boeckli

Thanks Dave 🙂 I knew about the folding glass door. Full blackout blind definitely wouldn't be my thing 🙄 And heat and humidity ain't much of a problem in this part of the world, especially when you're out on the water 😉 May have to check for some last minute deals at some stage that might make it worthwhile to try out one of these. Glad to hear you had a great time - ship certainly looks stunning 😃

Hi Dave, I'd be very interested in your thoughts on and experiences with the infinity balcony. We have the Edge here down under but from the photos and YouTube walk throughs I've seen I don't think I'd like that balcony. To me it seems like an OV with a window that you can open ... Loved your gallery of Apex photos 😀

No, what you got was the old (very favourable ) rate. At their current exchange rate it would be AU$666 for a 14 day trip, so the difference to the bank rate is much less.

That's all I did on my Majestic Princess cruise in December. Never had a problem, no waiting even. You may have to check out the different dining rooms though.

So if you want to see land from your balcony, you should probably choose one on the other side. https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=RP

delete, see next post

Must check out ING. I didn't think banks offered transaction rates better than the RBA published rate (latest 0.6575). HAL is still better than that.

Welcome to Cruise Critic 🙂 You haven't told us which ship you're thinking of booking but I assume from your mention of DMW that it might be one of the Princess ones? For the itinerary you describe port side (left in direction of travel) would be the one facing land, as per your preference.

IMHO woeful is a bit strong. Even though HAL's exchange rate adjustment late last year made it less attractive to pre-pay for us Aussies, it's still better than the current rates you can get from the banks - YMMV.

I was on Noordam Auckland to Sydney in Feb/Mar 2023. Our first Australian port was Hobart and I'm fairly certain that we had to do a borderforce face to passport inspection in the terminal as we went ashore in Hobart. I'll be doing Auckland to Sydney again next month, this time first port is Melbourne. I'll try to remember reporting back here.

I was lucky enough to be there just a couple of months ago 👍

Sadly not true 😢

Sheffield Tasmania?

I think it's rather bad form to poke fun at a situation like that ☹️

I paid $162.82 for 14 night Dec 24 a couple of days ago (Elite 50%), so that's a slightly higher rate than what you had 😕 I wouldn't buy it at the new rates.

That's how it looked on mine as well.

On the Home page, under "OceanReady Travel Checklist", below Arrival Status there are five lines of options Luggage Tags & Docs / My Preferences / Safety Essentials / MedallionNet / Payment Methods & Packages

Scrolling down on the Home Page on the new app as PacnGoNow described worked just fine for me a few minutes ago and I made my purchase (incl. the Elite discount) 🙂

Last year I had also prebooked for same reason, reassured by the cancellation policy on their website "Cancellations made more than 24 hours prior to the scheduled tour start time will be given a full refund. Any cancellations within 24 hours will not be issued a refund." So you can watch the weather forecast in the preceding days. I hope you have great time 🤞

I did this tour last March and had the best time! Having fabulous weather definitely helped (picture mill-pond conditions in the harbour) 🙂 Besides myself there was only one other passenger and the skipper and the deck-hand/guide made sure we had a great experience. As you can see from my photo below (and also on their website) the vessel is quite small and even on our trip, once we got past Taiaroa Head, seas got a bit 'lumpy'. So be prepared. I'll be back in Port Chalmers late next month and wouldn't mind doing the tour again.

After missing Port Arthur on last month's Majestic cruise, my refund was $51.11

The gannets at Cape Kidnappers tour is in Napier https://gannetsafaris.co.nz/ I have booked it on my Noordam cruise next month. Didn't make it last year as our Napier call was cancelled after the cyclone.

Same for me in balcony cabins on Westerdam and Noordam. Watching TV sitting on the sofa with an angle view for me was preferable than trying to get comfortable on the bed. They're probably discouraging us watching TV in our cabins, as that way we're not spending money around the ship 🙄

Check out https://www.supershuttle.co.nz/ (shared ride)