Ondine

When P&O took over the Golden and Star they converted at least 60 to 100 twin cabins to be quad share so many more passengers. When booking solo with Princess they don't seem to mind if I book a quad or triple cabin whereas P&O only let you have a twin until the very last minute.

The sockets were new on the desk top so not just a changeover of the European ones.

One other thing of interest was that when Grand Princess sailed here last season she had been fitted with Aussie power points prior to coming here. I found this unusual. I don't recall Golden having Aussie power points when she home ported Melbourne. Memory could be failing me though.

Later next year 2024/25 we have Diamond Princess here instead of Grand. I think the Grand bookings for 2025/26 are just holding places at the moment. P&O first started talking about getting Grand around 5 years ago so at some stage it will probably happen. 3 ships do not really fit into programming for Aust. Ok having Adventure and Encounter for Brisbane and Sydney but Explorer is shared between Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland. Makes for very short seasons in these ports. However if Grand goes then it is one more smaller ship that is lost to Princess. We are not going to get the new builds into Port Philip Bay.

They have extended the Deep Blue Extras offer for cruises including 2024. Not sure whether till June or Dec.

I believe if you call them you can change the cabin number. Phone for Aus is 1800 491 708. I had to call when they cancelled on me some months back and they were very friendly. I think they were in Manila although it is hard to get them to admit it. Another thing they do Loyalty Match with most other lines and you can get Deep Blue Extras added to your booking which gives you special boarding, $100 drinks package (we think pp) $10 per day for speciality coffee per cabin, laundry, upgraded wifi and a few other things. Google their website for loyalty match form.

Another bonus is that you can use OBC and on some ships there is not much else to spend it on.

Something similar: Open up the Activity page. Click on the little camera on the top toolbar then right click the page and it will change colour Select save all Open word and paste. You now have the document page in word. Then go to insert shapes on the toolbar You can then draw boxes or circles to cover what you don't want to show or highlight what you want or change colour of the boxes. Then save as a pdf file. Hope this helps - Chris

Yes that is the nearest thing to a statement that I could find. Contains lots of unnecessary info but I hope the powers that be (Carnival) will accept it. Hope that Comsec come out with a better Holding statement down the track. Very disappointed with the new platform so far.

Thanks John However I think you will find that everything changed a few weeks ago when Comsec took over from Pershing. I tried to do what you said but the pages are different now. All the old pages have zero shares showing now although some of the messages are still there but of course are out of date for cruises in December. I believe these messages will disappear on Nov 7th. If I am wrong and you find you can still get a statement please let me know. I can't even find "Equity" anymore. Thanks Chris

Hi anyone who holds their shares through COMSEC have you had any luck getting a statement since they have moved us to the new platform. My portfolio only gives a dollar amount no shareholding. If I bring up my CCL shares then there is no name on it just an account number and the time during the day (but no date) If I go back to the Pershing pages then the Holding Statement does not have the shares listed now that Comsec has transferred them to itself and the Statement is last Month so no good for Princess. If I go into Statements/Activity then I can get a sort of statement with the shares somewhere in the middle of an enormous amount of trading info plus my name (but middle name missing) and today's date. Not sure if Princess will accept this. I have tried contacting Comsec but so far no one has bothered to get back to me. Anyone had any luck?

Princess has always done 13 night voyages from Melb, however they have now decided to make them 14 nights and spend 4 days between Auckland and Melb, far more economical for fuel. From Melb you have to go over the top tip of NZ before heading SE to Auckland (or vice versa if going the other way around) so it is a long way. In the past they have always had to go at full speed and depart Auckland at 2.30pm to get back on time which always upset some passengers who couldn't understand why they couldn't stay longer in Auckland. No matter how much the captain tried to explain it on our last voyage there were disgruntled people. If anything goes amiss eg wayward sailors needing rescuing or medivacs then this really caused problems in getting home in time. Hopefully we may now visit the Bay of Islands more often.

I have been having trouble booking Crown Grill with my complimentary dining voucher for months now. I go into personaliser and select a restaurant/day/time and it says I have a credit which will be used when I book but when I click update it always tells me it can't find my "journey line" whatever that is. I notice that it does not give me a price either where it used to last season so I think Princess is doing something sneaky with us. Maybe giving cc payers preference over complimentary bookings!!! I had no trouble last season when booking prior to sailing.

I found that when I tried to get an ING credit card (I already have savings with them) they wouldn't give me one because I was not a PAYG person. I relied on my superannuation and part Aus pension, owned own home etc but because I didn't have a job I was not eligible. Think it applies to most credit card applications.

I believe so.

Gone but never forgotten. Rest in Peace. Condolences to the family and especially Maxie.

Received an email from Cunard this morning to say that they have dropped the vaccination requirements and testing for forthcoming cruises.

I believe that 13102 has the angled balcony which is larger than standard. Your balcony is a standard size. I understand that the deck plans for the ships are not accurate in this regard sometimes showing 106 as angled and other times showing 102 as angled. Try googling your cabin and you will probably find some on youtube. It will be the same number cabin on all decks on port or starboard.

Oops I was on that "Rescue at Sea" one but was doing B2B so it didn't really affect us. (Well I do believe that I caught Covid while hanging around in the terminal for 2 hrs waiting to reboard). It had been a bit chaotic the night before with passengers trying to rebook flights etc. Border Force and Immigration arrived as soon as we docked to check out the wayward mariners we picked up in Bass Strait. We made good time from Auckland to make up for the bad weather and then had to hang around for hours off Wilson's Prom for the medi vac. Always hard doing a medi vac there due to the helicopters running short of fuel if they have come from Melb and needing to refuel at Sale. Then of course I woke to the silence of no engines at 1.00am and a helicopter flying around with a search light picking out the distressed mariners in the wild seas. They were so lucky, the rescue craft crew was brilliant. I saw the video on the police website a few weeks ago. Not for the faint hearted. The crew deserve a medal. Sorry you got caught up in the madness on land. We were pitying the incoming passengers.

It was in today's email on healthy cruising in the FAQs section. The other parts had been altered to reflect the new rules so I imagine it is still relevant unless they have forgotten about it.

I go with NIB annual cover. You could try Qantas also. Only stipulation is that it must be Comprehensive cover for over a certain age.

Last season some of the embarkations from Melbourne were held up by Border Force because of disembarking covid positive guests. These guests had to be disembarked after all other passengers had left the ship. Hopefully we won't have this problem again. Fingers crossed. Some cruises went smoothly while others were chaos. Having TV channel reporters meeting the plague ships didn't help either.

At least they will still give you Fcc's if you have to isolate although you are on your own if you test positive prior to boarding. What happens if during my cruise I have COVID-19 or test positive? Any guest reporting or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms should notify our onboard medical staff and be seen for testing. Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate for at least 5 days from the day they test positive and until they have been symptom free for 24 hours. Any guest who must isolate during their cruise, will be entitled to a Future Cruise Credit for the days spent in isolation. The Future Cruise Credit will be the value of the cruise fare paid for the number of cruise days missed less government taxes, fees and port expenses, and will be subject to our standard terms and conditions for Future Cruise Credits

Hopefully there will still be the elite/platinum lane in operation. They have never been strict with boarding times in Melbourne while I have been sailing. Only sailed Princess, P&O and Carnival though.

Yes just got mine and I notice that check in time is actually listed as 1.00pm for Melb and 12.00pm for Adelaide.