Sparky74

My claim to fame is that at a very young age I (apparently) received swimming lessons from Michelle Pearson who later went on to win Commonwealth and Olympic medals for swimming.

DW and I are Australians. Last year we flew to Seattle and really enjoyed a 7 night Alaskan cruise on HAL but were disappointed that our helicopter flight to Mendenhall Glacier and dog sledding excursion was cancelled due to the weather. We're hoping to return to Alaska next year, 2025 when we will have the luxury of 8 weeks vacation, but not unlimited funds. Our current plan is to cruise for 7 nights from Vancouver to Whittier, spend 2 weeks exploring the Anchorage/Denali/Fairbanks area, then cruise for 7 nights from Whittier back to Vancouver. I have been posting questions on the Alaska board. See link below. I've come over here to ask about the Caribbean Princess and the Sapphire Princess. Although they are both Grand Class ships, I understand that the Sapphire Princess is larger (115,875 gross tonnes as apposed to 110,894 gross tonnes) yet she hold less passengers (2674) than the Caribbean Princess (3110). Have I got this right? We're leaning towards the Sapphire Princess as we’d prefer a ship with less passengers. Is there any reason we should be drawn towards the Caribbean Princess instead?

I was wondering who he was, then the penny dropped! 🤣 DTs are short for "Richard" Togs!

I think I was in high school (or at least upper primary school) before I heard the term "ute". It was always a tilly. Oh, and we were a Ford family, not Holden! 😁 Now "nickoff" I am familiar with. I was often told to do that. Or to POQ. Come to think of it, I still am! 🤣🤣🤣 ———————— Funny how this thread has wandered. It’s nothing to do with Cunard now. 🤷‍♂️

Stickers? I’ve come across togs, swimming togs, swimmers, bathers, bathing costume, cossi, and even swimming trunks. Then there’s board shorts or boardies, the Americans have "jams", rashies, bikinis, and a one-piece. I’ve heard Speedos (I think that’s a brand name too) called budgie smugglers or even DTs (and don’t ask what that stands for) 😱 But "stickers" is a new one on me. 🤷‍♂️

I’m currently thinking that we might do a 7 night Northbound cruise (Vancouver to Whittier). Then spend two weeks in the Anchorage/Denali/Fairbanks area. We could then do a 7 night Southbound cruise (Whittier to Vancouver) on the same ship. I think it might be kinda nice to do both cruises on the same ship and see the same staff and crew again. Also I'm guessing that 14 days should give us sufficient time to explore the area. I’m wondering if we can get by without hiring a car? We drive on the left in Australia and I’m not sure how I’d go driving on the "wrong" side of the road. 😁 I’m thinking maybe after getting off the ship we catch the train straight up to Denali for a few days, then on to Fairbanks for about a week. I wouldn’t mind doing a day trip to North Pole from Fairbanks. Then maybe fly to Anchorage for a few days maybe with a day trip (or even overnight) to Seward before we reboard the ship in Whittier. When is the best time to view Salmon running? Is June too early?

Port = suitcase Duchess = dressing table Tilly = ute or utility truck Refidex = street directory Peanut Paste = peanut putter Nikko = permanent marker Sometimes older people from outside Qld are familiar with the term "duchess set" which refers to a set of three doilies that sit on a dressing table. It’s now 8 days until our next cruise. 😁 I mustn’t forget to pack my togs.

I believe that "port" is short for portmanteau which strictly speaking is a hinged case with two equal halves. Growing up we had ports like this; the lid was symmetrical with the base. Early in my working life I asked a colleague (originally from Victoria) if I could borrow her Nikko. When she refused I wanted to know why and she replied that she know what a Nikko was! DW was born and raised in NSW. It triggers her if I talk about peanut paste but back in the day "butter" could only refer to a dairy product in Qld. Now, will someone please hand me the Referdex…

I stand by my earlier comment that the interior designer of the Splendor was an absolute genius if they convinced someone to pay money for their services!

YES! I made a similar comment. They look even more like fried eggs in the Gold Pearl restaurant.

The term "port" for a suitcase takes me back to my childhood; I was born and raised in Queensland where we had a duchess in the bedroom and rode in the back of a tilly. The rule in our house is that if you pack it, you carry it.

Just to further complicate matters, we’re now wondering about doing two 7 night cruises, Northbound and then Southbound, and staying in Anchorage between them. Or possibly cruising from Vancouver to Anchorage, flying to Fairbanks for a week, flying back to Anchorage for a week, and then boarding the same ship in Anchorage to return to Vancouver. I think I need to do a lot more research!

I have a significant birthday in January! 😱 The general consensus is that I was 50 when I was born. Old/young is all relative.

Please report back how you get on. 😁

I dunno. On our trans-Pacific cruise last year Carnival really struggled to cope with the fact that I didn’t have a smart phone with me. They had work arounds (like paper menus and manually booking me to the MDR for breakfast) but the staff struggled to implement them. 🤷‍♂️

DW and I don’t even need to browse. We just have a conversation in front of our devices and next thing we’re seeing ads for what we discussed. 😱 Everyday Rewards (and presumably FlyBuys too) track your purchases. If you use the rewards card even once with a credit/debit card, then they track your purchases through that card too forevermore. I’m OK with that. I’m not on the cash only bandwagon.

This reminds me of a line from an old George Formby song entitled "Pleasure Cruise". Down the companionway, you fall ten times a day… For the young people in this forum: A companionway is a ladder or steep staircase between the decks of a ship. George Formby was an English comedic singer-songwriter from the first half of the 20th Century who often accompanied himself on the banjolele. A banjolele is… oh never mind!

Thank you for the advice. I found the itinerary from our 2022 Alaskan cruise. (See attached image) We sailed from Seattle on August 27th and we were in Juneau on August 29th. One of the comments I made at the time was that we didn’t seem to have very long in each port. The 2025 Princess 14 day itineraries have much longer port days. 😁

One of the things I like about cruising is getting away from my phone and the Internet. 🤷‍♂️

Never say never! We cruised Alaska last year and we’re so impressed that we’re seriously considering returning in 2025. And we live in Australia! 😱

Just in case anyone has missed it, @mum and son has started a new thread relating her good experience using the StockPerk app to access shareholder OBC

Excellent! I’ll have to try it out.

That’s good to know. Can you remember if P&O Australia was included in the Carnival brands listed? I also wonder if the system copes with you having multiple bookings?

Anytime I’ve looked at Norwegian they’ve seemed too pricey for me. Then again, we often sail in interior cabins anyway. 🤷‍♂️ The gratuities can be a bit of a trap for unwary Aussies as most of the lines include gratuities in the price when sailing out of Australia. We got caught on this with our trans-Pacific on the Carnival Splendor last year. As we sailed from Seattle it was classified as a USA cruise so a daily gratuity was added to our account. Fortunately the cruise was as cheap as chips for start with. We're currently considering a return to Alaska for 2025 but I’m factoring in the added expense of gratuities. 😁