OzKiwiJJ

We've always had face washers, in inside cabins through to suites. If they aren't in the bathroom already just ask your cabin steward

Actually those leather-looking ones, the first in Leigh's post, would be a good compromise for someone who has difficulty wearing dress shoes. Especially as men's trousers are usually worn fairly long so cover most of the shoe anyway.

I must have missed that! 🤣

Don't they all have that except for accessible cabins? That's one of the main reasons for trying to get a mini-suite. I can live without the extra space but the balcony cabin shower is going to be a real annoyance for 110 days!

There are different styles so keep trying, you might be lucky. Sometimes outlet centres have a better range than the stores. I needed to get some plain black ones in 2022 as we were in Melbourne on a cruise (the one that got stuck there for three nights) and were going out for dinner with our GD. I only had sandals, and it was too cold and wet for those, and bright sneakers which weren't really suitable for a trendy restaurant. So we went to the outlet centre at South Wharf. I think I tried on about five or six different styles of plain black Skechers before I found the perfect fit.

Oddly enough just after we bought the ticket I thought it would be fun to host a cruise get-together for all us regulars if we won the big prize! We'd have to wait until Lyle got here next year though.

I've never been fond of pickles, except for Japanese ones as they use less vinegar. But my mother used to like them with cold meats, as does Rolf. I hate the American pickles (gherkins) but oddly enough I quite like the tiny French versions (cornichons) in very small quantities. I'm just starting to enjoy mustard pickles with corned beef.

We often do that when travelling. As well as being cheaper it's more relaxing. I'm not really civilised until I've had breakfast with a pot of strong English Breakfast tea.

We've done it! Only a lowish bid so I'll have to keep my fingers crossed. A mini-suite would be so much more comfortable on a long cruise like that. I seem to be having a lucky day today which is why we decided to put in a bid. I was checking out my favourite shoe shop sale and found a nice pair less than half price. The shop also had a 50% off second pair sale so I found another pair at a similar price. Except that pair had already been reduced and 50% off that price came to just over $20!!!! I got two pairs of dressy shoes for more than $50 less than the original price of the first pair. Then I wandered past a dress shop and spotted a top I really liked at 30% discount. While I was in the shop I saw another top at 50% of the already reduced price, so I bought both. Then I discovered another clothing brand had 30% off some lovely plain linen tshirts. I'd bought two of these previously and they are very nice to wear so I bought another three colours. So I'm hoping my shopping luck carries through to the upgrade bid. Oh, and we also bought a Powerball ticket. If we win that we might just spring for a suite! 🤣

It shows up about 10 days prior.

The slip-on ones don't look like runners though.

I had a lovely pair of silvery pinky-purple ones but the inside of the heels wore through on our last cruise, and chewed holes in my heels, so I had to buy a new pair. They were my other pair of cruise Skechers. I was very sad as I'd bought them at the Lahaina outlet store in 2019. They were my Lahaina souvenirs!

I talked Rolf into getting some black slip-in Skechers a while back. They are a good standby in emergencies.

Shhhhh! I'm just crunching the numbers to see what we can afford. I'm hoping most other people will think it's too expensive.🤞

It's pretty well back to pre-Covid status now, it's just treated as any other respiratory virus. No screening, no vaccination requirements, no refunds if you have to cancel due to Covid, and charges for medical treatment if you catch it onboard. If you do catch it onboard isolation is 5 days from onset of symptoms. Unfortunately too many people don't report having symptoms and just carry on enjoying themselves so there are minor outbreaks on some cruises. Make sure you have travel insurance.

One way car hire is possible but usually more expensive. Four weeks is plenty of time to do the round trip ex Sydney. Lake Macquarie and the Blue Mountains are just day trips from Sydney. Then you could go to Canberra which is just over 3 hours drive, stay 2 nights minimum, then on to Melbourne on the Hume Highway (7 hours). After a few days in Melbourne you should do the Great Ocean Rd down to Warrnambool then cut inland and come back via Ballarat or vice versa, so maybe 3-4 days for this. Finally travel back to Sydney along the coastal route allowing you to stop at Bateman's Bay - I'd allow three days for this including one night at Bateman's Bay, more if you want to explore along the way. There's about 10 days actual travel in that leaving plenty of extra days for Sydney, Melbourne, and anywhere else you want to stop.

The bid offer has just come out for the world cruise. From $6525pp for an upgrade from a regular balcony to a mini-suite for the 110 days. On the Sydney embarkation there are over 20 mini-suites showing as unsold.

Apart from cruises Rolf hadn't used his much since he retired at the end of 2014, and I think he bought them long before that. He was well overdue for a new pair. Luckily his only started to disintegrate as we were leaving the MDR.

It was strange - the first A380 (Sydney to Singapore) had very hard seats. So much so that I had a sore bottom at the end of the flight. But the one coming home seemed to have a much more comfortable seat, apart from the angle of the footwell. I've got a wonky knee which acts up at times, just damage from sports when I was young, but it can get painful at times especially in cramped conditions.

I agree the service and meals were excellent but I had real problems with those seats. On the way over I ended up pulling a muscle in my back which didn't come right until I paid for an extremely expensive (and extremely good) massage about two weeks later on the Regent cruise. It wasn't so much adjusting the seat that was the problem, it was putting the seat cover on. That's impossible to do until the seat is extended and you're not sitting on it. In some ways I was disappointed. I'd been really looking forward to a comfy trip to and from Japan but it just wasn't what I expected. Part of that was the very short overnight flights, especially the one coming home where they did a full course meal service at the start of a 6 hour flight, then started serving a refreshment about 90 minutes before landing. Since I'm a very light sleeper I can't really get to sleep until the plane quietens down, even with earplugs, so I only got about 2 hours of uncomfortable sleep on that flight.

But much prettier!

For starters they won't let you board until they've cleared the previous cruise. I believe the check-in windows are for all passengers BUT I've heard if you turn up around 11:30am they may have started the check-ins by then. You can drop your luggage off any time from about 8:30am. If you get there and it doesn't look like check-ins are happening (usually in this case they don't let you into the terminal building) then just go up yo the Rocks and have a coffee. The priority lane is in the terminal, not usually at the entrance.

Singapore Airlines. On the A380 they give you a seat cover, duvet and pillow. The footwell was off to one side, in my case my right, which meant you had to lie at a very odd angle. Even sitting with feet up was not quite comfortable. You had to stand up to set the seat into flat mode and put the seat cover on, then wriggle back into the seat. The Boeing 777 had the footwell on the other side and the angle wasn't quite as awkward especially for sitting. However with this plane you had to get the flight attendant to convert the seat to a bed as the back of the seat folded down. In the past (ten years ago or so) the seats were staggered in the rows ie in the middle section the two seats were right next to each other on one row but the seats in the next row were closer to the aisle, and so on. So the footwell was always directly in front of the seat. But I don't think those seats reclined fully flat. They were more comfortable though.

We had just finished dinner on our Grand Princess cruise last March and had started heading back to our cabin when the sole of one of Rolf's dress shoes started parting company from the upper. Admittedly they were at least 15 years old or maybe even older. Luckily the next day was an Adelaide port stop so we caught the train into the city, and went shoe shopping at Myers. I immediately picked one pair of shoes in his favourite brand out as being the most elegant but, of course, Rolf had try on several others before finally decided the ones I picked were perfect! 😊

Many, many years ago when I was doing a bit of camping I modified our tent to add full flyscreening - door with a zip, windows, even the air vents at the top. All hand sewn in.