Chiliburn

before you throw that medallion in the water uncle Les. I found a medallion holder for you.

I suppose coming from Western Australia they may have a different outlook on Covid and the restrictions, they where pretty over the top .

I think you are over reacting , don’t listen to these Princess Prima Donna’s . Book the cruise and if you’re still not confident, book it with a refundable deposit.

I have a fair bit saved up from OBC’s that I cashed out. But our local commonwealth bank in Richmond carries foreign currency for the RAAF base which is a joint U.S base .I have found them to be reasonable.

From memory Julie, I found them charging my Commonwealth bank MasterCard is $US was the best option. I have never had a big bill , I think one time it was $400 for a couple of weeks . I have heard of people regularly with a couple thousand on their bill and that’s when they start buying $US cash to take onboard. The absolute worst thing you can do is take $AU onboard. Some told me the exchange rate is around 60%.

Full moon has been and gone ,we are a bit late Julie.

So you remember it and I’m not hallucinating.

If you turn up without a medallion ,they put you in a taxi and take you to white bay and you are put on Pacific Explorer. No captain’s circle for you uncle Les. It’s the bogan drinking circle.

This is probably 3-4 years ago Graham before they processed it in sydney, I think it was processed in Miami. I don’t know what the situation will be coming up but there was a option to have it processed by a third party. From memory it was a N.Y. bank . It was in the cruise planner, would you like it to be processed by RC or a third party.I used it once but wasn’t impressed. Im starting to forget what a ship looks like let alone murky details like that.

I went on a P&O cruise a couple of months ago, which left sydney. N.S.W health sets the rules not the cruise line. So with this cruise, they really didn’t care and I would say RC will be the same. You had to declare you where vaccinated and you haven’t had Covid or symptoms in the last week. All they wanted to see at check-in was photo I.D and most important a credit card. You were supposed to do a self administered RAT and have your vaccination certificate,which I did. But they just didn’t care, they weren’t interested.

The option was in cruise planner when you were setting up your account.

I wouldn’t like to be trapped on a ship like that with no way to escape those cougars.

So it looks like you are correct. Ive been chatting with a sydney fellow who has just got a price adjustment 2 weeks ago . He said it was a none refundable deposit. And a lady from Melbourne, just a week ago ,non refundable and through a agent and the cruise is next season. Well done and you haven’t even been on a cruise yet.

It’s been a couple of years but you used to have a option to go through a third person or brokerage in N.Y . I did it once and wasn’t very impressed . I found it’s best to have Royal Caribbean Sydney to charge my MasterCard .

That’s interesting, it looks to me that it can be a none refundable deposit. I got about a year ago on a couple of cruises where some couldn’t. I’ll ask the gurus on another forum.

I’m pretty sure your gratuity is included, if it wasn’t you would have the opportunity to prepay them or get the bill at the end. U.S dollars onboard, I don’t know why people panic, you just have to keep it in mind. It will be processed in Sydney so there’s no international fees and your card will be changed in $AU.

I will check it out,it’s good to have a fresh mind on the forum.

Good to see you found the forum. To my knowledge Royal don't price match anymore for cruises booked in Australia . They used to under the cruise with confidence program but that was for sailings up to this September . https://www.royalcaribbean.com/aus/en/cruise-with-confidence?country=AUS To my knowledge only a U.S. agent can offer the price drop match. I had a agent that went to the cruise lines colleges and knew everyone. During the pandemic he bought a cleaning business and has never looked back. Everyone else ,as you said ,has to be told about their job.

There isn’t any real documents ,all you need is a 7 digit booking number. Setup a account with Royal Caribbean and go to your cruise planner. Once you do that it’s all up to you ,as it’s all done online.

They can and do transfer the bookings back to Royal Caribbean but it’s not very common. There has to be some gross incompetence on the behalf of the agent for it to happen. As said ,the booking is owned by the agent and you are a resale ,if that makes any sense. At the moment the industry is very short staff and stretched. Even the best cruise specialist aren’t so good. Just keep hounding the agent.

I think if a Chinese financial group did have a interest,they would be glad it’s nowhere near China at the moment. The whole banking system is imploding.

They both have their advantage. Ovation has more options in food and entertainment. Brilliance is a bit more personal. If you haven’t been on Ovation,try it.

Royal seems to be swapping ships quiet regularly lately. Its a changing world and anything can happen.

It says it will serve the white bay promenade ,north to south. The whole area looks like it’s going to developed . It’s a bit of a walk to the station,1,000 metres or so . It will have a stop at Barangaroo,Martin place and central. It will make white bay worth more if they decide to sell it .

Some news . It looks like Sydney metro west will have a metro station called `the bays’ that will service white bay cruise terminal ,I believe. It will be a kilometre and about 10-15 minutes walk. Still inconvenient with bags. But it will have a bus interchange as it’s on the west connect and buses will probably do a loop past the cruise terminal. So catch the metro from central to the bays and hopefully there’s a bus.