losfp

There's a couple of early front-runners, but as MC says, it's a long season and anything can happen before finals. Usually it's the teams that are in a rich vein of form over the last month, month and a half are best placed, as long as they've banked enough points earlier on to finish high up on the ladder. Geelong and Sydney are both well off the pace after facing off in the grand final last year, but you wouldn't write either of them off just yet (though to be fair, as a Swans fan, I firmly believe our season has been too disrupted by injuries to seriously challenge as one of the top teams this year) It was a much-needed win against Carlton, but IMO it had as much to do with Carlton throwing the match away than the Swans showing a huge amount of improvement. Still, you take them where you can and move on.

I don't know that it's that unsuccessful from an industry point of view to be honest. Considering the population here, distance to travel for overseas guests, lack of nearby ports etc, the industry appears to be going ok. There's a shipload of people leaving every day out of sydney in summer. Now, as for INTERESTING cruises out of Australia... that's tougher. There's not a lot of options nearby so you either cruise up and down the east coast, or you go up to the south pacific islands - but because it takes 2 days to get there from Sydney, it's all just sea days and so-so ports. Cruises are massive out of Florida because there's a multitude of options within a day's sail so you can have a variety of itineraries from 3 day to 7 day. We've done 8 cruises and only half of them have been out of Australia, I just find the overseas itineraries more interesting. After our two Europe cruises in October, our local cruise count will be 4/10.

Man I haven't been in this thread in a few weeks - been as busy as the Swans have been terrible. Of course, the many injuries haven't helped at all. But I don't think we're featuring in finals this year. The Grand Final curse strikes again. Still plenty of time to string a couple of wins together and build some confidence for 2024, so let's see.

Well we definitely learnt a thing or two. Just got outplayed by a better side on the day. We'll learn from it and see what happens. Would rather get a rude wakeup call in round 3 than round 23, that's for sure.

It's such a weird story. We've travelled enough that we know how to adapt and improvise when something goes wrong - let's face it, having to MacGuyver stuff on the fly is half of the fun of travelling. Why let a lost bag ruin your whole trip? There's onboard shops so you can buy stuff to get by, plus if you had multiple bags that you've cross-packed into AND had a spare change of clothes in your carry-on, there's no reason why you can't cope.

I've been on probably 5 cruises with a CPAP. It's super easy. They'll supply distilled water and an extension cable if you ask them on boarding day. Some lines have a form that you can fill out to advise of any medical requirements.

Of all the 80 points win I have seen... that was certainly one of them. It's a bit hard to gauge because Hawthorn were SO BAD. They are basically rebuilding from scratch so they won't be competitive for a couple of years. Yes, it's pleasing to be top of the ladder with a percentage of 232 (!!!) but to be fair, the Swans haven't played any real teams yet. The real challenge starts this week with Melbourne at the MCG, which should be a good test and give us a better idea how these teams are placed. Collingwood are looking fantastic this year too. Will be interesting.

OP good luck with your trip and don't be afraid to ask questions. We're a friendly bunch here 🙂

Yeah those of us who have lived in multiple countries can sometimes have a messed up accent! I moved to Sydney from Malaysia when I was 12. So I was young enough to mostly pick up an Aussie accent, but sometimes you can tell there's something a bit weird with it. But as a result I can adapt really quickly when understanding other accents or adapting my own speech to be more easily understood overseas. After a week or so in the US or in Asia, my own accent morphs a bit. But my wife (born here, parents born here) stubbornly refuses. She would literally rather starve to death than speak in a way that the poor waiter can understand her haha.

Pleasing opening game. Swans had a great starting quarter, Suns lucky to pick up a couple of cheap late goals. They also came hard in the start of the second quarter. Swans held strong though and adapted better to the humid, slippery conditions - a bit weird considering the Suns were the home team and would presumably be used to the conditions. A fantastic third quarter before taking the foot off the accelerator in the last quarter and coasting to a solid win. I'm happy with that considering the Suns have been something of a bogey team for us over the last few years. Good start to the season. Bud will probably get a week or two for that clumsy bump. Whatever. I had him pencilled in to miss 5-6 games in his last season anyway. It's interesting that a couple of the heavy favourites for this year - Geelong and Brisbane - had first round losses. I expect them to still be up there at the end anyway.

Game day! I think if the Swans hold steady this year and aim for top 4 and winning at least one final, that would be a very very good result indeed, given the heavy defeat in the grand final and the overall age profile of the squad. Of course I would love us to win the lot but a lot of it will depend on the development of the kids. Some other teams - Melbourne, Geelong, Brisbane - have traded well and improved their squad, and IMO deserve to be favourites ahead of us until proven otherwise.

No problem shuyak! There's no silly questions, as they say. Hope you get the answer you are after. P&O UK is definitely a more classy experience compared to P&O Australia, from what I've heard.

I would actually ask over in the UK forums. When people here say P&O, they mostly are referring to P&O Australia, which is a completely different line from P&O. P&O Australia is basically Australia's Carnival. Good prices, good for families, reputation for being party ships.

My understanding is that is the trade-off. With the package, you get a good price, but you cannot make reservations until you are on board.

Thank you everyone for the feedback. It sounds like if we're not really into wines (we're not), we are simply not going to get value out of this experience. That's a real shame as we have enjoyed all the chefs tables we have done previously. We will look into maybe done one of the other specialty restaurants for our special occasion.