Karennella

Customs are modified by the reality of modern life. In Australia we have strict drink driving laws and frequent random breath testing. Many people do not want the waiter topping up their glasses in restaurants or they lose track of how much they have consumed.

Happily not the issue on a ship, but perhaps why we got impatient when we had long waits for service.

No, just have only Aussie wine with screwcap lids and you won't even need the corkscrew :) But seriously, if we go out at home and only drink half a bottle, we simply close it and take it home in the carrier bag we brought it in. We pour the wine ourselves but everywhere will provide ice-buckets and wine glasses.

We are happy to have the more formal service that a cruise can provide, however it is very frustrating when the service is very slack.

It would be good to have it as we do in Sydney at many places; bring your own wine if you want and be responsible for it. Our wine is nearly all screw top, not cork, so we open it ourselves. There would need to be a wine shop, I suppose. Then they who want could order off the drinks menu.

What do Americans eat at Thanksgiving if they don't like turkey? (It has become more popular here in Australia for Christmas food but many people I know can take it or leave it.)

Patti, are you writing your dates the American or Australian way? I assumed the American way, meaning you are here the end of January/early February. We write our dates day/month/year, and if you mean you are here end of Dec early Jan, then you indeed have a big New Years Eve problem with accommodation.

At 2 30pm Friday, Sydney time, there are hundreds of houses lost in NSW and one death.

It seems the worst areas are on the outskirts of the metropolitan area in the Blue Mountains and on the Central Coast. These are areas where many people commute to work in the city.

There do not seem to be many areas closer in affected this time but we have certainly have had fires right through suburban areas other years. We get very high winds at times and the native trees are extremely flammable. We have very strict laws preventing tree removal and pruning as well. Last week we had a power line come down, probably caused by overhanging trees on the median strip. It was quite an ordeal getting anyone (ie council or electricity people) to list the task of pruning the said trees. They each claimed the other body would not let them touch them.

But there are many beautiful bushy areas that you could visit near the city if you have time.

Oh me! if only being close to Washington would get someone to listen! It really is annoying to hear "You people in Washington are the problem". Last I looked, we get one vote per person just like the rest of the country. Government people are my neighbors and friends but they certainly get NO special treatment -- most are getting furloughed for one full day a week and it really hurts! Even our little church is struggling because so many of our folks don't have the money to fulfill their pledges and the food bank is closing 2 days a week because of not enough food and too many who need food. So it is not much of a joke to us here in this area. I am a retired school teacher and they don't take lessons from me or they would get things shaped up in a jiffy :D Meanwhile trying to tie economic trends to any one factor or happening is interesting but not much more use than my statement that is because I have a bill coming due in Australian $. So many people guessing and trying to make the system work for them-- mostly just a recreational activity and a way to have something to say in posts while we wait to visit or cruise wonderful places. Keep calm and carry on (but I would appreciate a drop for several days while I transfer my payment:rolleyes:)

Gosh, things are still not too good for many people in the US, from what you say. It seems to have been such a long five years even for us here. And we have been blessed to have been mostly spectators to the problems. Most of us saw our retirement savings plunge and that kept many of our friends working at least part-time. But the funds have generally just about come back and many people have discovered that they really still like working (my husband included, which causes problems for organising cruises!)

In the short term, the Aussie dollar moves about before the monthly Reserve Bank meeting which adjusts the interest rate. Could be worth checking the date and the expected trend before paying.

As far as I am aware, about 80 cents is the level preferred by the Reserve Bank and if the US recovery continues, it may head that way before your trip.

Will make the prices a lot more comfortable for you. Dont know if you saw the article on BBC online from their new correspondent about Sydney prices, which he thought to be extremely high. But it seems he probably went into the food court at David Jones (somewhat equivalent to Harrods) and found raspberries for $8 a punnet, or whatever, and French cheese for $150 a kilo. People pointed out that raspberries are out of season (and actually not eaten a huge amount here) and strawberries are currently $1 a punnet. Local cheese is $8 a kilo and a large range of imported cheese is around $30.

Also keep in mind that our wages are in more in line with our prices. eg my friend was saying yesterday that her son in Brisbane has got a labourer to move garden mulch for $35 an hour. A friend just got a part-time clerical position at $45 an hour in Sydney.

Another by the way, it is not just the Prime Minister who will be elected. It is the whole lower house, as well as half of the senate. Our parliament was based on a mixture of the British and American systems.

We have used money cards successfully for a few years. The convenience of using a normal ATM card without the issue of the card also accessing our major accounts.

And as we are a nation of gamblers, we can have a punt on the exchange rate with them.

I was happy last night to find a few hundred US dollars in the safe! Many people go and buy small amounts when our dollar is high.

I doubt if the election results will have much impact on the exchange rate. Despite the different personalities involved, there is not a great difference in the actual policies of the parties; more in the details of implementation.

I think most of us are extremely grateful that the campaign will be short!! We are one of the few countries where voting is compulsory. At least there is usually a nice cake stall and or sausage sizzle when we go off to vote.

Yes the government is very busy spending our money as well as money they do not have!

I think we have a Reserve Bank meeting next week with an expected further cut in interest rates. That generally impacts on the Aussie dollar.

But a lot of the movement is to do with the situation offshore. In 2008, when we survived the GFC without a recession, we still saw our dollar plunge.

A lot of the issue with our economy is that people have money but are hanging on to it. We get spooked by what is happening overseas. Savings rates are high at the moment and everyone is paying down their debts. Also, figures out yesterday were showing a substantial drop in the cost of aged care welfare because many of the over 65 age group are continuing to work at least part-time.

That means less of us, ourselves included, will be free to take long and leisurely retirement cruises.

Nothing much happens in Australia that is newsworthy on a world scale. Read Bill Bryson's book for his perspective on that. I am not really sure how many other countries have a newsbreak for the results of the monthly meeting of the Reserve Bank on interest rates. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

Thus the sliding dollar becomes big news even though, as a google will reveal, it has always been volatile.

In the days before it was floated, we went on a six month overseas trip, and it was relatively much more expensive to do it in those days. The week before we left we woke up to the news that the dollar had just been devalued 17 and a half percent!

Maybe I am being relaxed about it now as there are no big trips planned right at the moment; we are bogged down with grandchildren and very elderly parents!

I believe Canada has now adopted chip & pin as their standard. Chase just sent me a new M/C with a chip, but it's chip & signature, not chip & pin. I don't know why the U.S. banks are so slow about this.

Standard in Australia too; every time we use a card we have to say or enter whether it is pin or sign. But now they are bringing in no pin or sign on smaller transactions; just wave. Not sure if I am completely sold on that.

The reserve bank would like to see it at around 80 cents. If the US recovery continues, it will keep sliding.

I would definitely wait! Although, as I said before, we are affected by overseas economics (eg US stimulus this week), we are also in a bit of a holding pattern here because of the federal election in September. It is widely accepted that the current government will be replaced but it causes uncertainty. Australians are paying down their loans at a rate never before seen rather than indulging in consumer spending.

It will be extremely beneficial to the country if the dollar slides further. I think that about 80cents is regarded as a good level. At the end of the day, overseas travel is more of a luxury whereas a strong local economy is much more important.

The Aussie dollar is a speculative currency and it bounces around a lot for reasons unrelated to the local economy. So it was somewhat frustrating that in 2008 we were happy to have avoided a recession yet had to watch our dollar plunge.

Money cards are not the cheapest way to buy money but they are fairly convenient. There are various fees involved and the exchange rate is often not the best. We have found the best way for us is to buy cash when the dollar is strong. We live near a part of Sydney where there are numerous money changing offices so it is easy to go and compare rates and buy.

Keep in mind that we are a country with a population of only 23 million in a region with billions of people. What happens here is not really very important in the economic scheme of things, except to us, of course.

So Ford announced today that they are withdrawing from manufacturing in Australia by 2016. Production costs here are four times that of Asia.

Let's hope the dollar slides further.

We certainly hope that some of the NZ visitors spill over to Australia. Our tourist industry has been hit with the GFC and the high Aussie dollar. Lots of space here for you all!!

I would take one of those cabs. We hired a car at Catania airport in September and it took a full hour to get it. That was after we waited for one hour and ten minutes for the luggage to appear in the airport, at which time everyone applauded. Life is lived at a much slower pace in Sicily than in the Anglosphere.

We used them only this past September and we paid no deposit. Perhaps they have changed their policy though, as I read somewhere that about 20% of people who book do not show up. I also read that Nile Blue Tours changed its name to Nile Blue Excursions, to emphasize their role in shore excursions from cruises.

It must be terrible for all the tour companies to keep in operation mode with all the trouble over there.

Indeed... it is a Canon 7D and the lens that's on my camera most of the time is the Canon 17-55 f2.8 EFS IS lens. However, as you noted, in Rome, I also took along my Canon 10-22 ultra wide angle which came in handy for capturing many of the shots I posted.

 

 

 

Yeah, I only could guess at the length of time one would spend in the line for the Basilica... as you can see from my picture from the Cupola, it wrapped all the way around St. Peter's square. But I have to agree, if it moves quickly, and you otherwise have no interest in the museum, then my advice is off the mark.

 

 

 

Yeah, I certainly use the term "all of Rome" loosely, but it does cover most of the landmarks and sights that first time visitors to Rome would put on their to-do list. And of course, I agree that you don't see anything in depth, but that's almost the nature of cruising... visit a port each day and at best get a cursory experience to determine if it warrants going back to spend more time.

 

Rome is certainly one such city. We will be going back and will not go back when there are 5 ships and 15,000 tourists in town. That's the worst way to see Rome, really, whether you try to cover a lot of ground or just one or two things.

 

In fact, on a busy port day, I feel you're better off trying to see a lot of different things to get an overall feel and then come back when it's not so busy or in the off season to really explore what interests you most in more depth. For example, I'm not really a museum guy, but the Vatican Museum is amazing, yet when it's wall-to-wall people and you're being herded like cattle through there, it's no fun whether you choose to spend all day in there or just 1 hour. Frankly, on the day we were there, all we wanted to do was get out of there, and come back some other time when there were no crowds. But had we not experienced it briefly, we'd have no idea whether it was something we really wanted to explore further or not.

 

So I absolutely agree with you about wanting to see some thiings with more time, but this is a cruise forum where most people have a day to cover a lot of ground and not really a forum for how to spend a week in Rome - which is what would be required to do it right.

 

For the average cruiser, I suspect my advice and recommendations are probably very helpful... it was for me which is why I chose to share it in compiled form ;)

I do not disagree with anything you are saying except that I doubt whether, these days, there is a time when Rome is free of crowds of tourists. Our first visit was in 1977 and our second in 1995, in winter and we saw the place comfortably. The crowds in September this year were dreadful and I couldn't wait to leave. I can see it getting more and more crowded as the quickly growing Asian middle classes increase their presence, and like us Australians , a good number of them travel in times that were traditionally off-season.

We used Nile Blue for an overnight tour in September 2011, from the Prisendam, got off in Alexandria and reboarded in Port Said. We were very happy with them, no complaints at all and we were upgraded to the Mena House. But it has been said on these boards that Ramses, and I think Nile Blue and the other companies all use contract guides who may work for several companies. Therefore I think the tour experience is likely to be similar with all companies. Our travel information person on the cruise, who was excellent, said that the standard of tours and guides in Egypt is very high overall, and our guide had amazing knowledge of the history and culture of his country. They all use mini-vans for small groups and when we were in the convoy driving back to Port Said, you could see that even when there were only two people in a group, they were in a van with a driver as well as a guide.

Yes, our whole group of six got sick, one after another, the first on the day after we left Egypt. We will never know whether it was from the ship or from Egypt. We stayed at Mena House and were very careful with not drinking local water, ice etc.