Stelladoro

We may be on the same cruise. Sea Princess March 10? I was wondering if the Aussies were more casual. Note we are from US. I am so close to pulling my suit jacket and ties out of my bag. Had dress slacks and a crisp shirts for MDR. Main concern thou are the two formal nights. Dinner MDR is one thing but I feel like the two formal nights will still want to add at least a jacket. Would like more feedback from other Aussies. On second thought hell the two ties take up not space £#%¥£€%! Will check back later. Departure is getting close.

We're on the 28 day March 24 cruise, with only 4 formal nights. Seems silly to take DH's suit to "the other end of the world" for 4 nights! I'm sure we won't starve if barred from the dining room.

Enjoy your cruise!

PS Love the Aussie sense of humour!

We're a couple of Canucks, who will soon be flying to Sydney for a cruise on the Sea Princess.

With airline luggage restrictions, we plan to leave our formal wear at home.

How formal is the dress code on Australia designated ships? What's the chance of DH being allowed into the dining room if he doesn't wear a suit, but does wear slacks, dress shirt and tie?

Thanks

We're from Canada and booked the March 24 circumnavigation cruise on the Sea Princess. At the time of booking, Princess offered "Free" gratuities. Not sure if they are really free, or just hidden in the cost of the cruise.

We recently self disembarked from the Royal Princess, as we wanted to have enough time to catch a 11:40 AM flight.

We were given a disembarkation time of 6:45 AM, and process went very smoothly and we arrived at the airport by taxi well before 8 AM.

What we didn't count on was a 4.5 hour flight delay, due to a snow storm up North and therefore, a late arrival of the plane.

The joys of flying in winter!

We also had a move over offer on a recent 10 day Caribbean cruise on the Royal Princess. We agreed to give up a balcony cabin for an inside, with a full refund of cruise cost (except taxes & fees). Princess website showed cruise as being sold out.

We have another cruise booked, so the extra money will come in handy!

We chose to visit New Zealand by land. Best decision we made and it's still one of our favourite trips. Since we didn't want to drive, we booked a coach tour with a local company. This was an 18 day tour, covering both islands. Thoroughly enjoyed the people, culture, and beautiful scenery.

Sometimes the Sir Stamford Hotel will run a "flash sale" on their website, with incredible price reductions.

We managed to book our stay for next month at this special rate ( 3 nights for the price of 1 night). If I recall, the flash sale was last October.

Since your trip is not until next year, it may be worthwhile to check their prices from time to time.

Where did you find the "flash" sale?

Found it on the hotel website. A fellow cruiser posted a heads up regarding the flash sale on our Roll Call. I immediately went on the hotel website, noticed sale was still available and booked a room. Believe this was sometime in Sept. Not sure how often this deal is offered.

We were lucky to book the Sir Stamford Hotel for 3 nights at a "Flash" sale price. Our cost for 3 nights stay is less than the going rate for 1 night stay. So we're happy!

Breakfast in not included, but I'm sure we'll find lots of places in the area to eat.

I found a few threads about this question in the Search Forum. The Sea Princess has both the 110V and 240V outlets in cabins. You may still need to pack an adapter if you're staying in a hotel in Sydney.

That's what we're doing.

Thanks so much for your input.

We'll book book package with Skyrail, train and pick up and drop off at hotel. I don't see option for pick up at the port. But some of the hotels on their pick up list are located very close to the cruise terminal, so I hope we can just walk to hotel.

We will arrive in Cairns next April on the Sea Princess (10 to 7). Is there a way to determine if the ship will dock in town or tender further away? Is this ship small enough to dock? Hope so.

We would like to book a train and Skyrail to Kuranda ( or Skyrail both ways if not enough time).

Is the train far away from the dock? Is the Skyrail a shorter distance away? Best to take a taxi to get there?

Thanks

I've been monitoring cost of a 23 night cruise and find that during the 100 hours sale, the "regular" cost was bumped up by over $2,000! RCCL website makes you think you are getting a discount of $2,040, but want you to pay almost the same price that existed prior to the recent 100 sale. So no deal.

Cruise is not until next year, so I'll just keep on watching for other "sales".

We're also Canadians and booked our first 2 cruises with P&O. I sent an email to International Customer Care and requested they call me to complete the bookings. Asked them to call me at 9 AM our time (have to keep in mind time difference). Process was fairly simple and P&O issued an emails confirming bookings.

I also found out we cannot enter the online Personal Information on the P&O website. I was able to load the Passport information, but not the other details.I called the International Customer tel. no as shown above, and information was once again handled over the phone for both cruises. Process was fairly quick.

When I was diagnosed 13 years ago, it was a frustrating process to learn what foods to avoid or at least reduce. I still make mistakes. A nutrition class will be definitely help, along with reading labels correctly when grocery shopping.

Agree with a previous poster about All Bran cereal - buy it all the time. Another is Fibre 1 - both cereals are very high in fibre and I take it with me on cruises.

We tend to be more active during the day, so can eat some carbs for breakfast and lunch. But as a rule, we are less active in the evenings, yet eat larger meals, along with dessert and drinks.

I try to avoid eating carbs, or at least limit carbs with my dinner meal. My dessert is usually a cup of herbal tea, and I may sneak only one bite of my DH's dessert. We don't drink, so no worries there.

Along with proper eating, exercise is definitely key to maintain proper blood sugar levels. When on cruises, especially on sea days, I do a brisk walk on the treadmill in the gym ( min. 30 min.), usually in late afternoon, before getting ready for dinner. At least I feel a bit less guilty, if I do have a bit of carbs at dinner.

With time and nutrition education, I'm sure your wife will learn what works for her.

Enjoy your cruise!

Our experience has been unless you book a taxi well in advance, none may be available in Zeebrugge. We did a last minute booking of a Transatlantic cruise last April and tried to pre book a taxi - none were available. There were several ships in port, and saw very few taxis outside the port gate.

We were set to take a tram and train to Brugge, but I found another transport option. Viator started offering a shuttle bus from Zeebrugge to Brugge. Very easy to book online and as I recall, cost for a return trip was very reasonable.

Thanks so much for your input. Wow, seems the Costa coffee is a tad on the pricey side!

My husband is the coffee drinker. Once he learns the price of coffee, I think he'll opt for making his own in the cabin.

I'll bring my favourite teas, just in case they're not available on the ship.

Agree, the Princess card is a better deal.

Hi, do you pay per cup for Costa coffee? If so, what is the cost?

We're from Canada and will be on our first P&O cruise next year. We're accustomed to sailing on Princess, where you can purchase a coffee card ($29 US), for several specialty coffees and unlimited specialty teas.

Not sure how it works on a P&O ship.

Thanks

We are booked for 30 days next spring in 3387. Wondering if we will be affected by the galley? Can't quite figure out what exactly we are under. Thanks for your help!

Looks like cabin 3387 is located under the galley. I would be concerned about noise.

We had originally booked cabin 3378 for our 31 day Asia cruise and decided to change cabins due to the same concerns.

Changed to cabin 2655 on Main deck and were quite happy with it. Heard a bit of noise on some mornings from the walkers on the L. Promenade deck, but this was not a major concern.

Our cruise included the N. Pacific crossing and it was cool to cold on the ship, particularly on the L. Promenade deck, due to doors that open to the walking deck.

You can experience all kinds of weather in this part of the world.

Last Christmas Day, we were in Ushuaia and enjoyed a sunny day, temps around mid 50s F. Lots of locals were camping. We needed only a light jacket.

We experienced strong winds and sleet, while cruising around the Horn.

It was also windy and raining for part of the day while in the Falklands, but we loved our tour. As long as you are prepared to bring warm, waterproof clothing, along with waterproof shoes, you should be OK. Also, if you're doing a tour to the Penguin Colony at Volunteer Point, it's a good idea to bring something you can slip over your shoes, to avoid all the "droppings". The couple who organized our tour brought along a supply of those blue booties worn in hospitals. May not look pretty, but it worked!

Unless there is some "value added" feature like hotel stay or OBC, that's about the way it is now with "sales".

 

For those of you who frequent any other cruise lines: is this the way they work sales, too?

Last year, we booked a 31 day South America cruise with Princess, since they offered a $400 OBC, for all cabin Categories. Was a good deal.

Hi stelladoro no we are sailing 31st March 2016 from hong kong.

Hi Beagle 24, thank you so much for alerting us about this cabin. We were able to change our cabin to a better location, in another category for only a small cost. Hope you have success in changing cabins.

Hi Everyone,

 

Many thanks for your feedback....much appreciated :)

Will be changing the cabin (if now possible!!)

Beagle 24, are you sailing in April this year? What is your embarkation date, as we are also booked in this stateroom as of April 13/15 and have the same concerns. Unfortunately, there are only 2 other staterooms available, at the very front of the ship, 3302 and 3303- not an option for us.

Do you use Elemis soaps, lotions, shampoo and other bath amenities provided by HAL or bring your own?

DH uses whatever the ship provides, but I bring my own products. Found out the hard way that I'm allergic to some of the ingredients in the Elemis products!

When you're in a van with 6, 8, 10 people it's a lot harder to ignore jerks than on a full tour bus. They are right there, and you can't help but hear them.

Or in our case, we didn't hear from the jerks, as they chose to ignore us. We've been on two private tours-one was only 4 of us, the other was a family of 4 plus 2 of us. We joined them strictly for transportation from/to port to town and the sightseeing was on our own. We had no problem carrying on a conversation with each respective partner and the kids.

Oh well, their loss. We enjoyed our time in each place.

Have to say we enjoyed the company on most private tours and still keep in touch with a few of the cruisers we met.