dreams_of_travel

Here's another write up/how to do this trip on your own: 

https://sydneyexpert.com/blue-mountains-itinerary-by-train/

@Tedferg  when are you planning on your trip?  If all goes well, I should be doing this train trip from Sydney in November after my cruise. 

1 minute ago, DCThunder said:

Why not just pick it up at the port for free?  That seems to be the simple solution to all the angst about Medallion deliveries.  I just did this in Southampton and it was a snap.  Perhaps that's an outlier, but I'm planning on doing it again in Civitavecchia in November.

The problem with picking up at port is the super long, slow moving lines. I was cruising out of Vancouver last month, and it took us almost two hours to get through the line to pick up our medallions. They didn’t separate the lines into groups either. It was just one huge line. Perhaps this was just how it is in Vancouver, so YMMV.  I’d prefer if they would automatically refund the charge for those with status, or particular package on the booking. 

12 hours ago, heatherb1958 said:

In our experience when there have been issues with charges , unless it is erroneous bar charges , the Guest services staff have no authority just to wipe it off. Investigations have to be made and reported back  finally to be dealt with by GS. 

It would have been so easy for them to see what time the call was made , what time you boarded the ship and with the Medallion exactly when you were in your cabin, heck with that thing when looking for your travel party onboard you can even see when folks visit the bathroom !! I did when looking for my hubby on Regal  one minute he was in a bar next time I looked he showed up on the map in the gents 😂 😂 

Very true.  I was just annoyed at the snails pace, but yes emails had to be exchanged, and followup with the various departments. It did tie up a bit of OBC money, but in the end all the excursions were full, so a bit of moot point by then. 

yikes, tracking our every movement.  all for the marketing, and monetizing departments. LOL!  

2 hours ago, Torfamm said:

What address do you use for contact information in Australia?

 

9 minutes ago, Free2bMeForever said:

I also have this question.  I will be arriving in Sydney and have a 1 night reservation there.  I plan to spend the next week traveling to Cairns and/or Yulara. Should I put the first night in Sydney or simply say that I don’t know?

Put the hotel address for the first night stay as your contact.  If they have questions, have your future stay info on hand (cruise ship, other hotels).  I have flown in a few times to 
Australia, each time for a cruise, and I have used the hotel info for the first night (or two), and have not had a problem yet.

6 hours ago, heatherb1958 said:

Wow. Maybe the last occupants of the cabin used it to  confirm their ride home .... 😆.  Hope you get it sorted soon.. 

Yesterday I did finally get this resolved.  The Guest Services person who was working on it called me to let me know it was taken care, and the charge removed.  Still have no idea why it took them almost 4 days to clear it up, but I'm happy they followed up with me. 

Not medallion related per se, but on the first evening, before dinner I noticed a charge for $108.xx for telephone use.  I went down to Guest Services to get the charge removed b/c why would I use the cabin phone to make a 10min phone call when we were still in port, and I could use my mobile phone.  That was two days ago, they're are still investigating. *rollseyes*  I went to guest services again today, they are still working on it. At least I am on a 10 day cruise. 😛 

On 7/23/2023 at 12:06 AM, Poipu04 said:

Congratulations! Curious how many days is your cruise? 

My cruise is a 10day.

22 minutes ago, dreams_of_travel said:

Yes, I bid on a regular balcony, and won a mini suite.  I have no explanation how that happened, but it will be nice to have the extra space and couch.

I went back and looked at my bid confirmation email.  Correction:  I put a $300/person bid on standard balcony, premium balcony, and mini suite.  I lucked out with the mini suite.

21 hours ago, 1cruiselvr said:

Confused. You bid on a balcony but you win a mini suite?

Yes, I bid on a regular balcony, and won a mini suite.  I have no explanation how that happened, but it will be nice to have the extra space and couch.

I placed a bid eons ago to move from an Oceanview/midship, to a balcony on the Crown leaving on Tuesday.  Today I got an email about getting approved for a mini suite, not quit forward but not quite mid ship.  Bid was $300/person.   Very happy about this.  

22 hours ago, Tedferg said:

Goog point, I need to scope out where to go, I was hoping HOHO would hit popular sights We do plan to use the ferry.

My first visit to Sydney I did use the HOHO bus.  It was a great overview, and worked for us being jet lagged but still wanting to see things.  It also gives an idea of how far it is to some of the places you'd like to go back to using the public transit.  It does go to popular sights, and have frequent enough next buses to catch after you are done. I have not gotten to use the ferry in my last two visits, but I do plan on using them for my trip in November.  

2 hours ago, WaggesAZ said:

We have booked them for 8/2 and have been booked with them since February.  I sent an email to Shane as I was concerned about all of the issues, and he immediately replied with:  
 

             I have covered the number of bookings (you) and impromptu guests for th season within my quota.

 

               We are all good.

I have been very impressed with their communication and timeliness and anticipate that we will be just as happy upon our arrival.

I'm curious about this.  Does this mean they have extras? Or does this mean only that you and few other people are covered, but nothing available after that?

1 hour ago, dlh015 said:

Well, Leigh, thank you once again for helping this first-timer! Had no idea about the bio stuff...will plan accordingly. Perhaps I'll be able to pick up a sandwich or something along the way.

 

Best regards, Dave

There are plenty of little shops along the way to the Mountain.  It would be easy to pick up a sandwich/snacks after getting off the ship.

I was in Singapore in January.  We used the Hop On/Hop Off bus to get around.  The Gardens are free except for the special exhibits.  (To be fair we were too tired to do much b/c we had just finished a 2 week trip in Australia/NZ, but we did enjoy the famous food hall, and seeing an overview of the city via the bus) We got off the bus near the Merlion, and walked back to our hotel next to Suntec City mall.   We did not get over to Sentosa, so I can't comment on that.

6 minutes ago, CLM0928 said:

Check out Evergreen Taxi.  They are permitted to drop at the visitor center and have online reservation request. I think its $40 per person

http://www.evergreentaxi.com/ 

Thank you.  I will definitely check into this, and let you know how it worked out.  It looks like your cruise is about a week after mine. 

Super bummed to read of Blue Bus not being able to run to Mendenhall.  This had been my plan for my cruise at the end of this month.  Of course, all the cruise ship excursions are sold out.  Not sure of an alternative that will work for us, I don't fancy walking from the public bus stop to the Visitor center.   *sigh* 

3 hours ago, wannagonow123 said:

Manually type in your user name and password. That is the only way I get in. 

I'll have to try that.  Hopefully it will work for me, and others.

Nopeity nope nope to vaping.  The smell of the vapor due to the "flavor" used is awful, and nauseating.  I don't like being in anyone's vapor even when I'm outside. 

On a Celebrity cruise transfer bus I "caught" a woman vaping on the bus. I was sitting behind her, and clearly saw her try to duck down, and then slowly blow out her vapor.  I very loudly called her out about "smoking" on the bus.  She told me I didn't see anything, and didn't know what I was talking about.  I was so surprised that no on else, let alone the driver said anything.  ALSO  as a former smoker, I understand the addiction is a real thing, but you can't go on a 20min bus ride without needing your fix?!?

I don't go into the casino often, but vaping in there would definitely not make me want to in the future.  I do not know what they are thinking to allow any vaping when smoking is not allowed.  I do wonder how many people already vape in their cabins.  

Going forward, I would be more likely to book a cruise that is giving me double MOBC.  That way I wouldn't feel like I am missing out on my SOBC. LOL!  I didn't get the email, so I appreciate the linked post above.  Playing around with the link, I see that one of my current bookings is one of those offering the double MOBC.  I suppose they want me to call to get that applied.  If so, I am not bothering b/c I already have both SOBC and MOBC applied, so there is little point to go through the hassle.  They would likely take away the SOBC.

In related news, I was looking at various offerings via that link, and found a 14 day, as a solo, for $1800/something, and there seems to be a glitch in regards to the MOBC.  In the little OBC box, it shows $100 OBC, $500 MOBC, AND another $250 MOBC.   So basically I could book this cruise, w/o Princess Plus, and get $850 OBC.   So. Very. Tempted.  LOL!

Interesting read @Ken the cruiser but I am still foggy about how paying for a cruise with a gift card suddenly can become "lost money", and not refundable.    I need to know what the part in #2 means  cannot be returned for a cash refund, except to the extent required by law.   What law, and where does it explain what happens with your money from the gift card?  Why are gift cards this type of thing that won't be refunded, or somehow not saved as a future cruise credit for use?  

All this makes me not want to cruise Celebrity again, let alone pay for a cruise with a gift card.  What regular person would think to read all this fine print, and then find out their gift card used to pay some of a refundable cruise fare is totally lost.  This is so many levels of not cool, I almost can't comprehend it.  YMMV

I suppose I should fully read the verbiage on the Princess gift cards to make sure there isn't some sort of insanity over there too.  (except I have used Princess gift cards before, and had them refunded when having to cancel a cruise.  And the big one for me, knowing I can use a gift card to put down a deposit for a new cruise.)

I want to thank @HaveDogWillTravel for starting this thread.  I never would have submitted my SOBC requests for next year's cruises so early without this thread.   It would seem that acting early before the new rule was applied paid off for getting both SOBC and MOBC on my cruises.  I did take pics of each cruise's OBC list just in case their IT messes things up. 

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We had that type of OBC last cruise and once on the ship there was no limitation on how I could use it. 

Thank you for that info.  I was hoping that would be the case.  I'll give it a try next month.

@LeeW I am aware of what OBC, and the various types, and if they are refundable etc.  I had not had an OBC promoted as for a shore excursion that's why I asked about it.  Your post has a lot of info that will be helpful for this forum's readers.  Always good to share info. 

I've got a cruise coming up that has OBC designated for a shore excursion.  How strict are they about using it ONLY for an excursion?  I don't have anything booked yet, but the Alaska cruise is end of next month, so I know I am probably looking at slim pickings.  Any data points would be appreciated. 

(I did try to do a search, but apparently my terms "OBC+shore+excursion didn't turn up anything.)  

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

OK, I just called the 888 number again and reconfirmed that the Celebrity Gift Cards do become nonrefundable once they are posted to a booking.

 

But there is some good news. If your booking has a refundable deposit and prior to the Final Payment Date you find you can't go on the cruise, you can change the booking's itinerary to a different cruise a little farther out and the GC funds will remain with the booking. 

 

However, for us that's not enough good news to motivate us to buy any more discounted Celebrity Gift Cards to help pay for the cruise. But at least we now have options just in case stuff happens and we find we can't go on the cruise prior to the Final Payment Date.

 

That's a little bit better than what you are originally (incorrectly) told, but not by much.   I do not understand how a refundable cruise, meaning you could cancel and get it refunded, doesn't have a proper mechanism in place to make it truly refundable with GCs.  I don't blame you for choosing to not continue buying the Celebrity gift cards.   It would make me wary of the whole process.   

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

What's funny is after the rep told us about the "no refund if WE cancel the cruise" penalty, he asked if we wanted to proceed. Well, since we can't get a refund from AARP for the $2000 of GCs we purchased, we really had no choice but to proceed. However, the chances of us buying any more is pretty remote. 😉

True, you really didn't have a choice, sadly.  I wonder what the truth is with the gift cards. Seems a bit crazy to offer an option to use them, and then not offer a refund option.  I hope we get some clarity about this at some point.  Meanwhile, July is coming, and I will be buying more Princess GC (which in the past can be refunded to the original GC)  to pay off my 2024 Princess cruises. LOL!