OzKiwiJJ

That sounds very familiar to me. When I first started going to Melbourne to visit family I would always end up having to do some emergency clothes shopping - fleeces in summer when it turned unexpectedly cold, tshirts in winter when the temps shot up. Now I've learnt to pack for all seasons. Tshirts, lightweight pants, jeans, jumper, fleece and rain jacket. Sandals, shoes and sometimes boots. 🤣

Yikes! I thought the Westerdam MDR service was poor but your Celebrity experience sounds appalling!

I'm curious to know if the Plus and Premier wine lists have changed at all? Would you post pics of them please?

I'm hoping they will have a new, expanded wine list soon. We're going on Grand in March so fingers crossed. If they don't I'll be throwing another major hissy fit!

Unless they also up the prices of wines by the glass. 😱

Definitely! 🤣 Although I found getting in and out of the bath was easier than I expected.

It is good value and there were three reasonable wines - the rosè, the pinot noir and the merlot. But they promised 25 wines by the glass but only had 9 which stinks! And only another 9 on the Premium list. Double stink!!!🤬 But at $40, or even $50, pp per day it was still good value. It's getting borderline at $65 pp per day though.

I don't know but it was mentioned all over the place onboard Westerdam including on the drinks lists. I'll see it I can find it in print - we kept a lot of that stuff. They promo'd it as "Have It All And More".

No, they don't! It's deceptive. Most of the interesting wines were over the package limit, but they have changed from paying the whole price to just paying the difference.

Bear in mind that balcony cabins on Princess only have a single desk chair, there is no other seat other than sitting on the bed. Also Princess shower cubicles are quite small (although Royal isn't too bad), so having the shower over the bath in a mini-suite gives you more space. The other point to consider is that the weather and seas around NZ can still be quite variable in November so there is slightly more risk of not being able to do the Fiordland scenic cruising - the entrances to the Sounds are quite narrow so not viable in rough seas. February/March is the best time to visit NZ in my opinion. Currently the wines in both packages aren't great apart from one or two exceptions. We also like nice wine and were disappointed however the Plus package may still be a reasonable deal as you can still get the more expensive wines by the glass and only pay the difference. Plus you get 25% off buying wines by the bottle and there is a better selection of wines by the bottle. We've found it still cost effective to have the Plus package and budget an extra $10 pp per day on average for better wines, which still comes out cheaper than buying the Premium package since we're not interested in the other extras. Note onboard costs are in AUD on our cruises and there is no additional service charge added to drinks prices, it's all built in so what you see is what you pay.

We last stopped in Wellington in 2019 so I'm not totally sure where the shuttle buses stop now but back then the first stop was in Lambton Quay just in front of the Old Government Buildings so very close to the Beehive and 650 metres (8 minute walk) to the Cable Car. The second stop was near the iSite Information Centre in Wakefield St, about 230 metres (3 minute walk) to Te Papa museum and 900 metres (11 minute walk) to the Cable Car. Our cruise didn't stop in Wellington this time. Hopefully someone who has visited there recently will confirm those shuttle bus stops. The best way to see the Botanic Gardens is to go up the Cable Car then walk down through the gardens, then you can walk down Glenmore St into Bowen St which will take you to Lambton Quay, passing the Beehive. So there is your morning route covering three of your options. In the afternoon you could go to the Te Papa Museum. Although it would be more efficient to do Te Papa in teh morning then walk around to the Cable Car etc.

I think the problem with using my phone keyboard at the moment is that my nails are longer than usual. Time for a manicure! 🤣 Do you need any more info about the ports? Just ask if you do.

And hopefully all cruise ships are smart enough now to hold mandatory RAT screening on the third day or so like Westerdam did.

You can't get lost. Just head down the wharf then left to the lovely ferry building and Queens Wharf is next to that. If enough people from your cruise book the same tour they might even pick up at Princes Wharf. It would be worth mentioning your ship will be docking there.

The Princes Wharf terminal is in the Hilton conference centre in the last "shed" on the right so it is a decent walk to Queens Wharf. 10-13 minutes would be about right. It's surprising how long that wharf is - I've stayed in apartments opposite the Hilton a couple of times.

Cruise ships generally avoid going too close to severe weather and sea conditions. They might go around it if possible or even stay an extra day or two in a port.

So? It's the thought that counts!🤣

@Cruisers47we just passed you. I waved! 😊

We'll probably cross paths in another hour or so.

That must be Noordam.

I wouldn't have a clue. I never figured that out. I didn't realise how much we had until we boarded and I could check our account.

I don't know exactly. There are less than 1600 passengers onboard at the moment and I've heard that 500 or so are disembarking in Sydney so 1000 or so are doing the B2B. I have also heard that the ship is fully booked for the Sydney to Singapore cruise. I think we're still below Tier 2 level ... just. Of course those that tested positive at the start of the cruise have now recovered and are no longer in isolation so that's keeping the current total down. We've had around 60 people test positive during the voyage - I can't work out the exact number as I missed the stats on Friday as we were off the ship.

By the looks of things our ships will pass some time this evening. We've just passed Eden.

We had a quiet NYE onboard. We spent the morning in the Crows Nest working on a jigsaw puzzle. We got quite a bit of it completed but after lunch some kids took over the jigsaw table to play some sort of noisy game. It was a dressy night and they actually had lobster on the menu without an upcharge, as surf and turf. Having had a huge steak the previous night that didn't appeal to me so I chose the duck. Most of us at our table chose the jumbo shrimp and crab starter followed by the "Celebration" salad. There was great hilarity as the jumbo shrimp arrived. Maybe Americans might call it a jumbo shrimp but to us Australians, Kiwis and Canadians it was a very ordinary sized prawn. Still it was tasty. The salad was also delicious. However my duck was a bit of a letdown, not enough duck (two tiny pieces) and far too much red cabbage even for me. Luckily there was a very nice Grand Marnier creme brulee for dessert. There was a party in the theatre scheduled for 11:30pm but we decided not to go to that. Partly because Covid numbers are increasing on the ship and also because I find the theatre seats on this ship are really uncomfortable - they are bench-style seating rather than proper theater seats. We had a fair amount of onboard credit left so shouted ourselves a nice bottle of champagne and curled up in our favorite bar until midnight. It was very quiet there, just a dozen people at most, but we all got together to welcome the New Year in. We were in Melbourne yesterday but didn't leave the ship. It was stinking hot so we took the opportunity to have a pool day. On this ship you can't get a lounger most days as there aren't all that many but with many people off doing excursions in the morning there was plenty of spare loungers. We had a lovely quiet time there until the excursion-goers started arriving back onboard. We used the covered Lido pool as it has a bit more shade than the Wake View pool. The pool was heated to a perfect temperature - warm enough to stay in for quite a while yet cool enough to feel refreshing when you first got in. It was such a gorgeous evening we decided to go to Canaletto again last night for dinner. We had no problems getting a last minute booking and had a great window table which gave us wonderful views as the ship left Port Phillip Bay. Canaletto has one of the best beef carpaccios I've ever had. We're powering up the coast back to Sydney today. Apparently we have to pick up the pilot at 3am as we have to go under the harbour bridge while the tide is still low enough for the ship to fit under it - high tide is 6:40am. I'll post details about what we liked and didn't like about this cruise once I get home and have access to a proper keyboard. My phone keyboard is driving me nuts today.

This morning all passengers staying on the ship for the Sydney to Singapore cruise had to do a mandatory RAT. That netted another 12 cases and there are 40 passengers now in isolation.