Astro Flyer

I’ve never seen a list of the buffet’s daily menu specials…great idea! 😊

When we considered Global Entry the earliest appointment was a year later unless we wanted to fly hours from LAX to Texas or Seattle…crazy! Instead we went to Staples & like ‘kiwimum’ had our KTN the next day.

Agree…I appreciate the author sharing the info & there should be a definitive answer by 6/29 & to have answers to questions being brought up here such as can one person get SOBC & the other person MOBC. I am very thankful for both OBCs but if I can only receive one per cabin would likely sell our shares. As you know some benefits & options are already gone such as loyalty OBC, some free internet minutes & the coffee program…could MOBC could be the next lost benefit. We’ll weight all of these changes against other cruise lines such as when we sailed Celebrity late last year and having two Oceania cruises booked…both for the first time as we explore other cruise lines. Then Princess President Alan Buckelew (a Vietnam Army combat vet) implemented the MOBC in 2010 and I’ll always be thankful to him for this way to thank veterans. Like you, for now I’ll wait & see…standing by for a definitive answer.

Maybe too many elites didn’t join the back of the tender line & attempted to push their way to the front resulting in always requiring going to a meeting place now to be sent to a tender when ready. I think that many of us have experienced rude elites who want to go to the front of the line & to not just join the back as mandated.

For a long time when there were many elites (1500 on one cruise) we went to another entrance of the dining room to quickly be brought to a tender. Wonder if that was a factor for the author or it’s the new normal.

Checking AAdvantage Miles award travel for next spring (LAX/BNE/LAX) & the only award available is in economy (80,000 miles) on Fiji Air.

Could a prepackaged food item such as a granola bar be brought ashore? When arriving at SYD in 2009 we claimed the trail mix we brought from the US and because the nuts were roasted we were allowed to keep the mix. A couple on our flight decided to not claim their trail mix & when agents discovered it they were led to an office for violators…not smart of them.

Thanks for clarifying the situation & for correcting my misconception about the NZeTA requirements.

I also have an Australian cruise booked in the USA paying the fare in USD. When I researched USD OBC being converted into the same amount of AUD that results in a 1/3 decrease in value…$300 AUD is equivalent to only $200. And people who had first hand experiences said tips were about A$23 to be the equivalent of $16 tips.

Am I correct that being a USA passport holder the NZeTA is required when having a flight from the USA that connects in AKL to Australia?

I am frequently on the Princess board & have never heard of an EZair phone number…always had to go through a first line customer service rep. Even then most times the CSR communicates with EZair and the customer does not directly talk to EZair.

Bruges…it’s a more compact town with a shorter journey to get there. It shows 15 km to Bruges (Brugge) and 67 km to Ghent.

We had already gone to Bruges when visiting family in the Netherlands & took a ship’s bus to the train to visit Ghent for the day which is a larger but still very walkable town similar to Bruges. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g188666-Ghent_East_Flanders_Province-Vacations.html

Several years ago when they began to require payment for advance tour reservations they dropped that requirement so we can use the SOBC for tour payments. I’ve received SOBC as early as nearly 2 years before sailing & long before tours were available to book.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/topic/1666952-are-those-jet-engines-on-the-coral-princess/# On an old discussion found this statement with photos about the nacelles which seems plausible to me.

It’s still valid…🙂 sbpcl@princesscruises.com

The “Flight Quotes” tab is at the top of every cruise I’ve checked & don’t know why you’re not seeing it.

On Royal-class ships such as Majestic the buffet coffee is made from ground coffee which to me was fine & is much better than the coffee made from concentrate on other classes of Princess ships.

Hopefully the bathroom is larger than on the 18 passenger bike & barge trip we took along the Netherlands’ canals. 😉 Thankfully each cabin had a bathroom but there was no way 2 people could ever be in there at the same time…it was difficult enough with just one person. ☺️

We’re sailing Regatta in the Fall for our first O cruise after many days sailing on Princess. We tried X last December & for us something’s were better & some were not. So we’re excited about our O cruise in just over 4 months. We’ve already booked a 2nd O cruise in Fall 2024 based on friends’ recommendations. Looking forward to reading more about life onboard Regatta.

Buon Viaggio! 🎉🛳️🍾 Thanks for all of the great pre-cruise information which has opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities in the Vancouver area. 🙂

Thanks

We sailed our first Celebrity cruise in December & to us it was similar to Princess like our Aussie friend told us. Some things were better & some were not as good and thought food & service were similar. Our experience was that onboard spending such as for drinks & specialty dinners were considerably more expensive on X. We’ve booked our first Oceania cruise for later this year to experience a smaller ship more upscale cruise experience. While the price is more expensive it does include things we use…non-alcoholic drinks, specialty dinners, internet and taxes/fees in their prices.

We recently booked that itinerary on Crown Princess sailing roundtrip Brisbane around Australia in March 2025. That itinerary is still very popular & quickly sold-out from Brisbane (still available from Sydney at about 50% more) and we’re looking forward to visiting your town for the first time & we’ll enjoy several days there possibly staying in the CBD area. And with more demand than supply, airfare from the US for next March is about triple of the cost in 2020 when the same itinerary was canceled due to the pandemic. To the author of this thread: Nearly all of our cruises have been on Princess which we still feel provides our best cruise experience for the amount paid. We’ve been on a few multi generational family cruises on RCCL which worked well. But for us & people our age who are active seniors, Princess is best for us.

Thanks, good idea. It was hot that October in Sydney and I had shorts & some other essentials in my carryon but my wife only had cooler weather clothing. Our hotel gave us toiletries & used the $A100 ANZ provided for her to buy some warm weather clothing.