OzKiwiJJ

Interesting to see how Princess is getting the blame for the Darwin dock change. Local port authorities have a big say in where ships dock and I doubt they would arbitrarily allow a cruise ship to choose to dock in a working port unless there was no alternative. Was any reason given for the change to the Darwin dock?

Much to our surprise our bid for an upgrade was accepted just over a month before our current Coral Princess world cruise embarked in Sydney. We were very happy about that.

Not really. However the lunch restaurant had one of the biggest mango trees I've ever seen. It was huge - probably a metre or so in diameter at the base of the trunk.

We'll see how it goes. We're working on getting the good wine glasses at dinner since we're having wines by the bottle.

I was fascinated by the mountains surrounding Port Louis. I presume they are the remnants of a very old volcanic crater. Some were very sharply pointed and reminded me of Moorea. You can just see some of them in the background of this photo.

Yes, that was quite noticeable with the buildings around the city. However they have free schooling including transport to schools, and kids start learning multiple languages from an early age.

Progress report Tuesday 14th May. After Fremantle we settled back into our sea day routine - lots of trivia, coffee and a bit of quiet time in our cabin. However on this section we added afternoons spent in the Sanctuary. At first it was layers and blankets, but after a few days it warmed up but not quite enough to swim. Yesterday was our first international port stop, at Port Louis in Mauritius. What a fascinating place! We only saw a small part of it on our "Journey into Local Culture" tour which visited several interesting places. Nelson Mandela Centre. This consisted of two buildings: a lovely old tower building made of volcanic rock and a newer building. There was an art exhibition which included art from both international and local artists including some very moving pen and ink sketches showing scenes from the early colonisation days days of slavery and indentureship. There were a number of paintings, sculptures, etc. We really loved one painting of a hawk rising from fire and were able to chat to the artist about it. As well there was a demonstration of the local Sega music and dance which developed as a form of communication between workers from many different countries. Then we had a chance to play the hand drums. Aapravasi Ghat This is among the oldest of the entry and transit points for indentured labourers. One building is now set up as a museum with displays covering the history of the building and artefacts that had been discovered Hindu Temple Although a fairly standard Hindu Temple this one was primarily used by the Tamil people so had some slightly different statues. It was a very tranquil spot. Next we drove through some of the shopping streets of Port Louis including Chinatown, a street full of hardware stores, an Indian precinct which included some gorgeous clothing stores, and lots of restaurants and eateries. Our final stop before lunch was at a Statue of the Virgin Mary high on a hill. There were great views over city from here. We had an excellent lunch of local cuisine - curries and various other dishes all of which were very tasty. It was accompanied by a choice of drink - we opted for an icy local lager which was very refreshing in the heat. We hadn't had a chance to shop anywhere but there was a small souvenir shop at the cruise terminal so I was able to buy a fridge magnet - a rather cute Dodo. All in all it was an excellent excursion. We learnt a lot about the history of Mauritius from our guide as we travelled from place to place. Port Louis is not a place I would ever want to drive in, the traffic was crazy. Luckily buses are bigger than cars, motorcycles and pedestrians so most of those chose to give way.

Actually that is what they promised when they first announced Dine My Way but never delivered on it. It will be interesting to see whether they can get it to work this time. We did walk-up dining for the first couple of weeks of this cruise so we could try out different locations and waiter teams. We never had to wait more than a couple of minutes for a table however we usually dine around 7pm or later. The other day we finally decided where we'd like to be in the Bordeaux MDR so have booked a specific table for the rest of the cruise.

I guess that depends on how much variety you want, and if you dress up on formal nights.

I'm not sure but one of the sommeliers used to work there and said "don't use credit cards or you'll get scammed". He was very emphatic about it.

Definitely a furphy! My guess is that there is something that needs to be done to Station Pier that the Victorian authorities aren't telling anyone but has caused them to limit or stop any disembarkations/embarkations from Melbourne . That may explain why the Diamond itineraries have ended up as they are. I suspect the original plan was for Diamond to homeport for the whole season in Melbourne but Princess had to change things due to whatever is going on with Station Pier. Princess isn't the only cruise line to pull out. Cunard is no longer coming here other than as port stops on it's world cruises. Virgin has also redeployed.

We paid $3,821 for a mini-suite, Plus fare, on Diamond last year for a 9 night itinerary. Now they want $5,159 or more!

All cabins should have a small sofa. On the only Royal Caribbean cruise we've done even the inside cabin had a sofa.

We'd be happy with something very similar in size and design as Coral but a couple of changes: The first, of course, is cabins with better bathrooms and comfortable seating in all cabin categories. The second would be to redesign the Bayou restaurant/bar so that it feels less like a brick barn. Other than that it's close to perfect for us.

Please also pass on regards from Julie and Rolf to Yalcin. We met him on Coral on several cruises we did during the Australian restart in 2022. We're back on Coral at the moment doing the world cruise and we miss him.