Hershy

Hi NJSMOM ( surely you must have an identity other than being NJS' mother 🙂 ) In British and Irish English, the jocular phrase thank your mother for the rabbit(s) has been used: – as an ironic expression of gratitude; – as a goodbye The Aussie and Kiwi soldiers who served in the Great War for Queen and country picked up this phrase from the Pommies and made use of it back home. After the war there was quite a bit of poverty and rabbits were cheap tucker for many. The vets would go bush and shoot lots of the rabbis and give or sell them to whoever wanted rabbits for dinner. When I was about 60 years younger I often went spotlighting for rabbits. Them were good tucker! BTW<I'm not a dinky die Aussie. I was born in Transylvania, Romania Dracula was my 5th cousin.

Hello Cruisers! The Mrs and me, not being big drinkers are a real disppointment to our beloved Australia We find the beverage package over priced. I do admit the specialty coffees and soft drink do come in handy but package is still not really economical. Can I please ask those of you who have recently sailed on the Millie, what price a reasonable bottle of wine and a cafe latte, a Corona and a can of dry ginger? To educate you lot, I'm going to sign off with a phrase seldom heard in Aus these days but a very popular way of saying thanks by veterans of WW1: Thank you mother for the rabbits! Hershy

Numbers of Covid cason onboard are not known. Isolation cabins appear full.Number of crew numbers in iso not known but untrained or minimally trained serving staff are doing their valliant best to cope. This suggests many of th A team have been affected. The wife tested positive on day 2 and has been cabin bound since then. She tested negative yesterday but still needs to remain in iso till tomorrow when she must text positive and get the doctors' permission to leave the cabin. We are both on the wrong side of 75 so she was given the antiviral medication in the morning of day 1 of her infection. I tested negative and was allowed to stay in the cabin with her and still had the freedom to roam the ship but had to test every 2nd day. Two days ago everyone on board had to test and I don't know how many new infections were identified bit suspect quite a few.I tested positive this morning, rang the medical centre at 8 a.m and now at 1.00 p.m. I still await to be called back and given the antivirals. They are hard pressed to deal with this breakout and I do believe without any evidence that we may have more than the 800 that sailed into Sydney two weeks ago. But as they say', you've got to make the best of it. The Majestic is a lovely ship with great amenities so pack your dancing shoes and N95 masks and enjoy. But bring your own entertainment in case you get cabin-bound. Programs available in TV are quite good. Sadly one cannot plug in a USB stick as the port is isolated. BTW. The meals aren't bad and they serve a very good Merlot! Stay safe!

It is very sad but there are obviousluy people who may be asymptomatic yet have a positive RAT test who simply photograph a previously taken negative test strip and board the ships just putting everyone else on board at risk. Then of course there are those with no symptoms yet, have a negative test strip and then start feeling after boarding by which time they've spread the pathogen. So, who do you trust ? Only yourself! Be careful, be vigilant and be prepared!

G'day cruisers! My wife and I are sailing the next Sydney -NZ-Sydney cruise later in November. Not enamored in the number of Covid cases on the ship. but can you do? Two weeks from the cruise, I probably would not cancel even if we could so I guess we'll have to be extra careful. We're both on the wrong side of 75 and my wife is immuno-compromised. She has had 2 vaccines and 3 boosters while I had 4 shots in total but the last one was in May so am not sure how strong our Corona resistance is. We are still Novids or Covid virgins so our luck is bound to run out sooner or later. SO, getting prepared to stay in my cabin for 5 day, I need to ask: Do the TVs on the Majestic allow the playing of pre-recorded videos from USB sicks? Also are buffets (in my opinion the main contamination point for the norovirus)still self serve are they manned by staff?