Fletch1

14 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Yes, that's fine. 

Great. That is what we will do.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Appreciate your advice.

Greetings,

We are due to board the Queen Victoria in a couple of weeks at Southampton. We have been allotted at time of 3.15pm boarding time. We have to check out of our hotel by midday and we have nowhere else to go, so we will just go to the port.

My question is if we get at the check in before our allotted time, we will be able to board early or will they make us wait until our allotted time of 3.15pm?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings,

Can anybody tell me what Princess charge for the bus shuttle from the Christchurch and Dunedin cruise ports to the city centres?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings,

Does anyone know what Cunard charges for the ship transfer from the Civitavecchia port to Rome airport on embarkation day?

Thanks in advance.

2 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

I just purchased it an hour ago.

if you pay on board it goes on your account so you can use your own.

if you are platinum or elite its 50 percent off.

$10 per night. it came up as $11 and change on the medallion  prior to boarding. $10 Australian once on board

Thanks

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was hoping that would be the case.

Greetings,

I am sailing on the Grand Princess in February.

I was looking at purchasing the internet package but if I purchase it pre cruise, I have to pay by credit card. If I wait and purchase on board, will it come off on my OBC that I have or will I still need to pay for it via my credit card?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks everyone for your replies and input. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and will take it all on board. We need to fly to Athens, which is about a 2 hour flight away, so will suss out Cunard to see if that is possible with their flights. We are actually in Athens on the the cruise four days earlier! 

1 hour ago, david63 said:

If this is your own flight then I would suggest that a 13:00 flight might be a bit tight. The transfer time from port to airport is around an hour on a good day and Rome traffic can be unpredictable - personally I would allow at least an hour and a half. European international flights are now asking for at least three hours check-in time and you also have to allow for the possibility of the ship being late into port and possibly having to negotiate customs/immigration.

 

If wishing to arrange your own transfer then Rome Cabs is highly recommended (https://www.romecabs.com/)

 

Personally I would be looking at a flight mid to late afternoon.

Thanks for the quick reply.

All your points are very good and well worth considering. Thanks for your thoughts. I was thinking too the the 1.00pm departure might be a bit tight, so I might re-assess. 

Thanks for the link to romecabs too.

1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

Have you booked flights with Cunard? The Mediterranean fly cruises I've done in the past included flights and transfers. 

Otherwise various transfers have been offered for booking on board. 

Thanks for the quick reply.

No, I was doing my own thing, but that is well worth considering. Can you purchase your flights with Cunard after your initial booking?

I was hoping transfers will be offered on board during the cruise.

Greetings,

We are cruising on the Queen Victoria and disembark at the Civitavecchia cruise port in May 2024. Will the ship offer a transfer to the airport and if so, what time would we likely get there? If I book a 1.00pm departing flight on the same day, would the transfer get us there in plenty of time? I have looked on the Cunard website and there is nothing there about Med ports transfers.......only Southampton port transfers.

If the ship does not offer an airport transfer, can anyone suggest a reliable transfer method?

Thanks in advance for any information provided.

20 hours ago, themob said:

I sent a cancel request Oct,31,2021 and received this email yesterday

Dear Michael

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to follow up to inquire whether you have received your refund yet. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced due to the delay in processing your refund.

Over the past few weeks cause of the war in Palestine we have been inundated with a high volume of refund requests, totaling more than 1000 transactions. Unfortunately, this surge in refund requests overwhelmed our payment gateway, causing delays in the processing of refunds.

If you have already received your refund, please disregard this message. However, if you have not yet received it or have any questions or concerns regarding your refund, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

 I have not received refund

When did you cancel tour?

Sounds promising......wait and see I suppose! Good luck.

Thanks for posting. Is this the same company as Ramasside Tours in Egypt?

23 hours ago, yarramar said:

Depends on your interests.

Melbourne has the distinction of being the 'Sporting Capital of the World", the "Cultural Capital of Australia" and the city with the most parks and gardens within the city in the world. You can visit all these attractions using the worlds largest light rail (tram) network.

You could spend a month in Melbourne and not see everything worth seeing.

This may be of further help. https://www.visitmelbourne.com/

21 hours ago, DCThunder said:

Thank you.  This is very helpful.  Based on your response in my other thread, I might just do Sydney, fly to Melbourne, and then on to Singapore and not worry about trying to see Perth.

I strongly agree with yarramar.....depends so much on your interests.

Perth is a beautiful city. If you have the time and opportunity, you should try and get over there. Particularly the Margaret River region.....just lovely. It is a 3 hour flight from the eastern side of the country though, which can be problematic for some.

12 hours ago, DCThunder said:

Thanks for this guide. I haven't read it in detail yet, but how many days would you estimate it would take to see the highlights of Melbourne? 

 

I'm considering spending in southern Australia between cruises and would like to know how much time to "budget" for Melbourne.

Mmmmmm.....how long is a piece of string?....depends entirely on what you want to see and how much time you spend at each location. And also what you regard as "highlights". Maybe do a google search on the highly recommended sights to see and then decide what takes your fancy.

Personally, when we go into a city pre or post cruise, we allow anywhere between 4 and 7 days to see the things and locations which interest us.

Hope this helps...apologies if it sounds a bit wishy-washy.

16 hours ago, matamanoa said:

Thank you so much for all the information and work you put into this document.  It will certainly be a huge help in planning what is to be our first trip to Melbourne.

 

Barb

You are very welcome.

6 hours ago, alwalaska said:

Thank you so much for putting this together.  I was to Melbourne on my own, but didn't have any great options picked out yet. 

 

I appreciate the hard work.

You are welcome.

4 hours ago, possum52 said:

Great informaton Fletch. Just a couple of suggestions/observations. A Myki explorer pack and cards are usually available inside the cruise terminal just before exiting. The Collingwood Football Club headquarters is not the Holden Centre, it is now the AIA Centre as of March 2022.

Thanks for your clarifications. I actually had the CFC HQ as the Lexus Centre, but then I thought "nah...that changed a little while ago I think". My Google search had it as the Holden Centre. Still behind. 

Greetings,

I put together a Melbourne Port Guide a few years ago, but recently updated it "post covid" as there have been quite a few changes. It is mainly geard towards the cruiser who is in Melbourne for the day and want to do their own thing, but people staying in Melbourne pre or post cruise may be able to use it as well. 

Here it is......hope someone gets some ideas.

2023 Melbourne Port Guide.pdf

37 minutes ago, CTGirl said:

I believe I do.  I will have to search for it.  You can email me at rhyman1951 at gmail dot com.

That's the one I have. Just emailed you.

3 hours ago, CTGirl said:

Hi Fletch. We are on the Grand right now and we are in one of the affected cabins. My advice is to stay away from the Grand. She is definitely showing her age. We spend a lot of time in Explorers. The chais are horrible, they are so bad you can’t really sit gracefully, you sort of fall into them. I am short and I am can just barely see the table in front of me. That is just a small example. The power outage of course is the big issue. We are making do in our smaller cabin but I will not cruise on this ship again. 

Hi Shelly. Lovely to hear from you. It's been such a looooong time! Hope you and Lance are doing well.

I put great weight on your comments. Perhaps let's converse via email. You should still have my email address?

Recent update tonight……

GRAND PRINCESS : No electricity starting at midnight  April 15 and still no electricity at 6pm April 16 in section 7 of the ship.  So all cabins 700-750 on every deck and the Vista Lounge has no electricity, lights, or air conditioning. We are docked in Tahiti.  We were in a 700 balcony - and just moved to a noisy inside E cabin.  Apparently the problem cannot be fixed soon so all passengers in 700-750 on all decks are currently being moved.  Below are recordings of the Captain that came into all cabins at midnight April 15, the middle of the night April 16, and later on the 16th.  There was smoke somewhere, no fire.
I tried talking to a Manager stating we are Elite, on board for 33 days, in a corner balcony, and couldn't they find us a better cabin than this inside E cabin.  He stated no, but there would be "compensation", they'll tell us tomorrow.  We have 14 days left which includes Hawaii and many sea days. At this point, I have no words - we are in a terrible inside cabin for the best 2 weeks of this cruise.  And we were up all night with no air conditioning or lights.  We're exhausted from packing & unpacking.  We cannot imagine every deck of cabins 700-750 currently being moved .... They say we could use both cabins but running from B to E to shower, watch TV, IN THE DARK, or whatever would be, well, ridiculous.   I'm trying to stay positive but "compensation" better be at least a refund of 14 of our 33 days - at a minimum.   I hate to be negative, but after all the buckets of water leaks the last 2 weeks, the smell in the Princess Theatre of mildew, and now ALL OF THE AFT from cabins 700 to 750 and the Vista without electricity for who knows how long - maybe till Hawaii next week or maybe not till the end of the cruise - I'd really have to say avoid going on the Grand.  And for those who love to comment to everyone all the time, "Oh you're on a cruise, quit complaining and enjoy your cruise", if you comment that to me today,  FYI   THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC was yesterday when our electricity went out.  Up until then, the people on the Titanic were having a pretty good cruise too (humor ... too soon?!)  I will add a thank you to the Captain - he kept us informed throughout the night, he was calm, professional, and he somehow is moving some 250 cabin full of passengers into empty cabins. — with Cj Moffitt.

This was posted on another social media forum about 50 minutes ago by a passenger currently on The Grand.........

Greetings,

I read recently on another forum that the condition of the Grand Princess has deteriorated, to the point where ceilings in public areas are leaking and there are buckets underneath to catch the leaks. Also, the standard of entertainment has dropped as well. Can anybody who has sailed on her recently provide their opinions?

Reason I ask is we are booked on the Grand next year sailing out of Melbourne and I am now considering switching to the Majestic Princess sailing out of Sydney. 

Thanks in advance.