sherri3802

Hubby says no more cruise to places that don't have nice bathrooms--as in western style!! So, what are bathrooms like in NZ, Australia and maybe island nations in South Pacific. I know this sounds bad but we have had a lot of bad experiences with toilets and he is getting tired of it. And, of course, he's a guy (i.e., easier)! I don't like eastern holes-in-the ground, even if they are ceramic, and I need a seat (not like in Mexico and parts of Ukraine)!!

 

Thanks for any help, and apologies to our Aussie friends,

ML

The average aussie toilet is fine, you won't have a problem with it.

Mind you, a few years back, we took 2 young American girls to see the penguin parade at Phillip Island. It is a popular tourist spot. The girls used the loo and one came out and commented on how unusual they were. Mine had been perfectly normal but apparently hers had been Asian style. I would say management had put in a few Asian toilets to cater for the tourists but they should have had signs on the doors to warn people!!

Yes.

I have found most insurance policies allow either high blood pressure medication OR cholesterol medication to be taken without penalty, but not both.

What I did was email different companies, mentioning specifically what medications my husband was on and asking for a quote.

I found that the companies that gave the cheapest general online quote were not necessarily the ones that gave the best special needs quote.

My finding was that if you have a special condition but can show it has not hospitalized you in the last 12 months, they are probably willing to cover it. But if your health is unstable, I think it would be tricky getting insurance.

A friend who does a lot of travel told me she has top travel insurance via their credit card (which is a top of the range one, I forget what type). And that insurance is free, apparently.

My family and I went to the islands last year. We brought our own goggles and snorkel and instead of fins we used reef shoes. We found we did not have a need for the fins and they took up way too much room in our luggage. We had to fly from Western Australia to Sydney so we had limited kg's.

We did the same.

I would recommend reef shoes instead of the fins-easier all round.

We weren't on the same ship, but here is a photo of the catamaran we were on and I imagine a lot of the others are similar.

It was quite large and there was room enough inside for them to show videos and ads, as well as serve a meal, tea, coffee etc

The journey was reasonably smooth though you do feel the motion a lot more than on a cruise ship. It didn't affect any of us, we enjoyed the trip (although it takes ages), but I was surprised to see a couple of teens vomiting and staff had to hose down some seating.

I saw this for Melbourne as well.

A hop on-hop off bus tour, with commentary.

http://www.melbournecitysightseeing.com.au/

Haha thinking the same.

I am not sure I would trust any announcements that everything was A-Ok.

I would be ready with my documents etc, just in case.

And the lifeboats sound like a plan.:D

I saw this advertised and thought of this post.

http://www.meltours.com.au/index.htm

It is a walking tour of Melbourne, at $59pp.

But I actually saw it on one of the daily deal websites, where vouchers are $28. No good for gunner though as the vouchers are only good till June 1st 2014.

But keep in touch, gunner, and if you are interested in some sort of tour, let us know and there is sure to be a special deal available that we can suss out for you.

I am thinking of booking an 11 night Queensland cruise on board Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas - (6th April 2015) and would appreciate any comments on this cruise.:)

I have been on a similar cruise, though with a different cruise line.

It's a good cruise.

I would say the main thing to look at with this cruise is the date, as the weather plays a huge factor.

We left in September and it was pleasant in Brisbane but of course got hotter, much hotter, the further north we went. Cairns wasn't too bad but was hot by afternoon at Kuranda. Port Douglas was so hot and humid by noon all I could think of was getting back on the ship.

My sister in law did your exact cruise in Nov and I said nothing but oh boy, she felt the heat too.

We're from down in Melbourne and used to milder weather. I am guessing if you are from Scotland, you are too.

By April, you should be okay.

Just don't book a cruise like this too close to the aussie summer, this is a cruise that would be at its best towards our winter (from my point of view).

Kids on board won't be a hassle, I wouldn't think. I went on a summer cruise once with 400 kids and they were never a worry.

Explain this one.

We're sailing on Oosterdam on 22 Dec 14nts Pacific Treasures in a balcony. Its expensive, but we cop it every year cos we like sailing on HAL over Xmas and New Year. Just noticed if we take the 08 Dec Explorer Collection, which is a 28nt B2B of their 14nts NZ cruise and our 14nts Pacific cruise then the cost for a balcony is CHEAPER than just our 14 nighter.

 

HAL always explains the high cost for our cruise as being the popularity of Xmas and New year so how can they sell that cruise and the previous one included for less than the Xmas cruise alone?

 

Also if you check availability the 14nt Xmas cruise is virtually sold out yet the cheaper and longer 28nts seems to have cabins available in most categories even though this must include cabins on the sold out voyage.

Got me stumped.

That would make me hopping mad too, especially if there was no way I could get onto the earlier cruise.

Never mind, it is majorly disappointing but it is probably too late to do a thing about it except enjoy the cruise you will be on!!:)

We went on a cruise to Far North Qld.

Cairns-Did the sky rail excursion over the rainforest and to Kuranda. We were with a P & O tour that left late and it was far too rushed, we only had about 40 minutes in Kuranda. The sky rail part was good.

Port Douglas. I found an internet site that showed a map of a walking tour.

It looked to be the same walking tour that was offered at about $90 a head, so we decided to print it off and do it ourselves as it had all the information. Let me just say, set off early if you aren't used to heat. I'm not a lover of too much heat and was fine at 8am but by 1pm I couldn't wait to get back on board that ship.

You can walk right into the town from the ship, the port is in town and a lot of the historical sites have signs up anyway. There is a walk you can do up to the lookout, great views but the steep walk up in the heat nearly killed me. Anyone half fit could probably run up it though.:D

Just a note-vegemite-you haven't tried it right or you would love it.:p

Butter some toast, then a very thin smear of vegemite, just barely there, nothing better on this earth.;)

Depending on when your cruise gets into Melbourne, you might like to consider

* The Queen Victoria market.

It is easy to get to as it is basically in the city itself and there is public transport you could catch. There is a nice casual eating area there, too, where you can sit down to a coffee and try out a big range of cuisines.

I've taken visitors there before and they like the range of goods and the atmosphere.

*I believe there are also walking tours of Melbourne you can book.

http://www.melbournebyfoot.com/#!cultural-walk/c5js

This one is a 3 hour walk (including a break with tea or coffee provided) and is $35 per person.

This one below starts in the morning, includes lunch but is dearer.

http://www.viator.com/tours/Melbourne/Melbourne-Lanes-and-Arcades-Walking-Tour/d384-3671ARCADES

* A Yarra River cruise.

You might be all cruised out, not sure, but the Yarra River goes through Melbourne and out into the suburbs. The river isn't all that big though, so it isn't something you could do in a cruise ship, you would be on a small ferry type boat and quite close to the sights. I think you could enjoy this-maybe do it prior to a walking tour?

http://www.viator.com/tours/Melbourne/Highlights-of-Melbourne-Cruise/d384-3013SIGHTAB

*tramcar restaurant tour of Melbourne. This has a lunch time option and you might like it as you get to trundle through Melbourne in comfort, with a commentary I imagine, while you eat. It isn't cheap-I think the lunches are about $82.50 from what I can make out, but I guess you are paying for the novelty.

http://www.viator.com/popups/priceAvailCal.jspa?code=3412TRAM&tourGradeCode=4CL&productType=SIC&id=1010&listDate=2013-11-04&setLocale=en

http://www.viator.com/tours/Melbourne/Colonial-Tramcar-Restaurant-Tour-of-Melbourne/d384-3412TRAM

* Just walk the streets of Melbourne. Maybe visit the immigration museum, or go have a look at the shrine of remembrance or take a walk in the Botanic gardens, if you are after a more leisurely day.

A site with ideas-http://www.viator.com/Melbourne/d384-ttd?pref=02&aid=g2966

Things to avoid.

This is just a personal opinion, but if you are only in Melbourne for one day, I would avoid the long trips out of town.

There are some great places to see, but you will see tourist brochures rabbiting on about the penguins at Phillip Island, which is a long trip out, you would spend most of the day in a bus, and not that spectacular if the truth be known.

You will see Healesville sanctuary mentioned. It's one of my favourite places to take visitors to get up closer to Aussie animals in a natural environment, but again, it is a long way out. You need to have all day there to really appreciate it and attend the demos. Don't bother going if they can only offer you an hour or two.

But either of those would be a better choice than Melbourne Museum. It is B awful, avoid it like the plague. The old one we had was 10 times better.:(

Hi Eileen,

 

Yes it was an Aus TA site but none of the major TA's. I had never heard of this TA but only stumbled across their page while doing a search for Rhapsody blogs.

 

I have never booked a cruise through a US agent and was wondering before I considered it, if anyone has had the experience of being refused boarding.

 

Like you said though, they know you are Australian as you hold a Australian passport.

 

Any queries, feel free to email :)

 

luckie_puris@yahoo.com.au

I actually came back into this messageboard to ask the same question or to see if anyone else had raised it.

The same claim was made in an article in the Herald-sun, which is one of the biggest daily newspapers in Australia. It was in the paper a few days to a week ago and had a title something like "Warning about online cruise bookings." The article claimed that there were agreements between nations that agents would only book their own nationals. And that some overseas online booking agencies (it named them) were actively recruiting people in Aust, even providing special phone numbers etc, but that it was risky to book throuhg them as the cruise ships reserved the right to refuse boarding to anyone they found was not a US citizen but had booked through a US agency.

I am guessing the same thing would apply if you booked through a UK agency.

This has unnerved me a bit as i was watching cruise prices, but now I am a bit scared to consider a US agency.

I got the impression (perhaps wrongly) that booking into one of the aussie based ships would be riskier than booking a ship visited here but worked in US dollars.

I suppose the only thing is that newspapers get their news from somewhere and maybe the paper took it from a travel agent site where they might have a vested interest.

Have there actually been any cases where someone has been refused their cruise and no refund of the fare paid?

That, I think, is the critical issue.

Interesting article.

First off though, I don't think it is practical to expect the navy to have to host every big ship that wants to call in. Nor is it fair to expect the navy to have to relocate, just because it has a good site.

It is hard for me to know exactly where the truth lies, but by the sounds of it, the port facilities are not overused most of the time.

But cruise ships do seem to be getting bigger. If the money ever is there to develop a state of the art port, does it absolutely have to be in the heart of Sydney? Is there anywhere else it could be sited, even eg a 20-30 minute drive out of town?

If luxury buses were laid on at such a site and easily accessible each time a big ship came in, that could work well.

I haven't been cruising but years ago we got the train to Adelaide and the interstate train terminal was a fair way out of the city. That worried me initially.

But at the terminal they announced that there were small tour buses for a very nominal cost, that did the whole city circuit, with commentary. You could hop off at any of the stops and hop on the next one that came along eg an hour later. they actually did the circuit all day and there was no hassle about getting into town, or getting back to the terminal etc

I found it a really great way to see the city in a short time and get a potted history.

Is there anything like that available in Sydney? if not, then there should be.