Aus Traveller

5 minutes ago, rkmw said:

Carnival have a different number from Princess and p&o

We used to have different numbers for Princess and P&O, but a few years ago P&O adopted the Princess number. I now have a different number altogether for my husband's Carnival 'account'.

4 hours ago, arxcards said:

 

There is a "Find my VIFP number link" on this page, and it is as easy as name & DOB. VIFP Club Member Cruise Deals - Learn More At Carnival I haven't ever needed to quote it during booking.

Thanks. I tried the link but got the same answer as I did several months ago - "Sorry we are unable to find your VIFP number". Maybe I will have to email or phone and give them the details. The reason I want to follow up on this is because we have a P&O cruise booked for May next year. According to today's announcement, it will be a Carnival cruise. Although I don't think it will make much difference during the cruise, I prefer to have my cruising history rather than starting out as a newbie.

P.S. I tried the Carnival site with my husband's details and, Lo and Behold! I have a number. I will still follow it through with Carnival.

2 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

This has always been a bit confusing to me, but I thought that if you had a P&O Oz Cruisling number it was also automatically your Princess Captains Circle number.

Yes. For a while now P&O and Princess use the same loyalty number.

4 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

If they send Jubilee, I'm on onboard.

 

But I don't see Carnival sending out their good stuff.

We were on a previous 'Carnival Jubilee' that later became the Pacific Sun.

One news item on this topic says that

"While we plan to make some technology upgrades and other small changes to the two P&O Cruises Australia ships, they will continue to be geared to the unique Australian market with a familiar feel and much of the same experiences for P&O Cruises Australia guests."

and    Carnival said P&O customers will be invited to its own loyalty program.

It will be interesting to see if Carnival imports our P&O Aust cruising history into their loyalty programme.

We cruised on Carnival many years ago but don't seem to have a loyalty number for Carnival. Maybe I will have to follow that up.

Maybe one motivation is so Carnival can keep claiming it is the largest cruise line in the world although I think the others have a fair way to go to catch up.

Just now, arxcards said:

Jinek Bay? Same for us too, up till around 2010ish. Something about 500 people wearing generic sunscreen while snorkeling in the bay 4 to 5 times a week, contributed to it being trashed.

 

I was referring to Conflict Islands per the PNG live topic, that their snorkeling area will not become over-loved, as claimed. Unlike Lifou, they had taken steps to protect the pristine parts of their reef prior to the first ship arriving. There are plenty of areas that are semi-interesting that can be accessed freely, but these never were anything special. The best reef to snorkel/scuba at Conflict Island has only been available for a fee - initially by purchasing at the Island, but now via a "shore tour".

I misunderstood your post. Sorry. Yes - I was referring to Jinek Bay on Lifou.

On our first visit to Conflict Is I went on a paid Princess snorkelling tour. It went to a good area. Other people were just snorkelling off the beach, but that area didn't seem to be as interesting.

10 hours ago, arxcards said:

There is a sensational spot, but you can only access it with a paid tour. It has been the same way since day dot. That is the only way to protect sensitive areas from being over-loved.

In our first couple of visits to Lifou we didn't have to book a tour or pay an entry fee to snorkel. This was in the great area on the other side of the peninsula.🙂

12 hours ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Some more cabin photos.

We have a quad balcony. Would never pick Explorer for a quad trip again.The shower is a decent size though, so it's got that going for it! 

 

From the photos it looks like the beds are double-deckers rather than having the top beds pull down from the ceiling (as they are on the Coral). How did it work out?

Just now, Bubbeh said:

Just a thought, how risky is it to store your suitcases under the bed?

If the bed bugs haven't bitten, it would be quite safe to store cases under the bed. 😁

I was interested to see that your Destination Expert is Luka, not Hutch (Bernard Hutchison) who has been doing the world cruises for many years. 🙂

20 minutes ago, ekka49 said:

Confined to the cabin for three days during the infection part of Covid. The symptoms have been a very bad head cold and a streaming nose. Starting to feel much better now. Looking forward to going ashore tomorrow. Princess staff have been excellent. Medical centre ring daily for update reports. Customer Services check daily for any needs. Room service have look after dietary needs very promptly.

So sorry to hear you have had COVID, but great to hear how well staff are looking after you. Get well quickly. 🙂

On 5/31/2024 at 9:50 AM, Elorac123 said:

I have just had a quote from Qantas for our New Guinea next year that beat all the rest I tried (this will be the first travel insurance I have ever paid for as we both now are over the age limit for our free credit card insurance)

Cheers Carole

We will buy travel insurance for new bookings we make. The ANZ Visa insurance covers cruises booked before the person's 81st birthday. I am way short of that but my husband has reached that milestone. We booked a cruise in May 2025 before his birthday so that one will be on the 'free' insurance.

For interest I looked at the insurance offered by Australia Post. It looks basic but could be OK.

1 hour ago, Muffinz said:

we flew Auckland / Vancouver return last July on Air NZ.... we met some people on the flight back who were flying onto Melbourne from Auckland... the flight from Vancouver arrived in Auckland 5:45am and they were on a 9am? flight from Auckland to Melbourne

As they were flying Air NZ from Vancouver to Auckland and onto Melbourne their luggage was checked all the way to Melbourne, so they didn't need to get their luggage at Auckland and re-check it in to go to Melbourne

They would have been transit passengers and not have to go through Immigration in Auckland. That would save time.

1 minute ago, Sparky74 said:

This morning there was a sponsored post on "antisocial media" advertising a P&O Flash Sale which ends on 31st May. 
However when I follow the link I’m informed that that ship has sailed and the sale is over. 
🤷‍♂️

I received an email this morning from a TA that included this 3-day P&O sale so it would appear that it is still available until the end of the month. I suggest you search with the First Cruise TA.

54 minutes ago, Muffinz said:

Having looked at the itineries the HAL cruise does go to more interesting places... but some of those islands may be quite small and and might only be accessable by tender boats?

The HAL cruise certainly goes to a lot of very interesting and very scenic places.

Re tender access - by my calculation, the Azamara option has five gender ports (Bali, Margaret R, Kangaroo Is, Eden and Bay of Islands) while the HAL option has six tender ports (Bay of Is, Dravuni, Inyeug (Mystery Is), Kiriwina, Conflict Is and Moreton). I hope I haven't missed any. 🙂

35 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

As far as cruiselines go, I would cruise Azamara over HAL, smaller ships, better service, more inclusions for the price, etc. Of course prices can vary dramatically depending on itinerary. Both normally have great itineraries, and this is the case here.

 

HAL

 

Azamara

Personally , I prefer the HAL itinerary as it has Australia,  NZ and numerous Island countries but internationals would most likely want a more comprehensive Australian and NZ cruise so Azamara is better for international.

thanks Mic for showing us the itineraries. This reinforces my preference for the HAL cruise, however obviously the OP will be guided by their personal preferences. The Azamara option has a lot of sea days.

In my opinion, the HAL itinerary sounds much more interesting.

3 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ineptitude!

Yes - or as someone once said to me "If it is a choice between a conspiracy and a stuff-up, go for the stuff-up every time".

I don't think the person who gave the info is 'trying it on'. I'll bet it is simply inefficiency. In my experience with both Princess and P&O, you can phone three times and get different answers from different reps. I had this last year before I bought the internet package for the world cruise. It took four phone calls before I got a rep who quoted the price that people here on CC said they were paying. All the other reps wanted double the price. Yes - I emphasized that I was eligible for the 50% discount.

My advice to the person who was told that refundable OBC is used first, is to phone again.

1 hour ago, bazzaw said:

I worry a bit about the large Eastern Brown snake that has take up residence in my garden just outside our front door - you know the Eastern Brown supposedly the most deadly snake in the World 😞

I'd worry about him too. 🙂 Just keep your distance and one day soon he/she might decide to take up residence outside someone else's house. Alternatively, call a snake catcher to re-locate him.

Agree with the comments above. The policy that has been stated many times in the past is that non-refundable OBC is used first, then refundable. I suggest you chase up this refund that is due to you if you had refundable OBC in your account.

1 minute ago, Bubbeh said:

Recently we took (never again!) a P & O cruise and as there so often is there was a Q & A session.  One of the questions asked was why we don't see Australians as part of the general crew (bar / cabin attendants etc).  The answer was that the law in Australia concerning minimum wage prevents the line from employing us in 'lower level' (his words not mine) roles.  Australians must be paid a rate determined by their level of employment eg, casual / permanent and not be reliant of tips to supplement their wages.  Australians can be employed if they have dual nationality and seek employment under a different one eg, Colombian, Philippino etc. We have be special contractors (guest presenters and entertainers) and Officers including resident entertainers.

 

I thought that was very interesting as I'd wondered why myself.

The cruise lines certainly don't pay the stewards/bartenders the equivalent of  Australian hospitality casual rates. There are a lot of Aussies working on cruise ships based overseas mainly on cruise staff, as bartenders etc. They are supposed to report their overseas-earned income to the Aust Tax Office and pay tax, but the cruise lines don't make the tax deductions that Aussie employers do. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Aussies working overseas, 'forget' to report their income to the ATO.🙂

Just now, MicCanberra said:

I was saying we really don't know what or how crew are paid and why should we worry about it. The grats are included in the fare or they are not either way, don't stress about it.

I posted the info about crew remuneration so the OP wouldn't feel pressured to give additional tips to crew on cruises where the gratuities are included in the initial fare.🙂

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

So that implies P&O Australia pay their crew better than Princess, Celebrity, Royal, Azamara, Carnival, HAL, Norwegian. Le Ponant and the rest.

Not sure this claim can be verified.

Perhaps gratuities are just included in the fare, so we don't have to worry about it.

P&O Aust and Princess Aust pay their crew at a different (higher) rate on their Australian-based ships that are not part of their international tips pool. I am not talking about the competing cruise lines.

Both P&O and Princess announced the crew would be paid at a higher rate when they stopped the auto-gratuities. From memory his was 2009 for P&O and 1st May 2011 for Princess.

If (as you suggest) the crew are paid at the same low rate as on the 'overseas' ships how is their remuneration made up to a reasonable level without tips? Without their pay at a reasonable level, no-one would work on these Aussie-based ships. They would only work on the ones where they get tips.