arxcards

It has gone midnight in Cape Town and both Virgin & HAL ships are still in port. That makes it an overnighter, and hopefully they will get a few hours ashore for their Thursday as well. They were lucky to get in at all. Docked by 2pm, but local webcams showed the port shrouded in fog again by 3:30pm. Currently, clear skies at midnight.

More of a fish out of water story Phil, but an interesting comparison from an "outside" writer vs all of the social media guff. Full of stereotypes, and a few cultural in-jokes, but an attempt at situational comedy within a travel story. Yes, it won't change anything. The story is more about general cruising weirdness anyway.

I only just noticed the timing of the message in my inbox. They are just moving towards the port now. Current Cape Town time is 1:09pm, so 6hrs late. Passengers on Virgin are hoping for an overnight in port, but not confirmed yet.

Different time of year, but might be a consideration when trying to line-up a tour. If we were on one of those cruises, I expect Cape Town would be one of our big days. A bit like Mt Fuji for Japan or Mt McKinley for Denali, it would be a shame to not be able to see Table Mountain from the port.

It would see the main issue is that there are countries that restrict your entry after you have visited one of the designated YF countries and/or areas. As an example, if you were planning on flying to India after visiting a YF affected area, you would need a vax certificate or wait 6 days - similar to Australian requirements mentioned above. For a cruise itinerary, you would need to identify if you are visiting any YF outbreak areas, and where your itinerary will take you in the following 6 days for any restrictions that apply for entry to those countries.

As a side note, it might be worth checking out for what is typical weather in Cape Town, particularly at this time of year. Both Resilient Lady & Zuiderdam are waiting it out off Cape Town, waiting for a blanket of fog to lift so they can dock. Resilient Lady is currently hoping to dock around 3.5hrs late.

Thanks Den, Thanks for your thoughts. I hope you both had a nice relaxing break. I can relate to most of your comments, especially with the dining. We have done somewhere around 20 P&O cruises, and lament what they used to be. The main reason we no longer cruise with them is food, both quality & variety. I never did gain a love of cruising by dining out on cafeteria meals. Given that soon they will be the only ship in town for you, at least they are more committed to WA than their competitors, and I quite like those Sun class ships. In many ways, P&O made the public spaces feel fresher and much more contemporary than the faux timber from her previous life as Dawn Princess. February is a fair way off. At this stage, we are waiting that long for our next one too. Hopefully P&O can give their food & menus a bit of a rebirth for you between now & then.

But for food products, organic also refers to a method of production and processing. There are many "organic" foods that don't contain carbon.

Crown Grill (+ Coral's Bayou) has Pink Himalayan, Black Hawaiian, and the awesome smokey Applewood salt. Three months supply in a serve, but that smoky aroma is really nice.

That is a real thing. Lots of table salts are iodised and/or have an anti-caking agent. Organic table salt has neither.

We use little salt, so it also last us a while. Had the price tripled since your last purchase? For once a decade, it must be decadent. Similarly, salt for pasta & chips are a must for me. Also eggs all ways and fresh tomato.

I have ancestry a bit SW of there near the town of Battle. Pay attention. We will be in Devon in the middle of next year - there will be questions. 😁

Probably in WW1 days, the move away from German sausage ended-up with it being called Empire around here. Some of the oldies still ask for Empire or Luncheon meat at Barb's deli, often with a bit of a sly grin when the young staff can't find any. Take care everyone, and nurse those bumps & bruises.

Ahoy Icon fans - a quality read/review from her inaugural. Gary Shteyngart: Crying Myself to Sleep on the Icon of the Seas - The Atlantic

From a good friend currently aboard Resilient Lady, there is no blanket requirement for a yellow fever jab. So far they have called in Durban & Port Elizabeth (medivac), with next port being Cape Town. These are coastal day visits, not days in the African jungle. This could vary based on itinerary, but a void of information about vaccination requirements would suggest there are no entry requirements for it on cruise itineraries. It is a bit like advice here that requires a malaria vaccination to visit some of the Pacific Islands, yet are not a significant risk for day visiting cruise ship passengers. All the same, check the fine print on your travel insurance. Also worth reading through roll calls for ships that are currently on this route: QM2, Queen Victoria, Zuiderdam. It wasn't required for Island Princess passengers a few weeks back.

Dearer packages, but the cheapest per day cruise fares. The water cap is interesting, but would seem reasonable unless you were bathing in it. Perhaps the bottles of water are easily shared with those not on a package. I am not a fan, as their packages have always been over-priced and often restricted to just menu listed items, especially for cocktails. No P&O on the horizon for us, so I guess I will stick to $65 Princess Plus, which also has internet and a few other less useful bits. All the same, there will be a large number of P&O passengers that won't bat an eyelid.

If you have the budget to have a crack at a reserve collection mini, they are all well located and have the dining perk. Otherwise, it is like shifting from a selected cabin to a mini guarantee.

You don't get to bid for grades except for suite categories, but get to bid for cabin types. Eg, Balcony Premium Balcony Mini Suite Reserve Collection mini suite Premium suite Penthouse suite If you bid for a mini-suite, it could be for anything from MB down to ME, including those below the seawalk. As for the "no upgrade" upgrade, these do rarely happen, but are possible when they stuff-up on bookings and the jigsaw has run out of pieces. Ideally, they should hold to their word and at very least you shouldn't be bounced to a cabin with known issues (noise, location, obstructions). Some OBC or future credits should also be offered due to them not holding-up to their part of the bargain. For what it is worth, I am on the "never upgrade this person" list. We have never received an upgrade to our booked cruise cabin, not even a category, despite varied selection methods and decent loyalty status across several brands. These days though, we would rather pick and stick unless it takes us from a generic mini suite to reserve collection or better. As for upgrade bids, I can only be bothered if the higher cabins were unavailable when we booked.

The Japanese used to tattoo their criminals. As I understand it, the crims would modify their tatts so they became "art", so many Japanese have been raised to distrust anyone with a tattoo. A traditional onsen would prohibit tattoos. Yes, I figure Diamond Princess would not be traditional, especially in Australian waters. It makes an interesting contrast between ships. A Japanese onsen with one set of traditions, vs the Virgin ships with tattoo parlors. No ink for me, just asking for a friend 😉

In true Princess consistency, I just had a look at the 2025/26 launch brochure again. The Singapore to Sydney cruise is listed as a $US cruise: 8 Nov 25 Discovery X544 Singapore > Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My) > Nha Trang > Lombok > Darwin > Yorkeys Knob (for Cairns) > Airlie Beach (for the Whitsundays) > Sydney Onboard currency is in USD Referenced from page 18 of: 23376_Mini-Brochure_25-26_AU_3.0.pdf (princess.com)

No way in these days of Optus & Medicare hacks that I am giving account details to any third party. As well intentioned they may be, I have no recourse against any "hack" of their platform, so I will be sending a redacted statement any time it is required for an OBC request. Handing over access to your stock holding was how Stockperks worked in the initial days, but many passengers (especially with HAL) had complained that some of their account defaults were being altered to suit Stockperks needs. I am glad I can now forward a redacted facsimile of my current holding, the same as used to be for the cruise lines direct. Even without personal info, they still have your name, email address and knowledge of Carnival share holding which could be used for a convincing phish should your data be accessed. Not much info around in an "About Us" page or data security. https://www.stockperks.com/terms https://www.stockperks.com/privacy

I am curious about rules with the Onsen. Does Diamond Princess allow those with tattoos to use the onsen?

$AU aboard and daily gratuities is an unusual combination for Princess relocating to/from Australia.

Correct, it was a North American embarkation. Discovery Princess relocation is broken-up in Singapore, so it becomes US to Singapore ($US) followed by Singapore to Sydney (($AU)

And that would appear to be the case. If the ship was travelling to Sydney from the US, it would be in $US. However: The ship relocates from Alaska via various ports in Asia to Singapore. That cruise is in $US. The cruise from Singapore to Sydney is a cruise connected to Australia, but not the US - local rules apply, which is $AU and gratuities absorbed into the inclusive cruise fare.