OzKiwiJJ

A very nice box lunch was provided on the Princess excursion.

Do the RIB trip to Whitehaven Beach. Not only do you get to spend some time on one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia, you'll also get to see many of the Whitsunday islands. It is a wild ride at times though. That RIB is very fast!

You'd melt!

Unfortunately there is nothing more we can do as the problem sounds like yet another bug in the medallion software and/or lack of planning by Princess.

They are brilliant! So funny! Normally we avoid comedy acts as we've seen and been bored/offended/cringed-out by too many bad ones but we went to a variety show one night where these guys were one of the acts. They were so impressive we went to their full show.

It's really hard to tell from the deck plans and there aren't any photos showing the aft section of the ship from the right angle to see what is on that deck just forward of the pool itself..

They just called it Pier 11 when we were there in 2019 but it sounds like the same place you're talking about.

Unless P&O have closed off the access there should be a way of getting to the pool from that deck - there is on othr Grand Class ships. Check the deck plans.

Oddly Rolf didn't get the survey even though they have his email address but I tend to be the one who does the bookings so maybe they only targeted those people. My guess is they wanted x number of responses and once they'd received that many they closed the survey.

They already had email addresses, that's how they sent out the survey.

That's odd, my one said it closed 9th October. Maybe they reached their limit required.

Don't worry, Lyle. You're an honorary local by now! 😘

That's odd. I refused to say what our income is - we never do on surveys - but I could do the whole survey.

No, someone who wandered in from the other forums, I think.

Yes, I have got it but haven't done it yet. I will be saying the same as you, especially about the wine. Also about downgrading the experience by charging for things that used to be included.

Did Hobbiton actually say that? I'd heard it was the main tour operator thete that decided not to do Hobbiton tours. Oh well, Rotorua will gain from that.

But it is annoying when a cruise line that has been a perfect match for you starts changing its style. Yes, I'm talking about Princess!

Especially these days. They are very tolerant of our forum. I think they know by now that going off topic is par for the course here. But wasn't there someone a few weeks back who got a bit miffy about one of our threads taking a wander off topic?

I've noticed that cruises earlier than mid-December are more at risk of missing them. NZ weather often doesn't play nice until after Christmas.

We've been very lucky then. Four NZ cruises, most at different times of the year, and almost perfect conditions for Fiordland cruising each time. The last one, on Westerdam over Christmas, was the best. For some reason the air seemed a lot clearer than usual and I spotted distant mountain ranges I'd never seen before.

The main problem we had with Sydney taxis in the past is they would refuse to pick up short distance fares when booked. Several times we had taxis booked to go to nearby restaurants or friends places and they just didn't turn up. One taxi company insisted the taxi had arrived, waited five minutes but I never showed up. It must have been an invisible taxi as I had been waiting in our carport for 15 minutes. So now we only use taxis as a last resort.

Don't blame P&O for that. Some of the islands aren't hosting cruise ships at the moment for various reasons - local politics, cyclone damage to wharves etc. It affects all the cruise lines not just P&O.

Smart casual seems to be OK on formal nights these days and I don't see that as an issue. You don't need gowns or tuxedos unlesz you want to wear those of course. Cruise formal nights aren't black tie formal. We always change for dinner. I usually wear black pants and a dressy top. One outfit I often get complimented on is a floaty black "jacket" with coloured feathers printed on it worn over a black shell top. The "jacket" is actually a swimsuit cover-up! 🤣 Most of my tops are very lightweight but look dressy. Rolf just wears chinos, a shirt (sometime short sleeved, sometimes long sleeved, and sometimes a casual linen jacket. For formal nights I wear silk kaftans, again ultra lightweight and very easy to wear. Rolf loves wearing his tux, and even bought an extra dinner jacket last year!!! Although I don't really care what people wear I do think shorts, thongs and scruffy tshirts or singlets shouldn't be allowed in MDRs in the evenings.

So far we've booked Uber Comfort but that's been pushing it a bit with cruise luggage. We haven't used UberXL yet but will probably do so later this month when we fly to Japan. It depends on the size of the suitcases I guess, we usually have two medium-large spinners, two overnight bags which fit on top of the spinners, and two wheeled carry-ons. For one cruise we had to take an extra smaller spinner suitcase and that was really pushing the luggage space issue. Note: we live in Sydney so just Uber from home to cruise terminal and vice versa. Taxis are OK from the airport but usually a bit more expensive.

I'm not sure about the airport but the cruise terminal is easy. Wait until you're outside the terminal building near the pick-up / drop-off zone and book your Uber. Then watch for it to arrive, it's usually there within minutes at the OPT, but may take a bit longer if you're docked at White Bay.