aussielozzie18

5.45am. Cruising into Eden. It’s freezing on my balcony but whitecaps have finally gone and it’s a beautiful sunrise

Left him behind to mind the dog and be the Uber for the rest of the fam 😀 and yep we started moving as I was typing about the muster drill …

Bon Voyage Sydney. 6.45pm scheduled departure. We are sailing out of Circular Quay at 7pm. Should have packed gumboots for the uncovered balcony….

Muster drill. The days of lining up in the hot Australian sun waiting for everyone to turn up and watch the life jacket demo are gone. On boarding, you are approached by staff to scan your medallion and then told you what your Muster group is and then you are directed to a staff member who simply scans your medallion again and tells you to watch the Muster info on your device or on the in-room tv. That’s it. The info on the tv has subtitles.

So the neat feature of the Medallion is that it unlocks your cabin door as you approach. This freaked me out when I was returning to my cabin to see if my suitcase had arrived as my door was unlocked. For a sec I thought the crew member had left my room unlocked until the penny dropped and I realised it was my medallion. D’oh. Can’t remember what time suitcase arrived but if I had to guess I would say mid afternoon. Room has plenty of storage and plenty of coat hangers.

Then it was a short queue for the x-ray and then I was on board. Yayy!!! It had taken a total of 15mins from my first staff member hello at the entrance at the OPT to the hello from the staff member who welcomed me aboard as I stepped foot on the Coral Princess.And the cabins were immediately ready at 12.45pm. Double yayyy!! (to be continued) 🍹🍹🛳

So boarding. I had printed off my luggage tag so approached the OPT (Overseas Passenger Terminal) at Circular Quay. There were a zillion smiling Princess staff ready to greet us. MASKS on. Directed to the bag drop off area. Lovely lady took my print off and folded it and attached it to my suitcase and it was whisked away. It was 12.30pm. No queue at the entrance. I walked over. They checked for my green tick on my phone and said you are welcome to enter now which surprised me. A tonne of Princess staff welcome you each way along. Reached the queue upstairs for the official checkin. Moved pretty quickly. They checked my green tick on my phone, asked to see the physical copy of my International Covid Vaccination Certificate (even though it was uploaded as part of the green tick on the medallion app). ASKED if I had done a RATS test and taken a photo but in the same breath said they didn’t need to see it. Then they gave me a piece of paper with my room number for the Medallion collection. Directed me to a short queue for the collection of the medallion (free) and Princess lanyard (free) and I got that quickly. Because I’m a newbie my Medallion is Blue. Photo of back to give you an idea of size. Front has my name on it, Coral Princess and today’s date.

So, I don’t get seasick. I did a cruise to the South Pacific and we had the rock n roll seas. We had a chef demo lunch in Giovanni’s (Royal Carribbean). It was booked out and I was seated at a large table. As the lunch progressed and the rock n rolling continued, people started to go green, then dart out of Giovanni’s quick smart and not return. Ended up with just two of us left on our table and only 50% of the participants. Didn’t bother me and I enjoyed the 3 courses. But with the forecast of extreme weather, I packed these just to be on the safe side.

hi everyone, this is me. Doing a TR from the dark side on the Aus/NZ forum. It’s not RCI so I won’t link it but it’s there if you want to check it out (not live).

Love going under the Harbour Bridge by ferry. Free hotel stay is excellent too.

Btw, this is not going to be a live report. Once we set sail, it will be to be continued. I’ll be busy taking photos til our port day on Monday.

Ok - I thought there was an option for it to be posted out but happy to be corrected since I’m a newbie.

Packing - I am a relaxed cruiser - I packed the morning of the cruise 😂. I did have a list in my phone of things to pack to double check. I normally cruise when it’s warm but October with the weather event from hell predicted is a different story - my DH said “do you really need all that stuff?” Yes, honey I do.

So requirements for Covid testing were clear on the App and also spelled out specifically in a text received from Princess the day before the cruise - PCR 72hrs prior or RATS test with ID and date/time 24hrs prior. I had no symptoms so no PCR. Bought another batch of RATS tests and did the test within 24hrs and took a photo of the negative test result with my passport and my sons iPhone with date/time in the photo. One photo would have been a sufficient. I took 6 from every angle 🤪

So Princess Medallion app - I’m a newbie. Knew nothing about. So got the tech guru in the family to upload all the docs. We got the green tick so he did good. Didn’t bother having the medallion posted out. Don’t need it beforehand and happy just to collect on the day. I am someone who reads all emails sent to me that are relevant so as a newbie I appreciated all the emails from Princess with pre instructions/requirements for the cruise. I did ask a few questions on cc and I appreciate the Princess regulars here on the Aus/NZ forum answering them. Thank you.

And then as we approached the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Coral Princess was in view.

After the exhibition we walked down to the Manly Wharf. I said adios to DH and hopped on the Manly Ferry. After all the doom & gloom about the weather, we had a glorious sunny morning in Sydney and the harbour was like glass. It did become overcast once on the ferry but still a lovely calm trip to Circular Quay.

I liked that the gallery has a glass window overlooking Manly Ferry Wharf and we could see the Manly Ferry docked whilst exploring the exhibits. This is the name of the exhibition. Worth a look if you happen to be planning a day in Manly. It very small so won’t take you long to look at.

So something was in our favour today, DH got a park right outside the gallery (miracle for Manly on a Saturday) and the very small free exhibition was interesting.

So today was supposed to be the weather event from hell in Sydney. Nonetheless DH decided he wanted to see an exhibition at Manly Art Gallery in the morning and then I could hop on the Manly Ferry to Circular Quay. I told him sure but the ferries might not be running….

Booked the cruise about 6 weeks out from sailing date. Booked direct with Princess. I only ever cruise in balconies and sometimes I preselect my room and sometimes I go guarantee. This cruise, I went guarantee and my cabin was assigned two weeks before sailing. Pretty happy with my cabin. First time I have been on the Opera House side so really pleased with that. It’s in the AFT location and this is a first time too (usually pick midship & I have been lucky to be given midship location with previous guarantees). First thought about AFT location- will have no probs keeping up with my walking exercise!

I thought I would do this trip report from a first timer to Princess point of view. Haven’t cruised since before the pandemic. Normally prefer longer cruises 9-14 days but decided this short cruise would be the perfect opportunity to dip my toes in the water to test out the post pandemic cruising experience.

To save your seat/lounge chair take a lightweight bag (fold up shopper type bag - colourful design) with a book inside. Leave it on the table/lounge to reserve it until you return from buffet/bar/pool. The benefit of the book is that is gives you something to read and also it won’t blow away in the wind. If your cruise has a roll call group, join it. Good way to meet other solos and friendly couples. Some cruise lines have solo/single lunches. At dinner, ask for a share table. Other cruisers are very friendly. The staff will look after you. It’s not as daunting as you think.

Just got notification from Jetstar that our afternoon arrival has been changed to a morning at 10am. Happy with that but surprised by a 4hr change. Our afternoon departure is now 1.30 rather than 2.30pm. We will walk off so should be fine.

Another newbie question please. I assume all onboard purchases are made via the medallion. I also assume you check the status of your account via the app. Is there any other way to check your account during the cruise yourself? ie via the cabin tv or would it just be via guest services. Thanks.