gators70

We are looking at the Sky Princess for a B2B holiday sailing in 2025 to the Caribbean. Has anyone booked D420 balcony midship before? That is the only stateroom with angled balcony available on both ships. The second sailing has D428, D424, D429 and D425 available right now, but not sure how Princess handles it when you have a B2B. Do you have to haul all your stuff off and then back on? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Thanks everyone for the advice. We have opted to change our return flight after our cruise from Saturday to Sunday at the same times just to be on the safe side. Someone had mentioned staying at a hotel on George Street would be good. Turns out I had enough Hilton points to get a room night there for just a few bucks. Woo Hoo! A big thank you again to everyone for your advice!

Hello all, I hope this is the correct forum to post on for this question. We have a cruise scheduled that gets back into Sydney on Saturday, January 4, 2025. We currently have an international flight scheduled to leave at 11:50 a.m. on that Saturday morning. Our schedule says the ship is to dock at 6 a.m. but I'm guessing we won't be able to get off until 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. We are planning to take either a taxi or uber to the airport at this time, but I think we can change our flights one time without a fee... so, I was going to research how much it would cost us to spend the night near the airport and leave on Sunday morning so that we are not stressed. Thus, I am reaching out to you to find out your suggestions as to where we should stay so that we are near the airport and easy for an uber, airport transfer or taxi. And, also near public transportation so that on Saturday we can go putz around town. Your thoughts?

Hello all, I hope this is the correct forum to post on for this question. We have a cruise scheduled that gets back into Sydney on Saturday, January 4, 2025. We currently have an international flight scheduled to leave at 11:50 a.m. on that Saturday morning. Our schedule says the ship is to dock at 6 a.m. but I'm guessing we won't be able to get off until 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. We are planning to take either a taxi or uber to the airport at this time, but I think we can change our flights one time without a fee... so, I was going to research how much it would cost us to spend the night near the airport and leave on Sunday morning so that we are not stressed. Thus, I am reaching out to you to find out your suggestions as to where we should stay so that we are near the airport and easy for an uber, airport transfer or taxi. And, also near public transportation so that on Saturday we can go putz around town. Your thoughts?

Thanks for the heads up.

Good advice. I'm rethinking all of our transportation needs after this wonderful response on this forum. Thanks again.

Thank you so much. I think you are right about just grabbing a taxi that is already there. Do you know if the taxis are allowed in the cruise terminal area when ships are arriving, or do you have to go outside the area to get a taxi? And I'm assuming the taxi's would take credit cards?

We will be needing transportation to our hotel on a Saturday morning. Not sure how long it will take to get through customs in Australia. Hopefully not long. But our flight gets in around 9 a.m. so I guessing by 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. Is there a "sweet spot so to speak" or a time that we should wait until so that we are not charged an excess fee for a busy time of the day on Saturday morning? You mention the Uber pickup point can be a hassle. Is this at the airport or the cruise terminal, or both. Can you elaborate on this please. I do tend to like Uber as you know who you've got and how much ahead of time. Are taxis in Sydney on a flat rate schedule, or do you know how that works going from and to the airport? Thanks in advance everyone for your advice on this topic. This is great information.

Do you recall about how much the transfer was? Just trying to work out our budget. Was it from the airport to hotel or from the cruise terminal to airport?

What is the OPT (Oversees passenger terminal)? Yes I am now considering Uber as a form of transportation. You mention hefty surcharges. I guess that is leaving the airport and also going to the airport for Uber drivers? In that case, is it better to take a taxi, or do they also pay a surcharge. The system probably has to whether you use a taxi or an uber. I'm guessing the taxi drivers use contactless form of payment as well in Sydney?

Good to know. Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm now leaning towards just grabbing a taxi at the airport or ordering an uber when we get our bags.

So am I reading this correct, that this works like it does in London, where you just tap in and tap out with your credit card. I'm sorry to ask a silly question, but do you have underground and also buses that you can use this process on?

Has anyone used the Hop-On Hop-Off bus in Sydney? We will be in Sydney in December and are looking to get a general overview of the city when we arrive. I think I saw a Hop-On Hop-Off bus on Trip Advisor. We are on a Princess Land Tour, but are arriving a couple days ahead of the tour. Our tour in Sydney is supposed to be of the Opera House, Bondi Beach and The Rocks. They are also supposed to take us to a wildlife park at the base of the Blue Mountains for a Koala Encounter and to the Blue Mountains Lookout and ride the Southern Hemisphere's steepest arial cable car as well. If anyone else has any other suggestions on must see and do in Sydney when you only have about a day and a half, would love to get your feedback. We will be staying at the Amora Hotel Jamison Sydney, so would also need to know how to get around for sightseeing. Do you think it's safe to say we can use a credit card for sightseeing, or will we need local currency. Hoping to stay away from getting cash.

We will be in Sydney in December 2024 for a Princess Cruise Tour. Looking to get suggestions on most economical way to get from the Sydney International Airport to the Amora Hotel Jamison Sydney on December 13. We don't mind doing a shared shuttle as we are not on a timeline the day we arrive. I've heard about Redy2Go shuttle services. Has anyone used them, and are they reliable? Also looking for the best way to get from the Cruise Terminal when we arrive back at port on January 4. The ship is supposed to dock at 6 a.m. but I don't know when they will let passengers off. Our international flight leaves at 11:50 a.m. so instead of using the Princess transfer, we were thinking it might be safer to get a private transfer to airport. Does anyone know how long it takes to get from Cruise Terminal to Sydney International Airport? It's going to be on a Saturday. It also appears that Redy2Go has private transfers as well. And we would look to be using our credit card. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Hello Bryan and Sandra -- We are on the Land Tour in December as well starting on December 14 - Ultimate Australia. Is that the one you are on as well? We are in West Florida.

Do you purchase them there or ahead of time and where? Amazon ?

We are on this land tour over Christmas 2024. I tried to reach out to Bob Woods Group but they never answered. We were trying to get name of the first hotel in Sydney as we are coming in a day early and wanted to stay at the same hotel. Princess has been no help. We are excited about this trip and it’s quite a jog from Florida so we want to make sure we don’t miss out on anything. Have a wonderful time. Sure would love to get details from your trip when you return. Nancy & Andy

Hello all. We are on the Australian ultimate land tour with princess this December 2024 for seven days and then we get on the Royal princess for 14 days around New Zealand. We too are not getting much response from Princess about the land package, and have also reached out to the Bob Wood tour group with no response. I apologize ahead of time that this is quite lengthy. We would love to get some feedback as to how things are handled with Bob Wood tour group from anyone willing to share their experiences. We are assuming that we only get the meals that are listed in the travel summary and that we would be on our own for the other meals. Couple things right off the bat that I would like to ask is about the money situation in Australia. Do they accept credit cards and does everyone charge extra if you use a credit card in Australia? I keep reading this. In fact, I just read in the travel summary that we will be charged an extra 1.1% if we pay our folio on the ship with a credit card that this was something common in Australia to charge extra, and that everything on our folio would be in Australia dollars for this cruise. Is that true? How is the gratuity for the tour guide handled? I am assuming that we would pay the person separately and that this would not be collected by Princess for them. I read somewhere on the travel summary that Prince recommended five to seven US dollars per day per person for the tour guide. What type of tips are expected for the excursions that are planned? By this I mean do you tip the driver and the tour guide? The reason I ask this is we just did a trip to Great Britain and to them a tip is not expected, and some were even insulted when we tried to tip them. Just trying to figure how much money we need to bring in local currency. thank you in advance to anyone who is willing to share with us. Our email is gators70@hotmail.com. Nancy & Andy From Tampa, Florida

I know this message is a year late based on the feed, but we are actually on the same cruise tour this December 2024 with Bob Wood thru Princess. I also tried to contact them and got nothing. I apologize ahead of time if I put this message at the wrong spot. If any of you reading, this would be willing to share what you know about this tour company and your experience in Australia for the land package we would be ever so grateful, as the information from Princess is very vague. our email is gators70@hotmail.com Thanks Nancy & Andy

Why

I have a nit to pick, even though it's resolved. Hopefully others will be prepared. On our last two Princess cruises (Enchanted and Ruby) the ceiling light outside of the bathroom is motion sensitive and if you have to get up in the middle of the night, it blinds you. There is no switch to turn it off. On the Enchanted we told our steward about it and he admitted that we weren't the first to have a problem with the light. He came in and put a piece of masking tape over the sensor, which is a 1/2" round thing beside the bulb. Problem solved. We were prepared for this on the Ruby. Of course this means that the light never comes on and you may want it on to illuminate the closet. We found the bathroom light sufficient to see into the closet. Also, there are floor lights beside the bed that are auto-sensing as well, but not so blinding. On the Enchanted we found them going on and off all night (maybe there was a mouse running around...just kidding, probably the covers on the sides of the bed). Being a light sleeper made this annoying. Masking tape to the rescue! I only suggest that if you do this, be kind enough to remove it before disembarking. If this has been posted before, I apologize.

Supposedly a little lager and higher up

We just booked the last Edge Veranda for the maiden cruise on 11/18/25. We expect some delays but we're flexible and since we live 4-hr from FLL we don't have to worry about flight changes. We expect a few problems, but are pretty laid back. We've never done a maiden voyage before and now we will be able to tick that off our list...good or bad.

Are you on the Regal Princess arriving in Liverpool on 6/1/24? I just started looking at pooloflifetours.com. Haven't booked it yet, but it seems to go almost everywhere Beatles-related. I know Liverpool is more than "The Beatles", but I'm a fan.

Thanks!