Blackduck59

Thanks Leigh. We have penciled in the itinerary right up to Philip Island, and have thoughts about the days between there and arrival in Melbourne several days later. From Philip Island we will probably drive around to the Sorento ferry to Queenscliff and then overnight in Geelong. From there we would take the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell. From there we head north east to Camperdown which is on the road to Ballarat? It's hard to sort some of these things. I long for a proper, paper, road map; as clumsy as they are.

Cynical? yes, judgmental? no. Except for the marketing bunch who's only job is to inflate the price of everything they are involved in.

So we booked the Sebel Quay West for Sydney and the Adina Apartment Hotel in Melbourne. We booked the Adina because of the race, there was an apartment available with free cancellation and no prepayment. We thought it was a fair price considering the timing of our stay and the race. So we have the first hotel and last hotel for the Great Down Under Meet & Greet tour booked. We are still looking at options for Auckland. It is still a little early for the booking window. For some parts of the tour we have had the good fortune to have our CC friends step up and offer to host us. Other stops are single nights in small towns as we drive from place to place. Of course we plan to stay at Craig's Royal Hotel in Ballarat. That stretch of time between Bateman's Bay when we bid farewell to Linda & Mario and we drop the hire car in Melbourne is starting to fill up. I think after the personal contacts of the first half of our time in OZ we will suddenly be strange people in a strange land. We do have a friend we met on our east coast Canada cruise who lives in Camperdown, Victoria. Apparently that is located along the road between Port Campbell and Ballarat so that works perfectly.

Thank you for the information. It would seem that the marketers weren't able to spin this barrel into the magic elixir they hoped, and the price reflects that failure.

I will be doing another "Observations" thread when we finally go. Unfortunately it is a year away still.

Is that your yard Lyndon?😉😇

I have to say if this is one barrel for the whole fleet then think along the lines of a limited edition bottle available on board for say $200.00 (more if they think they can get it) It will come in a magnificent box and special HAL label for people to display at home with there Delft tiles and HAL medallions. If by chance you find any of this special barrel in a bar on any HAL ship, you aren't getting it for $15.00. I live in a city that hosts a very prestigious Whiskey festival every year and some of the spirits on offer are eye wateringly expensive, yet people cough up the money, and display the bottle in their "collection". Never to be opened and never exposed for the ordinary thing that it is.

Any time any distillery decides "We'll call this barrel special" no matter if it is just another keg of their spirit, Suddenly it is "rare and delightful" with all sorts of hints and nuances that really don't exist, except in the minds of the marketers and those who have to believe it's better because they just paid $50.00 a shot for it.

I will throw out the Philippines.

Funny thing our hotel in Sydney is at "The Rocks", we are meeting some friends from CC while we are there. They will be in Sydney to board their Princess cruise while we are there. Hopefully by the time we board the cruise in March next year they will still have stock for the down under crowd and that will hold out for a while before it runs out and we are left with Bud Lite and Corona. Oh well there is always the Pusser's Painkiller as a suitable replacement.

So I have discovered the source of my confusion. @Mary229 posted a photo of the "Legendary Voyage" tote bag on another thread and I mistook that as a post from the OP showing the lovely tote they got from the cruise they were on. What "Legendary Voyage" did you get that from Mary?

Now I'm just confused, someone is on a "Legendary Voyage" because they posted a picture of the all important tote bag. It was quite nice (as far as cruise ship tote bags go). @OlsSalt I have to guess that you are high in the exalted order between "Legendary" and "Grand" and look at all those days for your Mariner status 😉. The fact you choose not to mention that in your posts makes your comments more relevant to me.

I stand corrected, as I said my booking says nothing about "Legendary Voyage"; but the HAL website is listing it as one. I guess we'll know for sure when we find the "Legendary Voyage" tote bag in our stateroom. 😉

I am looking at our booking, which is actually a B2B because we added the 29 day segment at a later date. It does not say "Legendary" in the description. I have been reading on the thread by @richwmn who is on a "Legendary" voyage at this time and apparently the entertainment has been quite good so far and they seem to be enjoying themselves. They also got very nice tote bags, I mean really who wouldn't want a "Legendary Voyage" tote bag?

Got it. We did book the Sebel and the reservation is confirmed. We will check out Melbourne possibilities in a couple weeks when the one year booking window opens.

Looking at that array I'm pretty glad I will probably be beered out from the 26 day land portion of our Down under adventure. That is a poor group to say the least. If you are going to have Guinness and it's not on tap then you better have the cans, they have the "widget" that produces the famous Guinness head. The bottles don't have the widget. I may try the HAL brand and hope it isn't too hoppy. As for the rest it is definitely for the American audience.

I emailed the hotel via the link on booking dot com and received a reply that the reservation was indeed valid. They also reminded me that I had to have the actual card and photo ID when I check in. I wonder if I will have the same problem again as we book the rest of the accommodation for the great Australian Meet and Greet tour. It's a funny thing I never had that problem when we booked the the other 2 since cancelled trips.

I wish I knew. We are booked on a 43 day Auckland to Seattle voyage next year and it is not "Legendary" so clearly length of cruise isn't the criteria. But it does seem those who are on these "Legendary" voyages are getting something closer to what the long time HAL loyalists would consider the HAL standard.

I just had a similar problem through booking dot com. I gave a current and valid card to reserve our food on Sydney and got an "invalid card" notice. I have resubmitted the card so we'll see. Of course the power is out here so I'm trying to fix it on my phone.

We're you in Canada 🇨🇦?

I'm still trying to figure out how you get these so fast, it is Snoqualmie falls. We went there during a road trip we did in Washington state for our 10th anniversary.

Not in Norway.

Let's see how long this goes.

Did you have a "Have it all" package that includes "Crew Appreciation"? I'm certainly not an expert, there are many on these boards with way better knowledge than me.

How about Japan?