Antonintassie

Hi Sydney / Melbourne is a high demand route ,Virgin or Qantas are good solid products ,be aware this is a long flight by Euro /UK standards so you may want to look at seat location if you want some legroom.It is unlikely prices will drop if at all .I fly to Perth for work and prices seem to be fairly stable and seats are always in demand

Hi all I'm hoping someone can give me some advice here.

My wife and I are coming from Scotland to do the Perth to Sydney Celebrity Solstice cruise in February 2015. Our international flights are booked however we are flying to Sydney to spend time with friends before we fly to Perth for the cruise. We haven't booked our Sydney to Perth flights yet (probably Quantas) but we've noticed that the prices are dearer then than they are just now. I'm not sure if I should wait till nearer the time to book but is the higher price due to the time of year or is it because it is so far ahead that prices haven't been reduced yet. Also is there an alternative carrier that you would recommend ie Virgin Australia. We have to take into consideration we will have in the region of 60kg of luggage between the 2 of us.

Any advice would be appreciated.

old and older

Hi

We have and would in the future only book suites as we enjoy the space and privacy that this gives us ,we can stay in our cabin if we choose or move about the ship.

Hi

This cruise has a fantastic roll call we are new cruisers and the people on the roll call have been extremely welcoming and helpful.

Kind Regards

Anthony

Hi Again sorry I did not realise you were referring to Port It would be normal for port authorities to be open 24/7 as it is a busy port.

If you have not previously stayed in Dubai it is worth some time as it is a fantastic place to visit

Hi Dubai I one of the most used and efficient airports in the world ,I fly in and multiple times per year it never closes .

You will find people most helpful if you require assistance

The "bar" is not really a term I would use to describe cruise ship venues it is generally a lounge with a drink service area with perhaps a few bar stools.

My son is 16 pays a full fair and stays in suites ,he is often better dressed and mannered than those of my age group(50).

In Australia ,UK ,Europe etc it is common for children to accompany their parents in licenced venues .

On our recent cruise on the Royal Princess as suite passengers we attended pre dinner drinks in Club 6 which is the Royal Princesses VIP lounge and received nothing but a warm welcome from the crew and fellow passengers.

It annoys me that some cruise passengers make wild claims about younger peoples behaviour when in my experience "bad manners and behaviour " spans all generations

quote=TommyD3;42647330]Don't know about the Elite Cocktail hour anymore since my "kids" are 30 +/-.

I was in the Michaels VIP lounge for 20 days on Connie recently.

There is no age limit there. There were several couples with under age kids in the lounge.

If the couple in the Penthouse has under age children with them they are welcome 24/7.

Also walking thru the Michaels Club I saw children (10 +/-) sitting AT THE BAR several times.

Obviously the kids were probably drinking soda pop.

I don't think Celebrity really cares anymore.....

Hi

I often carry mine when I travel for business ,or more often just the jacket as most of my suits matchup with jeans ,boots and a collared business shirt and the flight attendents hang it up on the plane .

Hi we have booked our first cruise with Celebrity (tried another brand was not for us)a 14 day cruise on the Eclipse Jan 4th in a suite .For the 3 of us it equates to $280.00 AUD per day per person.

We are not price sensitive travellers it is not unusual for use to pay $500 to $600 per night for a hotel room so cruising represents value .

I think the dilema with short cruises is that the air travel costs ( 12k) from Australia make many think about the time vs cost and effort.

We are looking forward to trying Celebrity and seeing if it will be our cruiseline of choice

Kind Regards

Anthony

PS thanks Andy you give excellent information

That is concerning I like many need email access for work ( self employed) so I can imagine how frustrating it would be to have 72 hours of the air

I travel with my 16 year old son and my DW and we are jeans and boots types ( as we work in heavy engineering ) that however does not stop us wearing a nice suit for the gents and gowns for my DW when we go out for after 5 events or in this case a formal dining evening.I struggle to understand the issue you dress for the environment.

Hi yes everywhere I used to load up abit before I boarded and this got me through the next couple of ports

Hi I live near Burnie ,you have lots of options close to town or alternatively rent a car ( the traffic is very light ) and explore places like Stanley ,Boat Harbour or even Cradle Mountain .

In relation to Port Arthur I suspect your tour is good value as it is a fair drive from Hobart if however you only have one day I would stay in the greater Hobart area ,the womens convict factory and a large number of colonial buildings are very close to the CBD

Hi All

Interesting article and posts ,we have only done one cruise (did not really impress) but have decided to give it another try with Celebrity .

We could if we wished book with any of the small ship cruiselines or 5 star land resorts but as we are a couple with an older teen we prefer to book a large suite for the three of us .This has proven to be diffucult to find with smaller ships as even the highest level of suites generally have less square metres or feet .We enjoy the suite perks and are looking forward to seeing how Celebrity delivers in Jan 2015 when we sail on Eclipse for our first Caribbean holiday.

Kind Regards

Anthony

Hi we go to Canada every 2nd year to Ski Vancouver is a great city and if you want you can go to places like Victoria as a d ay trip

Just be aware that the easy flight option home is Vancouver to Sydney direct with AC which can be pretty heavily booked Dec to Feb as ski tragics like our family tend to load it over school holidays

Hi everyone

 

We are cruising to Sydney to Hawaii in April 2015, and we are contemplating doing the next cruise. It will go from honolulu to Vancouver.

 

We have never been to Hawaii, or to Vancouver.

 

We will be travelling as a family, mum, dad and son 8 and daughter 7. On the first leg we will also have my mum and aunt with us.

 

Price wise we think it might work out an economical and easy way to see hawaii, plus we have always dreamed of going to Canada.

 

Is it too long on the one boat? What else should we consider?

Hi hope you make it sometime Burnie is often a port stop for HAL ,Princess ,PO and others

All The Best

Tony

Great Photo she was in Hobart the other day when I was in the city for work (we live on the other end of Tasmania Burnie) she looked fantastic

Hi

We were first time cruisers ,suite ,Royal Princess ,Mediterranean late forties I thought the survey was to little to late as was the post cruise feedback form which was obviously never read.

The cruise industry really does not seem to have a handle on where its client base has been or were it is going to come from in the future ,It is playing catchup with land based hotel and resort products as far a personalised guest services and preferences are concerned .

I afraid that Princess lost us pretty quickly into our cruise and we are trying another cruise product Celebrity to see if there is any major difference and if we continue to look at cruising or go back to other land based travel options

I was wondering if anyone else had filled out the Princess Survey from www8.intellisurvey.com?

Way too long and too detailed in my opinion and couldn't get through it all without having to refresh a lot.

I just stopped doing it because it became too long and frustrating to fill out.

:eek:

Hi Virgin Australia also fly LAX to Sydney good solid product non stop is around 13 hours aircraft is a 777-300er Qantas us an A380

Air New Zealand also have some good flights but they are all via NZ their new premium economy product is great

Kind Regards

Tony ( to many hours on planes)

Hi we have booked a CS suite for Jan 4 2015 I have to work whilst we travel and due to the big time difference it is often at night or very early morning

Is the little desk as you come in the only one ? Does the walk in robe have power and something low I can you use as a desk ?

Kind Regards

Tony

Hi

Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia both do premium economy from Aust to US ,Tahiti is a tricky place to get in and out of and a highly controlled route .

I would take the money and see if you can make Air New Zealand work for your timings their new premium economy product is great.

Hi

We are from Tasmania and I was in Hobart this year when Celebrity docked ,whilst we are a young state 1804 we have a strong history and an interesting geography I know you would love it .

Hi you can catch the hydrofoil from Sorrento to Capris and back to Naples also

Hi

We are in our late forties and able to travel anywhere we wish and have a suite booked on the Eclipse Jan 4th 2015 .

We tried cruising for the first time on the Royal Princess 10 day Med cruise and did not find ideal it lacked refinement in dining and entertainment (MUTS DROVE US NUTS) .

We decided to give cruising another chance after much debate and choose Celebrity as it offered the amenities of a big ship ,with what we hope will be a refined relaxing break .If we are the target demographic for some of the changes discussed in the article I think Celebrity will need to be careful to maintain a refined atmosphere on board whilst still expanding entertainment options to attract new clients and retain existing ones.

Kind Regards

Anthony

quote=Jane2357;42073634]I'll join you in the minority. I'm 56 - old to many of you and younger than some of you and I think that the industry has to keep evolving to keep up. Some won't like it and will move to a different line or stop cruising but many new cruisers will fill the void.

On my last cruise (Eclipse) you could see a trend, the more experienced (older?) cruisers spending little money and money is the name of the game. I'd be willing to pay extra for a special entertainment experience.

Hi

We cruised this area with our teenage son last Sept ,we picked a cruise with as few sea days as possible as it is really about the ports.

The 2 sea days we had we just rested our feet and chilled ,Europe is a fantastic destination with older kids