Astro Flyer

For check-in it’s now green (with Medallion) or blue (without Medallion) but they still have an elite area while waiting to board the ship.

Buon Viaggio! 🎉🥳🍾🥂

Thanks…a great reminder to easily clear ABF inspection. 👍

The Australia Border Force strictly enforces their rules about food being brought into their country. On a flight to Sydney met another American couple who like us brought trail mix containing nuts for the flight. We declared our remaining trail mix with ABF & it was approved because the nuts were “blanched/roasted/fried/boiled nuts”. The other couple did not declare their trail mix which ABF located & they were led off to a room for further scrutiny. Here’s a link to the procedure for bringing food into Australia: Bring It; Declare It; Don’t Bring It https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/can-you-bring-it-in/categories/food#

Thanks for your report & for sharing photos. 😊 Next year they’ll have a new type of PE seats on their 787 jets but didn’t know if any of their 777 jets had been retrofitted with the new version of PE seats. They state that since the fixed shell design doesn’t move (seat slides down & forward) there is no reduced legroom for the passenger seated behind. I’m hopeful they’ll be flying the 787 with new PE seats when we fly to BNE via AKL from LAX in early 2025. 🤞

Kia Ora! Welcome to Auckland! 😃 Hope your nearly 13 hour flight in PE was good.

If you take any PE photos would like to see the seats because based on photos I’ve seen online they have different types of PE seats.

It was worth a try but as you wrote that’s okay. I’ve been reading recent reviews & watching recent video reviews about ANZ but have to wait for 16 months until experiencing ANZ PE. Looking forward to your flight & cruise experiences. 😊

Based on my 3 future cruises you are correct…the 2 booked before the change was made on 6/29/23 show as refundable; the 1 booked after that date is non-refundable.

As I recall it appears that some of his desserts are still available & are now called Chocolate Journey.

Looking forward to reading about your ANZ Premium Economy experience in addition to your cruise. Our cruise isn’t until March 2025 but have been checking airfares for March 2024 using EZair…better prices & more flexibility than booking elsewhere. We also considered the SkyCouch & their new Economy option for extra room…Stretch. Thanks for sharing your travel & cruise experiences. 🙂

WOW…I thought Sky’s 2019 inaugural TA had many elites but at 1500+ that was less than half of the passengers.

It currently shows unavailable so it’ll be a full ship. Many of these short notice fares are amazing but airfares are often very expensive. Surprisingly the LAX/LHR airfare is only $299 but returning on the Saturday after Thanksgiving it’s $601. Even then $1500 for 15 days would be a bargain for air & cruise. Many of the TA fares I see are less expensive & that’s another reason they’re full particularly for those of us who enjoy leisurely days at sea enjoying the onboard experience. 😊

Thanks…will look here or on your semi-live. ANZ touts their good NZ wines onboard. 🍷😋

We’re considering flying ANZ again like back in 2009 from LAX to SYD via AKL in economy (cruised back to LA). We’re considering their premium economy in March 2025 to Brisbane & would appreciate any insights you could share about ANZ…thanks. 🙂

I agree it will likely be Royal in LA. After we cruise on Crown around Australia in March 2025 we’re flying to Auckland to cruise back to LA on Royal. That cruise has 3 ending ports…Honolulu, LA & Vancouver for the Alaska season.

We’re booked on Crown in March 2025 around Australia from Brisbane and 2 days later sail Royal from Auckland to LA. Like when sailing Sydney to LA in 2009 that requires only one long flight. We’re looking forward to our clockwise circumnavigation of Australia. We have friends who are retired & divide their time between Melbourne & Tasmania and looking forward to visiting them at one of their homes.

My apologies…here’s the webpage link for their press release. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/royal-first-sydney-princess-cruises-spectacular-royal-princess

From the Princess press release & additional info in the attached PDF. Royal Princess’ arrival in Sydney today marks the end of its inaugural 27-night transpacific crossing from Vancouver, Canada. The ship will sail from Sydney this evening on it first Australian voyage - a 10-night roundtrip cruise to Queensland, making maiden calls to Brisbane, Cairns, the Whitsundays and Port Douglas. Royal Princess in Australia.pdf

Beginning with Sky & also on Discovery the Princess Live venue has been changed from a TV studio to a lounge similar to Explorers on earlier classes of Princess ships.

Any Princess cruise I’ve sailed provided a minibar for each segment of a cruise. For example we booked a 28 day cruise that could also be booked as 7-7-14 day cruises & received 3 minibars.

Before their change in policy I’ve seen several great short notice fares emails around 2 months prior to sailing. However with airfare 2-3 times the cruise fare we didn’t book any of those amazing deals.

It’s a different Spellbound (I do enjoy their 🍷)…”Princess Cruises Unveils Spellbound by Magic Castle™” Spellbound by the Magic Castle.pdf

From Tiki Dave: “Instead of doing the Crown Princess for the late-September cruise out of Seattle, we will now be doing the September 16 cruise from SFO to LA, Honolulu, Pape’ete Tahiti, Pago Pago and ending up in New Zealand.”

Is your name listed first on the reservation? It’s been my experience for many years that when I’m the first name on a reservation and the SOBC application is in my wife’s name it goes to me. When we could talk to those issuing SOBC they always said it goes to the first name listed even when applying in the other passenger’s name who jointly owns the CCL shares.