spirit28

If you go there and want to hire a bike for the day be sure to get an e-bike...  Pretty hilly place, but we could get out to Onetangi and back via a few wineries easily (would have struggled on a normal bike).    

We finished the day with a wine tasting at Mudbrick Vineyard before heading down the hill to get the ferry back to Auckland. 

We purchased the 3 night dining package pre-cruise for a recent Explorer cruise. In the last month or so leading up to our cruise I would get an email every week or so promoting various sales/discounts on tours, drink packages etc.  I think we got the dining package for around $80 something each from one of these emails.  Might be worth keeping an eye out. 

I thought it was pretty good value at that price and enjoyed the all the venues.

We went to Amedee in December with RCCL.  Having been to Noumea a number of times, we thought it might be good to do something different.

While we had a wonderful day but perhaps did not represent value for money.  Got to agree with Sinbad - I thought Mystery Island was just as good.

We were there the day before (Explorer of the Seas), had a great day snorkeling & walking around the island.  Didn't really notice any rubbish at all.

We were on Amadee Island the next day when it happened, but didn't feel anything.  No mention of it at all on the ship and only found out about the 7.6 quake via Sky News..

Great work Buzz,

 

Book a dining package and or drinks package (or anything else) prior to boarding as it is always cheaper (unless our dollar improves greatly than what it is offered on board. Perhaps now may be a nice time before they adjust the conversion rate again (Currently $0.77 USD). If the packages do drop in price, you can always cancel and rebook.

Thanks for the tip - just called RCCL to purchase some OBC on an upcoming cruise - still at $0.77 which is far better than what my bank is offering say on a travel money card or similar..

Those taps were out of action when we were on it a month ago for the whole 2 week trip around NZ - I wonder if it was strategic to control people flow in the food service area?? Ship was looking a little worse for wear and tear in places compared to when we were last on a couple of years ago..

This is pretty disgusting - but....

Sea Princess 26 Day SE Asia in Oct 2016 - on the return leg from Singapore, the main pool had to be emptied a few times due to the presence of fecal matter.

Captain made a few public announcements on how he had never seen anything like this in 30+ years at sea, and how they would track the culprits down (security video etc). Turns out it was a young teen as a result of a dare - switched on kids club staff helped piece together the story from various snippets they got out of of the group of kids involved.

Family was thrown off in Bali.

Just gross!

On the last night of a 20 day PNG cruise on Dawn Princess, was leaving the Wheelhouse Bar and noticed an elderly man sitting alone so decided to say hello. Anyway after a bit of a chat it turned out he knew my father as they were in the Navy together in WW2 and both did the very first Sydney to Hoabart yacht race (on different boats) in 1946. He also knew my brother as he lived in the same suburb. Small world!!

After a couple of hours talking, the bar closed up and our drinks ran dry - but before we adjourned for the night, he picked up his walking stick and unscrewed the handle and topped up our glasses with port from the hollow stem and mentioned something along the lines that they would never think to look there.

Was a pleasure talking to him and I often wonder how he is.

I think a couple of smaller ships have used the Inspection Head wharf at Beauty Point over the last couple of years - it is on the western side of the Tamar about a 45 min drive north of Launceston. The wharf is undergoing some refurb at the moment and should be able to handle ships up to 300m in length (Golden Princess is 290m) so would a likely candidate. There was a state government announcement last week that they are trying to open up access to more regional ports in Tas for cruise ships.

There are substantial wharves over the other side of the river at Bell Bay servicing industrial areas which are becoming less used, so they could also handle cruise ships.

As a southerner though, the best thing about misery flats (Launceston) is the view in the rear-view mirror as you are leaving town :-) (its a Tasmanian parochial thing)

I have noticed on Marine traffic there has been nothing recieved and still shows the norwegion star on the outskirts of Bass Straight

That would be the last position reported via her AIS (automatic identification system) as it went out of range of land based AIS stations. With a paid subscription to Marine Traffic, she is visible some 165nm (at the time of writing) to the east still on track for NZ via satellite AIS.

Should appear again, all being well, on the free version of marine traffic approaching Cape Reigna (Northern tip of NZ) in a couple of days.

(sorry Portbelly - was typing as you posted)

Mate of mine was the Master of the Tug sent to retrieve the anchor. Divers had to locate by feel as chain & anchor sunk elbow deep in the soft mud bottom. Good job to get it back.

HMAS Sydney lost its anchor in the Derwent in back in 2015.

Must be our pristine waters!!

We just did the ships organised coach transfer - was $19 ea from memory. To much luggage to cart to the train station!

Drop off was in the center of the city within easy walk to a number of hotels. We stayed at the Travel Lodge which was OK'ish for 1 night..

The esplanade hotel in Fremantle is in a great location we loved it

 

 

We had a couple of nights at the Esplanade pre-cruise back in Sep. Happy to recommend. Close to some good restaurants and the National Hotel (good beer drinking and bands!!) on the main drag and within walking distance to maritime museum etc. Handy to train station for a trip into Perth etc also.

 

Ferry over to Rottnest Is is not far away just down river a bit from the cruise terminal.

We recently did 26 days from Fremantle to SE Asia and return on Sea Princess. Visited 6 different countries and 11 ports showing very different sides to Asia, from the sophistication/wealth in Singapore to some of the more developing areas such as Lombok in Indonesia and Sihanoukville in Cambodia and tourist hot-spots such as Phuket, Koh Samui & Bali + everything in between.

Take a look at some of the recent CC reviews for Sea Princess for the trip - they are pretty much spot on and how we saw things.

full disclosure that i'm about to hijack this thread... sailing with princess for the first time this coming january. one of the stops is bali and i can't seem to find the info i need or get replies to my posts. anyway, i was considering booking a private tour in bali but now it sounds like it might be a bad idea because i may not get off the ship until several hours after the scheduled arrival time?? and did princess adjust ship time so it was the same as local? any input would be much appreciated. yes, yes, i know everything will be fine and i should just enjoy my vacation but i tend to be a nervous nellie in the planning process :(

Was on Sea Princess in Bali just over a week ago. The ship was on local time.

I imagine if you arrived at the gathering place (usually one of the dining rooms) for tender tickets early enough you may be lucky and get off on one of the first tenders. We got to the dining room at 7:30 am and had number 280 something!! One of the problems with Bali is that the ship anchors a long way from the tender disembarkation wharf - approx 25-30 min. So for each tender, it is nearly an hours round trip to collect the next lot. Each of the ships tenders (x 4) can only carry 80 people, so you can see it can take a while to disembark some 1,800 passengers. Sometimes Princess may engage a local ferry that can carry a few hundred to speed things up. At Lombok & Ko Samui that did occur and waiting times were reduced significantly. Did not see that in Bali in the morning (but may have been running), but there was definitely a private ferry operating in the afternoon/evening. I say evening, as last tender was meant to be 4:30pm, but we did not weigh anchor and get underway to nearly 7:00pm due to the backlog of passengers waiting to get back to the ship.

The other thing that slowed down progress in the morning was the Indonesian Immigration officials taking seemingly forever to grant clearance (as opposed to Lombok a couple of weeks earlier which was rather quick) after the ship anchored.

Others may have had differing experiences.

I guess you've been lucky. There have been times that wait is much, much longer especially when the sea was rough and it takes people longer to board & empty out the tenders.

We waited nearly 2 hours in the dining room on Sea Princes in Bali last week!! Had priority tendering (suite passengers), but traveling with others that did not. Normally book a ships tour at tender ports to avoid the wait. With 100's of elites on Board, there was some resentment from those who been waiting forever for a tender only to have to wait longer because 10-15 elites show up and go to straight to the head of the queue. At least they can't jump the queue on the way back to the ship. There must be a better way.

Couple of years since we went there on Dawn Princess. I did notice that the (ships) tour we went on, there was a private security vehicle shepherding us at a discrete distance. I had a rather uneasy feeling all day, but probably as a result of an interaction with "Raskols" in Port Moresby years ago.

On the other hand, the Islands (Kiriwina, Katava etc) had a much better vibe.

Thanks for the photos - we are looking forward to 26 days in a mini on Sea Princess in Sep. Might have to take a wire brush and a can of white paint to touch up any rust spots on the balcony - couldn't stand to look at that every day!! Would give me something productive to do on sea days rather than feeling guilty about relaxing/enjoying myself..

Stumbled across this article today and made me think about this thread from earlier in the year...

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/387643/albatross-chick-named

Ouch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehxiSLzP7Lc

Low power, or lack of judgement?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehxiSLzP7Lc

I think we were very fortunate back in Sep 2014 for our 21 day PNG trip (incl the Solomon's, Vanuatu etc) in having Peter Plowman as guest lecturer.

A prolific maritime author and researcher, his lecturers were captivating (I thought) - in particular how he pieced together the various major battles (Coral Sea, Midway etc). The Princess Theatre had a good crowd when he was presenting compared to other guest lecturers I have endured.

What was also touching was the fact that the ship held a remembrance service near where the Canberra was sunk in Iron Bottom Sound.

Going to Napier? If so, you should check this out..

http://www.capekidnappers.com/luxury-golf-course/cruise-ship-passengers

Not a golfer, but we went to Cape Kidnappers and apparently the course is highly regarded in the gold world.

Princess Personaliser still showing $25 per person for a cruise some 5 months away with 2 stops in Indonesia.

INDONESIA VISA/PASSPORT REQUIREMENT

Most guests, including U.S., Canadian, U.K., Australian, and New Zealand passport holders, qualify for a visa-free entry stamp. A service fee of $25 per person will be charged to your stateroom account.

All other passport holders should contact their nearest Indonesian Consulate or a visa service to determine their visa requirements. If you require a visa, you must obtain one in advance of boarding regardless of whether you choose to remain on board or go ashore in Indonesia.

Indonesian customs has strict regulations in regards to passport validity and require that all passports be valid for at least six months after you depart Indonesia. Additionally, your passport should have at least one blank page for entry and exit endorsements. If your passport does not meet these requirements you will be denied boarding due to failure to meet travel requirements. Cruise and/or cruisetour fare will not be refunded.

We visit Indonesia twice in Sep/Oct on Sea Princess - Lombok and then 18 days later, Bali.. Wonder if we will get charged at all, or maybe once covering both visits or will they sting us twice??