losfp

Yep it's very different making something from a sachet with lukewarm skim milk that's been sitting there, vs a hot chocolate made with properly steamed milk. My wife and kids are spoilt because I am a coffee machine nerd and make everyone's hot chocolates... so the sachets will be harshly rejected by them! Just trying to work out how we will do it for our January Majestic cruise. Wife and I will have the plus package so we're sorted.. but if I buy a coffee card for the older daughter, she might have one mocha or something, then all hot chocolates, so it would be a waste. Might have to just buy as we go.

I think a few lines will be watching. As well as P&O, I can see the following ships with Noumea in their schedules for example: Oct: Westerdam, Quantum OTS Nov: Quantum OTS, Ovation OTS Dec: Carnival Splendor, Majestic Princess, Celebrity Eclipse, Quantum OTS, Ovation OTS If the Pacific Islands are off the table for longer than they might have to scramble and reschedule some cruises, or maybe even redeploy a ship or two 😞

It varies a LOT. Freezing cold in Fiordlands and baking hot further north around Bay of Islands/Tauranga. So I would pack the same as I would for Alaska in the summer. lots of layers so you can put them on/off while transitioning from inside to outside. Cruising through the Tasman you always get a chilly breeze. I think mostly you'd be wearing pants, shirt and maybe a light jacket - with a heavier jacket on in the southern parts of NZ. That's how it was for our Dec/Jan cruise in 2018/19 and I expect the same for our Jan cruise coming up.

How useful can that even be though? There is an almost complete changeover of passengers between cruises, so how does one cruise impact on the next one unless it's completely run through the crew as well?

Ah that's a bit annoying. The older child would only want soft drink and hot chocolates so that would have been perfect. I think what we'll do on our January Majestic Princess cruise is to just bring on our allocation of cans for the kids and buy coffee cards for the older girl to buy 15 hot chocolates as she sees fit for teh 13 night cruise. We got the plus package for ourselves so the adults are sorted. We might have one alcoholic drink each per day or something but will make back the promo price easily just from soft drinks, coffees and hot chocolates. Tell you what though... we are booked on RCI for the first time in late 2023 and based on the drink package prices I'm seeing.. I much prefer the value proposition on Princess!!!!

Yeah it's not a huge surprise. They've had all this extra time to prepare, so there should be no excuse when the gates opened again... but here we are. My parents are scrambling to get their passports renewed in time for our Jan cruise. Ours and our kids' passports are good (valid to 2027 and 2024 respectively) thankfully.

Hoooooooooowheee. That was a gutsy effort. Down 5 goals in the first quarter against the ladder-leaders, fought back for a tough win. I'll take it!!!

Fantastic 2nd quarter by Sydney to sneak in front by a couple of points. Melbourne are a strong team though - they're not top of the ladder for nothing! And the challenge for Swans is can we keep up the pressure for the second half.

I'm not even sure why we bothered to appeal - IMO it was pretty obvious and straightforward. A week is actually a good outcome considering. Appealing on the basis that it wasn't deliberate.. I dunno. It was off the ball, multiple hits. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was provoked, but it was a pretty dumb thing to do - the retaliator always gets sanctioned. That's always been the way in sports.

Good luck, everyone on board! Keeping a close eye and fingers crossed there's minimal issues, particularly with covid

Each ship has one, but not as packed on as the RCI or Carnival ships. The Magic has the Aqua Dunk, which is a drop water slide. The Fantasy and Dream has the Aqua Duck, which is like a water roller coaster (you ride it on an inflatable raft - it's bloody amazing, rode it on the Fantasy) The Wonder has got less of that stuff, I think it has a kids slide. But she is used in Alaska/other cold weather situations so she doesn't have as much of that outdoor slide action.

I guess it depends on your level of comfort. I wouldn't do it. But you do what makes you comfortable 🙂

So here's something to tie all the threads together. In 2015 we did our big family Disney holiday: Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise, Disneyland, and finishing up with the Disney Aulani resort in Hawaii. Between WDW and DCL, we spent a day at Kennedy. Loved it. There was supposed to be a rocket launch on the day but we were disappointed to discover upon arrival that they had postponed the launch until the following day. However, we were lucky enough to be able to still see the launch from the deck of Disney Fantasy the next day after we boarded for our Caribbean cruise. It was unreal - you could hear the launch clearly, and I swear you could feel the ground shake as well.

Where's your sense of fun 😄

It seems a really odd comparison to make. I would have made the comparison with flying the family to California for a trip to Disneyland if you wanted a more logical comparison. But even then, there's a very real difference in the two types of holidays. If you go to one expecting the other, you'll be disappointed.

A family trip to Europe for $6k? HOW. We're planning one for next year and I doubt we could get just flights for that amount. I DO expect DCL to come here eventually - as per my lengthy post above - and when they do, I have zero doubt that they will sell the ships out. There's a fair amount of demand from Disney fans, and I would certainly look into booking a cruise with them again as long as the price isn't TOO massive.

But going on a Disney cruise cannot compare with going to one of their theme park This is true, but it could be much more economical, and it IS much more relaxing. We've done a Disney cruise a few years ago (2015) on Disney Fantasy to the Caribbean. Loved it. Our family is very much a Disney family and we would have loved to have gone on another one again but the pricing and the itineraries just didn't suit. So if one sails out of Australia in the next few years, we will absolutely give them another go. We don't really mind if theme parks never come here - we don't have the population to sustain it, and travelling away to a Disney park is one of our favourite things anyway.

Hahahah this got posted on a Disney facebook page I'm on a few days ago. So I wrote up a big thing that I will repost here. This has always been the most likely Disney presence we get here - we'll not get a park in the foreseeable future - especially after Disney Wish is launched. The interesting thing is WHICH ship and WHEN. What we know is that their itineraries are sorted until middle of 2023. That's not going to change. Magic is sailing out of... a lot of ports. Europe, Galveston, New Orleans. Dream, Fantasy and Wish will sail out of Florida. That's where the money is - constant, unrelenting Caribbean and Bahamas cruises. Dream seems to be swapping between Canaveral and Miami, Fantasy is based fulltime out of Canaveral, and it appears that Wish will be too. Wonder is the interesting one. It's the only ship that's on our side of the USA, and up until mid 2023 she will sail out of Vancouver to Alaska, and out of San Diego to mostly Mexico. She is also the only one (I think) that can transit the Panama Canal - this becomes important in a minute. So what do they do? Do they use the Wonder to do Australian cruises out of Sydney during our summer? If they do so, they will lose the Mexico cruises, or will have to shorten each season. Do they send a second ship? If so, that's a big deal because a bigger ship will have to figure out some way of getting here that's not via the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal. They would have to go AROUND Africa or South America. And I doubt they will want to do that every year - it's just not prime cruising territory and comes with weather and rough seas risks. And is there enough demand here for them to have 2 ships permanently based in the Pacific? And if they send a big ship, which one would they send? I would say not the newest two. They will be stuck to Florida until superseded. Just too much money there to do otherwise. Disney Dream? Maybe. But there's just not the numbers here. Classic conundrum. If I were a betting man, this is what I think will happen. Possibly 2023/24, but possibly 2024/25 depending. - Disney Magic will make its way to the Pacific and spend half the year out of California and half the year out of Sydney. It's the smallest and oldest ship, so that's what we'll get. - Disney Wonder will continue doing Alaska but swap via the Panama Canal to sail out of Florida or the southern USA states - Galveston, New Orleans etc - in their winter. - Disney Fantasy stays in Port Canaveral. - Disney Wish joins the Fantasy in Port Canaveral. - Disney Dream takes over doing bits and pieces cruises - Mediterranean, Northern Europe, New York etc. Bookmark this, and let's see how much I get right. Good night and thank you for listening to my TED Talk about Disney cruises in Australia.

Honestly it was a dumb action from Bud. Cost us a reversed free kick and was completely unnecessary. Just for that I think he should cop the suspension. Yeah, it was soft. Yeah, it was provoked. But geez fella. In your 19th season at the top level and still being sucked into dumb errors like that.

You guys just sort it out and get them to work out the kinks before my January cruise ok? 🙂 🙂 I am technology savvy and love new tech, and have really high hopes for this, but the sheer number of complaints and issues is concerning.

Whoooooooo boy. That was a rollercoaster ride. Did lots of shouting. Really needed that win to keep our finals hopes alive as it'll be a few tough weeks coming up.

Not to mention all of the US cruisers asking if they really need to bring a passport (to be fair, on many of the closed loop cruises out of the US you don't technically need a passport, but gee it makes me panic a bit thinking of being stranded overseas and needing to get back in an emergency without a passport)

A while back I bought a box of battery operated magnetic night lights - they activate if they sense motion while it's dark. We have one in the corridor leading to our main bathroom for the kids if they need to use the toilet late at night. And because they're magnetic, they work amazingly in a cruise cabin as they will just stick to the wall. You just have to get the placement right so that it turns on when you approach.

Yeah the princess webinar for covid protocols indicated that Princess will pay for transport home or to a quarantine hotel, and they will pay for the hotel as well. On top of that you'll receive a prorated refund or FCC (can't remember which) for the days you had to be quarantined on the ship. I think you can't get a fairer deal than that at the moment.

On that note, I wish I was just about to get onto a cruise. Our dishwasher just broke down and it'll take a few days to get a replacement in. So I have to go back to the old method of handwashing lol.