arxcards

Well and truly awake, have had breakfast and a bit of a walkaround. The ship is very quiet this morning, after a bumpy shaky night. Boarding yesterday was slick, and we were first to board. No queues, in cabin video and muster station done by 11:10. No queues visible throughout the afternoon. I blame the medallion. Dinner at Crown Grill a la Bayou last night. An incredible steak, and Barb loved her prawns. Unfortunately my beef tartar starter was way undercooked. No creme brule, trying to mix things up a bit. Maybe tonight. They had a Lady Gaga show last night. Would have loved to have gone, but such a long day we would have fallen asleep. I think the comedian is on the last night, so he must be the highlight. We have a credit showing on the door prize from the premiere package. Not sure if it is a win at this stage, or if they have dropped it and refunded. We also have a booking for Sabatini's tonight, which I am sure we haven't made. The voucher was in our cabin when we boarded, so it is a bonus - don't know if from Princess or our T/A. Quiet day ahead, as it is pretty average outside. I am reflecting what Princess is and how it fits in the market. Shorter cruise has certainly mixed things up. Not a booze cruise crowd, so not that. Heaps of blue medallions and mixed dress standards. Regardless of the defined Princess standard, I always felt it was a brand where you made an effort to dress for dinner. Currently, you would think you were dining in a pub, and it isn't a spill of cruiselings either - they have their own bogan-trendy fashion. I just think they just couldn't be bothered. As for not being bothered, masks. Lots don't care, and the staff don't challenge anyone, so it becomes accepted. I heard one woman say that she forgot to put her mask on but the staff didn't say anything, so it must be OK not to wear them. We will continue to make an effort. I hope the longer cruises continue to have passengers that make an effort. PS: my beef tartar was delish, and perfectly undercooked. 😁

Chalk and cheese. Details later.

HAL is different to Carnival on this, and they all vary from brand to brand. One bottle of wine per adult passenger is fine on HAL. Not sure if they still do it, but we have pre-ordered litre bottles of spirits to have ready in our cabin.

And look how far you've come. Thanks, Just passing through today.

So, you made it to Papeete, but did anyone make it off the ship? Just reading the roll call, which suggested Tahitian authorities didn't like the number of covids on the ship. Take care Stu, I hope everything else is cruisey.

Croooze Day. Currently under blue skies in Gosford, and looking forward to being in the shadow of the ship in a couple of hours.

There is only one we swore never to book again, but it is pretty much cut-up on the shore at Alang, so they are all fair game again.

At Princess spec, I think Sun class was around 1950, in P&O spec they have many more 4 berths and it always sails with well over that.

Not much on decks 8 and 9, but nice little spots on 10 and 11. Yes, the aft pool is the sanctuary. It is a best of both worlds. The ship is larger than the Sun sisters, but would appear to have no more passengers, maybe even less. Our following 3 Princess cruises are all Majestic, but I keep scanning the itineraries for Coral, even though we should start banking some leave for a big overseas one.

Awesome! And beats NSW hands down too. Now if they could just get Fremantle station a little closer to the cruise terminal.

Different one I think. I would have to login to Celebrity to be sure of the year, but pretty sure ours was in October.

Would be the one where a group of young lads ejected a life raft? It was an OK break, but that was the most memorable part.

I am surprised you haven't been egged for suggesting Queen Camilla as their next ship (after the ship in planning - Queen Anne)

Can you stow it?

That will be difficult to do - looking through the bottom of my glass.

You will find most drink prices within here. Posted yesterday, so definitely current.

We did a 3 nighter on Solstice, and they had an inclusive drink package as a promo. Fair to say, you couldn't get near a bar, and it became a 2 story nightclub, as most bought a drink and walked with it - nowhere to sit. We did a 3 nighter on Coral down from Brisbane in August. It was very good.

To do it on the app --> travel checklist --> wellness form for your declaration. Upload documents to upload your photo. Easily done in the terminal though.

I wonder if the snails were gorged on a diet of mushrooms, and come complete with their own snail liver mushroom pate 😉 No, that doesn't make it sound any nicer.

Club Class Bayou Cafe Ultimate Balcony Dining You are gonna pay one way or another. Even the lobster rolls at the grill on Majestic have a price.

We can't have that. I will have to look for some scuttlebutt. With queues to board Splendor more than 2hrs long, there will be plenty looking to jump ship, but we must defend Coral with the knights of the medallion (and LRAD if necessary) 🤣

I might be part of that demo 😂 It will be a different mix, but like the other short ones, I expect a lot of blue medallions giving Princess a try while waiting for their ship to sail-in. It is unusual for Princess to have closed loop short cruises, and I hope there are plenty that are just sussing them out.

You don't need to. You can do this in the terminal. They want to sight your vax certificate anyway - due to privacy, the terminal staff do not have access to that info. Verifly mostly worked fine, but P&O check-in wanted to recheck everything anyway. Trust me, medallion check-in is a breeze in the terminal. As long as you have your green lane boarding pass, you head straight to check-in, where they will sight your vax certificate and may (random) want to view your test photo.

The current live thread expires when Coral Princess arrives into Sydney tomorrow morning, and there is sure to be a large live thread for the 11th October around Australia cruise. Not wanting anything to go cold over those missing 3 days, I will add some light-hearted posts from aboard. The cruise has recently been tagged as a booze cruise. Hey, it does have the makings of one with 3 only nights and reasonably priced drink packages built into the plus fares, what could go wrong? It isn't a booze cruise for us, and I suspect most of the other passengers. I hope Carnival Splendor has captured that crowd on their current short cruises. There has been plenty of short Princess offerings over the past few months, with only minor reports of drunken behaviour. I am mostly packed, and about to head to the Salt Mines for a final shift before rolling out to Circular Quay via NSW's finest trains tomorrow morning. One of the new intercity trains would be great, but they are still in dispute between the govt and the unions. Weather for sailaway is supposed to be as bad as it gets, wet - wet - wet. I will let you know what we think of the Premiere package, and add plenty of photos. Not sure if we will brave it and find out if the "comedian" has gotten funny.

Lots of 50+ SPF to pick from. For a rashie, you could go for an Ugly one. They raise funds for skin cancer prevention & research, and the Great Barrier Reef. https://uglyxmasrashie.com.au/about/