OzKiwiJJ

Picton is a long way from Christchurch, about 4.5 hours drive one way.

If you are doing two cruises B2B then I believe unused OBC from the first cruise is carried over to the second cruise. Otherwise if the OBC is refundable you will get a cheque from Carnival Australia. Yes, a cheque!!! Most OBC given as a booking perk is non-refundable but it appears Shareholder OBC is refundable (much to my surprise).

Yes, the Lincolnshire are our second favourites at the moment. The Cumberland ones are good too. They seem to change the varieties every few years. I used to like their Irish ones but haven't seen those for ages.

The British Sausage Company now sells a Welsh sausage, with leeks and lots of pepper in it. Very yummy. Coles usually sells this brand but not always all their different varieties.

Phew! The world hasn't gone totally insane then. What a relief! 😊

At least with Princess you don't have to pay extra for burgers etc from the grill. So if you don't like something just leave it and go get something else

That's totally ridiculous! Changing the name of a bird because part of the name is misused elsewhere. And what are they going to do about fairy stories that little girls love? Are they going to change the name of these mythical creatures? What about fairy godmothers?

They may be doing random spot checks. I've heard of other people being asked for them as well but not many.

Apparently they are a motion sickness medication. It's unclear whether they are still made. If you see a compounding chemist there ask them.

Not with those tshirts. The original cotton ones I bought way back still fit me nicely, although they are getting a bit shabby now. The new polyester version is shaped to fit young slim women - even the bigger sizes.

At least they're holding it every night. On some ships I've been on it was only every few days. The Explorers Lounge is probably a bit too big for this, people probably spread out rather than sitting close to other people - although that could also be a Covid precaution.

I hope they have my favourite, the Boulevardier. It's like Negroni but made with bourbon instead. I'm surprised I actually like it as I don't usually like bourbon but it works. If it's the same drinks list as previous most of the drinks are too sweet for me.

I'm still sulking that they changed the fabric and cut of the lovely comfy tshirts I bought some years ago from cotton to polyester, and from regular fit to body-clinging.

I thought it might be the Hollywood Conservatory on Majestic. It's about the only space that would work, as long as you don't mind the smell of chlorine leaking through from the pool. Yes, still in the Explorer's Lounge on Coral from what I've read recently. Three weeks until we're back on board Coral. Yay!

Yes, it wouldn't surprise me if some people cheat. Pre-covid you swapped papers with another team for marking and it was fun to see what their answers were. But sensible not to do that now.

It's not school holidays so I wouldn't expect many children onboard. No, Carnival hasn't started operating here yet, and neither has Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. So avid cruisers only have P&O and Princess to cruise on.

Elites are getting the minibar setup on Coral at the moment so I would expect it to be the same on Majestic. The PES Happy Hour always seemed to vary ship to ship. Again, Coral is holding it every night but who knows whether Majestic will do the same. Where did they hold it on Majestic last time?

And it's mandatory to have a drink or lunch at NZ's oldest pub, the Duke of Marlborough on the waterfront in Russell. 😁

We end up eating around the same time regardless so traditional dining never bothered us but what we now prefer with anytime dining is being able to select a table size to suit our mood - sometimes we like to share and meet other people, at other times we prefer to have a table for two.

The other problem with traditional dining is the times. Early was too early for some yet late was too late. Princess wasn't too bad in our region with late dining being 7:30pm or 7:45pm but on Celebrity it was 8:30pm and half the tables in that sitting were empty on our last cruise with them.

🤣 I wish I'd thought of that.

I don't think it will ever come back as it used to be, especially as ships get bigger. It's inefficient use of MDR space as people don't always turn up to their assigned tables and if mixed in with anytime type dining means that tables are left empty when people are waiting to dine. Also younger/newer cruisers seem to want the flexibility of dining when and where they choose on the spur of the moment. If my memory is correct when they did operate the two types of dining the Anytime allocation always filled up well before the ship sold out of cabins.

I think all you can do is talk to the Maitre d' on board. It's certainly a lot nicer when you get the same waiters each night, assuming they are good waiters that is - we had one cruise with traditional dining where the waiters weren't very good unfortunately.

Even if you did manage to book a shared table in the same MDR every night through the app there is no guarantee it would be with the same people every night. Unfortunately traditional dining no longer exists on Princess ships.

It can depend on the ship. We were able to access our cabin immediately we boarded on 9 out of 10 cruises. The one we couldn't was on Ruby Princess.