Ondine

I've got a mini on Emerald deck with a covered balcony so nothing special. They are not usually very concerned with boarding times here in Melb. Once they get the go-ahead they just process whoever is in line. Never been asked for my boarding time that I can remember on Princess/P&O or Carnival. Pre Covid Princess used to board according to your deck level and room status. Plus the priority elite line of course.

Golly they get into Sydney early.

Well here in Melbourne I'm happy to go on any ship that comes here. We don't get much choice and looking ahead from 2024/25 it will be worse. Not sure what we have done to upset the cruise gods.

Finally success. I didn't hear back for 2 days so phoned them this morning (call centre in Manila for Aus). Talked with a lovely lady and after a while she got hold of the right person who fixed the problem. My cruise is a mer-maiden one which was another no no in the terms and conditions. All good now.

I just got confirmation for my 8th Jan cruise. Took 2 weeks. However it is showing up as "Customer Goodwill" on this one. One less thing to worry about before I go on Monday!

I am going on Grand Princess on Monday. About a week ago the QR code just appeared on my phone app which stated that boarding was from 1.30 to 4.00pm. I guess you can rock up anytime during this period. Not sure if suites get an earlier time. Hopefully there will be a elite lane when I get there. It also stated that my cabin was pending which I hope is a glitch because I have a specific cabin chosen since booking around 18 mths ago which shows up on the computer version.

I also wrote to Sailor Services and they agreed to add the Loot to an existing booking. However when I got the confirmation this morning the booking had been re-fared to the current pricing telling me I now owe them $782 payable in May 2022!!!! The booking had been paid in full when originally booked. Back to the drawing board and hopefully I will receive a fixed up email tomorrow morning. Always overnight for Australia. grrrr Sailor Services have been easy to deal with returning emails promptly. No complaints there. Love your template The True North. My letter was not quite as good. Oh they did email back requesting the Access Key Code.

Is anyone having trouble obtaining the OBC with Princess at the moment? I have emailed them several times over the past 2 weeks for a cruise in January but so far no reply. (within the 3 months) I am using the "benefits@princesscruises.com.au" email address but have also tried the Carnival one. I am not even getting the automated reply. A month ago I got the OBC for my October Princess cruises and also the December cruise with Cunard without a problem. P&O gave me OBC for a late January cruise several months ago but Princess seem to be unhelpful.

I live on the border of Caulfield South and Elsternwick and fully understand what it would have been like. I walk to Elsternwick every day for exercise and coffee and pass the Hamerkaz Centre which has always had security outside, however these guards have been carrying pistols for the past 6 weeks. Makes me feel nervous in case they ever use them. All their schools and cultural centres have always had guards outside. It has always been them and us around here despite many of them being friends. There is always a divide.

I believe it is ok up until sunset. We had neighbours who were Jewish and we had to move their car from the street into their garage one Friday night and turn on their lights when they got home after sunset and were unable to do either.

I live in an area with more than 60% Jewish people. Friday and Saturdays pedestrian buttons at crossings are set to automatically turn green because they cannot press the buttons. I have also been stopped in the street by a Rabbi and asked to enter the Synagogue and turn on the lights for them because the last person leaving the night before forgot to leave them on and they cannot turn them on. That has happened several times.

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.