lyndarra

Curious. Where in Europe? I was recently in France, Spain and Portugal and never had to sign.

All my flights with Qatar have been part of packages. I have logged many Virgin flights and have about 800k points still to spend. Flew with Emirates as part of package to Turkey or is it now Turkiye. It was just as cramped as QANTAS and the TV died on the return Bangkok/Sydney leg. Qatar is way better than Emirates.

Perhaps they want to see Alan Joyce retire with an affordable pension🤡

Same here. My favourite is Qatar Airlines. Singapore and Virgin are also up there. My June QANTAS flight was booked using points from JAL a QANTAS co partner.

There's the Stockton ferry😟 No flying.

Sorry to say but returning home from Singapore (after HAL Sydney/Singapore cruise) on QF82 I experienced my worst ever international flight. It just confirmed my opinion that QANTAS has dropped the ball re customer service and gone all out on cost cutting. And, just to top things off, we were caught up in the QANTAS problems in Oz occuring pre and in flight. We were due to depart SIN 20:05 and arrive SYD 07:10 Friday. Before we docked in Singapore we received a text from Q saying that the flight would be delayed by an hour. Hmm, what to do with all that time to spend after disembarking. Needn't have worried as it took longest time ever to disembark and clear immigration/customs, 4-5 hours in fact. Took a taxi to Changi and killed some time having a late lunch in the new Jewell next to T1. We had an 'interesting' meal in the Asian food court and killed time checking out the worlds highest indoor waterfall, window shopping, dessert at Maccas, coffee at Starbucks, ok but not great but better than ship coffee. On checking boards for departure gate we discovered the flight had been further delayed. Bugger. Boarded sometime about 21.45. Getting tired but there was an inflight dinner to be had. My first negative impression was that we were supposed to be on an Airbus A333 we boarded an ancient A320. As soon as I sat down I noticed a damaged, small, fold down shelf below the TV screen which is normally retained by to rubber cords either side, one was missing and the other had lost its elasticity. There had been a temporary repair, using cloth duct tape, which had come away and was no longer sticky enough to hold. Next I noticed how cramped my seat was. (The economy seats were 2 - 4 - 2. We had an aisle and window. This had the advantage of not having a stranger to climbing over you during the night to go to the loo.) I had no hope of crossing my legs or even stretching them forward under the seat in front - I'm 6'1" which is not real tall these days. I had to try and sleep sitting with my hips turned sideways and my feet in the aisle. Lack of room under the seat meant my shins were often bumping against framework. My Garmin watch showed I got a mere 3.5 hrs sleep for the 8+ hours flight. Before going to sleep we had a much delayed meal service. When it was placed on my tray, and without opening, I immediately got the impression I was on a budget flight. No serving tray with the usual accoutrements, just a foil tray with cardboard top and a small paper bag containing wooden cutlery(?), and napkin. That's it. No dinner roll, no cheese and crackers, no small bowl of fruit, no tea/coffee cup, no tub of yogurt or juice, no s/steel cutlery, no salt & pepper - all of which I had on recent Qatar Airways flights. I'm not sure what I saw, when I took the lid off, was what I ordered. Half the tray was boiled rice plus what looked like a dessert spoon size portion of something that looked like stewed meat and gravy, a piece of broccoli and piece of cauliflower (both of which I hate) and two slices of carrot. That's it. I wondered what we would get for dessert - there wasn't any. After that it was time to try and get some sleep. Forgot to mention. The seats were very narrow. During the night I had to wrap a bit of my blanket around my harm due to pressure against the armrest. Morning. Breakfast was no better than dinner. Vegetable matter in a flat, flaky pastry, roll. Yuk. On the antiquated TV screen flight log we noticed we had circling Sydney. Never had that before. Eventually we landed. While taxiing the captain announced we would have to wait for our parking place to be cleared, it was still occupiued by one of QATAS's planes that had issues. After about half an hour or so the captain said we could not go to our parking spot at the terminal and that we will have to deplane at the cargo terminal instead and be collected by busses to be taken to the passenger terminal. Groan. As soon as we stopped at the cargo terminal everyone jumped out of their seats and grabbed their carryons from the lockers. This a practice I really hate. I'm not sure if the captain requested those with connecting flights to move towards the forward exit but people were trying to do this but it was hopeless. The aisles were clogged with people and baggage waiting for busses to turn up. I just stayed in my seat until those in front had cleared theirs. At last we were on the bus and on our way. Unfortunately we hit the terminal at the same time as another fully loaded flight. People everywhere trying to access the E machines. Long, long queues made worse by many machines being out of order. Grr. Then long cues through the auto immigration terminals and some of them also out of action. Finally to the baggage collection however it was a longer than normal wait there due to the baggage having to be carted from the cargo terminal. Oh well. Grabbed suitcase and headed for customs - more long queues. I had stuff to declare but that was dealt with quick smartl, as I had it in my back pack, and we were on our way to the station. Got to the platform just as the train pulled in. Hurrah! No queues! Arrived at Central with 6 minutes to get to platform 8 for the train to Cardiff. Made it with 3 minutes to spare. Uneventful trip home from there. I've had it with queues - oh - and QANTAS. Bugger. I have a booked flight with QANTAS to Vancouver in June.😱

I'm finding hard to keep up with tech these days. Had trouble navigating the HAL Navigator app. Next thing there'll be an app to manage apps.

Hot Crossless bun does not sound right.🙄

Apply online but only through Government web site. Other sites charge rip-off fees. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/visitor-600/tourist-stream-overseas

Last time in Hobart Feb 2020 I visited the Hobart Museum of Old and New Art - MONA. It's a nice ferry ride up the river from the ferry terminal which is adjacent to the cruise terminal. It's not open every day. But, IMHO, is well worth a visit. Ferry tickets, Museum admission and museum restaurant are all cashless, card only. https://mona.net.au/ https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/things-to-do/arts-and-culture/museumofoldandnewartmona/

The cards are also tap and go. I use my Visa for everything. The last time I had to sign for a purchase was somewhere in Arizona in 2016.

F.

I've just come off Westerdam and there was no smoking in the casino and there was no detectable (to me) smoke odour anywhere. Very few smokers in designated outdoor area by pool.

Went through the declare line this morning. Had Indonesian coffee, small wooden box containing civet coffee (all factory sealed) and a carved wooden Komodo dragon. Took less than 30 seconds to get the all clear - go.

You're right. Sadly I don't have the discipline required. On my MSC Divina Genoa/Miami cruise in 2019 I made notes each day and a few weeks ago I found them when clearing out old papers. It refreshed a few memories. I did do a CC review.

Final sea day before reaching Singapore tomorrow. Covid cases have increased to 40 pax and 16 crew. Most people seem to be adhering to mask wearing recommendations. My guess is about 90% When I arrive home I'll try and put together a review - of sorts. Highly dependent on my aging memory cells.

Have checked out the Crows Nest again and found things had changed. All nice and tidy. Captain has mentioned ongoing updating of areas. BB King will become Rolling Stone Rock & Roll.

We are in 1104 on main deck aft. It's close to stern and we get some engine noise but it is not disturbing at all. Cabin is roomy with a good size sofa and a small coffee(?) table. Plenty of desk space and USB be charging points and more near bed heads. Room is handy to lift to reach Lido. Miss not having an atrium as on RCI, Celebrity and others. No smoking in casino means no smell when passing through. Can't be many smokers on board as I haven't noticed tobacco smell at all so far.

Yes, perhaps "overused" (oops) is a better word. When we first walked in we thought renovations were afoot. Did not have the ambience of previous HAL ships we have been on. I may have to go back up there for another look.

That's what I found when i prepaid with HAL

I'm on Westerdam but I don't have the wifi package. It has taken me until now to sort out my phone as a wifi hot spot. From time to time I will ad some info on this thread as I am not proficient enough to do a real time review. So, from memory. Ship is very similar to Noordam. I miss the crows nest set up. Crows Nest was a very popular gathering spot on Noordam and Maadam where we would do Trivia play cards (500) and partake of happy hour which usually preceded our latish dinner time. On Westerdam the Crows Nest seems very neglected. Trivia is held in Billboard lounge(?) which is always overcrowded with people pinching seats from the casino. I entered a general knowledge trivia solo and scored equal tops core of 14/15 (brag brag). If I had known the writer of first English dictionary I would have made a perfect score. Seems very few people know what a Flemish Giant is but somehow I dragged the answer out of my grey matter recesses. Next point. There is obvious cost cutting. Most noticeably no resident "orchestra" for main stage shows however the entertainment has been excellent. There was a fantastic light and dance show from One Step dancers - I think it was called Humanity. Excellent singer from Perth, Karen Beckett who will be presenting Shades of Streisand tonight. A very entertaining Irish(?) magician. I decided to take a couple of bottles of my favourite Piggs Peak wine, prepared to pay the corkage, which was done when boarding, however I wasn't prepared for the 18% service charge that added to the service. Will be seeing Customer Service about that. On cost cutting. With a full ship there seems to be a lack of wait staff in MDR as not all tables are being filled (we are on My Time) which means queueing and waiting for shared tables using beepers but the wait is not long and you are served a complimentary glass of bubbly while waiting. Day before yesterday everyone had to do a RAT which added 16 cases to 15 already in isolation . Most are wearing masks as advised by HAL. Ironically there seemed to be more mask wearing after the test than before. Staff have been excellent. Customer Service staff have been great, so far. They fixed a glitch in my app which wasn't showing OBC - all good now. Happy to use 'old fashion' door keys. No Medallions here. IIRC there used to be a drinks list on tables in Lido but none now. We have night light in bathroom, doesn't bother us nor does the auto floor light. Enough for now. Will add more later if Julie doesn't mind.

One sleep to go. Thanks Julie for Live(ish). BTW How do I know beforehand if my OBC is on my account?

I have done this on Ovation. We just turned up at the time we wanted to dine, which was about 6.30, and the allocated a shared table for 8. Most nights we had the same table and often the same table mates who liked to dine at about the same time. Saved a lot of introductions and we could continue interesting conversation threads from the previous night/s.

Yes, you can do that.

Nobody drinking Tetley teas here? I once bought a pint of Tetleys draught ale at a pub The Telford Arms (Pontcysyllte) on a hot June day. I couldn't finish it - it was horrible. I hope their tea is better than their beer! I drink Aldi Green Tea.