Bon Voyage World Cruisers 2010 ( thats better )

[Gaznjo]

we are slowly getting ourselves ready for next year.... I am organising for all our bills to be paid by direct debit and even our credit card... that way I will only have to visit our bank sites on few occassions while we are away... I have started collecting different currencies... everytime some goes overseas I tell them to keep the small notes and I will buy them off them.

 

In Sheree's blog from last year she gave some really good suggestion on what currency and how much to take.... when I read that someone only took $200 australian I was staggered as i take more than that when we go to the south pacific for 12 days LOL...

 

we have also chosen an inside cabin as we thought we could use the extra $12,000 on something else LOL.... We don't spend a lot of time the cabin and we found it comfortable enough on our last cruise... we do have these pangs that we would like a balcony or even a window ....... but once again the dollars speak.... so we wont be too stressed about the penny pinching...

 

Joanne

[Gaznjo]

 

i was hoping to capture one with a boat passing out the front

[Kiwi Kruzer]

we are slowly getting ourselves ready for next year.... I am organising for all our bills to be paid by direct debit and even our credit card...

 

Thats what we do too Joanne. We also have a second credit card, that we put into credit and then use that one at ATM's to withdraw any local currency we may need.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Thank you packetau for posting that web cam shoot!, We have been having power supply issues (We have already had 3 power cuts in 15mins!) out our way today.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Thank you packetau for posting that web cam shoot!, We have been having power supply issues (We have already had 3 power cuts in 15mins!) out our way today.

 

I heard about that.....some contractors evidently cut through an underground cable and cut East Auckland off.

All we have up here is the farmers protest on the Northern Highway slowing all the traffic for the big long weekend getaway:eek:

[Gaznjo]

I should have grabbed a shot this morning when she was sailing towards langkawi... dawn must of been breaking ( not the boat ) and the webcam has this unusual blue hue about it...

Joanne

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

Had a couple of emails from our 4 friends on board. All have inside cabins and are very comfortable with them.

Many on board, including our friends have colds and sore throats. Those sort of things go around like wild fire on ships. Also the temperatures outside are extremely hot and humid and inside very cool due to the airconditioning, that always makes for catching whatever is going around.

At least they are all having a great time and seems that everyone on board is 'young' at heart... how nice.

Jillybean:)

[Kiwi_cruiser]

I heard about that.....some contractors evidently cut through an underground cable and cut East Auckland off.

 

The power cut only lasted about 2 secs, but it was 2 secs 3 times! In 15 mins.

 

We are not having much luck with services at the moment as the previous weeks we had no water / low water presser as a water man burst.

 

All we have up here is the farmers protest on the Northern Highway slowing all the traffic for the big long weekend getaway:eek:

 

I am glad we are not going away this weekend!!

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

The power cut only lasted about 2 secs, but it was 2 secs 3 times! In 15 mins.

 

We are not having much luck with services at the moment as the previous weeks we had no water / low water presser as a water man burst.

 

 

 

I am glad we are not going away this weekend!!

 

 

Where abouts are you in Auckland? We used to live in Mairangi Bay many moons ago.

 

Jillybean:)

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Where abouts are you in Auckland? We used to live in Mairangi Bay many moons ago.

 

South / East Auckland.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I should have grabbed a shot this morning when she was sailing towards langkawi... dawn must of been breaking ( not the boat ) and the webcam has this unusual blue hue about it...

Joanne

 

I watched those too Joanne. Some nice shots of the Islands or mountains as they sailed in.

Lesson.. press that save button.

I should have as well.

 

Had a couple of emails from our 4 friends on board. All have inside cabins and are very comfortable with them. Many on board, including our friends have colds and sore throats. Those sort of things go around like wild fire on ships. Also the temperatures outside are extremely hot and humid and inside very cool due to the airconditioning, that always makes for catching whatever is going around.

 

This always seems to happen.

I finally realised this, and now when I go indoors, after being outsde in the heat , make sure I wrap up.

I got flamed about this once, but now when on board at night I always wear a singlet, and sometimes a light jersey , because as you move about the air conditioning can vary tremendously, and thats when you come down with colds etc.

[PRINCESS OZ]

we are slowly getting ourselves ready for next year.... I am organising for all our bills to be paid by direct debit and even our credit card... that way I will only have to visit our bank sites on few occassions while we are away... I have started collecting different currencies... everytime some goes overseas I tell them to keep the small notes and I will buy them off them.

 

In Sheree's blog from last year she gave some really good suggestion on what currency and how much to take.... when I read that someone only took $200 australian I was staggered as i take more than that when we go to the south pacific for 12 days LOL...

 

we have also chosen an inside cabin as we thought we could use the extra $12,000 on something else LOL.... We don't spend a lot of time the cabin and we found it comfortable enough on our last cruise... we do have these pangs that we would like a balcony or even a window ....... but once again the dollars speak.... so we wont be too stressed about the penny pinching...

 

Joanne

 

Joanne - trust me, you'll love your inside cabin, it will be perfect - 10 months after our world cruise I'm still really pleased with the value for money of our inside cabin - and the money we saved will help us towards our next world cruise! Looking back if there was one thing I would wish for from our world cruise was to have 'more time' to spend in the cabin! We were just so entertained and loved areas of the ship we were rarely in our cabin. I think if I didn't have to worry about finances then yes a balcony would be delightful - but then I think I would feel the need to spend more time in my room than areas of the ship to receive my 'value'....

[PRINCESS OZ]

Re the money side of things. We are intending to load up our Credit Card before we leave with far more money than we intend to spend!! :rolleyes: We wont be home for 3 and 1/2 months - so anything charged up to the CC will have to have money already in the account for it. Mostly this will be for Shore tours, onboard booze/restaurants and current automatic household expenses. We will at least know beforehand which shore tours we want to take and therefore know the cost.

 

We will also carry more cash than we reckon we will need - most of that will be for tips. We are intending to forget that we are Aussies on our cruise(s) and do everything in UK Pounds Sterling (except that we will load up our CC with AUD)

 

Other than that, it will be a bit like other longish hols that we have taken - got to make sure the bills are paid before we leave . This is a bit difficult sometimes - as we don't know the bill until we get it. So we basically have to overpay by a large amount every bill that is anticipated to arrive in our letterbox while we are away.

 

Mostly when we travel we do it on a fairly strict budget - but this time there will be occasions when "penny pinching" will not be the order of the day :o It is far more important to arrive home very very happy - than to do things the difficult way by scrimping :p Scrimping will be kept for another day.

 

Barry

 

Hello Barry - recommend you forget your pounds sterling - take US $ instead - the more the smaller the notes the better.

 

On the 2009 world cruise the only place pounds sterling were useful to me was Southampton and Gibraltar..... they could have been used in India.... stall holders dockside wanted 20 for what I purchased.....20 US 20 Pounds 20 AUD...... any currency as long as it was a 20, naturally I paid with the Aussie Peso........

[Gaznjo]

I finally realised this, and now when I go indoors, after being outsde in the heat , make sure I wrap up.

I got flamed about this once, but now when on board at night I always wear a singlet, and sometimes a light jersey , because as you move about the air conditioning can vary tremendously, and thats when you come down with colds etc.

 

LOL... that is why Garry has banned me from wearing my blue stripped cardigan.... it looks like I am wearing it in every photo inside of the ship!!

 

I am not allowed to take on the world cruise LOL

 

joanne

[Gaznjo]

and the money we saved will help us towards our next world cruise! ....

 

 

I believe 2011 have a good world cruise to go on :D:D:D:D

[bazzaw]

Hi Princess Oz

 

Thanks for that advice

 

I was going to take some US Dollars - but the whole ship operates in GBP. I understand that we can get some "local" currencies onboard . I now figure that seeing as how the ship is a UK one and presumably will have "mostly" UK passengers, then GBP's would be the way to go. No reason however why we shouldn't have some USD's - as we all know how popular USD's are all around the world. We only have 12 ports between Brisbane and the UK - so don't really see a problem either way.

 

EDIT - we usually purchase foreign currency from the Commonwealth Bank. Does anybody know if "small" denominations are available ?? eg 1 USD. I think the US is the only one who still prints "1" notes???

 

Barry

[holidaymaker]

Check out the currency exchange at your local post office. They don't charge fees and had a really good exchange rate compared to anyone else. You order and pay for currency then collect it about two days later.

We were lucky and got UK pounds a few days before the rate dropped.

[Gaznjo]

you can only get small denominations if the bank has them... a friend of mine manage to change some US dollars for her trip this week and got 30 $1 notes... that was really lucky ... I bought 20 of them off her...

 

today i bought some euro's as it is higher at the moment... but once the us dollars starts going up again the euro will drop... I ordered them through the post office... but the denominations are usually high..... figured we are visiting enough EU countries to use them up...

 

it is like playing the stock market with dollar always up and down LOL...

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Dawn Princess coming in to Langkawi this morning:

 

 

 

 

[Australian family]

Try ordering on line at www.travelex.com.au better exchange rates then the post office. You just nominate a day to pick up. Lots of outlets in the capital cities.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hi Princess Oz

 

Thanks for that advice

 

I was going to take some US Dollars - but the whole ship operates in GBP. I understand that we can get some "local" currencies onboard . I now figure that seeing as how the ship is a UK one and presumably will have "mostly" UK passengers, then GBP's would be the way to go. No reason however why we shouldn't have some USD's - as we all know how popular USD's are all around the world. We only have 12 ports between Brisbane and the UK - so don't really see a problem either way.

 

EDIT - we usually purchase foreign currency from the Commonwealth Bank. Does anybody know if "small" denominations are available ?? eg 1 USD. I think the US is the only one who still prints "1" notes???

 

Barry

 

We got $1000 US in cash when we went to US in february.

 

$1 - $100

$5 - $200

$10 - $200

$20 - $200

$50 - $300

 

we needed all those $1 and $5 notes too for the tipping! :eek:

 

Didn't bother with $100 notes because we figured if we were spending that amount we would use our Wizard card.

 

We used the ANZ bank because that is where we have all our accounts. For our November cruise I think I will try somewhere different as they were pretty expensive compared to other places for the exchange. However, we do still have our ANZ travelcard and it still has some US$ on it so we will top that up before we go too.

[Gaznjo]

Try ordering on line at www.travelex.com.au better exchange rates then the post office. You just nominate a day to pick up. Lots of outlets in the capital cities.

 

I think it depends on how much you order etc.... I just did a quick compare with what I changed today and it was cheaper at the post office....

 

the main reason I went to the post office was that I wanted to use my cash rather than do a bpay... but according to the quotes i also saved around $8

[bazzaw]

Eileen

 

Didn't bother with $100 notes because we figured if we were spending that amount we would use our Wizard card.

 

It is a really bad move to have $100 notes in the US. They are treated with great "suspicion" there( from our experience at least) - some places even have signs saying that they will not accept them.

 

Barry

[MMDown Under]

Eileen

 

Didn't bother with $100 notes because we figured if we were spending that amount we would use our Wizard card.

 

It is a really bad move to have $100 notes in the US. They are treated with great "suspicion" there( from our experience at least) - some places even have signs saying that they will not accept them.

 

Barry

 

No, I never take $100 notes to the US, for the same reasons. Have had people hold them up to the light, and get senior management, so it is not worth the fuss.

 

I'm always surprised how many $1 notes that you need. So much so, I usually return with a pile of $1 notes, ready for my next trip. :)

 

With regard to the purchase of small notes, I buy mine from the main C/w Bank in the city and it depends what they have available on the day. You may be able to get more if you pre-order them.

 

I've found $10 notes handy, because change is mainly given in local currency. Whilst you can always find something to spend this small amount of local currency on, it is not always easy to spend the change from larger amounts, when only "junk" is available.

 

In tourist areas, you can often get change in $s.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

A few sea days ahead of them now as they cross the Indian Ocean...