OzKiwiJJ

Wow, that must have been some short circuit! I guess the age of the ship does play a part in that sort of incidence although a faulty component could affect a ship of any age so the fact that Grand is a old ship may not be relevant. We were in that zone on our recent cruise, but just forward of the lifts in B704. I must say we had the best air-con we've ever had on a Princess ship on that cruise.

It's all very well for us to say we want more ports to stop at but the local communities at those possible ports have to come to the party. Some small towns might not want thousands of cruisers decending upon them like locusts!

Arrgh! I'm directionally dyslexic. It's really weird! I think right, I even point right, but what I say or write is the opposite, which made giving Rolf directions when driving problematic until I discovered, after doing a basic traveller's Italian course, that if I said the direction in Italian it came out correctly. Yes, it is turn right at the ocean beach! Destra!

Put it this way - Sydney departures are timed around peak hour ferries so they have to depart on time. 3pm would probably be the latest time you could embark and I certainly wouldn't risk being later. They won't wait for you if you miss check-in.

For Sydney I alway recommend an afternoon trip by ferry to Manly, a stroll through the Corso to the ocean beach then turn left to find the walkway around to Shelly Beach. Stay in Manly for dinner at a cafe then get the ferry back once it gets dark to see all the city lights. My eldest GD always wanted to do that when she visited us when she was younger.

It's a cheat dish using frozen ravioli - I like the Pastabilities ones. Relatively quick to make and ideal comfort food for chilly days. By the way, did you know you can deep fry ravioli, from frozen. They make a good finger food with a sauce to dip them in. I haven't done them in years but something I read the other day reminded me about them.

I wouldn't have a clue about Azamara ships. Although didn't Pacific Princess become an Azamara ship?

However if you make an Australian booking for an overseas cruise (USD onboard currency) with the Plus package the gratuities are not included. But then again you only pay AU $65 for the Plus package, not US $65 so even after paying the gratuities onboard, or prepaying them, it works out a bit cheaper. 😊

RSS has lots of cooking classes onboard so we'll probably do a some of those. I have to be a bit careful with Vietnamese and Thai cooking classes as I react badly to fresh coriander. We'll certainly be making the most of the excursions though - I think I'll need a holiday after that trip to recover!

It's showing Undefined because there aren't any cabins available to choose from. Of course it should just show "Not Available" but it looks like they've got a software bug. Just keep checking, you never know what will pop up between now and then, although since it's a fairly heavily booked Christmas cruise the chances of getting a better fare are fairly low.

The Diamond Princess ports are: Aomori Sakata Kanazawa - the only place we've been to before. Sakaiminato Busan Nagasaki The RSS Explorer Ports are: Shimizu Kobe Kochi Okinawa Taipei Nha Trang Ho Chi Minh City overnight stop Laem Chabang overnight on ship before transferring to Bangkok. We've been to a few of these ports before but since RSS has included excursions we'll get to see stuff we haven't been to before.

No, it will be our first time on Regent. A friend of ours is an expert at sniffing out really good deals then tempting us with them. It should be fun. We booked that cruise first, then I found the Princess cruise which dovetails nicely and has no duplicate port stops. We needed something to soak up some FCCs from Princess and that was the perfect solution.

So sorry to hear about your daughter and Frank's son. I hope they both have a good recovery.

The Princess cruise departs 31st October for 9 nights, then we have two nights in Tokyo before boarding RSS Explorer for a few more Japanese ports then on to Bangkok, where we're doing a three night post cruise package. Packing is going to be a real sod - cool weather clothes for Japan and hot weather clothes for Thailand.

Unless you can afford the luxury cruise lines all the time even overseas itineraries go to the same old, same old ports, and in places like the Med you have to contend with crowding from all the other mega-ships in port that day. It will be interesting to see what Japan is like for cruising in November. Although it's late in their season it's "fall foliage" time which I believe is almost as popular as cherry blossom time.

It sounds wonderful, Irene. Say "hi" to Frank from us. 😘

Rolf sometimes gets the Belhaven Scottish Ale from Dan Murphys. He really likes it.

Where else did you expect them to go? As has been stated earlier there are actually a limited number of viable ports in our region so of course their itineraries aren't going to differ from other cruise lines. They can't just create new ports out of nowhere.

Huge is almost an understatement! That was the type of suite we had too. Now if only we'd had the equivalent of the Princess medallion app to order drinks on. We would have only left the suite for meals then.

That could have been it. Carnival sometimes have some amazing offers. We scored an aft Vista Suite once at about the same price as a balcony cabin. It was the first time we'd had a suite and we couldn't believe how big the balcony was - we could have held a party for fifty people on it!

It depends how you flavour the white goo! 🤣 I do a nice baked ravioli sometimes, layered with passata, then topped with white goo aka bechamel sauce, then lots of cheese. Comfort food at it's best! The white goo adds a level of creaminess to balance the acidity of the passata.

We're doing a couple of cruises in Japan in November. One is Princess which I think will have quite a few locals so announcements in two languages, the other is Regent Seven Seas which may not have many locals, probably mostly Americans and a mad bunch of Aussies!

We were on her last month and I don't recall seeing any leaky ceilings or buckets. She was in reasonable condition for an older ship. We didn't get to any of the shows but the entertainers in Crooners and the Wheelhouse were good but entertainers change regularly. Edit: I'd choose Grand over Majestic any day. At least Grand has all the regular bars and lounges for entertainment.

Yes, it took me a little while to realise what was happening. It was only when someone said they couldn't book their favourite cabin on a cruise (a BF I think) that I realise what Princess was doing. To add to the confusion fares do fluctuate. That Royal cruise you used as an example was in the recent release so it will be a while before the fares change on that. Then you have the promos ... Arrgh! It does pay to check the prices regularly on cruises you have booked. I've scored some serious fare reductions in the past. Even a November Japan cruise I booked only a few months ago had a big drop in fares but instead of taking the reduction I upgraded us to a mini suite.

That's a possibility, but I wouldn't put it past Princess to just block out the remainder of the next category of cabins and offer "Princess chooses" at the higher fare.