elite cruisers?

Also, maybe there should be something higher than Elite? What do you think?

I'm also interested in a serviced apartment for our 7-night stay in Sydney pre-cruise in February 2018. The Meriton Kent Street sounds good, but I'm concerned about the George Street construction noise impacting my sleep. Is there construction during the night and in the early morning?

We could hear some noise from the George Street construction, but it wasn't very loud. (We were 43 floors up). Unless you're on a very low floor I wouldn't worry about the noise. The Meriton, Kent Street is between Kent and George Streets. You might want to ask for an apartment away from George Street to be sure of a nice sleep!

We did spend some time sitting still in traffic :(.

We also went to Woolies, about a block from the hotel.

You should have seen us trying to buy a ticket and then navigate the train from Town Hall Station to the Ferry Station :o! We made it, but only with help from a very nice lady who works there! She gave us some change so we had the exact amount for the ticket's. Why you can't pay more, I don't understand (the fare was $8.20 and we would have gladly paid $9.00, but that isn't allowed).

We found the signage to be lacking, too. I guess if you're used to using the train you don't need the signage, but we needed help!

I think I'm going to avoid train's from now on :D!

Plant

 

Just wondering if you're home yet, and how it went?

Hello, GUT, thanks again for all your help! We are home and had a wonderful time! The Meriton, Kent Street, was great! We didn't get really early check-in, but went to the lounge and napped until about 11:30 AM, when Sam from Customer Service came up and said we'd been upgraded to a two bedroom suite and it was ready :). We were in 5307, which is actually 43 floors up (the check-in floor is the 10th). We faced southwest and could see the fireworks at Darling Harbor one night. We also could hear the work being done on George Street, but it wasn't as loud as it would have been on the other side of the hotel.

We went to Cole's Supermarket to stock up on a few things. We also went to Liquorland next door to Cole's! Both are only a block from the hotel. (Turn left out the front door, left again, go one block, Cole's is catty-corner and down the escalator). Don't waste your money at the convenience store on the corner, just walk another block to Cole's!

We took a cab from the airport to the hotel. It was rush hour and cost about $60.00 US. The cab from the hotel to the port was about $12.00 US.

If you have any questions I'll try to answer them :) !

Thank you to everyone who posted to help me understand the "drop bears" and other species that are native to Australia. Really, kangaroo's and koala's are pretty tame compared to what I've learned here :) !

I'll be learning on my own starting next Thursday (I'm losing Wednesday??), but if I can get Wi-Fi at my hotel I'll be asking more questions!

Thanks,

Fern

Hello, we're going to be in Sydney for 6 days before we cruise on Emerald Princess.

I'm very concerned about "drop bears" :(. Are they normally in Sydney proper or just in the outlying areas? We'll be going to the Taranga Zoo, would they be loose there? What should we do (if anything) to not be "dropped" on? Should we bring hats or helmets?

Also, what are the chances of a cyclone next week in the Sydney/New Zealand area?

Thanks to all of you for your help,

Fern

We decided on Meriton Serviced Apartments, Kent Street for our six night stay before our cruise. We'll be leaving the US next week:D!

We like that there's a kitchen and laundry in the apartment.

While we enjoy eating out sometimes we just want to lay around and fix a bowl of cereal or a sandwich!

Having a laundry means we can start our cruise with clean clothes.

GUT, I'd like to thank you for all the help you've given me about Sydney and Australia, whether you know it or not! You're a great representative of your area :) and I hope to meet you someday!

We'll be in Sydney for 6 days before our cruise and have booked the Meriton Serviced Apartments, Kent Street. It gets mostly good reviews and seems to be in a good area to explore the city.

It's close to Coles Grocery Store and Walgreens for last minute stuff.

I'm not sure what else it's close to, but I'm sure someone will come along who knows :)!

We like that the suites have a full kitchen and laundry facilities, we can eat in and do our own laundry.

If you watch the Meriton site you may find "flash" sales that will give you a good price (under $200.00/per night).

Well - there are phone booths - everywhere. Hotels also have phones.

 

And 911 doesnt exist here so dialing that will get you nowhere. Try 000.

 

Meanwhile all you actually need - as already mentioned in other posts - is to bring your own unlocked phone and pop a sim card in when you arrive - that can be bought at the airport.

Exactly. This is perfect for what the OP wants.

 

In addition to the airport, the networks have plenty of shops all over town at which you can pick up a pre-pay SIM.

Thank you! That's just the info I needed :) !

Maybe I should be more clear??

We just need one phone to use for one week in Sydney. We don't need to call the US, don't need the web, don't need to text, etc. We just want to be able to call the hotel, a taxi, 911 (if needed!).

If there were still phone booth's available we wouldn't need cell phone at all!

We'll be in Sydney for 7 days. We'd like to have a phone for calling taxi's, the hotel, emergencies, etc.

What would you recommend? I've seen post's about Vodaphone, Aldi's phone, etc., but I can't figure out what would be best for our very minimal needs. We really might not use it at all.

Thanks for your suggestions,

Who's used the Airport Shuttle from SYD to a hotel in the CBD of Sydney? Were you happy with their service? We don't mind sharing a shuttle since we can't check into our hotel until (at the earliest) early afternoon. We thought it might be interesting to see some of the neighborhood's of Sydney, on our way.

Thank you to those who answered my question!

SF, you might want to post your question separately to get the best answers. Our cruise isn't going to the port's you named.

We were disappointed with Emerald.

 

I think the biggest issue was around 500 extra passengers (compared to Diamond which we liked way more than we expected to) in virtually the same public space, and only 100 extra crew to serve them. I found the crew way more stressed than I am used to on a Princess cruise and less happy.

Oh, no! I'm sorry to hear this :(. Do you remember who the Captain was on your cruise? I've found that the Captain can make all the difference in the attitude of the crew. Hopefully, it's someone new for our cruise :) !

Thanks for the review! We'll be on the Emerald later this year :) !