arxcards

Luminosa is on the move. Heading on a short transit to Augusta, Italy for a service stop and crew.

For those in a bubble, booking is available on Thursday.

Sort of. We can mention tours, but tour companies cannot promote their own.

It will be within the limit on the declaration, so I won't need to declare it - if it does still actually exist for Willis Island.

Oops, I will probably get told off too. Hard to otherwise find an accurate description though. Was a bloke out of Acropolis Now I think - George Kapiniaris? Princess struggles with comedy. After many years, Ugly Dave Gray is about as good as they have ever had - sad.

Tendering to Yorkeys Knob.

It is worth the short hassle for a $95 rebate on the Samsung pad I bought last week.

Cruise abbreviation for chair hogs. Usually applies to deck chairs, but they migrate into bar areas on winter cruises.

Yes. More importantly to protect the crew from becoming infectious, which can circulate below deck and to passengers on following cruises. Even if mask mandates are lifted, they will always remain optional for anyone who feels they need them. Correct. I have as much chance of catching covid from a vaccinated person as from an unvaccinated person. As you mention it is about hospitalisation, something that ships have a restricted facility for, which increases the risk of emergency evacuation. A surge of cases over a dozen ships would also place pressure back onto the state hospital systems. Yes, it is only a potential risk, but that is what underpins those protocols. Island ports do not want emergency evacuations from ships, so also require vaccinated passengers as part of their requirements for visiting ships. As part of that loop, insurance companies would appear to also require vaccinations before they will cover for covid medical costs while cruising. Yes, it is potentially useless if it is not handled honestly, and I agree that photographs offer no more proof than attesting. I am sure there are people that haven't tested or ignored a positive result to cruise, but I think these are in the minority. Yes, I could also get a healthy friend to do the brain tickle for me. Supervised tests offer little more protection when, as you say, you can catch it in transit and not be detected on the test. These supervised tests were required in the US until recently, yet nearly every ship/cruise was reporting covid numbers to the CDC. The plus is that less covid on land = less covid on ships. Current infections are around 10% of what they were just a couple of months ago. During that period, the ships did struggle with elevated numbers of cases, but that would appear to be well under control now. As with our land based rules, mandates will be rolled back based on numbers. Next month is key to if/what/when these protections will be eased: - Land based infections and hospitalisations continuing to drop - Several ships arriving into Sydney and Brisbane following long voyages across the Pacific. The longer the cruise, potentially the higher number of infections, so IF these ships arrive in a healthy state, it augers really well. - Coral Princess arriving into Fremantle and not being labelled as Artania MkII by Mark McGowan I think it likely that when the summer ships depart and we are left with 5 fulltime ships, they will drop vaxx/testing/masks for shorter cruises, similar to what the US is now doing.

I find Crooners entertaining enough even when nobody is tinkling the ivory. Even better now we have worked out the best time to show to beat the chogs to a space.

I knew it was close, as it should be for sister ships. My reference had Westerdam at 1968, and Noordam at 1972. Wiki has different numbers again, but whichever way, I wonder how Noordam scored an extra couple of cabins than her sisters.

Keep us up to date with what is happening with Majestic, but mostly enjoy your time aboard. Critical, no sneezing allowed - we want a green ship arriving to this side of the Pacific.

Andre had a funny start to ours, interacting with a group of semi-heckling muslims. The off the cuff stuff was pretty good, then I don't remember much until it ended with a 10 minute joke about an old guy who forgot his pants. Yes, good accents.

Yeah, supply and demand. They will say it is full price when the ships are in, and discounted when it is quieter.

Are we talking Andre or Greg?

All good. Probably the same for us on Majestic next month too. I am hoping the TRS for ours will be in Sydney. The last 2 "ports before leaving Australia" are both tender shops (Port Douglas & Cairns) and we don't hit Brisbane until we are on the way back to Sydney.

@OzKiwiJJ

They just need to change the barricade to change the route through the terminal, but nothing to stop them doing X-ray before customs. I didn't notice how crew were being processed in Brisbane, but that could well be on the ground floor for wharf level embark - similar to OPT & White Bay.

A rabbit out of their hat, and a hare out of their .... You will get more than a cruise to nowhere. I bet everyone would much prefer an overnight in Noumea 😉

Beyond the passport check is considered the secure/international zone. Local staff working there require MSIC accreditation.

Or an hour or two in Crooners to prepare. We had a Kiwi on our last one, Andre King. Some of his jokes were funny, but Barb fell asleep.

If they are working on the ship side of the secure zone, I believe they are considered to be working from the ship. The same applies to other crew like the chef or inventory staff checking the quality of food on pallets, and crew on the wharf painting the rust dissolver on the ship etc.

Guess who is going to provide our laughs on the last night of our 8th October cruise. Oh well, there is always our plus package and crooners. Clearly, Princess needs to start sending out surveys again.

We don't want the terminal going on strike on cruise day now, do we?

6 nights or less $50 7-13 nights $100 14 nights or more $250