Blackduck59

Thanks Lyndon, I tried the front seat but between the barrier and the payment point mounted behind the seat, the front seat is all the way forward. So if you are in the back seat the barrier made it like the front seat was all the way back. Suffice to say I'm not going to want any compact car for a cab.

This is an interesting discussion. When we were on our most recent cruise to the east coast (Boston to Montreal). We had 2 absolutely terrible experiences with the cabs in Boston we ended up trying Uber for the first time. What a difference, The cabs were all crappy Toyota Corollas or Prius, the first Uber was a BMW M5, not once did we get a Corolla. We are more than happy to use cabs but, in our limited experience Uber has consistently better cars. If the standard for cabs in Australia is a Toyota Corolla or Prius then we will be using Uber, as far as tipping goes it's not part of the Australian culture and we won't be tipping anywhere,

Zaandam doesn't have a dual piano set up, it was and I assume still is a single piano in "Mix" and there is a piano in the Ocean Bar.

Yes they are, but even without the whole piano inside, that will be an awkward and heavy piece of furniture. Of course some clever cabinet maker could have made the case with a knock down assembly system like Ikea uses.

Because you seem to like bold font I will use it for you. You missed my point entirely, my post you quoted and disregarded was "how did the thread about music start a big back and forth about the friggin' casino. Does the C.L.I.A. have rules about the entertainment in "Billboard on Board"? After all this thread is about the change in format in Billboard on Board. Just sayin.

I thought that would be fun to do when we were planning the last 2 trips that got cancelled. of course it was not around race time and there would be no track, just the public roads. Of course this time the track will be set up and the drivers, crews and personalities will all be in Melbourne, We will be flying out the same day as FP1 and we will be boarding the ship in Auckland on race day. Who know maybe we'll stumble across someone by accident. Probably no current drivers but maybe Brundle or Hill or Button. I know Melbourne is a big city but it could happen.

It is a very short walk to the panning stream, it was fun and you are guaranteed to get a few flecks of gold. Wear shoes you don't mind getting messy. The salmon barbeque (cooked over an open wood fire on grates) is very good. We felt it was worth the price, and it is a fond memory for us.

On Zaandam the balconies start with "Vista Suite" which on any different line and even most of the HAL fleet would be a veranda cabin. One thing is that being a "suite" means you get the double "Mariner" points. We prefer a veranda cabin midships so for our Zaandam cruise that meant a "Vista Suite" I don't know the price difference, we don't look at that. We pick the cabin range we like and ask the price, if we feel the price is appropriate for what we chose then we make the reservation. Recently we chose to change from a Signature suite down to a veranda, by doing this we were able to change our 14 day cruise to a 43 day voyage and only doubled the price as well as eliminating the return air fare.

How did the billboard thread suddenly become a big conversation about casino "rules" and whose standards they use. There were grand casinos in Europe when Las Vegas was some desert town with dirt roads. I'm not sure why there seems to be the need to assume that Nevada sets the "standards" for the world. Considering the casinos on all cruise ships don't operate anywhere near Nevada, and most of them spend very little time in American waters.

@Bubbeh Thanks for the picture to clarify the Scotch Finger question. It's interest that the start of this thread showed up, complete with a photo of the B52 breakfast. I have been reading back at the beginning, this started right after everything was shut down and the optimistic among us thought that surely the plague would pass before our scheduled cruise in January of 2021. Well we know what happened there. Then of course plan 2 took shape and there was a road trip to visit new friends. Now plan 3 is a whole different road trip with more friends and the cruise portion of this adventure is longer than the whole trip was before. I haven't even got to trip 2 with the long road trip. Of course that has changed with new stops to visit @lyndarra in Lake Macquarie and @mr walker in Penrith, both places we hadn't planned to visit. We are looking forward to seeing these places that the average international tourist wouldn't see in their limited time available and the need to see all the "important" things we have all heard one "must see" in Australia. For us it's more about meeting people and seeing every day Australia. I think for the most part the road trip will remain the same from Canberra. Of course this time we have been fortunate that @Mareblu has offered to let us stay with her and Mario and also Bateman's Bay, we look forward to meeting them and seeing Canberra from a local's view. Of course we will be doing touristy things like the Zoo and P[era House, Museums and other things, but once again it is the Great Australian meet and greet tour now.

@gbenjo Hi Graham, I thought I should reach out and say hi. When we planned this trip before we were cruising on Celebrity Eclipse, and we were looking forward to meeting you at the cruise port. As it turns out the new plan is quite a bit different. We are cruising on Holland America Westerdam and it has gone from a 14 day Auckland to Sydney and it is now a 43 day Auckland to Seattle with a stop here in Victoria, we will arrange to get off here. We still want to meet you and wonder how we can make that happen. We arrive in Sydney on the 19th of February 2025 and have a few days there before we set off on our road trip. We also have a port stop (actually a turn around day because the cruise is a "collector" so technically a B2B. We will probably meet up with Julie and Rolf during that port stop. Hopefully we can get together, either during the time we have pre-cruise or during that port stop.

Now that it is complete we can use this excellent scale representation to research Sydney 😉

That sounds like something we have called a "twix" bar.

why does that sound like a rude gesture?

I'm still trying to digest the news in Formula 1 that Lewis Hamilton will be moving to Ferrari next season. I'm not sure what to make of that. Of course I thought he was crazy when he left McLaren for Mercedes, that worked out pretty well for him. Wouldn't it be ironic if he surpassed Michael Schumacher in a red car.

I quite like the Tim Tams as a lovely biscuit. I don't drink coffee and I think that chocolate would pair well with the whole slam thing. I will try one more time with hot chocolate.

we thought it would be fun to watch the Miss Fisher movie. So it's murder mystery and Tim Tams. I did try a Tim Tam slam and botched it, I'm not sure if I want to try again. Maybe if I have some hot chocolate I'll give it another go. I did learn one should be standing while attempting that evolution.

Pusser's will be available, it's a key ingredient in a "Pusser's Pain Killer". It's the Ron Zacappa that is the wonderful elixir from Guatemala, so smooth I drink it on ice. I will now apologize for straying from the subject of fine bourbon (if there is such a thing 😁😇), there seems to be a wide variation in what constitutes fine Bourbon, personally I have been unable to acquire a taste for that libation.

That would be 26 degrees south

26th North or 26th South?

I'm sorry to deviate from the libation at hand, but while you are researching Bourbon would you mind looking if they have Ron Zacappa rum? It is a lovely drop and I would like to toast my crossing the equator with a wee tot of that. Perhaps "splice the main brace". If no Zacappa I'll settle for Pusser's.

We found the reservations podium by the Lido pool adjacent to dive in on Zaandam. There really wasn't much of a line, While the Navigator app may be an option, we are still hearing reports of the many quirks of the app, I like a face to face contact with direct entry into the ship's booking system. Fortunately for us we don't really covet Pinnacle Lunch reservations. If we can book it without much hassle then cool, if not, oh well. Of course our next cruise has many sea days so I'm sure we will get more than one hassle free reservation.

Well it is an interesting look. I probably wouldn't choose it for myself.

I wonder if his name was Larry 😁😇

Formal night?