joybook

Congratulations anyway. Wow!! Some people have all the luck, don't they? I have been with Princess for many years and have sailed with them many, many times and never had an offer - no upgrade, no upsell, no move over offer. My neighbours got an upgrade on their very first cruise with Princess. Oh well, I must be being taught a lesson in patience. 

Could the reason you got the message by text be that in your Cruise Personaliser you ticked the box 'SMS Text Alerts'?

Just had a look at the timetable. This may help. These are just some times around your suggested timings. Trains leave Central at 09.18 - 10.18 - 11.18 -12.18 and take about 2 hours 7 minutes to get to Katoomba . Trains leave Katoomba at 11.14 - 12.14 - 13.15 arriving at Central in about 2 hours. I don't think I would leave it any later than the one leaving Katoomba at 13.15. You could then get the train from Central to the airport. I don't think your Opal card works on the airport line but I could be wrong. While I may upset some people, I think the most attractive stop before Katoomba would probably be Leura which of course is just before Katoomba but would be nice to walk around and have lunch.

Yes - the Bunnings issue really is a 1st world problem isn't it? I'm sure there are many people in the world who would be happy just to have a sausage or some onion without having to worry about which to put on top.

I now usually book with Princess direct and they have always honoured price drops. The only time I had booked with a TA and there was a price drop, I had to actually tell the TA about it before they did anything. They obviously do not keep an eye on price drops for you. Poor service in my books.

Pardon me raving on about this. It is all a bit of a mystery. According to another website which shows the current itinerary, and the current position Sea Princess is in/near Vanuatu so I cannot understand the Princess webcam. I can't help feeling there is a mistake somewhere.

Just further to my previous post. Can anyone tell me if this (Port Moresby) was a scheduled port of call for the Sea Princess? What was the itinerary? Many thanks.

That really surprises me. I have never seen a Princess cruise itinerary which included Port Moresby. I lived there many years ago and would love to take a cruise which included PM. I have done the Princess PNG cruise but that did not include PM.

I must say that over the years I have received very little in the way of service or other things from TAs so I now rarely use them. I do all my cruise bookings direct with Princess and they have always honoured price drops when I have rung them. The only time I will use a TA is for bits and pieces added on to a 'non Australia' cruise before and after the cruise, such as accommodation, transfers, flights etc. and then if I don't like what they offer I will still go elsewhere. If they can't give you the service, don't use them.

Please note that the 1.1% charge for credit cards has nothing to do at all with the currency conversion rate. It is purely a fee for using your credit card to make a payment.

Maybe I have to become a bit more flexible with my cruise lines. One tends to get stuck in a rut and I have (except for one cruise with the family) stayed with Princess, but if they can't deliver on my expectations maybe I need to look elsewhere. 

You are correct of course Mr Walker but as the op was referring to CC generally I thought I would just mention those issues. Another one of course is the continual issue of gratuities which over the years becomes quite boring, even for those American citizens. Yes I agree that there is not too much to complain about on the Aus/NZ section of CC.  I am generally a Princess cruiser and one thing I wish they were able to do would be to look at some new itineraries in and around Australia. Being from Sydney I would love to see a cruise, round trip from Sydney that took in Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. I think I have seen them from Melbourne but not from Sydney. That of course is just a wish of mine.

Generally, I don't think things are too bad. I would however like much much much less of threads on Dress Codes, Coffee Cards, Bringing water on board, What's on MUTS, What's the weather going to be like in say Jan. 2013 in the Pacific?, Who's the Cruise Director on... but that is just a whinge of mine.

Yes, predictive text is fine. If only people using it would take a little time to read over what they have actually written. In my opinion this one is pretty slack.

You may be able to find a Roll Call for your cruise.

I may be wrong but I would have thought you would have difficulty getting a cruise to Australia at that time of the year. It is a couple of months before the cruise season starts here and there are very few cruise ships around.

By the time you get through baggage collection, then get to Circular Quay I reckon you will not have any problem getting on board pretty well straight away.

I just think when a ship is all white, it looks very sleek. Yes, I suppose I am too conservative in this day and age when it is all about marketing and pizazz.

And thank heavens for that.

Just a personal opinion but I must say that I prefer the clean white bow rather than the blue painted decals. It looks to be as if they are trying go a bit whacky like some of the other lines - a bit over the top in my opinion. But then again I suppose my age has a bit to do with that comment (a golden oldie).

I agree that the Sun Princess would tend to have an older passenger but having said that, for your date in February there should not be school kids on board anyway, they will be back at school. Have been on Sun Princess and the comments above are generally correct. 

Would be interested also. Have been looking for a while now. While you can arrange private transfers they seem to be pretty expensive. There is a reasonably regular bus service which is pretty cheap but I can't convince myself to take it. My wife and I will be in Santiago and going on to San Antonio early January 2020 so I have a bit of time to work it out one way or another. At this stage have done my bookings (for the cruise) myself direct with Princess and have not used a travel agent but probably Jan or Feb I will involve a TA for flights/hotels/transfers etc and hope that they may be able to offer a suggestion for Santiago to San Antonio. But I don't have a lot of faith in TAs so I"m not holding my breath.

The comment made about non-tipping being only available on Princess OZ/NZ routes is not correct. We have done three Princess cruises round trip from Sydney which did not include any NZ ports and the non-tipping aspect was in play. These were not short cruises - all three were in excess of 10 days.

On our previous South American cruise we did Magdalena Island Penguin Colony from Punta Arenas (Chile) which was just great but you do not seem to be going there. We also did an excursion to Bluff Cove in Stanley (Falklands). It was also good but I understand excursions to Volunteer Point from Stanley are better still. The main tour guide (Non cruise ship tours) here seems to be Patrick Watts and you have to email him to get a booking. We are already booked with him for January 2020. I have heard that It seems tours to Volunteer Point are starting to be limited in number by locals so it may be wise to book early.

It would be helpful if you told us what ports you are going to.