Duck Duck Cruise

http://www.eastershow.com.au/explore/

17 March to 30 March 2016 in Sydney.

I was looking for something to do after our cruise while we visit Sydney for a couple of days. If you are from the US, it appears to be like a state fair with over 100 rides, food, exhibits, animals, concerts, flower shows, shopping and many more things to do. Below is information from their website.

"The Sydney Royal Easter Show is Australia’s largest annual event, attracting close to 900,000 people each year. It is a celebration of Australian culture, from our rural traditions to our modern day lifestyles, providing unique experiences for everyone.

Each year the country and city join together to enjoy agricultural competitions, animal experiences, entertainment, carnival fun, shopping and much more. The Show was first held in 1823 and is run by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS), a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and rewards agricultural excellence"

Congratulations! You are going to love Princess. We have sailed on the Golden and and several other Princess ships and always love the decor, crew, food and public spaces. I tend to go to youtube and watch videos of the ship I am going on next.

Remember, this is unlike any land vacation you have been on. Once on board you can walk around with a drink anywhere you want. You can pop into the pool just after you board and listen to the band at sail away. Explore all of the public spaces and try the Horizon Court food also. We take the tray from our cabin and bring back some food if we want to stay in our jammies! Cookies at night are good too. The MUTS (Movies Under The Stars) screen is great to watch a movie at night out doors.

Don't over worry about anything. No matter what you read here on the boards, you can dress as you like. My husband takes one button down shirt and one tie just in case we want to go to the dining room on formal night and that is dressy enough.

Oh.....see what you have done? I am so excited about our next cruise I am going on and on! You will have a wonderful time.

Pool issues aside, how is the Diamond?? We're on her next year for the Kyushu sailing. Anything you can post about food, venues, ports is greatly appreciated!

We sailed on her in April 2015 and found the ship to be lovely. The food choices were very good but I have learned to listen to our waiter when they tell you what is good in the kitchen. They have even been very open to tell me that X dish was not recommended.

The Horizon Court was good also. Always fresh salad and fruit, along with many different choices of western, Asian and Indian dishes. After a few days of rich food I usually opt for plain rice and put some grilled veggies on it! The cookies were good too.

My husband stayed in our cabin a couple of nights and I took the tray from our cabin and went to the Horizon Court and took back our dinner. It was a nice way to have what we wanted and watch some movies.

We will be sailing on her again to New Zealand in almost 5 months! We can't wait!

We loved the Coral when we took here through the canal. We enjoyed having a cabin with a balcony because we could pop out until we got too hot and then back in the air conditioning.

A couple tips that helped us survive the heat. Wear a hat. I took a UV blocker umbrella and it was amazing! I ordered it from amazon and they work like the things you put in the window of your car.

I also took a plastic zip bag and filled it with ice to take off the ship with me and took a wash cloth to soak it in the ice water for my neck, arms and face. We also had bottles we could refill with cold water. Drink a lot of water. You will know you are dehydrated when you start to get a headache.

We have lived in Thailand for the last year and a half and I still take my UV blocker umbrella every where I go! I also have packets of powdered electrolyte drink mix to put in my water. I wish I had taken them on the canal trip.

1. The overall atmosphere is relaxed, but not overly casual. We don't see binge drinking, belly flop contests, hairy back contests, and stuff like that. The guests seem to be civil and genteel without crossing over to dull and boring.

 

2. The option for Anytime Dining. Our days are never the same, and I like that we can dine at 6:00 if we need to, or 8:00 if we want to.

 

3. The wine policy. We have a decent collection at home and like to have special bottles on special occasions. For us, cruises are "special occasions". I like that we can bring our bottles with us and not be treated like drunks or smugglers.

 

(And now comes the controversial part as these apply only to the older ships):

 

4. We love booking a cabin that has a balcony that is big enough for our family to all be together outside. We typically book Mini-Suites which afford ample balcony space for all of us.

 

5. We strongly prefer ships that present themselves as ships. Where the whole point is to connect with the sea instead of escape from it. So we like ships with Promenades, and places at the bow where we can walk and let the sea wind smack us in the face. And not have to weave our way through an indoor shopping mall or "central park" just to get around.

 

But mostly #1. We don't want to cruise with adults pretending that they are on Spring Break, or with adults who are doing their best Thurston Howell III impression, or on a ship designed as an amusement park full of kids waiting in line so that they can scream their way through the water slide. That works for lots of people. But it is not what we are after. Princess does the best job of providing that to us.

Well said! That is exactly how we feel. We can't imagine sailing on a floating shopping mall! lol I hope Princess will keep or build some mid size ships for the fleet.

Our first cruise was on the Sea Princess when she was only 4 days old. What fun and we were hooked. We have since tried Hal (don't like the rest home feeling) and Celebrity (Meh) We are loyal to Princess now! Thank you for your post.

I would be curious to hear from those on this thread ...........What is your age? It would be interesting to know what demographics of age groups / generation that are holding on to dressing formal and which are not. This is ours.

60 Female No Formal

63 Male No Formal

http://ultimatewhalewatch.com/ Maui

This tour is with a small number of people in a Zodiac boat and was amazing! They are very safe yet laid back and told us that we could sit on the side of the boat as long as one foot was touching the floor at all times. So my other foot was dangling in the water! It was so much fun!

I am a little confused about the answer "No Auto Gratuities". Do you mean that the gratuities that are added to our stateroom account each day will not be done this way?

Thank you,

Lin

I have been researching extensively for our stop in Dunedin. I found reviews from people on CC about http://www.elmwildlifetours.co.nz/our-tours/cruise-ship-shore-excursion.

The reviews from people who have taken the tour are excellent. Your time in January is a good one. The NOTE below is directly from their website.

NOTE: Generally cruise ship shore time does not coincide with animals daily routines for the best viewing, however fur seal and penguin breeding during the period November to February ensures good viewing through this period as the animals are ashore during the day, but is very limited from March during the penguin's annual moult. The great panoramic vistas are always present.

This is a good thing! I spoke to a waiter a couple of years ago that has worked for Princess for over 15 years, and he/she (don't want to get anyone in trouble) told me that the basic menu has not changed in over 10 years. I am very pleased to try something new!

Here you go:

 

Hi, Could you tell me what ship this was taken on and when? We recently sailed on the Diamond and the menu was not at all like this. I hope this is a standard because I really like these choices much better.

There is so much to recommend you do while you're here we could all come up with a list a mile long ! Without knowing much about what you like and don't like, these are the things we take friends/family to do:

• Backstage tour of the Opera House
  
• Walk from the Art Gallery through the botanic gardens and round to the Opera House (may be too long a walk for some of your group though)
  
• Walk from the Opera House around Circular Quay and up into the Rocks. If you are here over a weekend, then there is a market on Friday nights and one on Sundays. It's all flat walking
  
• Catch a ferry to Manly - take the slow ferry not the fast jetcat and enjoy the trip as much as the destination
  
• Do one of those 'coffee' cruises of the harbour (they last about an hour and a half and do a commentary of major landmarks. They also offer lunch & dinner cruises but the coffee one is best value for money)
  
• Take the ferry to Taronga Zoo and then take the bus up to the top entrance. Don't enter from the bottom entrance unless you want to be walking up hill all the time
  
• Go to the Aquarium at Darling Harbour
  
• If you're not up for the actual bridge climb, you can walk over the Harbour Bridge to Milsons Point and then catch a train back to either Wynyard or Town Hall
  
• Visit the Queen Victoria Building
  
• Take a day trip to the Blue Mountains
  

Depending on what actual dates you are here, there is likely to be some kind of Chinese New Year celebrations going on at that time of the year, including dragon boat racing at Darling Harbour

You have helped me also! I have saved your comments from this thread for my research. We are staying 3 days after our cruise March 16, 17 and 18. the 18th is a Friday so I was happy to read about the Friday Market. We are staying at an apartment through Airbnb across the harbor with killer views of the Opera House and Bridge so your advice regarding transport is very nice indeed!

Hi All

 

Thanks for the tips. We will be in Tokyo for 4 days before we board and then just one more stop in Osaka. DW says the only reason I cruise is for the food and I cant really disagree. We have visited Asia many times and love the food with Thai & Indian being our favourites, although all the other countries we have visited have given us fond food memories - I'm sure Japan will be no different in that respect.

 

Adrian

Our son and daughter in law live in Osaka and we have been there for 6 weeks. Truly, Osaka is called "The Kitchen of Japan" The food is amazing. If a restaurant is not good it fails quickly. You might want to look up on trip advisor what are the top restaurants walking distance from the port. It is a pretty area once you get off the ship. Try some real Ramen....it will change your life!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=46205539&postcount=17

Here is a post I put up of a picture I took when we were in the canal. The picture was great and I hope some day the people will see it. We were on the Coral Princess and enjoyed the cruise very much. You will too no matter where your cabin is.

We always get a card. Our favorite is white chocolate mocha but it is nice to have hot chocolate or some really nice tea!

We moved from the US to Thailand a year ago and have easily dropped weight because the portions are 1/4 the size of servings at restaurants in the US. So when we went on the Diamond for our last cruise in March 2015 and my roast chicken dinner came to the table I was shocked that it was the size of a hole chicken in at home in Thailand!

My husband and I couldn't eat even half of our dinner and we both felt so bad about wasting the food. So we decided we would share our meals. We share an appetizer and order one plate of the main to share. That leaves room for a dessert to either share or each of us will have one.

We did this every night at dinner and our waiters were trying very hard to get us to order more than we wanted because they thought we were not full enough! The only time they tricked us was on sea scallop night when we ordered one plate to share, they put two orders of scallops on one plate! They were delicious and we skipped dessert.

We have decided to do this on future cruises because it worked so well for us. We didn't go to bed feeling like a stuffed turkey!

Yep!

In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[3]

Hello Danny,

We live in Thailand and use Thai Air all the time. We are going to Singapore from Bangkok one way on Tuesday April 14th to board the Diamond Princess. We checked what we paid and it is the same as you. You got a good deal I feel because your flight is right in the middle of high season!

Thai Air is the better choice. The others are "Iffy" at best.

Have a good time!

I would opt to stay overnight. It feels like vacation starts then and if possible a hotel room where you can see or walk a short distance to the dock. We can't sleep because we are so excited. It is really amazing to watch the ship come in at 5 or 6 am and you can wander and take pictures.

Early in the season there will be more snow around which is beautiful. We went in July and it was 90 degrees for several days! The other time it was cold. The suggestion of layers is a good one.

If by "safe" you are worried about sea sickness, the middle of the ship is always the best.

Take binoculars if you can, be out on deck .....all over the ship as much as you can. Have fun and relax!

All of them were too much like a meeting at our work where a self appointed "know it all" loves to hear themselves talk. We are retired now and choose not to waste our precious time with an event that irritates us.

I tend to have no filter these days and just say things that need to be said. I always offend someone. :rolleyes:

Lin

I'm sorry I can't answer your specific questions. I just wanted to let you know that we have sailed out of Vancouver twice and it is a BEAUTIFUL port to do so. Sailing past Stanley Park and under Lion's Gate Bridge while we were in the front of the ship with only one other couple. Go as far forward as you can get on deck 10 Caribe Deck. Go through the door and you will have a special spot to yourself. Grab a drink first!

While we were in one of the locks I looked over the railing and saw these people all toughing the wall at the same time. It was a really great picture and I each time I see the picture I wish I could give it to the family. By posting it here, maybe they will see it.

https://monkeycruise.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/saturday-october-2-cartagena-we-found-jesus-in-cartagena/ In reading the blog again I found my wife's sense of humor was in rare form in this link during our time in Cartagena.

This is our blog from our Canal trip. We started out in Vancouver and picked up most of the passengers in LA for the full transit. We loved the Coral and had a blast. Enjoy!

People were recently asking about Costa Rican Coffee. In Punterenas we picked up some from Coffee John the owner of Shade Lady Coffee. It was amazing. We have a picture of him in the blog.

You can use the spa area for showers and saunas free of charge. I can only speak for Princess, Hal and Celebrity. I have read on Cruise Critic in many families the men tend to use those areas when their wives and daughters are getting ready for dinner and taking over the cabin bathroom. LOL

We have always book with a year or more till sail away. We like to choose our stateroom....... If you have a stateroom you are happy with and don't want it to be changed, place a "Do Not Upgrade" because some of the upgrades are really not. They might put you in the same category but in a part of the ship that you would not like.

Thank you for asking this question. We will be on the Diamond in a few days on April 15th. We purchased a coffee card and are not sure where to go either.