mr walker

Hope everyone had a great Christmas & Boxing Day. Just relaxing now as it is just Tracey & I here now. Our sons have just left after Christmas yesterday (with Mum) & the annual leftovers lunch ( after bacon & eggs rolls for brekkie) & watching the cricket as had become our Boxing Day tradition.

Cheers to all

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

Enjoy your Slim Dusty Christmas music.  Have you visited his Museum?  

Hope you have a wonderful family Christmas.

Yes we have been to the Kempsey Centre - my Dad & I have both been 'Mates of Slim Dusty' club members for some years. Since dad passed in 2016 we have kept his membership current - he would have liked that.

Thanks Marion - my Mum will be joining us. She's 87 so we need to make the most of every Christmas.

We hope you also have a wonderful Christmas

Julie, your day in Lyttelton sounds like a 'it's a tough gig, but someone's gotta do it' scenario. Helpful to read your comments on Lyttelton, as we will have our first visit there in March (Ovation OTS) & likely we will just take a look around there as we've visited ChCh a number of times. Cafe, pub.... all sounds fine 🙂

Enjoy Christmas at Sea tomorrow.

No Pies for us at the moment 🙂  We are preparing for Christmas lunch tomorrow with today's tasks including cooking up the beef & pork in the convection oven. We also will have ham & chicken & enough salads to feed everyone, at least.

While we are preparing this, we are listening to Christmas music, including my present to myself (I know it's not Christmas until tomorrow, but I'm as 65 year old kid 🙂 ) - the Slim Dusty "Christmas on the Station" CD, just released in time for Chrissie. The recordings were done 50 years ago (Slim passed in 2003) & the music is most appropriate for an Aussie Christmas. My favourite so far is 'Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy' which brings back memories.

Lyle, for your trip down-under you will need to familarise yourself with Slim Dusty.

Oh, to finish up our lunch we had a fruit mince pie each, so we are still on track with pies.

Merry Christmas to all.

I recall our tour of Speights in 2013 as best brewery tour I’ve done. The samples at the end just kept flowing. At one point I suggested that we should maybe head out to get the bus back to ship. Our host said “no need to go so quickly, you’re bus isn’t even here yet & they won’t go without you”. Another couple of samples & I had to cross my legs on the way to ship 😁

She’s backed out & turned to head off

Hi Les, trust you are doing OK mate. Just a quick note wishing you & your family all the best for the Festive Season from Tracey & me.

Hope to catch up with you maybe in February.

Take care mate - we, along with all your friends here on the Aus/NZ board of CC, are thinking of you. 

Cheers

We have used the RC laundry service a number of times & never had them lose anything or any issues - they even hung my T-shirts on hangers😦. Yes, it costs but it is what it is. I don't have any item of clothing that cost $2.25 - I'm not sure you can buy a hankie for that these days??

The funniest time was when we boarded the ship in Seattle for our Alaskan cruise & handed our steward a full bag of dirty laundry - he looked at us as if we were crazy - we bring our dirty washing  on to the ship?? We had done a 10 day land tour immediately prior & you can only carry so much luggage! And we were going to be onboard for the next 32 days [B2B2B] home to Sydney

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We really do have one of the best tables in the Dining Room. We scored the window seats last night (we all agreed to take turns) and had wonderful wake views.

It's always great when tablemates agree to take turns, either by rotating thru or just a 'no-one can seat in the same seat until they have sat in all the others' approach. On a large table (8-10) it also helps everyone to spend time with everyone else.

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We really do have one of the best tables in the Dining Room. We scored the window seats last night (we all agreed to take turns) and had wonderful wake views.

It's always great when tablemates agree to take turns, either by rotating thru or just a 'no-one can seat in the same seat until they have sat in all the others' approach. On a large table (8-10) it also helps everyone to spend time with everyone else.

3 hours ago, nnps said:

My guess would be that to enter the waters of the National Park they had to have had a cleaning within a certain time frame and that this had been overlooked. 

Sounds like a definite possibility.

I was once on a transpacific flight and clearance was delayed as some 'treatment' was past the specified date. The flight crew came thru the cabin spaying aerosol cans of something 😦

Great thing to do.

The company I worked with & recently retired from have been donating to Buy a Bale for several years now in support of the farmers. The donation is on behalf of our staff & our customers. 

Even though I'm retired, the company have asked me to arrange again this year - I still do some contract work for them. It is my job for today!

Hope you and Rolf have a great cruise - enjoy!!

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

Yeh those cougars,uncle Les has wised me up.

 

Now for the OBC .

I cashed out $400US on last Tuesday so it does still work .

Now to explain how , I sure someone is going say I’m wrong.

The casino is different to the ship ,it’s casino Royal, I believe it has links to MGM gaming.

What you have to do is transfer money from your Ship account (RCCL)to the casino (Casino Royal).
It’s a legitimate expense against your ship account and now it can be cashed out .

You can get a instruction card from the cashier but here’s what it looks like.
 

 

Dard board,I don’t really know.

Cheers Chilli - Merry Christmas!

16 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

I have a 2 night sampler cruise coming up and I have a pretty good OBC I want to cash out .

Are the casinos open? The ship will probably just be off the coast.

 

 

15 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

$500 U.S .non refundable.

We have a suite and it was lifted and shifted from a couple of years ago.
It’s mine and I want it .

 

come on @arxcardsyou have a answer to everything.

Hi Chilli, I'm interested in this also. For our March Ovation NZ cruise we have quite a nice amount of OBC that I can't see us spending too much of as we are not likely to take ship tours or pay for specialty dining etc, and, with our 8 C&A drinks between us, our drinks bill won't use up the credit.

So apart from maybe the extended version of North Star we won't spend too much, and it seems a waste to just spend for the sake of using up the credit.

Did you do North Star?

Random question - did you notice if they had a darts board in the pub onboard? Maybe you were busy keeping you distance from the Chinese ladies or the cougars 😦

Cheers

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I don't understand this line of thinking.  I give my donations to charity, not to cruise lines which don't have my best interest in mind.  Most of my cruises weren't sold in Australia. 

Most people recognise that, yes, the revenue from your fare will end up at the cruise company, but what has that to do with the point? What we are discussing is the TA commission they receive from the total payment for handling the booking & how that's better to be received by a local TA than an OS one as it keeps Aussie businesses (many of which are small ones) afloat & provides employment and business for other local businesses.

If most of your cruises were not sold in Australia then of course there was no opportunity to use a local TA, so your point is moot.

Give an Aussie your business & keep people in jobs.

Note: I am not a TA nor affiliated in any way with one.

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

The seas have been pretty wild for the last week down there .Ovations outer decks where closed to passengers for most of the time.

 

It does make you wonder how someone could go over the side accidentally.

Whoever wrote the updated story on this that I read just now, clearly thinks this was an on-purpose rather than an accident as they listed suicide service contact details at the end of the piece.

9 hours ago, NSWP said:

My thoughts today are for the two murdered Qld Police Officers in Chinchilla Qld.  A tragedy.

Condolences to family and work colleagues. a Civilian neighbour was also killed.

 

The alleged offenders have been shot and killed by Qld Police following a siege.

 

Rest in peace comrades.

 

 

It was terrible news to wake up to. As you know Les, our son is in the force, which always makes it even rawer for us. So young & with their whole lives to live.RIP to those gunned down & our wishes to their families & friends & their colleagues.

And today just around the corner from our home, former commissioner Tony Lauer’s funeral was held, so a huge turnout of the boys & girls in blue. 
Hope you are doing alright mate

11 minutes ago, resordanis said:

Yes still true. We have enjoyed the Orchestra on the last two evenings! Unfortunately for us, lots of comedians too!

Comedy is, I think, the hardest of all forms of entertainment, as people have so many different tastes & senses of humour.

We look forward to hearing the live music of the orchestra in March!

14 hours ago, resordanis said:

We are also on the next cruise and exactly the same as the last two. Very repetitive and get very boring!

The 'Broadway style' production shows remain in place for several years, so repeat cruising will mean they will be the same year on year. The fly-in entertainers will rotate around from ship to ship & it is luck of the draw who you may get on any particular cruise & the in-house bands/entertainers are there for months. 

We did B2B2B for 34N at one time & saw some of the same entertainment, including the fly-in performers, who, at times join for the end of 1 cruise & say on for the next one. Sometimes we would see them more than once and other times not. We saw a magician and then went to his show again on the next cruise to try and work out how he did some of the tricks 🙂 

On that trip they had a 'special' show where the two stars of the production show did a one-off show together where they sang - one of them had been on Idol or similar. 

We mostly enjoy the entertainment & the fact that RC have a live orchestra rather than canned music like some other lines - we hope this is still the case post- Covid.

4 hours ago, marinating said:

Hi, spoke to his nurse this morning, still needing to be on oxygen and having IV antivirals, his blood pressure keeps dropping so they have had to take him of most of his cardiac meds at this stage. 
See what the next 24 hours brings, thanks for asking after Dennis. 

Sorry to read of your problems. Best wishes for a quick recovery & that you are both good to go soon.

On 12/7/2022 at 7:17 AM, buchhalm said:

Well, a few days ago two large ships that were (according to the schedule from Sydney ports) to leave at 4 pm, didn't leave until after 9pm.

So basically a whole day of cruising gone. And perhaps  wasted day of drinks package 

On 12/8/2022 at 4:58 AM, gbenjo said:

How is 5 hours a whole day of cruising? Pax would still have been on board by about 5 pm or earlier.

yes I was thinking I wouldn't want to buy carpet by the metre from buchhalm 🙂 

4 hours ago, Cruisers47 said:

It was mentioned in a written news report from channel 7 but then it has been repeated on news.com.au.

 

if this is incorrect it should be corrected with an apology as it puts the wind up people like me who are cruising over Christmas.   We are flying to Perth to do an Azamara cruise which ends in Sydney,

I saw it on 9 news early morning - 1,500. By the time of news update later on, the subject was not even mentioned

Thinking of you Les.  Best wishes mate - we’re hoping you are on the mend soon, we can catch up again soon.

please keep us all updated when you can, and keep posting on here as many of us look forward to your input!

cheers