MrYellowDuck

In defense of RCL, it's a third party contractor administering the survey. So not 100% blame to the cruise lines (Royal/Azamara/X) but obviously reflects poorly on RCL.

It's no defence since RCL will have signed off the questions.

Waiotapu by a million miles.

Princess is the more refined of the options. P&O Australia is like Ryanair.

We organised a tour via "Play A Round in Tassie": https://sites.google.com/a/bethelfarm.com/play-a-round-in-tassie/

Robyn was the consummate host and tailored the day to our liking. She picked us up and dropped us back near the ship and we had a great day seeing lots of things. I don't recall the price but it was very reasonable for a private all-day excursion.

We too are not interested in visiting wineries and so Robyn planned other things for us to do. As a private excursion this would be one of the best we've done.

There are reviews over on TripAdvisor: https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Attraction_Review-g504286-d2433472-Reviews-Play_A_Round_in_Tassie_Day_Tours-Burnie_Tasmania.html#REVIEWS

Here is my review at the time:

We had a very enjoyable day in Burnie and surrounds. We were cruise ship passengers and Robyn was waiting for us as we stepped off the bus transferring us from the ship to the visitors' centre. Transport was via an immaculately presented Mazda 4wd.

Ahead of the excursion we had requested the sorts of things we did and didn't want to do and Robyn delivered perfectly. Robyn stocks her vehicle with drinks for along the way and she customised these to our particular tastes too.

During our trip we saw a lovely waterfall, farmland with crops including opium poppies (apparently Tasmania grows half of the world's legal crop), a boutique chocolate factory, cherry shop, a quaint family owned wildlife park, and a number of the towns along the coast. Lunch was our choice and so we ate fish and chips with Robyn by a nice river.

At the wildlife park we stroked a wombat, Tasmanian devil, and a koala. We also fed kangaroos, goats and some fish.

Robyn had us back at the visitors' centre about 45 mins before the final bus back to the ship. This gave us time to look around the centre before returning to the ship having used all available time off of the ship and seeing the sights.

Paying 200% is still likely very fair. Solo cruisers only buy single tickets to speciality restaurants, only one drink package, only only ticket per shore excursion, items only for themselves in the shops and so on. Since the RCL pricing model is to have a low starting price with many people then paying considerably more for extras it's likely the case that even at twice the per-person couple's sticker price RCL will be making less money than if there were two passengers.

On the off-ship itinerary almost certainly it will be local time. Once on the ship the times may get restated in "ship's time" which may differ to local time in situations where the ship is moving in and out of timezones and the desire is not to have passengers keep adjusting their sleeping habits.

On our recent trip on Explorer the internet ran at dead-snail speed or slower for the entire trip. This was Sydney return to Pacific Islands. Berthed at Sydney it took more than a minute to load the Amazon landing page; it was downhill from there as the ship set off into the wild.

Closer to 500m along the flat with wide open pedestrian access for all but the last little bit. This couldn't be easier unless you have mobility issues or a massive amount of luggage.

Is it just me or is the title of this option a slap in the face to anyone who eats in the MDR? They might as well say the MDR has lousy food and the guests who eat there are stupid.

Just you :D. We upgrade every dinner and so just think of this as a small but welcomed discount.

Been in there a couple of times, so where are they moving their plant to? The Phillipines or Vietnam ?

Are the Australian Cadbury factories in Darwin too?

How does the towel removal policy work with the policy of charging for towels that aren't returned?

Simple; they lose their seat and get a $25 fine.

The included food on Princess is significantly better than on RCL. RCL included food is like that which you find at the very cheapest buffets / restaurants on land. So long as you're willing to pay for the up-sell food options then you'll be fine; if not you'll be left thinking you should have sailed on Princess.

And how does this help the original poster?

By modeling a set of behaviors that if followed will ensure no future repeat.

News reports have been updated, the explosion was on board the Emerald Princess near the stern of the ship. Are you able to edit the subject of this thread to include this information?

I don't think I can edit the title.

I'm glad to hear that you're being charged for the inconvenience that you're creating. $65 seems far too little to me.

Different ship, but sitting berthed in Sydney on Explorer it took two minutes to load the Amazon landing page. In the dead of night this got down to around thirty seconds later in the cruise. This was on the "surf" package.

Alaska is our favourite. It's quite similar to home in terms of scenery and the weather is very much to my liking i.e. it's cool and not too sunny.

When I've popped into the buffet to refill my soda I've always seen lots of smiling faces and overloaded plates. RCL must be getting this about right for most people.

For me though the food is by and large below the standard I'll willing eat. Some of it's pretty good but the majority isn't. This is fine, we just pay for the better meals each evening.

The economics of filling these large ships requires that a lot of people are not paying very much; there aren't enough affluent people who want to cruise to fill these ships. Since so many are paying next to nothing the included food options need to cost next to nothing for a profit to be turned; those who normally eat without budgetary constraint are certainly going to notice the quality issue but this is not the majority of passengers.

RCL is essentially running a class structure - there's the "steerage" experience and the "first class" experience; as has happened time immemorial on ships both set of passengers can be accommodated at the same time.

It's illegal to wear a tie to dinner if the cruise originates from Australia. The penalty is so severe that nobody risks getting caught.

Queue skipping is our favourite part.

Explorer's last cruise went to Mystery Island instead; the issue with Mare was water pollution as others said.

I saved around $1k on my next booking during one of the weekly sales; we're a family in a GS and I just had to wait for a sale doing something meaningful for the kids - I rebooked and then cancelled my original booking.

A highlight of the cruise really was the live theatre provided for a group of us as we disembarked today. A group of about 15 of us were following the concierge out skipping the queue as suites are allowed to do. There were so few of us it really didn't make a difference.

A somewhat frail nasty loud argumentative man decided to try to block us, shouting at others to help him. What I wonder did he think he would achieve?

Jiro was about $20 NZD a piece and so I guess at Izumi prices you'd get two pieces. I'd pay for 20 pieces for dinner in a heartbeat if they matched the standard.

If they're freezing their fish then there is no chance of the sushi being good. Life expectancy and health in old age are better in Japan than the US and so the freezing of sushi fish isn't helping by the look of it.

The only land based sushi I've eaten has been from Japan, NZ and Australia. I know now not to bother even trying next time I'm in the US.