frantic36

My question is what time of year? If it is your Summer then the Australian itinerary is in the tropical dry season though Sydney would be cold. New Zealand itinerary would definitely be cold. If in your Winter the Australian itinerary is okay but it is in Queenslands tropical rainy season and the northern ports may get a tropical storm or possible cyclone/hurricane. New Zealand Summers are when I prefer to visit.

@wyattsaunt thank you for the write up. We haven't been on the bigger ships for a few years but hope to go back in 2025. I have heard a rumour that Sojourn is getting some work done next year. I am speculating I admit but wonder once the Odyssey sale is complete whether more refurbishment will happen on the other ships like Ovation?

I was speaking to Seabourn about week ago and they informed me that Encore had been due to stop in Israel in November but they have rerouted her but I can't remember to what port. I asked because we were also scheduled to be in the area next year.

I am like Astride I like to dress elegantly in the evening and also no longer care how others dress. But if you want to discuss this topic again which causes disagreement go ahead. I would understand if was a question by someone new to Seabourn looking for insight but I have no care what Esquire thinks, now if it was Vogue I might have more interest.🙂 But for now I will do as you suggest and ignore the whole topic.

I know you mean well but I think most of us don't want to have further discussions about clothing. Because it never stays light hearted.

Your quiet way with Grace is perfectly acceptable. People who insist everyone join in or make a show about it like I saw on my last cruise I would avoid. That too me is forcing their views on others.

Thanks again. I definitely need to do research.

Thanks for this. I will try to look but I am thinking we will be hustled out quickly and to the ship. This also prompted me to remember my FIL fought in WW2 around there but mainly Papua New Guinea so I might need to do some family history research.

I just spoke to Seabourn Australia and they have stated + 10kg carry-on so that's good know. This is for the charted flight from Sydney to Honiara.

I am not sure how it is going but Air New Zealand have started. https://www.cntraveller.com/article/why-air-new-zealand-is-now-weighing-its-passengers#:~:text=On Tuesday 30 May 2023,five-week customer weight survey. I have done a few small charter flights up here northern West Australia and we did have to get weighed and they filled the plane based on weight for balance.

For me I am curious, is it different in the States to what happens here in Australia? Last Friday when we put a Pursuit cruise on hold my TA sent me the details including the itinerary. As @BasandSyb stated on the date that we have the air charter it lists 50lbg (23Kg) 2 bags Max per pax.I am just not clear if that allowance is carry-on as well so I want to call to check. So I am curious why that isn't the case in the States, because from the people posting here it doesn't sound like you received anything. I agree it would be best to know so you can plan accordingly.

I will say I have never sailed Regent so I don't know their standard sales but we can only contribute our experience, regulars may differ. We booked a Japan cruise for 2023 which was on a special 2 suite upgrade. Due to scheduling conflicts we asked our TA about changing to 2024 but the change price was many thousands so we waited. A few months later they had another special 2 upgrade offer and there was still decent availability in the cruise we wanted. So we changed at that point even though there was a slight upcharge. As we are also in Australia we don't get air flights but we were Concierge & above so we got the included hotel & transfers.I am thinking to take hotel credit as we want to stay a few days earlier and likely will do private transfers.

And yet I visit high end hotels and they use the same refillable bottles and after a few years I haven't experienced any issues. I am a nurse and I remember my lectures on bacterial contamination during my training and as much as I respected my professor's knowledge but her idiosyncratic ideas re some topics made me wonder. Disclaimer I have travelled to Asia and Bali multiple times and eaten in local warnings.

Interesting, I have just changed our Sojourn cruise in May to one on Pursuit. We were sent a schedule when we put a suite on hold and we have a chartered flight from Sydney. Our luggage allowance is listed as 50lbg (23kg) with two bag per guest Max. Thankfully ours is a warm weather cruise. I was planning to contact them this week to find out what carry on bag allowance we have.

markham on a positive note our dining experience in September was much more like Seabourn of old in the way of variety in the MDR. Colonnade lunch choices were better especially salads to my mind. I wasn't so keen on the themed evenings but that is just my taste, as others enjoyed them. I include TK themed evenings in my avoidance. When I compare the offerings between Quest cruise and Sojourn cruise I do wonder if they are starting to free up the budget for other venues as you suggest?

Thank you again for your help. I'm in Perth West Australia and apparently ANA will start resuming direct non-stop flights from here at the end of the month but I still can't see the schedules. So I will check which airport they use when they load.

@seasidemn just put them on prior to boarding the ship. It is mainly for your suite number anyway and I use seperate sturdy tags with name and phone number always attached to my luggage. @Techno123 agree with you re Seabourn. It is also to Australians and from my friends in the USA it's the same. I have some spare unused ones maybe I can cash them in and sell them on eBay.😄

Thanks @monkey@cruise this is very helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to explain it all. I will do the same and have digital and paper copy just in case. I haven't booked our flights yet as our cruise into till October 24 and return flight dates aren't there yet. From what you say and something else I read Narita sounds like the airport I should aim for if I can. We will arrive a few days early for our cruise so that should work.

I appreciate your information but am finding this confusing, maybe because late at night in my time zone. It took a few reads to realise you were discussing two different subjects ie flight arrivals and then immigration from South Korea. As I posted before the person who went into Japan a few days ago felt the VJW helped because their immigration line was much shorter than the people with paper copies. Have you used VJW entering Japan? This isn't me being difficult I just want to understand pros and cons better.

I am just curious why you would say this as I saw this posted a yesterday on the Regent board and planned to do the same next October. Is it because you visit Japan often and know how this works? https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2969830-embarking-in-japan/#comment-66302401 Posted yesterday at 08:29 AM "And not sure if it made a difference but we used the Visit Japan Web website. Once you fill out info, you get a QR code. Coming out of customs, once we got our luggage, we just scanned QR code and literally walked right through customs and immigration. (People who fill out the paper form (you will be given one on the plane before you land but you don’t use it if you have QR code) had to wait in a much longer line, at least when we arrived.) If you are not familiar with Visit Japan Web, I would Google it. There are videos explaining how to use it. It isn’t mandatory but at least in our experience it saved us a lot of time."

Very true and as long as they have the resources we will also use that sometimes. I hope you enjoy your next cruise.

I don't have any first hand knowledge but I am sure based on some of the photos and posted menu someone who only wants a small, light meal in the evening this would be enough. I know some evenings I don't feel like eating a big meal. I rarely ever have dessert or the bread, not even the breadsticks though that takes discipline 😄, so it would be enough.

I don’t recall you mentioning 3-4”nails if so I understand. My nails are long about 1cm over fingertip. Maybe all my years nursing and needing to use Tweezers in dressings taught me how to cope.

They are rolling it out onto the other ships in the Club. There is a thread further down the page where the first ship it was rolled out onto was Odyssey. Quest and Sojourn will also have it included. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2966496-sushi-on-odyssey-starting-tonight/#comment-66282567

When you consider some of us were not big fans of TK and only went there on our longer cruises for the ambience of using the smaller dining venue for some dinners. They still will have four/five dining options as they can still try the Solis for the smaller venue ambience. There is also E&O, Colonnade, MDR and the soon to be rolled out on every ship Sushi in the Club.