cassamanda

Out of interest what cruise is that ?

By the OP signature, looks like Golden Princess LA to Sydney.

BTW Alice Springs/ Ularu will be very cold at night but mild in daytime. Still best time of year though.

My husband is interested in the possibility of fishing while we are on a circumnavigation cruise on the Sun Princess in March/April 2017. He is thinking possibly Margaret River or Freemantle ports. Does anyone have any information about fishing guides who will provide all the necessary gear in either of those ports; or, suggestions of other ports that may offer fun fishing? He prefers lake/stream fishing for trout. Thanks for any suggestions.:)

There is no trout in Fremantle but you possibly could do river fishing for Salmon.

Margaret river is not a port as such but has great wines and surfing. I presume the port will be Busselton.

UPDATE: Regards the email I sent to the Port Authority at the OPT regards the breakdown in the priority boarding system.

 

They forwarded my email to Royal & today I received a call from their C&A people in Miami thanking me for my feedback & apologising for the breakdown in the procedure.

 

They will be discussing the issue with the relevant people at the OPT to ensure it doesn't happen in future.

 

I stressed to them the importance of 2 lines outside the OPT & the need to also have a priority line in the customs check in.

 

Fingers crossed this solves the issue ongoing. :)

Thank you for doing this. We had the services before so why were they removed is the issue.

So the immediate simple fixes i can see for next season on embarkation are

1. Better signage outside to clearly show where the bag drop is - before you stand in a line for 20 minutes then discover the bag drop is behind you!

2. Separate C&A/loyalty express line outside.

3. Check in good as is with separate lines. No changes needed.

4. Express lane ex checkin all the way to security.

Regards, Hugh

The Milky Way can be seen from anywhere on land or sea in the southern hemisphere and especially from southern Australian states. Find a dark night sky outside the city lights.

Dont forget to also look for the Southern Cross in the southern sky looking towards the south from high overhead to lower on the horizon. The 2 pointers point away from the cross towards the south pole.

Sorry Plant but the Macleay is in Potts Point/Kings Cross (not a good area) unless you have mispelt the name?

I would have been interested in 23/11/17 14 nights Ovation Singapore to Sydney, but the itinerary is terrible. No Asian ports at all, just straight to Fremantle, Adelaide, Hobart, Sydney. Would anyone be interested in that? I love sea days, but ..

This is the problem with ships like Ovation, they cant get into our ports.:(

Looks like Ovation is all about the ship. Prices are comparable to Radiance - at the moment.

Even though ship is due in at 6.30 it still has to be cleared. Realistically you could be off the ship about 7.30

Customs does not take long provided you have been good.

Taxis are plentiful but i would take the train if you only have the 1 bag each. 5 mins walk to station then 15 minutes to airport plus say 15 mins waiting time.

Depending if weekend or week day 30 to 50 minutes by taxi.

Need to be at airport by 9am. Security lines are very long at tnat time of day.

Too stressfull. Suggest a midday flight or later.

Lee st is a vert short street with not many parking spots but i can see your logic in going to the bdm office on the way to the airport.

Trying to drive in Sydney during morning rush (on the wrong side of the road) is not pleasant. I would strongly suggest against this idea.

The BDM is a government office so everything will take a long time.

Suggest you contact them for a booking after your cruise and also ask if they can post the certificate to you in Germany.

I think you need to keep an open mind as to the best time of year.

Whilst Oct/Nov is great for most of Australia except perhaps Tasmania, the weather in March/April is also fantastic in the southern states. Note that northern part and centre is very hot during our summer. Today was a beautiful day in Sydney at 25 to 28 deg C and its Autumn!

We would do a cruise accross the top of Oz in Oct on Radiance but from Perth to Sydney via NZ on Radiance i would do in Feb.

We think NZ is better in Feb/March. Oct/Nov in NZ is still cold.

A repo cruise from Sydney to Seattle or Vancouver is a great way to return

We boarded VOS last month fairly quickly once inside, although they did give us the wrong coloured card apparently, not the priority boarding one for Diamond members, but it got sorted & we were sent up front to the side of the queues & processed quickly from there

Staff knew we were Diamond ,showed them our seapass card, made no difference, still had to wait with everybody else. Was going to push the issue but dw did not want to create a scene for the sake of 30 minutes.

This is the line that goes behind the bariers after check in.

Thanks Avalon007 I did know we only have one line for entry into the terminal:D:D.

To be honest though, when doing check in we have no idea what the lines outside the building are like and apart from the usual midday rush there are never really any long lines ( if at all) upstairs in the Priority areas. Nothing to do with me and Packetau doing Priority check in of course :D:D

 

The suggestion of a Priority " access" line outside the terminal makes sense to me and I will mention it to the powers to be. Sorry all those Princess/ Carnival cruisers .....I cannot help you:D

Gbenjo, i also referred to this problem as well as Vader111. Would be good to see the red carpet restored:)

I heard today from a reliable source that 17/18 itineraries will go on sale before the new ovation cruises do. A few more weeks away for the 5 new ovation cruises for Jan/feb 2017. They still need to sort out the passengers who were booked on the original repositioning back to Singapore!!!!

 

 

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Supposed to go on sale tomorrow but wont be surprised if they are delayed until Ovation is sorted out. Very often the Royal deployments dont come out until May. Had this happen to us on a cruise and missed out on a preferred cabin.

Ve shall see.

G'day. We are sailing on the Radiance of the Seas on March 28, 2017, and plan to arrive on the 25th, so we need accommodations for three nights.

 

We will have to readjust our body clocks the first day, but then want to spend two days doing, well, everything.

 

But right now I am looking for hotel recommendations.

 

I have been reading, reading, reading the various sites.

 

Not quite sure of how to find the best location, so I seek your wise counsel on that.

 

What do you think of these hotels?

 

Devere Hotel

44-46 Macleay Street Potts Point

Kings Cross

Sydney NS 2011 Australia

 

 

 

Hotel Coronation

5 -7 Park St

Sydney New South Wales 2000

 

 

 

Other recs?

No to both. deVere is too far out and a very basic hotel. Coronation also just a pub in a busy city street but location very central to central downtown area. Try Park Regis a few doors up.

Very handy to your embarkation point (OPT) is the YHA the Rocks. Even thougn it is a hostel, they have large family rooms with ensuite on the top floor at budget prices. Great views from the rooftop and you will see Radiance arrive.

I think grahame will agree when this happens it is usually because the 6 immigration staff can't keep up with the 30 check in staff...then of course they have to get through the security scanners before passengers can board the ship... this causes a big back up and people are left standing outside...

Did a short local cruise on Radiance recently and even though we had priority boarding (check in) there was only one line to enter the building from outside. In the past there were separate loyalty lines. Not so now.

Also bag drop signs were very confusing (poorly positioned). People were lining up in the entrance line with baggage still in hand and then being told to take the bags over to bag drop. These people then lost their spot or elected to take luggage with them.

Once through check-in (very efficient) we were delayed by 30 minutes before we could even proceed to security. Staff were only allowing small groups at a time. No immigration, so what was the big delay? Only took us 5 minutes to get through security and onto the ship.

Not complaining - just saying that the process is now slower than pre upgrade.

Thanks for the images. I do hope they get it right before offering them for sale. The brochure says Radiance from Honolulu on 19 Sept. Should obviously be 19 October for 18 nights as it then sails from Sydney on 7th Nov for New Zealand. :confused:

No. Alaska season finishes 1st week of September, then 10-12 days Vancouver to Honolulu, so leaving Honolulu to Australia around 19 Sep is correct.

Someone shouldve told Johnny Depp to declare, declare, declare:)

Thats better, not falling over now.

The corner afts near each big "porthole" are tops:)

I honestly don't know if I could survive if I booked a year out. I just hate the wait.

I booked last Year:eek: Guarantee balcony but thinking of upgrading to a bigger and better spot for just $750. Will be a 45th so would be a nice pressie.

Didnt survive either had to do a little cruise recently, and the following cruise is 18 months away:eek:

Yippee 12 months and we will be on the same cruise departing today for Singapore.

Will post a better pic tonite when i have a wifi connection.

You'll probably get a shock when you see the price for that cruise. They're making sure to cash in on anyone keen to try it...

I would look at the 2018 prices when the deployments comes out. Hopefully they will be reasonable as they were when 2017 prices first came out.

Does anyone else find this extremely frustrating?

 

I'm sure they must lose business by not having their act together earlier. Many people have to plan their cruises more than 12 months ahead.

 

:(

Steve O

This is nothing unusual. The original deployment dates are often pushed back for a variety of reasons. This one is obviously to do with the scheduling of Ovation of the Seas. No doubt tne new itinerary will be out as soon as that is sorted.

This is just not feasible. Even if you did just an Australian coastal cruise, you still have sea days. Thats what cruising is all about.

And how are you going to get to your luggage when the ship arrives in Sydney?

There is both immigration and Customs to deal with. As well as security.

As you are from Florida then i agree that Milford Sound will be cool for you at any time as it is on the wind swept west coast of south island NZ. Equates to being in Alaska either spring or autumn.

Another reason you need a jacket is to enjoy being out on deck cruising through the fiords.

The remainder of your cruise along the east coast of NZ will be fine and summer weather.

Weather is warmest in February. Sydney can be wet in either Jan or Feb with the odd summer afternoon storm.

I'm not sure about a new pricing structure. It was exactly the same as Legend in January.

Casey read out the numbers. Like "75- My boyfriend's age! ...just kidding" Every. Single. Time.

Ok will take it that she still has the basic bingo pricing of around $32, in which case i will join the throng next April and win back my cruise :rolleyes: I posted a pic earlier that on Radiance the prices ranged from $27 to $69:mad:

We were on Solstice in March 2015 & it definitely stopped at Yorkeys Knob - yes too big for Cairns terminal.

 

Whoever started this post should be happy they get an overnight at Cairns/Yorkeys Knob. We arrived at around midday. It was a bit rough and tendering was suspended a couple of times - we didn't make land until 3pm.

 

Lots of international pax and this stop with a visit to the GBR was to be the highlight of the trip. However unless you'd booked the excursion through Celebrity you missed out. Because of our arrival time (which was the scheduled time) those on Celebrity were the first off & on to fast catamarans out to the reef. They were the last to return too before we departed.

 

Many disappointed pax - some had helicopter rides booked to the reef, others the Kuranda sky rail. They all missed their tours.

Yep there are some places you just have to suck it up and go on the ship tours, esp to the GBR. Karunda can easily be done privately unless taking the train which of course runs to a strict timetable.