OzKiwiJJ

If a Cradle Mountain excursion is offered from Burnie then I recommend it. The Cradle Mountain National Park is beautiful, plus you'll get to see a fair bit of the Tasmanian countryside as well. It's a long day trip though.

Sorry to hear that, Les. Take care. 😘

Two cruise ship wharves? I thought there was only the new one.

Unlike Port Chalmers, the Lyttelton wharf is a working wharf ie the whole area services freight vessels as well as cruise ships, which is why you can't walk off it.

That's just crazy and may result in people who do want to spend the day in and around Lyttelton clogging up the public buses still. Most people who used the public buses did so because they didn't want to pay the shuttle bus fee but if the shuttle to Christchurch is free that issue goes away. And if Lyttelton doesn't want cruisers shopping, or having coffee or lunch in their town then stuff them, I'll stay on the ship. Akaroa may be happy to have a few cruise ships back there.

Meh!

I haven't created it yet. I'll start it later this week. We fly to Japan on Saturday.

Apparently that's quite common on USD cruises where the gratuities aren't included in the fare. I think it goes back to before they started charging daily gratuities.

They ask for your cabin number and write it on the envelope. Then the envelopes are checked against your booking to see whether you've removed the daily gratuities or not. If not the crew member gets the envelope back.

Shhhh! Don't tell anyone that it isn't part of the Sanctuary! 🤣 Those pools are really nice. We had one cruise where it was almost bath temperature one day. They did cool it off a bit after I mentioned it to our Sanctuary steward who was also in charge of doing the daily water checks in that pool. Most of the Princess pools aren't heated, they warm up from sun but cool off if air temps are cold.

Coral is the only ship that has a dedicated Sanctuary pool. The Sanctuary is aft on Coral instead of forward like on Emerald.

Ditto. Sometimes there is an option to prepay the gratuities. If the offer is in AUD check how it compares with the current exchange rate. For our upcoming 9 night Japan cruise we saved about $20pp by prepaying the gratuities.

Yes, that is true, a fee to cover service glasses etc, but $30 per bottle is more than excessive! Princess needs to take a reality check on things like that. Just converting the US price to AUD doesn't take into account local charges for such things. There might be the odd three hat restaurant that might deign to allow someone to bring a special bottle of wine to that restaurant and charge them $30 corkage but Princess is a long way from a three hat restaurant. If they're going to charge me $30 corkage I expect to get the correct Riedal wine glasses for the wine I'm drinking and that doesn't happen on Princess. They do have decent wine glasses if you can get your hands on them but they aren't specific to the type of wine. No, there is no requirement for soft drinks and water to be in cans on Princess. This is a myth perpetuated by P&O cruisers.

I only swam in the Sanctuary pool. It had a very shallow section with a ledge around the edge to sit on, then a deeper section which I think was posted as 5ft 2ins deep, which I think is around 1.5 metres, in the middle but a bit less around the edges. It was the perfect depth IMHO.

At the OPT there is usually a separate queue for priority check-in, after that you used to be given a boarding group card with a letter on number on it. Priority boarders got letters and those were called first.

We've stayed onboard at the occasional port, ones we've been to before. The only downside is the MDR isn't open for lunch. We have to go to the buffet! 😲

Our friends onboard posted (elsewhere) some gorgeous photos of the sun rising over the Opera House this morning.

No, the boarding time won't change unless the ship arrives late. Essentially they've gone back to the pre-Covid style of boarding.

HAL is similar to Princess but quieter, especially after 9pm but that wouldn't bother you as I know you retire early at night.

That helps but it's the port days that are an issue with the mega ships, especially if there are 4 or 5 of them in port at the same time. It's not so much of a problem here at the moment but in other cruise regions some ports are starting to resent the number of cruisers visiting. I believe Barcelona recently announced it was reducing the number of cruise ships in port per day. If more ports in the Mediterranean follow that line then cruising there will become very boring as there won't be enough ports that will accept the mega ships to give variety to the itineraries.

Very few ships go to both South Africa and Australia. Every few years Princess used to do a Circle Indian Ocean cruise. I'm not sure if they offer segments but keep an eye out for it. Cunard might visit South Africa as part of one of their world cruises but it would probably be Australia to South Africa. Otherwise you might find something on one of the luxury lines.

No thanks! Way too big for us.

Yes, the cake shops. A feast for the eyes let alone the tummy! Shame about the pier being out of action but it looks like it will be really good when it's finished.

Have a great cruise! We're doing the world cruise next year, leaving Sydney April 30th. BTW do you like oysters? If the timing is right you might be in NZ for the start of the Bluff oyster season. They are the best oysters in the world. I can never decided whether I like them best natural, or battered and fried, so I always get half a dozen each way.

And don't forget St Kilda beach, just a tram ride away, with its iconic pier. Does Acland St still have those amazing shops, and that great bookshop?