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Done all my checking in for P&O June cruise except for dining. So: Check your (free) dining assignments - so time and where - is this done by P&O or us (haven't worked out where). If done by P&O - I guess I need to check and change, may-be. Where (if done or changed by us) do we go on board to book in, or change and I note you said do it straight away when boarding. Of course, I do intend to go to the three free ones. And thanks for the tips.

I have been on 2 NCL cruises in the past. I cannot complain about food or anything on the ships. However, I don't think NCL are upfront and we are cautious about going with them again. They recently had a special of 2nd person is free but when you totalled everything up, it was the total for two people cruising and the 'online' connection confirmed the price. To those who did get free drinks etc., I was under the impression that you still had to pay gratuities on the 'free' drinks package even though a cruise is purchased in Australia. We just prefer 'no smoke and mirrors' just honesty or forget it.

I never thought of it that way, but I have a lovely garden full of flowers at the moment. I never cut the flowers and take them inside. I have always thought they just look beautiful naturally, where they are in abundance. I think your mother was right.

Would love to see more ships leaving Melbourne but weather conditions makes Sydney a good alternative. New Brisbane cruise terminal not well organised yet to get cruisers onto shuttles and away from the new terminal. Don't really want to fly to Brisbane. Hoping Voyager and Radiance class ships return to Australia. I prefer Princess and RCCL cruise lines.

My payment was all sorted out by 5ish and I received a new invoice showing the payment and balance owing. All good.

I booked a cruise with RCCL today (I normally do it myself online but I had a query about not receiving a previous invoice). They were expecting the payment to go out in a few days. The invoice did not show the deposit being paid but that will be updated when the payment does go out from the credit card.

Going P&O in June on Adventure and I haven't kept up with what is happening at the Brisbane Cruise Terminal. Would anyone know if they have a shuttle bus to the city yet on a day we have a stop there. Sorry if I haven't been paying attention.

@hammo Personal Information & Documents Arrivals Grand Princess App saying Princess not responding but next step is pick your group. Good luck and enjoy your cruise

@yes!yes!yes!Are the shows OK? Any good movies on board that we can watch in cabin or big screen? Enjoying your info. Is there testing for Covid going on, or was it for just day 2. I think that was a good idea - seems the numbers of covid may be down, or it is old news because we are not hearing anything about numbers, deep cleans, or delayed embarkation. @Jean CThanks for the Auckland info. Printed it out so we can do something different. We quite like walking around and taking in the sights (for end of January).

Hope you have a smooth embarkation. As I get on soon after you get off, I would be grateful to know how smooth things are throughout your 3 cruises on the Grand. My friend did 1st Dec one to NZ and 2 days after cruise finished, she unfortunately had covid. Regardless she said she had a wonderful time but I think she wore one of those blue masks, but I prefer to use the KN95 face huggers.

I haven't seen anything like that yet and hope I never do. I am sure that most of us are just happy to be on a cruise where the cooking and cleaning is done for us.

Booking way early when cruises come out helps, as do other things like donating your money to the Casino. Was that considered when you were discussing fares? I remember some time ago, I booked a price I saw from our 'El Cheapo' Thread and I felt it was an OK price. Someone I met on the cruise wanted to have a 'I booked my cabin cheaper than you did' conversation and although I tried to stay out of it, in the end he asked me outright. I paid less than he did.

Oh wow - booked one of those on Adventure. Glad to see there is some privacy. We looked down on those on a previous cruise. However, the extra room on the balcony is not important to me but you seem to have more leg room and I forget if we had footrests.

@Emma Chisit Thank you When I was looking I saw 'Under Onboard Currency' para but I am booked on Royal Princess (AUD currency on board) leaving from Australia and finishing in Japan i.e. not the 3 ships mentioned.

It isn't enough to say it is on the web site, you need to share your link. I looked when @resordanishighlighted the matter and yes, I found a paragraph on the web site and printed it out, but that paragraph is now gone. I will check again later. Thanks but I am starting to feel this is the beginning of things perhaps changing - really hope I am wrong. RCCL used to state on the tax invoice that Aust gratuities were included in the fare. For my latest booking, I did not receive a tax invoice, I had to print out the details that were on the screen confirming the booking and there was nothing about gratuities.

I would be grateful if you or anyone could refer us to where it says the above. I am sure I saw it many times in the past. However, since Princess Plus came out, if you look through FAQ: Onboard Experience - there is no reference to gratuities for Australians being part of their fare price, for an Australian cruise or a cruise leaving from Australia where the currency is AUD.

Where do you catch the shuttle bus as you leave the domestic terminal and would you know how much it costs?

@OzwoodyThanks for your review because there is not much out there about P&O Aust but I really like the Princess and RCCL experience. I have a P&O one booked for next winter, which I will still do, but I think I will give the current sale a miss. P&O UK was fine.

Pre-covid we were booked with Leo Tours (which did not happen of course) but I have seen things that you have to present to Border Control on your first day to Israel and it is better to be on a ship tour because they leave first. Travel Guides was about Israel last night and that was good to see. The Dead Sea just looked like a normal beach so I would rather tour more interesting places. On a previous cruise which included Israel, the ship had to sail past due to shooting - hope we get in this time. Thanks for your comments.

Good to know, thanks. Did you do the Holy Land cruise?

The change I liked the most about Princess was the dining. While I didn't mind traditional dining, they have done away with it and you choose to dine by yourselves or (as we do 'with others') and you are with different people most nights. The food in the dining room and buffet was quite OK, we are not hard to please. I just like the whole experience to be enjoyable i.e. good shows etc. which Princess does well. We really like Radiance and Voyager class ships on RCCL. 5,500 on Odyssey seems large but we will give it a go and shall see if we like it. Enjoy your next cruise.

What was it like on Ovation and back to RCCL - as good as before or better? Are you still issued with a cruise card etc? I thought I saw something about doing something minor on the phone but my RCCL cruise is not until 2024 - too far out to think about it. The Princess changes with the medallion are not that bad.

Just keep watching for balconies to come up on the Princess site. I booked late for a cruise in January and only scored an obstructed window. I kept watching after final payment and balconies came up and I was able to change. Good luck.

Love those 2 classes of ships but slightly favour the Voyager class more. They both have promenade decks - Voyager inside promenade and outside. Hope you are enjoying your cruise.

So sorry you have covid and I hope you recover quickly. Will be on The Grand early next year. We will be wearing our masks and sanitising frequently. I am not too hard to please but looking forward to the rest of your review of The Grand. Hope they have the boarding better organised by the time I get on. Coral in early September was easy after a few months back. No complaints about that cruise and I did like the dining (on Princess) better than pre-covid.