mum and son

41 minutes ago, JohnGc said:

Staying for 5 nights in Singapore before cruise and not sure if to use a Wise card to pay the hotel on arrival and living expenses etc or just use my Commbank debit Mastercard. Wise card sounds good until you look at product review. Not really a fan of negative reviews so thought maybe my fellow cruise pals who use the wise card or others could give me some guidance. 

 

Cheers John.

I use a Wise card for all my travels, especially when in Asia. So easy and has the best rates going around. The app is easy to use and you get a digital card. For an extra $10 they'll post you a physical card which I use most often. 

I also use Wise to transfer funds if I'm purchasing something in an Asian country (from Australia) and it works like PayPal or Western Union or whatever. Fees are incredibly low.

I recommend Wise 👌. 

I've enjoyed successful upgrade bids on two Princess cruises this year, one earlier this month on the Royal with the Seawalk thing. I was bidding for an upgrade from an obstructed deluxe balcony to a mini suite. The only bidding options were for a minisuite or a Reserve (Club Class) mini. I didn't have the option to bid by specific category, and even if I had, they can always give you a cabin in a class higher than you bid for. I fully expected (if successful) to get a cabin under the Seawalk, which I think are MC category. I ended up in MC category but just forward of the forward elevators on Marina deck.

I usually choose to be aft of midship but actually quite enjoyed our location. We were lucky to be below the few Lido deck cabins so no noise from above. We moved to another mini on Marina for the second cruise of our B2B which was between forward and mid and was a lot noisier due to being under the Lido pool area.

I have plenty of photos if you need any.

7 hours ago, resordanis said:

Not sure on that one, but if I see you I will chat, although you are getting off tomorrow. Definitely not me. Our luggage was extremely late being delivered so after dinner straight back to room for us as I was starting to get concerned, and we didn’t look great as we could not change or freshen up, so didn’t hang around anywhere last night.

 

Enjoy the rest of the cruise. it's a lovely itinerary and it looks to be quite a good crowd. The passengers seem to be a lot more lively than on the Tas/SA cruise last week... which was a very elderly crowd. I knew the destinations would attract a certain crowd but thought maybe because of Easter and Qld school hols it might skew a bit younger, but it was definitely the oldest demographic I've seen onboard.

I'm very surprised at the family mix on the current cruise, being that it's a long cruise and ends in Japan. I'd say the average age is about 20+ years younger than last week, at least. I was not expecting that.

1 hour ago, resordanis said:

No not me! We ate in Crown Grill last night.

Ok, someone approached me and couldn't work out where they knew my face from. They were from Port Macquarie and cruise a lot.

Anyone else on CC I could be missing?

12 hours ago, resordanis said:

Health is the main thing!

Did you speak to me in Allegro dining room tonight, thinking I looked familiar?? 

2 hours ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

Spent the late afternoon at the Orient Hotel near the OPT meeting fellow cruisers who are also boarding the Royal Princess tomorrow.  Hopefully the rain will have stopped in time for us to drop off dry suitcases tomorrow morning.

Captain just announced a 3hr delay for us docking tomorrow so don't hurry to the terminal.

29 minutes ago, arxcards said:

I noticed Noordam has pushed out to sea a bit to try and circle around the current squall that you are cruising towards as you approach Wollongong. Noordam has pushed back their arrival till 11am, but I think that has been imposed due to harbour runoff. Coming in close to high tide won't allow them enough bridge clearance.

 

No midnight stroll on deck for you tonight! Still, I would rather be cruising in it than driving to work in it. 

Noordam sped past us today. Captain just announced a 3 hour docking delay for us too due to Pilot access. 

I'm actually enjoying feeling the seas roll a bit. First time I've felt like we weren't still docked 😄.

3 hours ago, resordanis said:

I hope to be on board be midday! 

I doubt we'll be off the ship by then (we were originally scheduled to meet for transit disembarkation at 9.30am)... luckily I'm not rushing for a flight and will just be re-boarding the ship to take me home to Brisbane.

3 hours ago, resordanis said:

I am boarding tomorrow. Absolutely horrible weather in Sydney as I write this.

Don't rush to the port. The Captain just announced over the cabin speakers that we are expected to dock 3 hours late as the Pilot will not be able to get to us until 7.30am, instead of 4.30am.

1 hour ago, lorri111 said:

Boarding on Royal tomorrow, hoping it is still mill pond then! Mind you, might be a fun flight from Perth tonight!

Worst we've had so far 😄!

I'm on the Royal Princess and we're just turning north from the south east tip of Victoria to travel up the east coast. Sydney tomorrow and Brisbane on Monday. We've had mill pond seas for a week in Bass Strait so let's see what happens over the next few days!

Thanks for this thread. I'll be there next week and haven't organised a thing! Great tips.

Thanks everyone - lots of great options 😃

Hi all,

Can anyone assist with suggesting a food venue near the above hotel at 55 George Street to cater for a group of about 15 people next Thursday night? We're catching up with family pre-cruise so don't want a stuffy restaurant, more pub vibes or even something with share plates. My elderly parents can't walk a long way from the hotel and we're looking for something easy. I know it will be hard in that location to find what we're looking for but hoping someone might be able to suggest a winner!

I've tried to call the hotel but it rings out, even when I select the room reservation option... 🙄

Thank you all very much.

Hello wonderful cruisers,

I'm cruising on Princess next week and am just wondering if I need to locate the QR code for my parents to board the ship? I have mine in my app but they don't use smart phones so won't have an app for check in. I've completed their check in information online for them but think I remember once reading that our cabin can check in using my QR code, or did I just make that up (it's entirely possible that I did!)?? Do I have to print something for them or is it unnecessary these days?

Thank you!

On 3/4/2024 at 9:21 AM, cruiser3775 said:

I would love to know how you do this.  I'm booked on a cruise that says "sold out" when I look for most categories with the TA I booked with, and only Guarantee for some others. I'm happy enough with my current cabin choice, but the location could be improved. 

Where do you look when you are "stalking"?

The Princess website is quite good for this stalking. Not all cruiseline websites are good for this though. After watching for a while you can pick up on patterns and changes and differences between availability or the cruiseline website vs agency sites. Overnight you may see 100 cabins disappear so that's when you know something is happening in the background. I think it is initially allocation of guarantee categories then some cabins reappear, then they all disappear again and, if my upgrade bid is successful, that's about the time I would expect to hear. 

I also ask on the group social media page for my upcoming cruise if others have had allocations yet, or upgrades to see what's happening with them.

14 minutes ago, Mumpurple said:

We booked ours through a US agency so being charged US rates. Not understanding why it"s sooooo much cheaper in AUD

 

If you booked through a US agency the daily gratuities won't be included in the fare. When you upgrade to the Plus Package in USD they will then be included.

7 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Congratulations. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I put in a bid for an upgrade to a mini-suite for our upcoming world cruise. 🤞

🤞

My brain is hurting trying to come up with the actual location but I'm sure it is Hong Kong.

So I stayed diligent and ensured that I had the available funds on my credit card every day - and was successful with my mini-suite upgrade bid. I was surprised as mini-suites had been showing as sold out for 6 weeks or so. I think I was possibly one of the few lucky ones. I did bid more than I usually would for an upgrade but, when added to the super low price I paid for the cruise, it was still an excellent deal for an MC category.

@Mumpurple I get exactly how you feel. I'm confused how the app "appears" to combine B2B bookings into one long cruise and you can book dining for the second cruise when only logged into the first cruise, but yet if you purchase anything (like a Plus Package or a Thermal Spa pass) it only gives it to you for the first cruise. It should be all in or all out. They've really blurred the process.

Also, are you being offered the package at the AUD price of $65 per day? When I cruised over Xmas/NY and booked through a US agency, I had to buy the package at the US$60 per day price. Maybe because it was a cruise departing the US, but if I'd booked in Aus I could upgrade to the package at the AU$65 price?

1 hour ago, jota said:

When our room was allocated it was an MA so we get to experience the BBC perks , can’t wait 

I love it when that happens. Congratulations!

7 hours ago, Russell21 said:

It also won't download the Cruise Contract so I can lie and say I've taken the trouble to read it for the 10th time. I mean really FFS what is going on?😡

I had to accept the cruise contract on the web version. It would never let me accept via the app, even after I pretended to read the contract!

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

You don't get the upgrade if they can't get a hold on your funds.

Odds are that suite bids are 99.9% unsuccessful anyway.

I thought that was the case. I'm not bidding for a suite, just a mini, but there are still a number of aft suites available for my cruise in 6 weeks. I tend to stalk cabins, and the inventory available on this cruise is very interesting. There are a huge number of deluxe balconies remaining so maybe a lot of lower category guarantees will get a nice little upgrade. I've seen other categories come and go overnight so I assume they're shuffling and working their magic in the background but the remaining number of deluxe balconies is very surprising to me, considering inside, balconies, obstructed and minis are showing as sold out. I hate not knowing what's going on behind the scenes!!