Meamat

We fly internationally quite a bit to the US (I was born there and we travel to see family fairly regularly), so I know the stress of looking for the right price and time!

If you have a preferred airline, get on their mailing lists and watch for sales and promotions, we find that there are often some great deals to be had 6-10 months before but there is no specific time window. Personally I wouldn't book the moment it's available unless they happen to be having a great sale at the time. In the mean time, check the pricing occasionally so you recognise a good deal when it does turn up.

In terms of airlines from my own experience, I've flown Virgin, Qantas, ANZ and would recommend any of them. I did fly JAL once, I see you're in IL so some of the japanese airlines may have good deals via Tokyo. That was a fun trip because it included an overnight with hotel room in Tokyo but was still cheaper at the time than some of the other major carriers, I'm not sure if that's still the case. Personally I'd avoid United, I've had some awful experiences with them and just won't fly with them anymore. It may have changed in recent years, I kinda gave up about 10 years ago.

We're a die hard swans family, members for years and hubby has been devoted to them since he discovered the game as a teenager.

All the stress has gone from the season, we sadly aren't really expecting a win anymore when we go into a game, so anything more is a bonus!

We're still winless for the year so far, but my consolation is that we have won by relatively close margins and at least have been in the game most of the time. A couple of other teams may have won a game and climbed over us on the ladder, but their losses have been appalling.

There have also been some injuries and strange calls that hindered us - Kieren jack is out, Gary Rohan had a sickening crash last week (and strangely enough the umps didn't stop the game while there was a stretcher on the field - as they were carrying him off we gave away a goal), tippet and mcveigh might be back soon... it's a bit tragic.

We have a few great experienced players and a few great young players, but the balance just isn't right at the moment it seems. May have something to do with the trade ban and COLA fiasco from a couple years back and the ongoing issues there, but it's also just the cycle of things I guess. It would be a boring comp if the same teams were in the 8 every year, it might just be our turn to sit the finals out!

We sailed last November before it was rolled out, and we're pleased to see it's there for our next trip! re: hidden costs, I'm exactly like you and am always looking for the extra charges that might sneak in. That's part of why I booked with Carnival, there seemed to be fewer extra costs that might sneak up (as opposed to some lines where the water slides, kids clubs, gratuities etc all cost you more once on board). But yes, with the hub app you only need to pay the $9 and no additional wifi costs. We did ok without it as our family of 4 and I probably wouldn't bother if it was just the 4 of us in one cabin again, but next trip we'll be a group of 9 across 3 cabins so the hub app will be fantastic.

If you're all in the same cabin, you can also go with sticky notes if you have days the app isn't working. We had a bit of a rainbow notepad going most days, but it was handy to keep track of where we were going to be or plans that might change. Our two kids were a bit older like yours, and they're great at following the rules and doing the right thing, so we trusted them to move around and do the right thing as long as they let us know where to find them. We just had a bunch of sticky notes and everyone would put them up on the mirror saying 'going to lunch at guys burgers then going to kids club' or 'mini golfing at 3 if anyone wants to join' or 'meet in the cabin by 5 to get ready for dinner.' That way the kids always knew were to find us and we always knew where to find them. We also kept a copy of the kids club program in the cabin so we knew where kids club actually was (the older groups travel around to the night club, comedy shows, mini golf, etc)

Short answer: Always check the PDS and trust that - ring the travel insurance company with a question if you want specific details as so many policies are different.

You are right, though, I remember a recent incident when one of the ships returning to Sydney was late by several hours. A number of people suddenly discovered they weren't covered by travel insurance because they'd booked flights within a certain number of hours of expected return. Same with departing - weather delays at airports around the country recently meant that dozens of flights were delayed into Sydney. In that case, Carnival waited and departed quite late in order to wait for passengers arriving by plane, however their insurance would not have covered them because they were flying in on the morning of the cruise.

I've not done this as a cruise, but I have visited a number of the places on your itinerary (US born now living in Australia) so I might be able to offer a little bit of help!

Starboard/Port - if you're looking at a large ship that doesn't fit under the harbour bridge, you'd be based at the OPT in Sydney. Port side gives you a lovely view of the Opera House. Unsure of other ports, though if you're visiting Dunedin prior Fiordland Nat'l park then Starboard may give you better views from your cabin through that area.

The south Island is beautiful - Dunedin was my favourite place when I visited NZ. I've not spent much time in Aukland but that is on my list of places I'd love to visit properly! Fiordland national park is stunning. It can be quite chilly there, even in the summer, so be prepared for that.

re: April vs October, I wouldn't expect a huge difference. If you enjoy getting into the ocean on shore days, October seas in Australia/New Zealand are significantly colder than April. Nov-April is Cyclone season, so while it's never especially likely that you'd be disrupted due to weather, it's more likely in April than it is in October.

Good luck, sounds like an AMAZING cruise!

It does make it confusing, but I'm pleased to know now that it's wise in our case to get up early and be on the first tenders. It didn't take too long to get off the ship even when we were in the rush time, but I'd rather not be part of a rush!

But yes, somehow I knew lots of things required the question 'which line are you sailing with?' (e.g. food quality, entertainment options, kids clubs, etc) but somehow I'd made an incorrect assumption that a tender process was pretty standard across the board. My In-Laws had recommended the same thing to us and talked about the difficulty getting on early tenders if you didn't have a ship tour booked, but they have mainly sailed with Princess and that's obviously a totally different clientele.

It depends so much on what you plan to use. We had a rule of no power boards to be brought on board but you could ask your cabin steward for one, so we figured we'd ask if we needed one but we never did.

We were recharging a gopro type camera after port days and all four of us had iphones/ipods, but we never had reception so only used them as cameras and the battery lasted ages. We found the single power point in our room was fine for our needs.

I know a bunch of people travel with electric toothbrushes, cpap machines, multiple cameras, hair dryers/straighteners, etc so I'd imagine that changes things a lot!

Yes - Buckley's is great! It's nothing out of the ordinary exactly, but to be able to cater for two kids, two vegetarians, a gluten free diner, reasonably priced with quick service and so close to the opera house is out of the ordinary in itself!

Are the prices US$ or AUD $. I assume that you are paying cash?

Places that charged in $ were charging Aussie dollars, so the $20 round trip/ $10 admission was definitely AUD. Some actually said AUD/USD on their boards, but of course you'd be best to pay in AUD anyway due to exchange rate.

We did take out some local currency from an ATM in our first port and generally planned to use that when we could. Just seemed respectful of turning up in someone else's country to use their currency. Keep an eye on exchange rates, though, sometimes you actually paid more if you paid in local currency.

And yes, paid in cash.

Also in one part of the Unicorn Cafe (buffet restaurant), the section nearest midships, there are three self-serve espresso machines, which use freshly ground beans - there are large hoppers above the machines. DH said the espresso was quite good and he liked that he could get it in a ordinary cup, not the paper cups which the regular cafes serve it in. The machines also make lattes and cappuchinos but I'm not sure how good they are. I'm not sure many people knew about them though, we didn't find them until the second to last day. Rats! At $2.95 per espresso from the regular cafes we could have saved heaps. The machines looked brand new and it maybe something they are trialling for the Aussie market. It probably costs too much to have extra staff churning out variations of espressos, lattes, etc at the regular cafes, although I would imagine they will still have those for people who want more than just a plain coffee.

Spirit has those too, and yes it's decent. Not the same as a proper Barista coffee, but it was plenty for us for our trip. Certainly better to Aussie tastes than the filter stuff in the rest of the ship (though we drink both). The Lattes aren't quite lattes, the cappuccinos aren't quite cappuccinos, but if you're happy enough with fresh ground coffee and warm milk in some form you'd be right!

Just to give another factor to consider... !

I'd read on the forums here about tours getting priority tender, about being delayed off the ship if you went privately etc, but it must depend to some degree on the ship and line you're with.

We were on Carnival Spirit and planned to have a relaxing morning and get tenders when the rush died down, but the rush was actually about 10am-11am, the people ready for the first tender boats were off in no time and had fewer crowds all day. In future, we'll get off early and come back early. Maybe the Carnival crowd has more kids to get ready in the morning and party people sleeping in after a big night out?

In terms of tours in tender ports, in our particular case it wouldn't have been an issue. The tender process was incredibly smooth and our only docked port was Noumea where there were buses to catch to town anyway. I'm fairly sure the process of tendering to shore was around the same time frame as getting off the ship and loading onto a bus to the town centre, neither took very long realistically.

re: the Opera Bar, I'm not a big fan, either. Food I've had there has been ok but nothing to rave about, it's often loud and too busy, and they are plagued with seagulls so you're often enough defending your food. Last time I went to a show at the SOH a seagull pooed on my friend while she was trying to enjoy her coffee and food there, it kinda ruined her appetite! Some of the restaurants on the way to the Opera House from Circular Quay station have great food, some pricier than others, and none as loud and full of seagulls as the Opera Bar.

The Haymarket area around Central Station is full of great asian eateries. Chinatown is vaguely between Central and Darling Harbour. The Thai centre is smaller and situated around the Capitol Theatre area. There are some great little sushi trains around as well, and plenty of options that won't break the bank. Circular Quay/Rocks area is a major tourist hub, so there's not a lot of cheap eats around there, but as soon as you get that little bit further back toward the CBD for business lunches or Ultimo for university students you'll find some good cheap food.

If you're up for using vouchers, check out some of the group buy sites - they'll often have a thai lunch with drinks, fish and chips lunch with a drink, etc for around $10 or less.

One nice option for gluten free food if you like latin flavours - Contrabando is actually quite near the rocks vicinity and has daily specials. They sometimes do all you can eat tacos with a drink on the group buy sites, too, and they have a wide range of GF options and the food is great.

Yes, the blue mountains train is very easy from Central station and not too pricey really. I live at the end of the blue mountains line, and even a full cost ticket for me is only around $8.30 if I travel during peak times or under $6 if I wait till the off peak trains. A full trip to Lithgow is around 3 hours, to Katoomba it's 2, and the Blue Mountains themselves don't really start till you go through Penrith about an hour after leaving Sydney. The trip planner website is great for working out the timetable options, fares, etc. Also the trip view app if you're using data and smartphones while you're in the Sydney area, I find that is excellent for helping me figure out which platform to go to, when the next train is, what my connection options are, etc as I'm traveling around the city.

As far as what to do, let me know what kind of things you're interested in and I'm happy to give a few pointers. I've lived in five villages of the blue mountains and gotten to know a fair few others over the years!

If you're fairly mobile and active and would enjoy some beautiful bush walks, I'd head to Wentworth Falls. The lookouts and tracks at the end of Falls Road are stunning and much less touristy than Katoomba, but they are about a 20 minute walk from the station. There are a few good and longstanding cafes and things there, too - I've been visiting Schwarz' Patisserie and the Conservation Hut for well over 20 years now! Katoomba is more touristy and busy but you can get a good overview there - the Explorer bus runs a loop of all the major tourist points of Katoomba and Leura like the three sisters lookout, scenic world, Leura Mall, etc. It takes about an hour to do a whole loop of the stops and I believe they give a bit of a tour and give you some information on the way. You can hop on/hop off as you see fit and spend more time in a few places.

My favourite places are further up the mountains past Katoomba, though. The upper mountains are largely ignored, so if you like to see things without feeling too touristy that's the place to be. Blackheath has some stunning walks and lookouts and is a great little village. Some great little bakeries, antique shops, and if you catch a taxi or bus to Govett's Leap you'll see all the beauty of the mountains and are pretty likely to have it all to yourself. If you're up for the full round trip, the views between Mt Victoria and Lithgow are the best of the whole journey, and the station in Lithgow is right in the main street so there are plenty of shops and cafes nearby. If you like wildlife, there's a quoll sanctuary and beautiful little restaurant a quick taxi ride away, they have a few resident kangaroos, an emu, some dingos, and they're all very friendly. Not all the animals are around all the time (only the quolls and dingos are actually captive in any way) but it's a nice spot up in the bush. If you like any kind of train history, coal mining history, etc there's plenty to see around town, too.

Eek, that's way too much already! But yes, do the Blue Mountains, and you can do a tour if you like but it's very easy to manage trains and people are very friendly on the whole and will point you in the right direction. I came from the US originally and from an area where I was not at all used to having decent (or any!) public transport, so I was surprised how straightforward it was here.

Oh, and I wouldn't try to get the senior concession. If they check your ticket on board, the fine is up to $200 if you can't produce a valid NSW concession card.

I know for sure that there were locals happy to give a tour to the Natural Aquarium - $20 for a round trip shuttle and $10 admission to the natural aquarium per person. There were also larger tours that did more stops on the island and were a little more but still pretty reasonable especially considering the prices on board the ship. I don't remember seeing turtle bay specifically, but there were probably 4-6 operators hanging around just as we left the ship ready to offer tours of different types so one may well have gone there.

We did see some at the aquarium on Noumea, they actually run a rehabilitation program there from what I understand, but of course that's in a tank.

In the ocean, I know Duck Island has some nearby and we'd planned to snorkel there but the weather wasn't good for it (very windy and rough at the surface all around it on that day). Amadee Island is meant to be really excellent and there are usually shore excursions from the ship, I didn't look to see if the tourist info centre offered them specifically but they seemed to offer nearly everything the ship did. Wish I could be more help!

Oh, and the ATM was definitely the best value way for us to get the money out, especially for a reasonably small amount like that. Many places including the aquarium had credit card facilities available so you could get around without local cash if you wanted to, just check first especially in Noumea.

Hi Deb and John,

Enjoy, I'm jealous! It was a fabulous holiday, just what we needed and such a beautiful country to visit.

In the end, we brought some Aussie currency (about $150 and aimed for small notes) and visited the ATM at Noumea as soon as we arrived for local cash. We took 15,000 xpf out at the atm and it worked out to $180 Australian once that was exchanged by our bank.

I found there were some places where you were at an advantage to spend francs (for example, one of the beach stalls on Mare charged $3 for a cake or 200 xpf, some of the little stalls on isle of pines were similar that way), some places where it didn't matter but I preferred to spend local just out of respect for turning up in someone else's country (e.g. the tourist info centre at Noumea had a smaller hop on hop off bus that visited the areas we wanted to see, it was $42 Australian for our family or 3500 xpf and that exchange rate is spot on). There were other places where you really had to have francs. We went to a beautiful boulangerie for lunch on Noumea and it was francs only, same with admission to the aquarium and most of the market stalls at Port Moselle. There were also lots of places where it was better to spend AUD because they used an exchange rate that actually favoured our dollar (an even 1000xpf = 10 AUD), most of the beach stalls on Mare were that way.

The amount we had was just about right. If we had more, I would have bought more souvenirs and things but we didn't need more. I'm not a big shopper, though. We spent on a gift for my dad that was the equivalent of about $25AUD, a few little souvenirs like a pair of clay earrings and some stubbie holders, a small gift (around 500 francs each) for a few people at home, lunch for four in Noumea (4 eclairs, four bottled soft drinks, and 4 filled baguettes), admission to the Aquarium, hop on hop off bus tickets in Noumea, lunch, drinks, coconut and hair braiding in Mare, and my kids spent some of their souvenir/entertainment budget on the islands, about $80 between them. If you were buying lots of souvenirs you'd probably want more, and if you wanted some of the lovely dresses and sarongs and things you'd probably want more.

We also found the night light wasn't necessary BUT I wish I'd had a little battery operated light to stick inside the wardrobe where all the shelves were. It was quite dark in there and a great storage space, so I was often digging around with one hand and holding my phone/torch with the other.

The magnets worked a treat, I put the daily schedule and the kids schedules up where everyone could see them. The post it notes were good, too, and we could keep track of where everyone was even with four of us in various parts of the ship. I took what felt like a mini pharmacy with small amounts of all kinds of cold meds, first aid things, pain meds, etc and was very pleased I did. We needed band aids, first aid cream, pain relievers, aloe vera, antacids, and a few other things that would have been expensive or unavailable if we hadn't packed them.

I did heaps of research in the lead up to our cruise, so I did feel like I had a handle on things BUT I wish I'd thought to share more with the rest of the family. My daughter didn't know where to get her drinks for her bottomless bubbles, so she barely used it for the first 5 days. My husband didn't realise the first cocktails weren't free. Little things like that I took for granted but could have prevented had I thought to!

Thanks for all your input! I was going to ask how to look up marine traffic, but guest relations/the bridge sounds like a good option. Thank you!

We are on Carnival Spirit departing Saturday evening Nov 5 bound for Noumea. Some friends of ours are on Voyager of the seas departing Noumea Saturday evening Nov 5 bound for Sydney. We are each due to arrive in the respective ports on the morning of the 8th, so I'd assume our travel speed is pretty similar.

I'd assume since we're traveling between the same two ports we'd pass relatively close to one another. What are the chances of us catching a glimpse of Voyager of the Seas on their way home and would we be looking for them at about 30 hours/halfway into the voyage (about midnight after day one at sea by my reckoning)?

Carnival out of Australia does not add gratuities once on board. They are considered to be included in your fare. Some still choose to give a thank you note and tip to their cabin steward, favourite bartender, etc.

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We've booked for three nights at Stellar Hotel on Wentworth. Nothing fancy but reviews seem ok on the whole. We don't intend to spend too much time in the hotel. It looks ok for transport and eating places.

Yep - that's a nice location, very near to Museum station which will connect you to anywhere. Without luggage, you're also within a pleasant walk of the Quay, Darling Harbour, China Town, lots of great food etc. I often stay just off Hyde Park somewhere when I'm in the city for work knowing that I can catch a train to Martin Place, Circular Quay, etc but usually I end up walking anyway because it's near enough and a nice walk.

Gorgeous! And yes, so many of those apartment things are a great option when there are more than two travelers.

I haven't, but I live near a glow worm tunnel in Australia so can speak a little bit to it. Glow worms live in places that are always dark, they'll be best and brightest in places where the sunlight never reaches it anyway. Most glow worm caves and tunnels are underground, very deep, or have a bend that prevents light reaching the middle. I see that a bunch of the tours for the glow worm caves are at sunset over there, so it may be that there are some aspects that are better in low natural light, but there are day tours too so they'd have to be visible regardless.