OzKiwiJJ

I wish they'd make up their mind! In the last couple of weeks I've heard of $22, $20, $18, and the T&Cs for the older packages still show $16. As long as it covers our favourite cocktails and liqueurs/digestifs, plus we still get 25% off wine by the bottle, we'll be happy. Upgrading wouldn't actually give us anything we want. Which ship are you on?

Yes, I think they were just avoiding the worst of the seas. The bad weather was heading SE so going north for a bit was probably wise.

Same here. After very heavy rain overnight - at least up until 5am - we woke up to lovely sunny skies. The rain has moved offshore and is moving south. As long as ships hug the coast they should avoid it but may, of course, be impacted by resulting sea conditions.

It could get a bit bouncy - seas up to 4 metres and strong winds.

The weeds are loving it though! Especially when there is a warm spell between the rain. 😡

On which ship(s)? There were no sommeliers on Diamond last November but we were very lucky to discover a waiter team who understood wine service.

There could have been safety issues at play there. Boarding a ship from a coastguard boat might be quite different than from a tender and some of those passengers may not have been very agile.

The cutest thing I ever saw was a couple of kids coming up to the bar (on another cruise like) to get their drinks. They were so proud/excited to do this by themselves as I suspect it made them feel very grown-up. They sat for a few minutes sipping their drinks but soon got bored and wandered off.

The Premier wines aren't much better. We've already resorted to paying the little bit extra for those. But in Australia, at least, the variety of wines is still very limited - even our local cafes have wider selections. It's very strange. Since we not interested upgrading our package - it's fine for internet and all drinks except wine - we just budget to buy wines by the bottle at the 25% discount. Not only do we get a better choice, we actually get to have the bottles on or near our table so can get top ups when we need them instead of having to wait until our poor waiter goes off to get us another glass of whatever. Oh how I wish Princess had sommeliers like Celebrity.

That analogy means nothing to me, I haven't been to either. But I guess it depends on what type of coffee you like. Nespresso does make a true espresso - not a great one but drinkable. I have no idea what Keurigs make but I'm guessing it's more American-style coffee?

Is that so? So are they now serving the MDR menus in Vines? I prefer to drink wine with my meals and the wines available on the MDR Plus wines list are very basic. In the Australian region where I mostly cruise the selection is very limited, about 30 years behind current wine trends, and bottom of the range ie wines that are usually bought in 4 litre casks (boxes). The three Plus wines we tried on a recent Japan cruise were equally poor quality.

This is the new 220v / USB ports that they have installed on Grand. Coral has something similar but with a Australian socket and two standard USB ports I expect they will be changed over to the above style once Coral leaves Australia after our world cruise. When they do install night lights in cabins I wish they'd make them optional. I hate being forced to endure lights brighter than I like in the middle of the night. The light emitted by my Kindle on a relatively low setting is all I need to see my way around the cabin at night.

British Invasion was often standing room only pre-pandemic. It was very popular including with the crew. I've seen variations of this on other cruise lines, including on Regent Seven Seas Explorer last November, and they weren't a patch on the Princess version. Great music and some great humour as well.

I wouldn't exactly call much of the limited and poor quality wine offered under the Plus package enjoyable. But at least you get 25% off buying better wines by the bottle.

I'd rather have a Nespresso machine, and have them in mini-suites as well like Cunard does.

I'll be taking my Camilla collection on the world cruise. Sadly Cunard didn't have pheasant in PG. I hadn't thought of combining fennel and raddichio. That would be nice. I love roasted raddichio. Now that would go well with kangaroo, as does roasted beetroot.

Try pancetta. Buy in the piece if you can but not the spicy one. You might be able to get guanciale at one of the markets, like Prahran. Guanciale is cured with lots of black peppercorns which enhances the pepper flavour in the carbonara.

My GD gave the kaarage quail recipe from the cooking school restaurant menu and I really want to try it but I haven't seen any quail in local shops for ages. I'll have to see if my butcher can get some in for me. I miss pheasant! When I lived in NZ and worked part time in Rotorua there was a pheasant farm nearby so a couple of the local restaurants used to have it on their menus regularly. Princess used to have pheasant on one of their formal night menus for the first few years we were cruising but it diasappeared off the menu around 2018 or 2019. I had grouse at a restaurant in London once. It came with all the trimmings, which were excessive! We're the same as you re rare meats, sashimi etc. I made a scallop ceviche last week. It's very yummy served on witlof.

We've got used to the pecorino taste but sprinkle extra Grand Padano on top which mellows out the pecorino, and I would go back to using that in a pinch. But I don't think I could go back to not using guanciale! I don't speak Italian either. 🤣

There was a border checkpoint at the South Australia border when we drove through from Broken Hill in 2021, checking for fruit, tomatoes etc.

It's really nice - similar to venison. It's a very lean meat so it has to be cooked very rare or it goes tough.

There are so many variations of carbonara but I have never ever used cream. A while ago I started trying to make it as traditional as I could since we're now able to get guanciale (cured pork cheek) at Harris Farm Markets. OMG,it's so good! Then I started using pecorino instead of parmesan - it has a slightly different taste so it took a bit of getting used to. Then I tried not using garlic and decided I liked it that way best. I prefer to use one whole egg with an extra egg yolk as using only egg yolks makes it too rich for my taste, but too whole eggs isn't rich enough. Who'd have thought a simple dish like that could become so complicated! 🤣

Happy Easter everyone. I decided to try something different this Easter - hot criss bun bread and butter pudding (RecipeTin Eats). Unfortunately I used Coles hot cross buns which were a bit too light and fluffy so turned to mush. It still tasted good though.

Happy Anniversary, Leigh.

Nooooo! I love Bravo! I prefer it to Encore. It hasn't been on many of the Australian cruises for ages so I was delighted to see it on Diamond last November.