Snoopkat

Question for the ladies that dressed up for PJ party - what footwear did you have? Bedroom slippers don't make good dancing shoes and dancing shoes look odd with PJs.

For reference - this is what I'm rocking for PJ party. Still trying to convince my husband to do the same.😂

I have a solo cruise coming up next week. I am packing 2 swim dresses which mostly cover the back so probably no sunscreen needed there. Will also likely use the solarium pool more than the outdoor pool. 

Alternatively, you can always ask someone (female) to rub in your sunscreen for you. Most women (myself included) are happy to oblige. 

Odd that RC will provide kettles and Celebrity won't given they're owned by the same parent group. I like having tea before bed and can't see myself making the trek to OVC, might have to settle for a bedtime whisky instead.

Thank you for the update. I'm on the 7th Feb sailing and really looking forward to my first cruise with Celebrity.  Are there live bands at different bars? We just got off Quantum and I love how there was live music at each bar, the ship atmosphere was fantastic. Also, is the wine selection at Cellar Master well represented across the different wine regions around the world?

We recently sailed on Quantum of the Seas and did a ship tour to Duck Island in New Caledonia. AUD was accepted for purchases and snorkelling equipment hire.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Very foggy this morning in Sydney, quite surreal.

I’m on the same cruise and will most likely end up at the Lawn Club during sailaway. 

We're sailing with with RC (Quantum of the Seas) in a couple of weeks and I looked at the pedicure prices. It was AUD$140 for a traditional pedi with shellac on the ship and about AUD$45 at my local salon. 

3 weeks till we fly out for our cruise. Have the usual end of school and work related events over the next week and a half that we can't really get out of but will be in self enforced isolation the week leading up to our cruise.

15 hours ago, adelaidefc said:

 

And if you have an existing booking, is there an option to upgrade your all-inclusive Classic package to a Premium one? And for how much?

 

Thanks!

I'm going on the Eclipse in Feb 2023. I asked my TA about a month ago and she said I could upgrade to the Premium package for about AUD$160 but prices can change. Waiting to see what Black Friday deals come out but if the price doesn't change too much, I will most likely get the upgrade as I like my martinis.

$850 for Flowrider is ridiculous. I could buy a surfboard and go down to North Cronulla for that money.

Doing the wine cruise on Eclipse in Feb, cannot wait to see what she's like IRL!

Thanks for the update. Getting excited for our Dec cruise.

This was our experience from our P&O cruise 2 weeks ago. YMMV.

• staff were quite strict about hand washing in the buffet and hand sanitisation in the MDR. Everyone waiting for their table outside Dragon Lady had to be masked up and there was staff on standby handing out masks.
• We had to mask on at embarkation and disembarkation. People were quite good on the first day with masks but not as vigilant on the last day and staff didn't really enforce the rule (not that we were expecting them to anyway).
• We didn't use the lift but I read online beforehand that masks in lifts were also mandatory.
• The theatre had 'sip and cover' rules but again, I don't think the staff were overly strict with that mandate. In saying that, most of the older crowd were pretty good about keeping their masks on.
• There were areas like The Sanctuary we could go to to get away from the crowd and eating outside of peak dining hours meant we were also able to easily avoid the masses. 

We have another 2 cruises this year with one of them being the Dec 28th South Pacific Quantum cruise and will continue to mask up if required and wash our hands before meals (which we have always done on land pre COVID anyway).

On our Explorer cruise a couple of weeks ago, our initial boarding time was 12.30 and we were able to get an 11.30 slot closer to the date. We ended up getting on the ship itself at about 11.15 because there was no queue and VeriFly made the whole boarding process really easy.

15 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Our beloved cat, Niki, passed away peacefully earlier this evening. He will be missed.😪😪😪

Sorry for your loss 😥

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

You can book your dining on the app, but order/pick-up  from Charlies/ice cream/ocean bar/ is not yet available.

 

 

Thanks for posting all the updates, looking forward to our first cruise in 3 weeks. 

I've been checking the app but there is no option to pre book restaurants. Do we have to physically be on the ship before we can use the app to make reservations?

Fixed the problem by logging out of app, clearing cache and logging back in.  

Looking forward to your posts as we are on our very first cruise in just under a month! I am a little bit surprised at the pricing as I was under the impression that food and alcohol are usually cheaper on a ship but it's good to know these things beforehand so we can manage our expectations.

I saw a bit of Vivid on my way home last week and it looks beautiful. Enjoy!

On 5/28/2022 at 5:16 PM, arxcards said:

The P&O app has been really reliable, and looking better each day now that restaurant and bar menus are loaded. VeriFLY is separate, and nothing P&O can control, but once the health info is uploaded, it should no longer be required.

 

Inside 3 days now, I have also noticed the same health survey is available on Cruise Control, so I am not sure why VeriFLY was needed at all.

Were you able to load your boarding pass onto your P&O wallet? That's the part I'm struggling with.  

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Mine is fine.

Yesterday arvo/evening, they had an issue with it. So someone gets on P&Os FB page - my details are missing on the app, had to do it all over again, the world is about to end. So, many that read it checked theirs, found it empty and redid it again from scratch - including following dud advice to delete the app and reinstall it. 

 

I waited and messaged a few others on the cruise who had no issues, as it had already been resolved. As long as we can get our survey and RAT loaded, the app doesn't even need to work in the terminal, as it all links back to the booking. 

 

At the terminal they scan the barcode from your boarding pass (printed or app) and if all is complete, they just confirm details and you are ready to board when it is called. 

I saw the same post, checked my details and they were still there. We don't cruise for another month so we're not as worried but hope P&O resolves any technical glitches before the first cruise on Tue.

Thank you all. I posted this on FB and got similar comments about people being able to take their donations off ships for this lady at Port Vila to pick up. Given so much has changed with COVID though, I don't want to run the risk of being left holding the bag (literally) and will reach out to RC this morning to find out the process. 

20 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

Thanks. I do have an iPad. Do the reader apples like kindle have the special none blue light type feature and low lighting or is that just the kindle feature. I might check it out tonight!

My iPad is set to dark mode which makes it easier to read and my Overdrive app is set to the same mode. I think you can set up different reading modes in the app itself from memory.

Also, Overdrive is the older version of the Libby app. I have Overdrive on my iPad and Libby on my iPhone. Personally I prefer Overdrive as I found Libby to be a bit glitchy but hopefully they have fixed the bugs.

Saw a post on the P&O FB group about donating school supplies in Vanuatu and thought I would ask a similar question here. We have a cruise in Dec with port stops in Mystery Island and Port Vila and I was hoping to be able to donate some school supplies (pencil cases that are packed with pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, crayons etc). We have a decent luggage allowance with Virgin Australia so space isn't an issue and it looks like I will be able to do a drop off in Port Vila. Unfortunately I have to be onboard the ship for most of the time we're in port for work (end of year is a really fun time for those of us in Finance...) so I can't really do a school tour to drop off the supplies. Ideally, what I would like is to be able to either give the supplies to RC for them to distribute or meet someone at the port, hand over the supplies and then get back on the ship.

Has anyone done something like this in the past and can point me in the right direction of figuring out the logistics of getting the school supplies off the ship and into the hands of the organisation who will then do the distribution? Thanks!

30 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

It’s something I’ve never even looked at. I regularly borrow library books which of course I’d never take when air/cruise travel just in case something happened to them. But it’s worth the thought! Cos im a speed reader too 🥳

I used to only borrow library books because I am a speed reader and like the feel of a physical book and so have resisted Kindle for the longest time. When COVID hit and ebooks became a thing, I had to transition to digital books and now plan on having a few ebooks on the iPad. There is the Overdrive/Libby apps that the libraries use which are pretty good and have decent ebook selections.