tribefan

7 hours ago, kernow said:

Is your second cruise going to NZ? I think it was their government that insisted that the b2b passengers were tested.I know earlier in the week they said we wouldn't have to be. It was certainly the NZ authorities who insisted on 7 days quarantine, it's only 5 days for Australia cruises. Hopefully it will have cleared a bit by the time you go, just my opinion but I think the staff were probably passing it around a bit.

 

Feeling back to normal today, currently sitting in the sunshine at Bondi Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NZ is our first cruise, then the South Pacific.

Loved reading your recap of the cruise!  We had Aussie friends on the sailing also, that she tested positive for covid too.  We are doing a B2B starting January 24th, I pray neither one of us come down with it while on the 1st cruise!  I would suggest doing the Hop On Hop Off bus, it was a great way to see the city!  Make sure to stop at the Chinese Gardens, very beautiful.  You can also take the HOHO bus to Bondi Beach!!

3 hours ago, njkruzer said:

I always get currency before I leave home.  The exchange rate on the ship is terrible.   Took the Anthem TA and with the exchange rate if $1,13 to the pound the offered us less than a dollar.   Didn't do the exchange. 

We already have our AU and NZ$ but if we have left over at the end of the cruise, don't want to bring it home.  I didn't get any Pacific francs for our stop in New Caledonia, and only plan on spending a little bit there, but would like maybe $50 US to take ashore.  

We will be sailing on the Ovation in January and February out of Sydney.  Can we exchange currency while on the ship?  One of the stops is New Caledonia and will need to get a few Pacific francs.  Plus when the cruise is over would want to exchange our AU$ to US$

Thanks!

We can't remember, does the casino on RCCL ship take US $ or AU$?  Will be on the Ovation in January and February and just want to know which to put aside!

Thanks!

Hop On Hop Off bus!!  Best way to see the city!!

I can attest that YES you can have it changed from a TA to RCCL, because we just did it (back in April).  Our TA ended up being the worst and she was "engaged" to our DIL's dad (but not anymore thank goodness!)  We had booked for a B2B around Australia and NZ 2021, which of course got cancelled.  Moved it to 2022 and of course the same thing.  I would call her to have something either added or maybe changed our cabin to a better one and all she did was complain on how horrible it was to call them!!  Sorry but you don't tell a customer who is Diamond + how horrible they are!!  Plus I knew more then she did!!  Anyways, the final straw was when she was on a cruise and there was a price drop.  I sent her a FB message with it.  She read it right away but never replied (BTW, she did have an assistant who was back in the states at this time!) but replied to a comment someone else posted.  Next thing you know I'm getting this message on how she is at sea and unable to call.  Ok, understand, but you do have an assistant.  Also replied that RCCL does these sales on a rotation and it will be back around, no, not if there are only 2 cabins left in your catagory and once they are gone, no more sales for you!!    I finally had enough of her complaints and talked to RCCL.  I did have to email them everything as to why I wanted to switch our reservations, which I did include her texts on everything.  Within  a week, I got my confirmation that they now would handle it.  This all took place in April, I was still having issues when I would sign on to my RCCL account I could not see my balance.  I would call and nobody could figure out why, everything looked good on their end and yes the reservation had been switched!!  About a month ago, I decided to look at my TA account and it still showed it was there!!!  I texted her the next morning, just asking why would my account still show the 2 cruises???  OH she went off on me saying she was waiting for me to tell her that they had been transferred before she changed the status in her system!!!  Then she went on saying how she knew I was deeply concerned over a $60 or $80 potential rebook savings while she was in the middle of the caribbean, but at the time RCCL's hold time was more then 4 hours and it would have been very expensive to call and taken those many hours out of her day!! Then went on to say did I know how many hours she invested in our cruises??  Booking, rebooking, FCC's, etc!!  Way too many and she had yet to receive a dime!!  It got quite nasty after that!!  All I said was if I remembered correctly she had hired an assistant and all it would have taken was a message to her, very simple!!  And also she was back in PR on sunday .  Her response that these sale are on a rotation was not very professional, and I'm sorry that it might have ONLY been $60 or $80 (it was actually $100) but that was money back in MY pocket.  If she didn't like putting in the hours and not getting paid till after we took the cruise, then I guess she is in the wrong profession, I have nothing to do with that or that there was  a pandemic and I had to cancel 2 very expensive vacations.  This is exactly why I do my own flights and the rest of our vacation!!!  So glad we got rid of her and so is our DIL who is happy her dad kicked her out!!

Oh forgot to add, in March when they pulled the Radiance out to move it to Texas I think, I sent her a message that it had been changed and she told me no it hadn't!! I replied, well our friends who were going with us who are from Sydney, had already received their email from RCCL informing them!!  She really wanted to argue with me about it!!!

woops my bad, we would get 120 points!!!  didn't realize we were on the ship for 30 nights!!!

Wonder if we will get 4 points per night for our B2B2B Australian, South Pacific and NZ cruises for Jan/Feb 2022??  We are booked in an owner's suite.  Would be cool if we did!!!  92 points....YES!!!!!

On 2/14/2021 at 9:11 PM, mlbcruiser said:

Considering an Australia/NZ cruise in either February or March of 2022.  I have read up a little bit on weather conditions but would like to hear actual experiences/comparisons from those who have cruised these regions in both months.  Of course weather and sea conditions are often not “normal” & can’t be known in advance, but it’s sort of helps to know the likelihood of experiencing very many all day rains, extremely rough seas, 

or other conditions making it uncomfortable enough that it affected the enjoyment of your cruise. Or if conditions caused numerous excursions to be canceled. 
Thanks for any input!

 

Just plan on going with us on Feb 9th!!!!  Would be awesome to finally be able to cruise together since this is how we met on a cruise board how many years ago???

LOVE JVD!!!!!!  we were there in 2012 and looking to going back!!!

perfect!!  heading to STT the end of January and was hoping we could go over to JVD!!!

Thanks everyone for your help!!  We will just wait to see what happens with the Australian government in regards to letting travelers in.  From what I have been reading it is not looking good for quite awhile.  As it is now, the Serenade was suppose to go from Honolulu to Sydney in September and that isn't happening.  Who knows when the ship will even be there!!!   The boarders are closed until mid Sept, and Qantas has pulled international travel until mid March.  

Just now, RFerrington said:

The only way to get 125% is to wait until Royal cancels your cruise and take the 125% FCC.  If you want to L&S, you can do it any time (before or after the cruise is actually cancelled....up until 30 Sept unless the L&S program is extended).  The price of your cruise is price protected but you can only L&S to a qualified future cruise, which could be a problem in your case.Finding a suitable and qualified cruise to which to L&S might not be too easy to find.  I would let your Travel Agent or Royal help me with this.

I doubt we would do the lift and shift since they don't even have our cruises out.  Some say oh, they can post them still, but I highly doubt that.  Unless they bring another ship over for a short time, not going to happen!  But the 125% FCC only if you have paid in full?  Our balance is not even due until the middle and end of Nov, which by then we should know if Australia will even let us in!!

I don't want to just go ahead and switch to 2022 because we have our flights, lodging and tours booked.  We need to have either RCCL or the Australian government cancel so that we get all that $$  back!

Or only if we have paid in full?

So if we just go ahead and change it, we would get the 125%?  This is all so confusing to me!!

We are booked on a 34 night B2B on the Serenade for Feb & March of 2021.  As of right now, it is not looking good that the Australian government will even open up the boarders before that.  We plan to go in 2022 if these are cancelled.  For the L&S, is it only for the same type of sailing, they are not listed for 2022 season.  Another thing is these are a 16 & 18 night cruise, We booked them while on the Navigator and got great ship board credits for doing it then.  If we have to change, I take it we have to book at least 12 night cruises to keep it.  We are looking at a 8, 9 and 13 night on the Ovation with an OS cabin.  I just don't want to get screwed out that much ship board credits!!  Sorry if this was posted prior, but I was unable to find anything under a search!!  Also, I take it that we have to do the L& S before they cancel the cruise in order to get the 125% credit.  Also hoping that they cancel before final payment because we are spending some big $$ and hate to tie that money up for such a long time!!  It was it was just a couple $1000, I could handle that but this is WAY more!!  thanks for your help!

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The “all photos” has been eliminated. 

thanks

They posted on our cruise planner the photo packages, but didn't see a total digital package where you can get all the photos taken on a memory card or emailed to you.  All they had were a number of printed photos.  Since we are traveling to Australia (hopefully!), weight is going to be precious!!  

Ok, we are going to do a circumnavigate cruise of Australia, Bali and NZ.  Normally we just cruise the caribbean, where you always stay on ship time.  So whatever port you leave out of, that is the time the ship stays on.  Usually you only change 1 time zone, but on this cruise we will be changing quite a few, going ahead a few hours and then back to Sydney (original port we are leaving from) and then behind  a couple hours in NZ.  Thanks for your help!!  Hope everyone is staying safe out there!!

Another place you do not hear them tell to stay away from...casinos!!!  We stopped at one in Battle Creek on sunday, it was packed and I mean to the point that you had to walk around to try and find a machine to play!!  You have all these people in there, touching machines, money, dice, cards, poker chips, beverage stations, etc.  Not once did I notice anyone cleaning any of the machines!!  Plus they are warning the elderly to not go into crowds (cruises too!) and what do you see?  Elderly people with their walkers and some even pulling their oxygen tanks, even with people smoking all around them!!!  You can't tell me that place wasn't loaded with who knows what!!!!!  If they want to close down the cruise industry, then close the casinos...oh wait, the states want that free money that people are throwing away trying to win big!

we are 1 year out, but it will be an Australian cruise, maybe that will take a bit longer?

Can anyone tell me when they open up the shore excursions, drink packages, photo packages, etc for a cruise?  How far out before you can book anything?  thanks!

We were on an RCCL cruise a couple years ago out of Sydney.  Can someone please settle a bet, is the payouts in AUS$ or US$???  And do the machines take US$???  thanks!