mr walker

2 hours ago, onlyslightlymad said:

I think tipping is about power.  .....  Tipping gives you more power and them less power.  I'd rather pay a higher cruise fare up front and I do.  I love pre-paid gratuities.  I just wish the add-on fee could be dropped and included in the fare in the first place.

 

Wow! Really?? So giving a crew member some $'s in appreciation of their efforts is abuse??

Your post has caused me to break one of my 'rules' of not commenting on tipping threads.

On our recent cruise (where we had already 'paid' the tips included in our fare), we tipped, in cash, on the last evening, our room steward, our dining room waitress & the guy who served us on the pool deck throughout in appreciation of the extra efforts they made to look after us and help us enjoy our cruise. None of them knew we were to do this, and the tip was accepted with great appreciation.

Perhaps the IT people ‘fixed’ the app or it comes good after completing first cruise using new app??

Since we returned Majestic 23 Feb, I see now that the app remembers my info, keeps me signed in & allows easily toggling between each of our 2 booked cruises.

For our next cruise Royal 30Nov all I need to do to complete check-in is accept passage contract - all the other data is pre-filled.

On cruise ships it is always a dilemma of clockwise or anti clockwise (even counterclockwise) & walk on left or right. Perhaps they are inter-related?

I often think that I’m glad I’m on a ship & not on a road😁

And don’t get me started on shopping trolleys in supermarkets 😳

12 minutes ago, Fleetsailor said:

Thought I'd break the ice and get to know folks on this cruise, we are a ways off but there is a lot to talk about because it's a long cruise.

Thanks Fleetsailor

You must be boarding in Brisbane. We will be somewhat settled in as we board in Sydney on 16th. Looking forward to it & hope to meet you.

Only 587 days to go 😳

Cheers Neil

18 hours ago, NSWP said:

Hi all, well after a hectic few weeks, I moved into my new digs last Thursday. Got NBN connected yesterday. All good so far. Ample room for Uncle Les and nice people thus far in other units/villas.

 

It was 40C when I moved last Thursday, nightmare but did it.  I think I need a cruise !!

 

Time for happy hour with my new neighbours.

 

Lyle, sorry to hear about Lyn's Mum.

Good to hear from you mate.

Bit of a lifestyle change, I'm sure you will settle in well & enjoy yourself in the new surroundings.

Hope to be down your way later in the year & hope to catch up then

Cheers Neil & Tracey

Recently returned from our 13N Majestic Princess Sth Pacific cruise 10-23 Feb Sydney roundtrip. It was our first Princess cruise since 2017 & our 3rd cruise for the 23-24 season. I make some points:

-          Embarking was very fast & we were soon on the ship after shuttle drop-off around noon, having a light lunch in the buffet before dropping our carry-on in our cabin.

-          We had a deluxe balcony stateroom mid-aft starboard on deck 11 (Baja). Room was excellent & location, just aft of the middle lifts/stairs, was perfect for us. The stateroom was selected for us by our PCP Gellie (good choice!!)

-          We found the ship very much to our liking. Well laid out and all staff encountered were very pleasant and very enthusiastic to please. Rarely was there any crowding, even with some poor weather which kept a lot indoors at times.

-          We had Standard fare only, so no drink or internet packages, but it all worked well for us & our on-board bill was within budget 😀

-          Our cabin guy (Dwi from Indonesia) was excellent (fun, friendly and did a great job), & our dining room waiter (Paula from Brazil) & the assistants in dining room (Allegro) were very good with nothing being too much trouble. The restaurant managers were more visible and interactive with the guests than on any of our previous cruises.

-          Of all our cruises, on this cruise the visibility of the ship’s officers was much higher than we have seen before.

-          Always easy to get a drink or something to eat around the ship. DW thoroughly recommends the lobster roll from the grill on the pool deck (there was a charge for this, but well worth it). Our ‘personal’ pool deck steward (Soumen from India) was great.

-          We did breakfast in the dining room on a few days which was a good way to avoid the Marketplace buffet at busy times, and also helped with portion control 😉

-          We thought the food overall, choice & quality, was the best we have had on our 20+ cruises. I really enjoyed the soup offerings and it was always a challenge to choose from the many delicious desserts. The menu in Allegro for Valentine’s Day dinner was really great. We met some people who we ended up dining with for most of the cruise & we tried between us to pick the best ‘menu’ offered but many of them we almost equally as good, so hard choice.

-          Our 5 ports were Port Vila, Suva, Lautoka, Dravuni Is (missed due to weather) & Noumea. We stayed on-board in Suva as the weather was terrible that day. Many came back onboard drenched.

-          The CD and her team were excellent – they all were like entertainers themselves. The theatre shows were great, as were the guest singers, including the Elvis guy. The guest lecturers were very good & the events were well attended. We did note that Princess passengers really do attend the nightly shows – each & every show was packed for both sessions, something that we have not really seen before. You had to be there 30mins before to be sure to get a seat! We gave the comedian & hypnotist a miss – not our cup of tea.

-          We did many trivias etc (even managed to win one! – Country Music) & enjoyed our time as a team of just the 2 of us.

-          Travelling as just the 2 of us meant that on this cruise we met a lot of interesting and friendly people from all around the world. We took part in a shot-glass exchange event organised by one of the passengers, which was fun & we met some people from other places at the event.

-          Disembarking worked well (very well organised) & we were soon back on land 

-          Very pleasant cruise and we were sad it all ended so quickly. Did we enjoy it? Maybe – we confirmed our booking for Grand Princess 37N in Oct 2025 while on-board & have since booked Royal Princess cruise to TAS in Nov/Dec 2024.

Cheers Neil

3 hours ago, colourbird said:

I found they are over cautious and will sometimes impound compliant power boards.

By RC stated rules (as quoted above by ceeceeDee) there at no compliant powerboards.

Staff at screening are not qualified electricians to determine surge protected or not, so a blanket ban is applied.

20 minutes ago, dazadelaide said:

Hi,

Is it correct that you can pay your final bill with cash in $US on RCL?

We have only ever paid on other cruises with a credit card but we have a bit of $US left from a previous trip that I would like to use.

Thanks

Daz

 

Yes, you can pay in cash onboard at any time. Some people go straight & put money on their account straight after boarding.

We once had a windfall when one of our party won a bingo jackpot, with winnings shared by prior agreement. The payout was in cash US$ & we took it straight to Guest Services & paid down our onboard account - happy days as it felt like we had a free cruise 😀

42 minutes ago, arxcards said:

On a longer cruise though, on a nice run of lazy sea days, sitting on a balcony with delivered cocktails and snacks would make it worthwhile.

Well, we have now booked 37N Grand Princess Fiji/Hawaii/Tahiti/Samoa/NI for Oct/Nov 2025 - plenty of seadays on that - delivered drinks & snacks on our balcony sounds attractive. 😁

20 hours ago, arxcards said:

Just to note, the Ocean Now ordering does work with standard fares as well, but you pay a $30 one-off activation fee.

 

Now we have just completed a cruise, I have switched to the new app. No issues at all.

Yes, I knew there was something about an activation fee, but didn't worry about it. We mostly have a drink at a table by the pool or in a bar lounge somewhere. There is always someone coming around taking orders & bringing the drinks to us, so no need to use the app. After a little time, we get to know the staff and they look after us.

Also, we noted a number of times that the waiter was wandering around the area calling out "Mary" or "John" trying to find the person who ordered the drinks 🙂 

Sorry to hear of Lynn’s mother’s passing - always hard losing family. Our condolences go out to you both - Neil & Tracey

Recently back from first cruise with Princess App - Majestic Princess 10-23rd Feb. With new app, had to log in with booking number (login wouldn't work) but app worked fine for us pre & during cruise. We only had standard fare so no use of app for 'extras' like ordering drinks for delivery to table etc, but boarding pass worked fine, the folio function was fine, checking the schedule for shows & activities and bookmarking events was all good & the 'find your travel partner function' was unexpectedly accurate. 

Shortly after disembarking the cruise details were gone & the new one (booked onboard) had replaced it - 600 days to embarkation was a surprise 🙂 

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Yes, it is next week.

Enjoy your trip Mic & Rosie - stay safe.

About 10 years ago we opened a CBA Travel Money Card account & put US$ on it. We have lodged it for all our USD cruises (RC) to cover our onboard cruise account & the final payment taken out by the ship has always been exactly our final invoice amount without us having to do a thing.

We have also used it for restaurant bills etc when in US, again with no additional charges.

Note: in the 10 years we have had to top up the amount in our account once or twice 🙂  

On 2/20/2024 at 8:02 PM, arxcards said:

Once upon a time we used to spend long weekends travelling with friends. A map of NSW was taped to the wall, and one of us threw a dart. We had lots of great times in places we wouldn't have given a 2nd look. 

This reminded me of when our kids were young we went on what we called a "dice tour" that we made up loosely based on a TV show we had seen. We spent a week travelling around by car based on directions decided by rolling a dice that decided in which direction we were to go. From home it was no point in heading E (not far to ocean from Penrith 🙂 ), so first roll was 1 or 2 was N, 3 or 4 was W etc & we would use the same process each morning, leaving out of the options the direction we had travelled from the day before. We made up rules like we couldn't stay the night in the same place we had lunch. We travelled down the NSW Sth Coast & across to Canberra and then back home, following the dice directions. Tracey & I really enjoyed it - the boys not so much. At one point they insisted a rule mod to 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 would send us home 🙂 We still talk of this today.

BOT, yes, I share the frustrations of the options available to search for cruises.

Just off Majestic Princess (13N Sth Pacific 10-23rd) yesterday. No cyclones for us but a persistent low pressure system around Fiji caused some poor weather for our cruise. A bit bumpy & windy, with a fair amount of rain, in transit to & fro and around Fiji.

Very wet for the Suva port stop, rain late in day in Lautoka and Dravuni Is cancelled due to swell. Vila was nice day and lovely day in Noumea on Tuesday.

3 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

I’m thinking virgin and Disney are taking some business off Royal Caribbean and that’s one of the reasons we only have two ships next season.

New competition is surely one reason , but I think the decisions were made before Disney or VV had a chance to make too much difference. Overall competition, priorities in other markets, falling $A, environmental pressures & lack of Sydney wharf capacity would all likely be part of it.

I'm hoping for a 5-6N roundtrip from Sydney in 1st half Dec '25 - don't really care where it goes. 

9 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Drinks? Shorex?

Oh, we will be sure to have a few drinks 🙂 We likely will be just local cruising in Aus, so wouldn't normally use ship excursions for port visits. Maybe a ship logo shirt or two to add to the collection 🙂 

1 hour ago, lyndarra said:

Made by Arnotts.

Featured in recent TV commercial - bloke under car saying "I don't really care". Can't remember what it was about, insurance? Probably not screened in NZ.

 

That's become my favourite ad, as the guy in the ad reminded me so much of a good mate Brian who we called Bruce (same name as the ad). And our mate Bruce passed away late Nov after a battle with cancer 😪

I was telling someone about the ad & the iced vovo's and couldn't even remember that the ad was for insurance😮

I brought a pack in Bruce's honour and was disappointed to see that the biscuits seemed to have shrunk since the last time I had them some years past now.

We ignored the original hype, including the TV 'doco' & expected that Virgin Voyages would not be something we would do.

My sister & BIL recently did a Mel-Burnie-Hobart-Mel cruise and raved about the whole cruise experience - they have done several cruises on various lines. So taken with the experience, she called me from the ship saying that she just bought a FCC (or whatever Virgin call it) for US$300 (A$450) which counts as deposit on future cruise, a US$300 discount on the fare & US$600 OBC. She said she can get one for us - same deal.

We bit the bullet and said go ahead - another sister & BIL also did the same. You only live once, right?

So, we have invested A$450 & now have to try and find a cruise that suits before end-Jan '26 & we will then become 'sailors' - ahoy, matey. Our placeholder cruise shows as departing Miami 1st Jan 2050 😮 One thing I need to understand is that it seems pretty much all is included in the fare, so how do we spend $600 OBC on a 3-4-5 night cruise??

Let's see how this all goes!!!!

6 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Virgin sailors don't read apparently.

well not books anyway 🙂 

Hopefully they are revising the itineraries to make them more roundtrip than different start/end points and a little longer.

We have a FCC (or whatever they call it) to be used within 2 years and am looking for a Syd/Syd cruise for maybe 7 days.

It is interesting to read all your stories on accents - it has something I have long had an interest in.

I once worked here in Sydney with a couple who were from England who had worked as entertainers at the old English holiday camps like Butlins. The guy claimed to be able to identify people to the village of their origin in England just from a few words. It was his party trick & he said that each person he met would have a different local accent & he had a very high strike rate in correctly identifying their origin.

Another elderly guy I worked with had a very broad Scottish accent, making it very difficult to understand at all. We thought he must have come to Australia late in life to have such a broad accent. Imagine our surprise to learn he moved to Australia at the age of 6, more than 60 years earlier! We theorised he must have practised his accent each day to keep it intact 🙂 

57 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I cannot handle tennis. Cricket and golf for me, always. But rain at the Gabba, so doubt any play today.

It might fine up in Brisvegas later for the test Les 🤞