DCThunder

I'm looking to book flights going the other way (Sydney back to East Coast USA) as I'll get to Oz via a Trans-Pac cruise. I've looked at Asiana (Sydney to Seoul to SFO or LAX), Fiji, and Philippines Air (via Manila) as well as Qantas/American, and United. Has anyone done the SYD-DFW flight on Qantas and is 15 hours (even in business) as bad as It appears to be?

I'll be flying back from Sydney to the US East Coast in November 2024 following a cruise. What are the pros and cons of doing it all at once vs. taking a day in SF or LA before flying back east? And has anyone done the 15+ hour flight from SYD to DFW? Is that as awful as it sounds? I'd still need to fly from DFW to CLT to get home, so there is that too.

I'm considering giving Azamara a try but have a question about booking flights through them. Can you get an estimate of flight costs BEFORE making a deposit for a booking? I couldn't see how to do that from the website, so any advice is appreciated. Thanks

I'm waiting for the call center to be replaced by AI! 😉

Because they don't want to tie up one of the big, newer ships for 120 days that could be generating a whole lot more revenue doing 7 to 10 day milk-run cruises to the Caribbean, Europe, or Alaska.

This is spot on. While the whole situation you describe sounds "unusual", unless you and DH are one of the other couples going on the trip and/or DH's buddy has specifically asked for assistance, I'd butt out and pop the corn. You can't save people that don't want to be saved.

BTW, I just got the notice of the itinerary change to eliminate the two Israel port calls, but they're still planning on going past Houthiland and into the Red Sea.

Hasn't it already been posted? I booked a leg of the WC 2025 in August 2023. If you mean 2026, I doubt that's out yet.

I'm currently on Island Princess about 1,750 NM out of Ft. Lauderdale halfway from finishing our TA. We've been told to expect 4-5 meter seas and heavy winds as a storm overtakes us as we head to FLL for arrival on Thursday morning. Should be an interesting Monday morning for us on Monday.

SHIP Captain Cruise Director Entertainment Director Director of Restaurant Operations CARIBBEAN Vincenzo Lubrano (leaves Jan 2024) Ozren Marelic (leave) Olivia Guthrie Luke Bonney Oscar Perego CORAL Gavin Pears Jason Allen Lauren Meyer [photo with Jason] Herminio Marques CROWN Christopher Lye (leaves March 2024) Vincenzo Lembo (leave) Jody Miles (leaves April 2024) Kylie Chappell Mariusz Czemarmazowicz DIAMOND Paolo Arrigo Stefano Ravera (leave) Natalie Costa + Mikiko Ikemoto Tim Donovan Fahey Jean Paul Musiu DISCOVERY Alessandro Genzo (leaves Jan 2024) Tony Ruggero (leave) Cole Bockman (as of November 29, 2023) Neil Rose Catalin Ionel EMERALD Giuseppe Castellano (leaves March 2024) Fabrizio Maresca (leave) Fernando Duran Geof O’Rourke Rui Pereira ENCHANTED Mario Ciruzzi Nick Nash (leave) Jayson Douglass Madison Adams Nicola Furlan (leaves Jan 2024, returns April 2024) GRAND Michele Bartolomei Karen Rogers Matt (last name?) [photo with Karen] Giuseppe Franchina ISLAND Marco Cataldi Jaclyn Friedlander (leaves Jan 2024) Andi Sanders (returns Jan 2024) Susan Rawlings Daniele Rosafio MAJESTIC John Foster (leaves Jan 2024?) Nikki “Nikki Jayne” Robertson Ron Goodman Carlos Marques REGAL Aldo Traverso (leaves Jan 2024) Tim Stringer (leave) Allie Ambriano Martyn Moss Francisco Patricio ROYAL Andrea Spinardi Lloyd Flay Kelvin Joy Paul Ciobanu RUBY Mario Tani Steven Lewis (leave) Jessica Caballero (left mid-cruise in December 2023) Jaclyn Friedlander (joins Jan 2024) Michael Kujawski George Drugan SAPPHIRE Todd McBain Paolo Ravera (leave) Armando Merin Tobias Stewart Daniele Saredi SKY Marco Fortezze Aaron Hawkins Caitlin Messerschmidt Ciprian Hoidreag STAR Gennaro Arma Nick Nash (relief) TBA TBA TBA SUN Craig Street Paolo Arrigo (relief) Dan France + Corinne Steel (CD duo) Neil Rose TBA Marco Cataldi joined Island Princess as Captain on December 1.

Except bragging rights.

You may need to rename this thread on December 1 if the rumors of a new name for the app are true. And if those rumors ARE true, the thread could take off like Starship did on Saturday! Hopefully not with the same end of a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.

This X100000

Yes, but if those were booked at 2 7 days B2B cruises (with 2 booking numbers), you'd get 4 credits. So the booking number is important too.

All solos get 2 credits per booking number.

Island is/was supposed to go to a drydock session sometime in 2024 before the world cruise starts. Would Princess spend the dough to do a refurb in drydock if they were going to sell the ship? Maybe it's like painting the house and putting in new carpeting before you put it on MLS to sell, but I'd think doing a ship drydock is a lot more costly than doing some painting in the living room.

Same with a September 2024 Trans-Pac cruise. Almost a grand more now than when I booked it.

I won an undyed canvas bag with the Princess logo on it as a door prize at a CC Roll Call M&G on my last cruise along with a mini-bottle of gin and a can of tonic water. Unfortunately, that seemed to use up my luck with the PowerBall. 🤷‍♂️💲😒

I'm not sure you should count on airfares going on sale for Black Friday.

Just to note, the "reserved seats" for Premier people only apply to the production shows and not for a guest singer performance , or one of the alleged "comedians" they book. @MissP22, one of my pet peeves is people who are up in the aisles and leaving the theatre BEFORE the show is over and the cast takes their bows. I find it rude to the performers and inconsiderate to those of us who want to stay until the end as our view of the stage is blocked. I understand why people do it, but harrumph, I don't like it! 😉

I finished a Transatlantic cruise in FLL last year. Since it was the first time the ship (Regal) had been in the US that season, the entire crew had to clear customs and immigration. And CBP only had 3 agents available for the entire set of passengers AND crew. It was horrendous. Fortunately my flight wasn't until the afternoon, but if I'd had a morning flight, I'd have been screwed.

The medallion comes with a lanyard, but you can buy all sorts of holders for it.

I did a eastbound transit (original locks) on Oostedam (HAL) this spring. We entered the locks on the Pacific side around 7:00 am and were out on the Atlantic side by 5 pm. They give priority to the cruise ships as they've reserved and paid for the slots years in advance, or so said the canal pilot doing the narration of the transit. Also, going into the first set of locks is very cool, but after that, the whole process becomes fascinating, but somewhat tedious. Towards the 5th set of the six locks (going down) I was on the Promenade deck so close to the side of the locks that I could have touched them. There was only about a foot of clearance on each side of the ship to the walls of the lock.

Picked mine up in Southampton this summer and as said up thread, the "delay" was 2 minutes or less. Am picking up in Civitavecchia next week, and I expect the same.

I've heard that there's a bit of a controversy over on Carnival about showing the movie "Oppenheimer" on their outdoor movie screens. What are the thoughts of the giant throbbing CC brain on showing it on MUTS on Princess ships this season?