OzKiwiJJ

Not a brand I've heard of. Sorry.

What brand of cough candies? They may be available in NZ if they are one of the international brands.

So far these are the best chocolate biscuits I've ever had. They are wicked! Available in Australia and NZ. They also come in milk chocolate, salted caramel dark chocolate, and mint milk chocolate. The photo was taken from the New World supermarket website so the prices are in NZD.

Except that Chocolate Sultana Pasties aren't anything like a pasty. They do have sort of ultra-thin flaky pastry-like layers inside with the sultanas. They are yummy though. I think sultanas are called golden raisins in the US. I've come across that term in several US recipes.

Thanks, Don. We're doing a 5 night cruise on Cunard next year in a Princess Grills cabin, which I guess are essentially the equivalent of Club Class mini-suites on Princess. I'm happy to hear you thought Cunard was good overall.

How big is the refillable bottle?

Princess does that at most port stops.

It was essentially pointless when they first brought it in last year and, from what I've heard, the previous vaccines aren't as effective against the Omicron variants anyway. Still, every little bit helps, I guess. Unfortunately too many people just carry on regardless when they develop symptoms so Covid will spread through a ship anyway.

Unfortunately I didn't have an empty water bottle to do that. We hadn't done any excursions in NZ so hadn't really thought about it until we were getting ready for our Bruny Island excursion.

But only the first two doses, not the boosters. So someone who hasn't had the boosters probably had their second shot sometime in 2021 so would have minimal protection left by now.

Beautifully done, Lyle. Lynn is a very lucky lady.

🤣🤣🤣 Yes, the luxury lines provide the water, and sometimes other drinks, "free" but mostly the mass market lines don't. Although with drinks packages you usually get small bottles of water included. Holland America annoyed me. They only had water in cans. 300ml ring tab and 600 ml with a screw cap. They charged extra for the screw cap cans even with a drinks package. It was ridiculous - who want a non-resealable container of water on an excursion? Open it and you have to drink the lot immediately or risk spilling it everywhere. You also have to take into account whether there are toilet stops during the excursion - too much water and you could have a problem. 😯😚

On some excursions you don't get any opportunity to get water which is why the cruise lines have it for sale close to where you leave the ship.

So sorry to hear that. I have to admit I was afraid of that when I caught Covid but was one of the lucky ones, plus I got anti-virals. I hope you do recover soon. Until then take care of yourself as much as you can.

Just to clarify for anyone else reading this thread: The Round Australia cruise does not comprise of Northern and Southern Australia cruises joined together, although a very limited number of cabins are usually offered for those two sectors, and sometimes other sectors as well. The full Round Australia cruise is usually offered twice a year with embarkations from Sydney and Brisbane. It is extremely popular and often sells out within two days of initial release, although cabins do become available later on when people change their minds and cancel. I will try to find some time later to check the Patters from the one we did last year to see what was on offer then.

And the ship will have plenty of bottled or canned water to sell you as you leave the ship.

Exactly! My guess is that the current Covid requirements will ease at the end of of our current cruise season as long as a new nasty variant doesn't pop up. It will be interesting to see how the next couple of Princess Round Australia cruises go. Both Coral and Majestic are doing them, starting in the next month or so. The outbreak on our Round Australia cruise last year didn't really ramp up until around day 14 of the cruise.

On Princess Rolf had the same restrictions when I had Covid. He had to do a RAT every morning and could leave the cabin if he was negative.

Princess were offering this when I came down with Covid on the Round Australia cruise.

Yeah, you're correct, it was 20% plus fees and OBC. We got 15% on the Round Australia cruise for missing four ports. If just one port is missed due to weather Princess usually just refunds the port fees so I was pleasantly surprised to get the FCCs.

We were in NZ just before Christmas, staying five nights in Auckland before cruising back to Sydney. Although we had some NZ cash with us we didn't actually use any of it until our Lyttelton port stop. Everything just went on the credit card, even food court meals.

That's a bit stingy. When we got stuck in Melbourne for three days on a 9 night South Australia cruise, thus missing two out of the scheduled four ports, Princess gave us 25% of our fare as FCCs plus some OBC ($50pp I think).

I saw a photo of the beachfront road at Oakura with water coming up over the road. I've walked along that beach many times as a close friend has a bach there. Incredible to see the water that far up especially as Oakura is a relatively sheltered beach. I hope you're safely through the worst by now without too much damage.

Mine, from late October, landed in my Princess account a couple of weeks ago. Almost exactly three months after our isolation finished. Rolf hasn't got his yet. I'm going to chase it up again with our Planner.

I hope you recover quickly. Look after yourself and get lots of rest. Masks are most effective when worn by those who have Covid which is why it's best if everyone wears one as people are usually infectious before they develop symptoms . They are less effective in preventing you catching it but still provide a fair bit of protection. You did better than me - I caught it on my 5th cruise last year. We wore masks when moving around the ship and in crowded venues like trivia and the theatre. Trivia was appalling, far too many people without masks. The other problem was people walking through bars without masks, stopping to talk to friends while effectively standing over us, and coughing. But I got over it quickly, Rolf didn't catch it at all, and we still enjoyed our cruise.