m4yb

Overseas visitors to Australia love to cuddle or/and hold Koala bears as they seem to be such cute little animals and everyone loves them.

 

Can I just say if you are fortunate to be able to hold a Koala during your visit downunder then please take the following precautions:

 

A Wear a full raincoat that covers you from head to toe

 

B If A above not applicable, then try a plastic sheet or poncho from a $2 shop.

 

WHY is it necessary to take these precautions???

 

The answer is simple - the little cute Koala will pee all over you - and I can tell you from experience that your Husband/Wife/friend on the cruise will not want to be within 10 meters of you for the rest of the day or perhaps even the next several days?

 

Even a Australian Government minister some years ago experienced what I have outlined above - I think it cost him his re-election.

 

But even worse - the bus driver who took you on the tour will probably not let on on his bus for the trip back to the ship - imagine that.

 

Is it that bad - yes it is.

 

You may even be denied entry back on the ship and even if you do get aboard, your cabin steward will probably call the Head Housekeepert and have you put in quarantine for a week.

 

If you want to cuddle a Koala then follow the advice in A and B above.

And a koala is more likely to pee on you if you refer to it as a bear, which it is not! ;)

Looking at Iceland-bound cruises from Southampton. Regarding dress code, is Formal really "Black Tie" as they say on the website. Together with photos of nicely dressed gents in tux's. Our only problem with Tux etc, is that we would be flying to the UK then doing land travel in Europe. Would a smart dark suit do?

I'm more disgusted by those people who walk right out of the bathroom and straight into the buffet without either hand washing or sanitising. For that reason I hold serving utensils with a tissue rather than bare hands. Not ideal and maybe not that effective but worth making the effort. We spent 6 weeks on the Solstice earlier this year and she is one of the cleanest ships we have ever been on. The Chief Housekeeper and her assistants were everywhere constantly checking the public areas.

 

 

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I too get angry at this, as with the parents who do not supervise their children properly: kids touching food, and kids going straight from toilet to outside because parents arent there to make sure hands get washed.

I have read about the airborne virus particles if someone is sick in a public toilet, about infection through touching nose, not just hands. I am not germophobe, but will avoid public toilets, even it is a long hike back to cabin for this old lady! Our Celebrity Solstice cruise is a dream trip and we will not let illness ruin it !

The morgue on QM2 holds at least 6 bodies. I think there were over 20 deaths on a WC sector in 2012. It's common.

During our australian Circumnavigation in 2012, we heard the call for a certain code emergency in our corridor. We found out later from the stewart that a man had died in a cabin a few doors away. In their typical style, the stewart said "he very old".

Whilst tragic for his companion and the rest of the family, I guess in this instance, the passenger passed away doing what he loved the best.

There are 8 of us (4 couples) travelling together.

We are arriving in Rome on 27 May 2014 and after 2 days in Rome, we leave on a 22 day HAL cruise. My questions are:

If we book private shuttles for the 8 of us for Fiumicino/Rome and Rome/Civitavecchia, will there be room for our luggage as well?

Keeping in mind that our total travels are over a month so we will have at least 1 large suitcase each.

I have researched a few companies. What are the recommendations?

Thanks!

That's what I would do. The difference in price probably isn't all that great to justify lugging water around. Also, they make all their bathing and drinking water on board, so you couldn't get water purer while cruising.

Not always..... I have been on cruises where the desalinated water still had enough salt in it to make it taste salty and make one thirstier .....

We have done both. Because of price we did a 3 day cruise with an inside, and were so glad it was only 3 days.

Many people say that they are in their cabing so little, an inside is OK. Well, we like to get away from people and have "time out" or nana/poppa naps and to us an inside is just too claustrophobic.

I also get a bit seasick and prefer to be in the privacy of our cabin then, and with fresh air get over seasickness quickly .

bring a small alarm clock and a personal watch of some sort

Totally agree! On land I use my mobile (cell) phone to check the time. On a ship, the phone stays in the cabin, in flight mode. Despite being on holidays, there are so many activities one has to go to at a specific time.

Plus a timepiece is very useful in an inside cabin where one loses track of time when not seeing daylight.

Very interesting reading as we are booked on a Noordam cruise in 2014. Our friends' family members have just come back from a Noordam cruise and really the only negative comment is how rude "some" passengers were to the staff.

IMO opinion, there is no excuse for rudeness, with the staff cutbacks most cruise lines have had, a bit of empathy for the hard working room stewards and waiters goes a long way.

I thought they were snails.

What Northern Aurora means, is that they all are molluscs.

Yes, one bottle of wine or champagne per person on Princess. I would add that anything over this is confiscated till the night before disembarkation unless you pay the $15 corkage: my travel companion had our 2 bottles in his suitcase (as it was a neoprene 2 bottle carrier), I had none. Yet one of the 2 bottles was removed from his case. A note was sent to the cabin saying that they had done this. We did not go and dispute that the second bottle was for me, as it was only a 4 night cruise.

The second bottle was in our cabin on the last night.