Aus Traveller

It means that the usual short cruises from Australia to Noumea, Lifou and Port Vila, cannot go ahead. Our August cruise to those ports is now a Nth Q'ld cruise.

I don't doubt what you say. After your experience, I can see why you use your 28 degrees card to avoid the international transaction fee. By the way, we haven't had charges on Aust cruises on either Princess or P&O charged overseas.

Princess charges are processed in Australia so there would not be any international transaction charges.

Sorry to hear that. ☹️ One possibility to consider is insurance, either paid or complimentary credit card with another bank, that presently doesn't cover COVID. I don't know which cruise line you will be travelling with. Princess has stated clearly that expenses related to COVID on board are free of charge. That includes visits to the medical centre, any treatment required, quarantine, then transport home or to a free quarantine hotel if the person hasn't completed their quarantine period on board. I realise that if ANZ refused to cover your pre-existing conditions it will probably be harder to find another company that will.

I did for several years. I haven't felt seasick for many years and I now wonder if the HRT was part of the problem during those years I had motion sickness.

We had all relevant refunds from travel agents passed on. I also had a couple of instances when NOT booking direct meant I got a refund. I had booked a hotel in London for five nights - not cheap! The hotel refused a refund quoting their 'no refund' policy, but because I booked through Qantas hotels, I got an immediate refund. I had also booked international flights. Qantas would have given me a future credit, but because I booked through Princess Ezair and had paid in full, I got a refund.

The article on motion sickness referenced earlier in this thread mentioned the groups of people who are more affected by motion sickness. It said that it affects women more than men, and particularly women who are taking HRT.

It's good you have a few ports in NZ. People here on this forum will give you ideas on what to do in each port so you can maximise your time there.

I think the fare for three people would be calculated as twin share plus one extra passenger. If the third person doesn't travel, the first two would still be charged as twin share. The difference within the group would depend on how they split up the total fare - probably divided by three. The remaining two would now be paying the full twin share rate.

I sent my email to benefits@princesscruises.com.au a month ago - no OBC yet. Maybe I should try the carnival address. I used it to apply for the shareholder benefit for our P&O cruises and the OBC was applied within a couple of days.

We are self-funded retirees. The ANZ website says that anyone applying for the card has to have a good credit history (or words to that effect). It does not state a minimum taxable income. Like all travel insurance, there is a long list of pre-existing conditions that are accepted automatically but some have a proviso. As an example - asthma. From memory, it says asthma is accepted UNLESS the person has had emergency treatment for it in the last year or is over 65. Because of my age I have to apply for coverage. This used to cost $40 but I think it is now $75. When I have applied in the past, someone phoned me and asked a few questions. My asthma is very mild and controlled so the only issue was age. I had the feeling my acceptance was virtually automatic. I suggest you read the on-line pds for any insurance you are considering.

Trans-Pacific cruises often call into Auckland, but the may not visit anywhere else in NZ such as Fiordland National Park, Tauranga (for Rotorua), Wellington, and the South Island cities, Dunedin and Lyttleton (for Christchurch). You would be able to say you had been to New Zealand, but you would have seen very little.🙂

I didn't intend to correct you, just add to the information you posted. 🙂

That was a great cruise. We were on it and found the mix of passengers (one-third UK, one-third from USA and one-third Aussie) very interesting. We had many interesting discussions about the run-up to the USA Presidential election that was in the news at the time.

Your half-world on the Emerald Princess - was it the UK to Australia 'Four Continents cruise' in 2016 or was it part of a full world cruise?

We will probably hear from people on this forum how the priority/embarkation time slots worked on their cruise.

Princess has 50% capacity only on the first few short cruises. We are entitled to priority boarding and Julie and her husband are also. We had to choose our embarkation time and there was no indication that this would be allocated to us automatically. When cruising starts here, we will see how it works.

I am assuming that, priority or not, we have to arrive at our pre-arranged embarkation time and that within that group, we might split into priority and not. Do you think this is correct? The cruise I am on (and Julie as well) is 26th June. It will be nearly full capacity, just leaving cabins vacant for possible use as quarantine cabins.

We are also on the first embarkation group. With everything that has been said about people having to arrive at their allotted time or they will be turned away, I am hoping there won't be a lot of people in the terminal around 11am when we plan to arrive.

Apparently Harvey Norman repaid $6.02million of the $22 million they received. Better than nothing, but ...... I'll say no more.

That's a reasonable price. However, credit card insurance is less - only the annual cost of the card. $87 in the case of ANZ platinum visa. Their policy also covers international for that price. Yes, there is an excess in the case of a claim (I think it is $200), but there is with most policies.

If you have time to fill in, there would probably be an outdoor area where you could wait until closer to embarkation time.

There is a cruise before your 26th June so it's likely some passengers from that cruise will have cars parked at Portside Parking. Shuttle buses would be taking them from the BICT from around 7.30 or 8am. I think you said you have an early check-in for your cruise. If you arrive at Portside Parking fairly early (say 10am) I don't think you would have much wait. They might get busy later in the morning and if they only have a few vans, a queue could develop. I suggest getting ahead of the main crowd. Of course, we don't know how many people will have their cars at Portside Parking.

As expected, Portside Parking said "if someone got in early, they got the better price". They then justified the $152.10 price by saying that they have to hire vans for the day and they allow $20 each way for the transport. When they have their Pinkenba facility ready (he said the end of the year) the price might be lower than $152.10. For our 26th June cruise, we will book with Wilsons Parking at the BICT.

I'm not relying on the government-funded evac - we have travel insurance - but it is good to know it is there.