arxcards

I dress up on formal nights and have plenty of variety. Black shoes & belt for formal & smart casual for me. I get that someone who suits yellow tones will need their browns, olives taupe and also need black for formal nights. I guess it is easier to pack for a cruise if you are a blue tone person.

If you can only afford it at a last minute price, I guess you can afford to wait. The 2024 last minute deal only came about because of a late decision to divert from the Red Sea. 2025 has already been altered, lots cancelled, plenty jumped on the newly available cabins. There will be bits & pieces available into next year, but I don't expect there will be anything cheap unless there is an Iceland volcanic eruption or a US civil war. I hope you can jump aboard, as there will be plenty of sea days for a chat or two.

Ahh yes, too true.

It looks like she is berthed on the dock. A bit of that going around today. The auroras are spectacular, but GPS has larger margin of error.

This pic gives an idea looking back to the ship:

When you look down, the width of the promenade deck and railing will be visible from your cabin, as the deck comes out to around the same width as the lifeboats & tenders. When you look out, you get something like this view of the life raft stations - a pic of 8408 from Adventure's previous life as Golden Princess

Many of the around Australia cruises visit a port in Indonesia, but it looks like this one is totally domestic. Great news - no departure or arrival cards to complete, and if customs are present it should only be a walkthrough. For the majority of passengers, Brisbane is just a port day. Many will be eating breakfast as you disembark, so much less hectic in the terminal. A bit of Monday morning meh and it is in the middle of school holidays, but nothing to predict a peak travel day at the airport. It all points in your favour, as long as it remains one of the good days.

The earliest disembark slot we have had is 7am, and express walk-off was at 6:45 for that cruise, however like Pacific Encounter this morning, that was a full turnaround. Partial turnarounds run a bit later, of which we had one late last year on Majestic Princess. We were one of 400ish disembarking, and first disembark slot at 7:45am with express walk-off starting at 7:30am. Your Brisbane to Brisbane is likely a similar arrangement, with the majority of passengers doing the Sydney to Sydney lap. Given only up to 500 passengers disembarking, is also why you may not see the disembarkation tour to the airport. It might be a bit frustrating, as you can watch the planes banking and landing on your starboard side as you are approaching the port, yet they are so many hours away.

HAL is very comfortable, and what any Princess cruiser should be able to easily grow into. But then, there are no DAM ships in Melbourne either and they are operated by the same DAM company that took your Princess ship away. Have you checked out NCL's offerings for next summer out of Melbourne? Quite a nice alternative if you can find a suitable itinerary.

On a good day, you can be off the ship by 7am. Most days are good days, but not all. Princess will say PM flights, so I will go with them - just in case it is one of those bad days (weather, customs, broken gangway etc). PS: I will take a look at our more recent Brisbane disemarkation schedules when I get back from the salt mines. PSS: Pacific Encounter was docked in Brisbane this morning before 5:30am (no idea what time disembark started though).

At least they listened to passenger feedback (for a change). There are still some that like the traditional way. Coral & Island would be a challenge compared to all the other ships with more dining rooms. On the Grand class, they used to keep a fixed traditional dining room, while all the others were mixed between pre-booked and walk-up anytime diners. Worked OK then. I am OK with it. More choice can't be a bad thing, except when traditional tables aren't being filled and they drop in the overflow of walk-up dinners into that level. Now if they listen about the pillow chocs - taking them away for covid is no longer a valid reason.

I have one, bought from Macy's in Waikiki, but the brown side isn't often seen. My point is, if you need a brown & black belt you need to pack two different wardrobes. An extra belt is nothing in luggage, but the extra matching shoes, shirts & trousers are.

Curious if you saw James the juggling guy. Sounds like an interesting show.

For Good Spirits, we target one of those 8 stools at the bar, except for when it gets quiet later in the night. There are also times when you are drinking spirits when they will ask if you want a double. P&O are strict in every which way, but the Ocean Now delivery will not work on Princess if they followed the same guidelines. P&O also seem to be paranoid about sharing of drinks with non-package passengers and that motivates their strictness more than RSA. Their bars are reconciled every cruise, and staff are judged on their adherence to stock levels. That means if the cocktail lists Absolut vodka, that is usually the only option. Any other brand is rung-up as a sum of the parts, and if it goes 5 cents over you can't have it in the package. Nice that you can have a $23 cocktail with plus on Princess and pay just the $1 overs. You tried a few cocktails in 14 nights. What were your favourites?

P&O don't think they are a budget line though. They consider themselves the best in their field - cruising the Australian way. They may have had a box to stand on a few years back, but trimming costs to cruise to a price has turned them into a receding brand. The same is happening to Princess, but at a much slower pace.