Yaya_in_Oz

Since Covid, and more recently with the Ruby Princess crashing into the pier at SFO, the media has emphatically presented the ship as disaster prone. I don't think most Australians, myself included, would be lining up to get on board, particularly when there are other ships with similar itineraries. Its brand is damaged here. Leave it in the US for the foreseeable future.

I also wrote at trip report for my cruise on the Coral in Jan/Feb. I did the ships excursions for convenience and as the cruise was a ‘Drop & Go’ bargain basement price but there are private companies available. https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=696261 In Rabaul, I met folks who went on the local transport to Kokopo. By all accounts, a jolly good time was had by all Not so long ago, I would have thought ‘that looks like fun’, now I thought ‘I won’t be able to walk for a week if I drive for over an hour round trip in that jalopy.

A colleague of mine, her father died while on holiday on Norfolk Island. He is buried there.

To clarify - a lot of Australians don't bother with domestic travel insurance, so if given a free trip in Australia, buying travel insurance might not have occurred to them. For myself - I do not take tours in Australia, where you have to pay up front and there are hefty penalties for cancellation. This is the only use domestic travel insurance would have for me. Thats why I have insurance when going on a cruise and for an unexpected medical episode on board. Otherwise, you change the date of a flight for a fee (well less than the cost of a TI policy and excess), most accommodation has free cancellation, if Qantas lose my bag they pay me so much per kilo which is probably more then the stuff is worth and most importantly if I have medical expenses the costs are worn by Medicare/private health insurance. I would consider TI domestic insurance totally irrelevant for my circumstances.

What next, a mandatory breathalyser reading or blood test?🙄

Cruise lines regularly inconvenience people with their delays, detours, butt scraping and so on, so I think P and O could have been a little bit flexible in this case. How far away from the Port could these people be if the plane left Sydney at 1pm and the ship sailed at 4pm? I don't believe the Captain would have been as unprofessional and inflammatory to publicly say "time is money" in this situation. Qantas I see is still operating on the far side of useless. Why didn't they just fly the people up to their next port rather than back to Sydney? Lots of people fly in on the day of their cruise, normally you'd have plenty of time and if you are new to cruising you possibly didn't think about travel insurance. I never bother with travel insurance in Aus except for cruises as you are not covered on the ship. Its been chaotic at airports around the country with some unable to get on another flight for several days. I feel for these people and am very thankful I do not have to travel in school holidays.

I’m doing a B2B cruise out of the Southampton in August. If I catch Covid towards the end of the first cruise, am I allowed to continue isolating on the second cruise or will they put me off the ship? Can I rejoin the ship later if they do. Its all UK ports. I have a different cabin for the second leg. Thanks.

I couldn't see it happening. Not everyone who books a double is a loved up couple. Many doubles are friends and other relatives and everyone would want their own room if there was no single supplement.

Well I never knew those stacks had names! I thought Gog and Magog were the old boys in the Royal Arcade. I did actually walk out to London Arch before the bridge collapsed some years later!

When I travel, I can never go past a tower/observation deck without taking a look. So here in Melbourne we have the Eureka Skydeck for great views and if you are a thrillseeker you can go out in the Edge and look down! or go in the theatre for some RV. If you like to go out on the water you could take the ferry from Southbank to historic Williamstown, have lunch and return on the ferry or train. For a day trip, the Great Ocean Road tour is great. The Road hugs the coast, passes through forest at one point, then opens up to great coastal views.

I had exactly the same problem on the Island Princess earlier this year for the Iceland/Greenland tour in Aug. My TA couldn't book me a single, she called Princess and they said there were no more singles left. I tried to put it on hold and the website wouldn't allow me to go to that final step. I'd never come across this before. The advertised price for a single was approx AU$6K, a double was going for AU$8.5K for a balcony and that includes port fees in Aus. So the single price was greatly discounted compared to the usual almost the double price. About 5 weeks later when I was about to finalise my air ticket, I thought, I'll try again and this time they let me buy a single so perhaps they hadn't sold as many cabins as they'd hoped. I chose my cabin, being Covid averse I had to have a balcony just in case.

I've just seen the footage on the news. I'm surprised at the folks out on their balconies watching on and taking pics rather than going to their muster stations. I have a bit more respect for fire than to do that. I never thought cruises to nowhere were so popular. Glad everyone is OK and they can continue their cruise after a sleep in.

I wouldn't have thought so. While bad weather can be encountered anytime, from what I have read, its far less likely in summer July/August. At least I hope thats right. I'm going in August. For me its a long way and costs money so I like to maximise my chance of stopping in the advertised ports.

Bigger isn't better! I like Sapphire/Diamond and Coral.

I like the look of the P&O Southern Explorer from Melb round to Fremantle on Jan 27 '25. I hope they let seniors on the water slide 😃

A big part of cruising is the ship actually moving. Otherwise you may as well just sit in the port. Also if the casino was meant to be open, it would disappoint some. I think passengers should be offered a refund if the P and O can't deliver on the cruise. I expect to get pretty much what I pay for, not something else. I suspect they knew in advance of the hull cleaning and thought most would not complain. If they offered the cruise as "sail a short distance from the port, anchor for 2 days, experience hull cleaning and sail back", I suspect most would pick a different cruise.

I think they probably needed the clothes. It was things like shorts, T-shirts and anything with a logo and more easily recognisable was left behind.

On a recent cruise I also found 2 unopened pairs of pantyhose with some paperwork dated 15 months prior when I pulled out a bottom drawer to retreive a pair of socks. So that area doesn't get cleaned often. I also got a g-string in with my washing! Tempting as it was, I just left it in the laundry. As for clothing, some has gone missing just off my washing line at home overnight.

Sometimes you can have too many ports. I refuse to get on any ship that stops at Phillip Island

@John Bull. Thankyou for your info. I've stayed at the Ibis Budget and Ibis opposite just prior to a cruise and I'm coming over again in August and will stay there again because its just a short walk from the bus station. This time my plane arrives in the arvo but delays are pretty common. I will be travelling alone and wondered if it was safe walking from the bus station to Ibis in the dark if my plane was delayed? The buses seem to run most of the night. I want to go to the Portsmouth Maritime Museum the next day and cruise the day after. I take a taxi to the cruise terminal.

Oh dear! I'm surprised they have enough empty cabins to move all those people. I hope lower loyalty travellers don't have to bunk in with strangers in a quad berth. If they can't fix the problem they should offer to just fly some people home with the 14 day refund. Hang in there! I'm booked on the Grand for Jan 2024 in a 700 cabin so I hope they can fix her up by then.

The wording is different though. There seems to be two types of guarenteed cabin- one that Princess picks the location, cheapest and probably F category and the guarenteed cabin you can choose when there are no more cabins to pick in a particular location. That has a higher price point but if you can pick a guarenteed location then you will not end up in the F cabins, the worst in my opinion and I'd never book one. I think this new system will just confuse some people. I find it a total outrage with all the fanfare of new releases etc. that you can't pick your cabin almost 2 years out! The ship would be largely empty. Lucky for me, earlier this week I booked a cruise over a year out and there were plenty of cabins to choose from.

I think the circled cabin is on Deck 8 above the Promenade Deck, F deck is below it, no obvious obstructions but closer to the water.

Its unfortunate that the lady, given her age and travelling experience hasn't developed the life skills to cope with a missing suitcase and is still crying about it long after the cruise has finished. However, I would not like to see the cruise lines start giving out free cruises or major compensation for every missing suitcase. That would set a bad precedent and we'd all be paying more to cover it. Cruise lines and the travel industry in general avidly promote Travel Insurance. The higher the excess the lower the premium and vice versa, so you choose your level of risk.

I wouldn't be concerned if unvaccinated people were on board as its awhile since some have had vaccinations so they'd be low on immunity but the thought of Covid positive passengers just being allowed to roam around the ship infecting other passengers and crew horrifies me. Not everyone does the right thing by isolating but most do, thereby reducing the spread. The ship wouldn't need to report cases. It would be all over the media.