Katgoesonholiday

Hi all! We haven't sailed from any AUS/NZ ports before but in two weeks we are boarding the Pacific Pearl for its 4 night trip up to the Bay of Islands.

I was wondering whether there are porters at the dock as there is overseas. We will be driving into the city and parking in a nearby parking building. It would be easier to drop off the cases at the port before parking if this is possible, rather than schlepping them and the three kids through the city with bags.

Having said that, the kids have schlepped bags through Los Angeles, New York, Southampton, Paris and Dubai so adding Auckland to the list won't kill them. :P

We love sea days! One of our favourite cruises was the 7 night transatlantic from NY to Southampton. We followed it with a 14 night Baltic cruise from Southampton and whilst we enjoyed the port we all really loved it when it was a sea day - me, hubby, and three boys aged 14, 10 and 8.

Our next cruise is a wee 4 nighter with just one port stop - and we may not even get off! Then we are doing a 21 night South East Asia cruise and already the kids are bemoaning the small number of sea days (only 9 I believe).

Yes, 4 night bay of islands cruise.

We booked it this time last year so have done rather well keeping it from the kids! Hubby and I are quite excited to see their faces when they realize they aren't going to a medical appointment in the city, but rather getting on a cruise ship for the weekend.

Kategoesonholiday

We have done two P&O weekend cruises, they are fun, full of happy people - and P&O had the best coffee to buy on board of all our cruises - if that matters :) If it's Eden or Aria they have nice cabins and comfy beds.

It's the Pearl, which is leaving the fleet soon so we are prepared for reduced service and shortages.

However, its seven months since our last cruise and nearly a year till our next cruise and we haven't told the kids about this one. We are just going to turn up at the dock then spring it on them. I think under those circumstances, even the worst cruise will be a sheer delight to us all!

I think the offers onboard depends on the cruise line. I could book celebrity or royal onboard and pay a reduced deposit and get some obc.

 

Plus it gives me some more holidays to look forward to [emoji1][emoji14][emoji6]

 

 

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It makes the final day blues much more bearable if you can wander down and book your next cruise.

We are doing our fifth cruise in three weeks and finally giving P&O a whirl. We are mentally prepared for it to be a step down from our previous cruises but the price and timing was right for a week weekend break.

Our approach to choosing a cruise is to work out what part of the world we want to see then choosing a cruise that suits our timings and desired itinerary.

We currently have no particular loyalty to any line but are enjoying dabbling in lots of different styles of cruising, types of room, and places to visit.

Is that the 28 Jan 18 , cruise on Sapphire?

19 dec 2017 to 9 Jan 2018. It fits in perfectly with school and work commitments.

Hey there! We've removed our 14 night Celebrity Millennium cruise for 7 Jan 2018 and replaces it with a 21 night Sapphire Princess Cruise also in South East Asia (Singapore - Singapore).

We did a private two day tour in St. Petersburg.

 

https://www.spb-tours.com/

We did too and it was amazing. We were able to get through queues a lot faster (our guide would search through the long queues for another SPB group near the head of the queue then would insert us ahead of them) and had more flexibility with activities and meal times for the kids. We also benefited from more one on one interaction with our guide and were able to choose whether to see more stuff or return earlier to the ship each day when we finished our set tour ahead of schedule.

Thank you so much for the awesome and prompt advice.

Guardianship may be changing in the next few months which will make obtaining permission much easier. Otherwise we will look at deferring the trip till she is 18 (six months later) as I don't trust her mother not to cause trouble at the last minute.

You need to call Celebrity on this. Do not chance an incorrect answer from someone that does not know the requirements in New Zealand.

Thanks!

We plan to take our niece on a south east Asia cruise with us. She will be 17 at the time. She is estranged from her mother, has no contact with her genetic father, and lives with her step-grandparents.

Legal guardians are her mother and maternal grandfather.

Do we need written permission to bring her with us on this cruise?

Our first cruise was on the MSC Preziosa. We had an absolutely wonderful time (link to trip report in my signature). They are beautiful ships and we loved the Italian style and mannerisms.

Thanks so much for keeping this updated! When you do your next update, would you please add Celebrity Millenium - 14 night South East Asia Cruise (7-21 Jan 2018) for me? The kids are already counting down - they don't know we have another booked before then!

We prefer private tours but when it's close to all aboard time, I'm just not comfortable doing so.

Recently we decided, after much thought and discussion, to book the ship's tour for Ypres rather than hire a car. I'm so glad we did in the end as there was a massive traffic snarl coming back to the port and it would have caused untold amounts of stress for us! The bus pulled up to the ship 35 mins late and the ship left shortly after.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86729928/one-dead-after-car-and-bus-collide-near-matamata

My thoughts are with the family of those involved.

We've been on four cruises and have had nightmare tablemates for three of them. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us swap unless we took our kids with us - which would rather defeat the purpose of moving! :D

Seriously though, we've had some great table mates (including our own spawn) but have thoroughly enjoyed watching other tables. On our QM2 cruise we sat near a set of two tops. One was occupied with a very superior looking couple who ate each dinner in absolute silence without even once changing their facial expressions from a sneer. At no point in the entire seven night voyage did they even acknowledge the solo woman sitting at the adjacent two top - only a minuscule distance away! On the Celebrity Eclipse cruise we did shortly after, one family had a screaming argument at each other on the second night and stormed off in separate directions. We watched avidly for a repeat performance but they were quite civilized for the rest of the cruise. On the other side of us on that same cruise was another family who turned up late every dinner and gave the poor waiters hell. My kids were actually quite shocked at how they spoke to the waiters. And every meal time they had a full loaf of bread and a bunch of lemons placed in the table which they would eat with their hands. I'm suspecting a religious thing perhaps. However they were incredibly messy with it and there would be food left strewn across the table when they were finished.

I'm planning on taking my dinner suit.

 

Prices can range from about $99 at Ye olde Lowes to a few grand, depends on how far you want to go.

 

I must grab a new Bow Tie and near on need a new dress shirt.

Grab several bow ties! Those pesky wee things are startlingly easy to mislay, as my husband found out! He had to borrow one off our teen who thankfully had bought an entire rainbow of bow ties with him, including a standard black. Hubby later lost that one too and was loaned one by another 'voyager' who had had the foresight to pack several.

It's due on Saturday. I'm planning on going down and paying it tomorrow but I'm a little unimpressed that they haven't been in touch. It's a decent sized agency with multiple staff. They should have processes in place to ensure they don't 'forget'!

Are your kids mature enough to trust with a verbal amount? That is, you tell them they can spend $X and they have to manage that and repay you any overspend.

Another option could be to get each of them a prepaid Visa debit card and then link each guest with their own card.

We had the absolute best time on the QM2!

The Carinthia Lounge was a favorite space and don't forget to try the Planetarium!

My normal TA has left her company and a new person I've never met is now in charge of my cruise bookings. I have the final payment date marked on my calendar with a reminder for two days before. However as we approach it, I'm wondering whether the travel agent will actually contact me to remind me about final payment.

The scanning process is fairly quick.

In Paris recently we had our bags manually search entering every tourist attraction AND a mall! It's the world we live in and we certainly felt safer for it

I have a dream of sailing one of the Cunard ships into (or out of ) New York but I think my husband (a Queensland brought up Australian at that) would find the dress requirements trying.

 

Might have to go with just my daughter one day

We sailed out of New York on the QM2 in July and you should have heard the fuss my 15 year old made at the prospect of having to dress for dinner!

As it turned out, the formal nights became the kids favorite and they loved dressing up so much that they have instituted formal night rules at home several times since our return!

As an aside, hubby did fine with one suit (black dinner suit) for the formal nights and a jacket & pants for the informal nights. He was able to do a bit of mixing and matching.

And our luggage was delivered to our cabin around 1pm on embarkation day!

One of the gentlemen at our table in July regularly ordered off the kids menu for his main. It was always served as an adult sized portion and was no problem to the staff.

My 10 year old also has Aspergers and the waitstaff couldn't have possibly been more accommodating of his quirks! His thing is having an exact number of chicken nuggets and having pancakes that are just cooked with no trace of brown an no cream or fruit. He also only eats certain foods and is very unadventurous, instead preferring to rely on the tried and true favorites. I imagine he'll be no different as an adult.