MrYellowDuck

Two questions:

1. Does Quantum have spin bikes outside of the cycle classes? I want a bike where I can do my own thing but I need to be able to stand etc. My plan is to do Les Mills "The Trip" sessions on my iPad.

2. If I can only get a spin bike in a class, how long are the classes. The class pass says 15 mins which seems far too short to be an exercise session to me.

Does anyone have a good video tour of the equipment? The ones I have found don't really show what is where.

Thanks :-)

Probably anything you might think of wearing will be okay. A t-shirt and jeans will be fine at all times. These restaurants cater for a very wide cross-section of society and just about anything goes.

Kids are always fine in my books. Mine when they were young were angels, but then they were used to eating out a couple of times a week for all of their lifetimes and so they had experienced how to behave in the way that less fortunate kids may not have had. I have a fond memory of my six year old asking me on a cruise whether she would enjoy the pheasant and my replying that she should try it and see, and she did.

Cruise ships cater for passengers who are paying $100 a day to $3000 a day and who mix and mingle not knowing who is who. You have to expect a little bit of diversity, not just in terms of income and what that brings, but in every other ways too. And this diversity includes mingling with grumpy people who just don't like kids. This is part of the richness of life and the fun of cruising.

Kids running around a little bit is fine too, but it is very rare to see this. 

Drunken, loud, impolite and unreasonable adults are much more common than kids that are noticeable. I'd take the kids over these obnoxious adults any day. 

We will be taking an Australian/New Zealand cruise in December. It'll be the first time we took a cruise that doesn't leave from the U.S. does anyone know if the menu in the MDR is the same as US sailings or is it a completely different menu?

There will be some local customisation but fundamentally it will be pretty much the same.

I reckon everyone.

It's easier to buy the experience you want at a value you think fair if you start with a base fare that is roughly the minimum any passenger would want and then let those that want more add on. For example, we don't drink alcohol and so I'd not want to think part of my fare was to pay for this and especially not on a itinerary with a sizeable number of Australians onboard (or Kiwis for that matter).

The key for us is to choose a cruise line where the minimum price is not too low since in our experience the demographic that is attracted is not one we want to mix too closely with. We've sailed P&O only three times and each time was a "never again" experience; we meant this after the third such experience.

The P&O base fare is designed to attract cruisers who can not otherwise afford to cruise. It's a business model that has worked very well for them even though they need more security staff per capita compared to more expensive lines; they save in plenty of other areas.

It's fair to say that P&O have had to lift their game in the last few years as fundamentally nicer cruise lines started competing for many of their passengers. Still, charging for a pizza will always remind you that you're down at the very bottom tier of cruising. Per day though you probably come out around about even on a like-for-like except for the demographic differences.

There was an article in the local paper in the last few days lamenting the tipping culture of one of our Government departments. In the example give the department had paid $50 in total over a one year period; so, by standards here, nothing at all. People are outraged since it's never necessary to tip, and to do so is a waste of taxpayers' money.

On our recent Radiance cruise we were left a letter explaining that the suite attendant was getting $6.50 per person per day from our pre-paid gratuity. So, he was getting $26 USD per day for around thirty minutes work on our cabin per day, plus much less than five minutes on our share of the hallway per day. I'll be generous and assume he spent thirty minutes on our share of things completely hidden to us too (although, if so then he wasn't working enough hours to service all of his rooms to an equal standard). To me, this seemed like beyond generous remuneration.

Whilst he was generally friendly eventually, he made the mistake of starting the meet and great with an argument and so sealed his fate at that moment in terms of our paying him anything extra - if I could have paid him nothing at all that would have been my choice.

Paying extra for a pillow here would have fallen in the "you've got to be joking" category even had the attendant been World-class; which he most assuredly was not.

One of the staff was lamenting the low speed of the Internet on Radiance a couple of weeks ago; they likened it to being in the bad bits of the Caribbean. Around New Zealand it maxed out at around 1.5 mb/s but managed nearly twice that near Australia. Not fast enough to stream anything for most of the trip but capable of downloading a few shows overnight ready for watching the next day.

When I booked the deluxe package for our last cruise it was around 30% cheaper if 9.30pm was selected as the dining time. That was the time I close and once on board I changed all of the reservations to 6pm. That price was only available for a few days once bookings opened and then not repeated that I saw.

It’s not as simple as described. Last week RCL were billing me gratuities on an Aussie cruise even when it said on my invoice that gratuities were included in the fare.

Why did this happen? I never discovered. Solving the problem was simple enough, having tried for two long with customer services I emailed the RCL CEO and the problem went away very quick;y after that.

Both working with 23 to 25 days’ annual leave. Tend to spend half of that cruising, but like one cruise a year since the airfare out of NZ tends to be a significant part of the cost. Our first cruise many years ago cost about $1,500 for the cruise component plus $10,000 to get to the wharf return. Airfares are lower now but still it’s a major cost and as we’ve aged we’ve moved forward on the plane too...

And talking to German guests about a wall?! Some people are just plain stupid.

It’s near universally know amongst well educated people that general knowledge of the type you’re eluding to is generational. A signficant proportion of people alive today do not know about, have never had cause to hear about, or simply will not remember the connection you are making.

As of yesterday, there was in our GS.

Tipping is never required in New Zealand. If you are in an area where US tourists congregate then restaurants may asked for a tip but they’re just trying their luck - it is absolutely not required to tip. The minimum wage is around $11 USD per hour and hospitality workers are all earning at least that amount; more than enough to live comfortably in NZ.

And, remember that the $11 they get also includes universal health care and many other benefits too; NZ looks after it’s population with the costs met through high taxes on those that earn well.

Have done it on a smaller ship. The menu is a cut-down version of the dinner menu. If you are happy with the reduced selection offered then you’ll be fine since it’s otherwise the same food cooked in the same way. For us these lunches were included in our ultimate dining package.

My saga on the Radiance continues. Earlier today I noticed I was being billed daily gratuities, which is fine except my RCCL invoice states ever so clearly that my fare includes gratuities; being I’m a kiwi and we like the Aussies are charged up front.

I tried to resolve this over the phone with guest services but they did not believe me what was written on my invoice. They asked me to come and see them to prove I was not lying (I’m on level 10, they are on 4 and they are doubting my integrity). Now, what would you do if asked to waste time proving you’re not a crook? What I did was counter and offer that they come to my room or that I email them the invoice. Nope - neither option was good enough. So, I emailed the office of the CEO instead and within a couple of hours the problem was sorted with an extremely apologetic hotel director wanting this problem to go away.

On the one level the service here was fantastic and indeed World Class but at the same time it had earlier been extraordinarily poor. The presumption of dishonesty does not sit well with me at all. I guess the issue as so often happens in my experience is that the frontline folk you have to deal are sometimes not quite good enough. It would have been ever so easy for the experience here to have been fantastic but instead the person I had to deal with decided that great customer service was a secondary function of their role.

The people running the show on the ship seem to be very good and extremely customer focused. This is true of the vast majority of the others I have come across. I’m left impressed by the ability to recruit and retain such lovely people. There is a bad apple in the barrel though and I hope they get the training they appear to need to have a more positive attitude towards their guests.

It was right here that I learned when sailing RCCL the need or sensibility to carry around copies of what the terms were when purchases were made. Hence I have my invoice and by so doing have saved $980 that I otherwise would have been paying twice.

I was suspicious yesterday morning in the concierge lounge as a team came past to spray white foam cleaner across every surface. Sure enough in the evening the announcement came that 40 people had seen the ship’s doctor with symptoms; presumably meaning many more are sick but not wanting to be quarantined. Servers now in place at the buffet. This seems to happen on average every fourth cruise we take.

Gold cards open the diamond lounge door too. This isn’t advertised and generally there is no point but if you want a peak at how steerage travel then you’ve the golden ticket in your hand.

There is no limit really. If you take too much stuff then your room will be cluttered - that is all.

We were given the $50 allowance for the package we booked last night on Radiance. The reservation card in the room left for us listed the allowance as $50 too. I managed the $50 but the rest of the family were well short. I had difficulty standing after the meal... Really the $50 allowance is too much - only a pig like me can get to that number.

Well said. As OP said they are restocking at one of ports, not where they sailed from. This is probably the norm, I also have noticed this happen...

It was supposed to restock at the first port (Auckland). Instead they loaded the “forgotten” 320 tons of supplies on day three at the next port. Apparently the supplies were late into Auckland (I booked 18 months ago,and that was not long enough to get things to where they neede to be - the weather in Auckland had been pristine leading up and so not the cause of delay).

Some of our American friends are louder at complaining that us Kiwis and some poor waitress in Giovanni’s had to calm a very loud texan who was describing his steak as the worst he’d had in his life. He wasn’t happy with the dregs from the last cruise and fair enough too.

I really don’t think that such a supply chain screw up is good enough and so I emailed the office of the CEO to express this and sure enough the following evening the food and beverage director was apologizing to me in the concierge lounge.

This is a ship to avoid in the future. Those running the ship have allowed all stock of various items to completely run out. So, no frozen drinks, no ice cream (of the no-sugar variety), restrictions on the pasta you can order at Giovani’s and so on. Apparently, they will restock tomorrow, but since tomorrow is only day 3 of a 14 day cruise the situation is pretty pathetic. Of course, they have an excuse - it’s one where the punch line is that passengers pay for experiences the cruise line can’t deliver.

PNG is the better destination imo; it's much more interesting and when we went we were treated to topless teen dancing girls (which may or may not appeal, but I enjoyed the show). The scenery is fantastic and the locals super friendly - every single local you walk past will say "hello" with a big genuine smile. The place is lush and green and just like you'd expect a tropical jungle to look like.

New Caledonia is pleasant but nothing special.

I recommend avoiding P&O - it's a bottom-tier cruise line and imo they compromise on everything they can and have far too many up sells.

I've skipped ports. I recall having swine flu off of the coast of Mexico (which seemed fitting) and I lay in bed for a couple of days. I missed a good stop but realistically on those days I was going nowhere. The lesson I learned here was never rationalise a cheap cabin on the basis you'll never be in it. That was out last inside cabin - we now only use suites.

Well the policy is blatantly discriminatory, and I love that it is. It's obscene that you sometimes can't book a suite because some low-life who has no firm intention of going on the cruise has booked them out. A 25% non-refundable deposit would work for me; and if you really can't go then that's what travel insurance is for.

Kids are absolutely allowed in the CK if sailing in a suite since they are elite passengers just like the others who can enter as of right; steerage passengers on the other hand (of any age) can only get in if a suite passenger invites them.