CountessCookie

16 minutes ago, Bubbeh said:

Ugh, I hadn't thought of that.  Unless there is a pillow menu I always take my pillow with me wherever we go domestic or international.

Might be worth getting a second pillow for travel? When you get home you can douse it with bug spray and let hit air out and still have a clean pillow to sleep on that night.

I'm so sorry to here that this experience has been so awful for you. The presence of those bed bug would have been bad enough without then dealing with this ongoing fallout.

Honestly, I don't blame you for not taking part in the Accurate Affairs interview. Personally I never trust those sorts of shows to present things fairly, they just go for the story which will get them the most views.

The idea of bed bugs and the possibility of bringing them home terrifies me. I've never encountered any, but still always check and take precautions.

I'm doing a week trip to Sydney soon and my sister plans to take her own pillow and blanket to the hotel. I would never do that for fear of bed bugs coming home.

3 minutes ago, resordanis said:

We booked this cruise (prior to this announcement) as part of a B2B. Might be a bit livelier than normal on a quick TAS cruise. We got a great price too, will be interesting to see current pricing.

I feel I got a pretty good price for my booking too. This cruise is my replacement for a cancelled Vorgin Voyages cruise. Got balcony for a similar price as the solo inside cabin on VV. A little lively wouldn't be too bad for me.

5 minutes ago, resordanis said:

We are on this cruise too. Luckily DH supports Swans, but me I am not sure🤔

At least it is his team, wouldn't be got to find out a rival team was having their event on your cruise.

Glad to know it should mostly be avoidable and shouldn't impact normal activities too much. It could encourage a slightly younger demographic and I'm younger than the average cruiser, which could benefit me. I'm sure their will be plenty of partners who aren't big into footy and are coming along just for the cruise. 😅

Just saw a news article that the Princess cruise I have booked for January is going to now going to be hosting a Sydney Swan fan events. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid this as much as possible 😅.

https://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/1555381/princess-cruises-sydney-swans-unveil-unique-fan-experience

Don't have a winter cruise booked this year. Instead my family has a week stay in Sydney booked. I'm now banned form pointing out how we will be spending more than if we did a cruise. 

On 5/5/2024 at 10:24 AM, cruiser3775 said:

Yes, Sydney hotels are generally more expensive than Brisbane. My go-to budget hotel in Sydney is the Great Southern. It's on George Street, right opposite a light rail stop that takes you and your luggage down to Circular Quay. An old fashioned large hotel, not fancy, but clean and with good bathrooms, and lots of good eating places around it.   My other choice is the Grace Hotel, closer to the port, costs a bit more, but often has discounts.

In Brisbane, I usually stay in the suburb of Hamilton, which has a range of accommodation choices, and lots of places to eat dinner. Plus it's a good location for minimising taxi fares from the airport and then to the port.

The Great Southern is my go to in Sydney, too. Only short walk to China town restaurants is an important point too.

Isn't that such a truth. 

1 hour ago, 555 said:

There actually a cheap way to advertise. 

"Free" functional branded items (stationery, bags, etc), is a type of advertisement I'm happy to support. 

3 hours ago, Gimer said:

Off Crown in January.  Future Cruise Consultant Beulah is a big collector. 

I love that there are some "not duck ducks," too. The cow is my favourite.

51 minutes ago, bassmk said:

I don't love the ducks, and I have zero reason for that. It's just not something I see the point of for myself. I do appreciate that other people find big joy in them, and that part is nice. I like for people to have fun! So rest assured that if I ever see any ducks (funny enough, I've never found one!) I will leave it to be found by someone who will be thrilled by it.

I'm much the same. I'm not interested in finding or hiding ducks. But it makes me happy to know other people are enjoying it and I do like hearing the stories of those who hiding and hunt for them.

On 3/5/2024 at 12:32 AM, Cruise Raider said:

I’m beginning to cave as my DH loves those little ducks and has found quite a few of them.  It’s almost like collecting throws at a Mardi Gras parade. 
The crew absolutely love the collecting the ducks.  
However, I want to see these little ducks made out of bird seed or at least something that won’t cause any trouble in our environment! 
 

I understand wishing for a more sustainable alternative. But seeing as cruises come from all over the world, it would also be important to make sure they don't pose a bio-hazard risk. Which would rule out seeds, or people will be getting their finds confiscated by boarder control on the trip home.

I've booked my first cruise and I'm thinking of combining this cruise with my hobby of decorative planning. I'm thinking of setting up a pretty Traveller's Notebook which I can use to plan my cruise, journal during my cruise and then be able it of a scrapbook/memory keeper after the cruise. I was wondering if anyone has done something similar and have some tips or inspection they could share?

I have a some idea of what I want to do, but currently a little overwhelmed by too many abstract ideas and nowhere to start.

56 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Just when you thought it would get easier, there is this Princess APP .... 🤣

I have read a few things about that, but at least this cruise should go ahead. And I get a balcony for the same price as the solo insider I had with Virgin. Hopefully the APP doesn't give me too many dramas.

I ended up booking that cruise with Princess as an alternative to the cancelled Virgin cruise. I booked with Princess, but transferred the booking to a local TA this morning. I told her that I had originally had a Virgin cruise booked. I could just tell by her face that she had a hard week due to those cancellations. 

12 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Well they were following the same model they did here in Miami. Give away cabins cheap, get people interested in the brand and then raise the pricing once they're hooked. But it sounds like that model didn't work. With only three ships, they need to send them to the most profitable locations. There's a reason why every cruise line has 4 or 5 ships in the Caribbean every winter. 

For me, it is less about why they are doing this, than how they are going about that. If Vorgin was being honest about under preforming this season having a role in thwse cancellation, I would be more forgiving. They are a buisness and need to make profits.

However, it seems they are solely blaming the issues in the RedSea for the cancellation, which seems to be false and, I feel, in bad taste. The email they sent even said, "Virgin Voyages was embraced by Aussies with such a warm welcome, and together, we celebrated an extremely successful inaugural season — and that love was very much mutual." From what we are hearing, that season wasn't "extremely successful."

I happy with all spirits, though gin is my go to. I'll have to note those down in my things to try list.

So any particular recommendations of the cocktail and Martini lists?

There really is a good choice which ate covered by Plus. Big thanks for these lists Geoff.

I almost get the feeling they are happy to have an excuse to pull out. The whole place holder thing dor Brilliant does seem like a load of BS. Would have been better to if they could have been more transparent and honest from the get go.

It all seems a bit ironic that this big island country is a bad place for cruising. 

I must admit that I find it a bit iffy when they use that flippant sounding greeting for emails like this. I felt the same when I emailed them before the before the change in the current repositioning cruise. 

The reply where they couldn't tell me what was going to happen with the cruise I booked, but I should sign up to their news letter if I wanted to be kept up to date in any changed itineraries. This was about a cruise I had paid for. I sure hope we get an official email notification and not just expected to follow the newsletter as implied in the reply I got.

I said it over in the Virgin board and will say it here. I am very grateful to the members of this form who have been keeping us up-to-date. I made the, apparent mistake, of booking without a TA. I would have no idea what was going on if it wasn't for this Cruise Critic members.

This is quite disappointing news. I'm just glad for the members of this forum keeping us updated with what is going on. Otherwise I would not have had a clue what has been happening. I was able to book a similar itinerary with a different cruise line while it was on sale, but probably wouldn't have been able to if I left it untill they officially tell us.