Sallyandtex

Thanks everyone,  we might wait until visit and see what the weather is doing, good to know there's an information centre to see what to do.

Maybe a Lake visit,  or Maybe even a bike hire? 

We hired bikes in Gisbourne it was fun

hi,

Never been to this port, and not a lot to be found regarding things to do.

I was thinking of maybe a hire car to get to Lake Tekapo?

Are there hire places there in port?

Or a bus trip maybe?

There are 4 of us.

Is this trip a good idea, other suggestions please if you have been there and what to do.

The Royal is one less day/port by the look of next season.

Hi cruiser3775 yes I really liked the Westerdam compared to Royal carribean and p and o. We wish they had a syd return trip , only 1 is over Xmas

2 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Princess has added a few vegan options. I haven't taken much note though, and certainly can't make a current comparison with what Westerdam is offering.

Seats at shows - if I really want to see it, I get there early to get a good seat. Mostly, we don't bother with shows.

Seats at dinner. Princess are switching to 3 version dining in September. You can prebook traditional dining (early late for all of cruise). You can pre-book casual dining via the app, then vary your plans and adjust your bookings for each day once aboard. You can also do walk-up dining. They have separate dining rooms for each. Apart from a day when the booking system crashed, we have never had to wait for a seat on Princess. We have only ever had buzzers on P&O and Carnival. Up till now, we have rarely done a walk-up dinner on Princess, so it will be interesting to see how it works.

Thanks I really appreciate the info. 

So in a nut shell considering if the cabin availability,  itinerany and price were equal,  you think the Royal might be best as there won't be long waits and big crowds?

Or just pick either?

We wouldn't get any perks that many others do like skipping lines or free stuff

14 minutes ago, arxcards said:

We could go with either, and our choice would be based on the convenience of the itinerary, then price.

- Westerdam is smaller and quieter, and more comfortable in the public areas.

- Most Westerdam cruises will turnaround in Sydney at White Bay - perhaps less convenient than OPT, but you do cruise under the bridge.

- Crown will be busier than Westerdam, especially during the holidays. Activities attract crowds, but that includes HAL's cooking demos.

- Depending on cabin type, I find Princess cabins almost as comfortable as HAL. For a mini, I prefer Princess' current spec.

- Food varies from cruise to cruise across both lines, and I find Princess food to be generally a match for HAL. In my opinion, Westerdam has a better buffet, Princess is better with International Cafe, deck pizza & burgers. I prefer Princess MDR, slightly.

- Crown & Pinnacle Grill are a near match on quality, but Pinnacle Grill has a bit more choice.

- Crown Princess is $AU.

 

Royal is bigger. We have cruised on Majestic, and prefer the grand class in preference. Not a good & bad thing, just different. The promenade is much better on Crown, although there is a bit of up and around to get around the bow.

Mmm thankyou. One of our company is a vegetarian.  I was telling her about the Westrdam buffet how there are lots of healthy choices, as many of the other boats we have been on have loads of meat and very poor vegetable dishes.

In terms of getting a seat at shows, dining rooms, is there any difference with either of the princess ships?  We liked on the Westeram if there was no tables immediately,  they gave us a buzzer and we could sit in the nearby bar and have a drink listen to the live quartet.  Was never much of a wait.

Thankyou!

Any preference Crown or Royal?

We like a promenade walk for exercise

Hi, We had to cancel a HAL cruise to Japan for this year due to illness.

Looking closer to home things have gone up in price dramatically, and the ships don't seem to do many Sydney round trips.

We liked the size and feel of Westerdam,  but we would have to get a flight 1 way to or from Auckland.

Friends gave warned us of the uncomfortable beds and bad food, and crowds on Princess ships that are large.(crown and royal seem to be the ones that go to NZ)

Is this unfounded?

Princess have more offerings Sydney return.

P.s not wanting fabulous shows but like trivia and other smaller crowd activities 

We would try out of school holidays like end of Jan or February or March.

Thanks

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

Contact HAL as far as the how you get around the US state. As far as I was aware, this was available to Australia. Checking their FAQ, it says:

CPP Platinum is not available to residents of New York State, Quebec, British Columbia, Puerto Rico or the United Kingdom.

Yes I saw that too . I emailed HAL Australia before my post,  to ask no reply as yet.

Has anyone purchased the platinum CPP?

Been looking at purchasing a Holland America Cruise protection plan, as the Web pages states you don't need to put pre existing conditions?

This would be in addition to our usual travel insurance.

I downloaded the documents but it could be for US cruisers only as you select your US state.

Thanks 😊 

On 12/3/2023 at 10:43 AM, FlaMariner said:

We stayed at the Yokohama Sheraton for 5 nights after dis-embarking the Westerdam HAL ship in October. 

 

Great location.  Across the street from the Yokohama train station.  Lots of restaurants.  It was only a few subway stops from the port. 

 

Not a clue about shuttle service....we used Japan's public transit to get around.....easy. fast. frequent. clean. crime free.

 

Enjoy Japan...we did. 

We're you able to use the Suica card for the local trains? And could you reload them easily at the stations?

17 minutes ago, monkey@cruise said:

It valid for 10 years.

Oh wow! Thanks for that. 

On 10/30/2023 at 3:54 AM, Elzacruiser said:

Mobile suica cards are not refundable so load your money wisely.  We start with 2000 yen( per my bank it was USD$13.36 the time we loaded) before we left the States. Since we have world wide phone plan, we just add extra whenever needed. For example- Haneda airport to Shinjuku station is 1400 yen each person, so we add another 2000 yen on my husband’s card. Within Tokyo, subway usually cost 178 yen, so you can estimate how many trips you are going to take.  Of course, there are so many places accept CC payment so you can utilize that as well.  When out of Tokyo, suica cards are still good for transportation, food and convenience stores, but if you visit some small restaurants or food vendors, cash is the only way.  The remaining balance are good for five years, so if you still have funds left, when transfer in Japan, you can use it at the airport. We ended with a little bit over 400 yen each card.   Of course you can use the final balance at stores and pay the short payment by cash or other means so that’s another way to drain the funds.  You’ll know how easy it is to use mobile suica card in Japan when you arrive.  Enjoy your time in Japan!

Is it 5 years for the physical card too? 

We kept ours from June 2018, and are finally coming back October 2024, so that's 6 years!

25 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

Has anyone found any great Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals?

Not at all. I get smashed with emails with supposed u beatable deals, but when you pick it apart, they just shift money around to make it look good.

I also got a better deal 3 months ago on a cruise only fare, even with the extras added now the fare is much higher.

10 minutes ago, boeckli said:

 

Thanks 🙂

Doubt that you can get better than 0.769 from your bank ...

Very true! Am waiting to hear back from them asking why I don't have the booking showing then I will be buying some at that rate!

4 minutes ago, boeckli said:

 

Why would you want to pay in USD? Taking today's rate for the card I would normally use, I've saved over AUD70 pp for the 16 day cruise 🙂

 

I believe all other pre-purchases would be payable in USD .

 

Your time will come too 😉 (I've already waited since January)

Only because I have found my bank gives me a better rate than the cruise companies with the conversion. I could be wrong.

Anyway , had no luck as the website gave an error when I tried to add my booking that wasn't showing. Maybe a Black Friday crash!

Have a lovely cruise!

53 minutes ago, boeckli said:

 

Log into your account, then click on the yellow 'Manage My Cruise' button

 

 

On the next screen, select 'Pre-pay Crew Appreciation'. On the following screen you will see the daily rates (which are US@) and the A$ total for your cruise (you can then do the calculation for the exchange rate).

 

Thankyou very much for going to the trouble of those instructions 😀. 

I am guessing then, that you can't pay in USD on an Aussie website, have to pay the AUD they have calculated. 

(92 days lucky you!) I have 11 months to wait .

20 minutes ago, boeckli said:

 

With HAL you can pre-pay your gratuities in A$, at a very favourable exchange rate 🙂 Just log in to your account for the details.

Thanks for that, is there a way to compare currency once logged in? So, do you select say $100 usd and then they say how much aud? Or do you just select how much in Aud?

I usually use one of my cards most favourable  on the day with exchange rates (card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee)

22 hours ago, mum and son said:

Like me! I'll be upgrading to Plus when I board to use up some OBC, maybe I should buy the rest of the OBC today. Not that it makes a big difference for that level of spending. Might load some USD on my travel card though.

Do you know if it's possible to buy OBC with Holland America? And do they refund any not spent?

We have no OBC for a cruise booked in October next year, also gratuities not included which gets painfully expensive with the exchange rate.

15 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

It depends on the cruise length, $50 for less than 7 days, $100 for 7 -14 days and $250 for those more than 14 days. It is in USD for cruises overseas and AUD for home cruises. Sometimes pounds for British cruises.

Whoa huge difference between AUD and USD and pound!

How much OBC do they give you?

Hi,

Those from Syd Australia,  approx how many months is a good time to book airfares on a direct route to Haneda?.

We are a little over 12 months to sail, and info on web suggests don't book flights until around 6 months prior for best price.

Looking at ANA so we have daytime flights,  very expensive so far.

Thanks!

6 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

If you do any tours overseas such as Gate 1, Cosmos, Trafalgar, Globus, Colette,  APT, etc they always have a recommendation of how many $ per day for the driver and for the guide.

As a someone who does these tours, that is what I provide.

Here in Australia sometimes there is a line that says 'tip not included' , if they state that then we feel a tip is expected and we  tip accordingly to the usual rates.

When we booked Insight and Trafalgar,  we had those automatically included, (like cruising here.). When we were finished up in Canada insight, the envelopes still got passed around as most hadn't paid the expected tips. So, if it's part of the fare I think it should always be included

I wrote on the front that we already paid those (hundreds of dollars each for host and driver), and as the tour manager was less than average I didn't want to leave extra....we still felt guilty for  no good reason.

It's always a topic that makes me uncertain , uncomfortable and the system is unfair for the workers.

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

A couple was married on board the P&O Pacific Encounter on its cruise (23rd-30th Oct) to Cairns. The wedding was on the first full sea day.

Oh great! Do you know if they did a review/blog?

44 minutes ago, Worldtraveler 4727 said:

@buchhalm Sigh. I truly am NOT coming from an ethnocentric point of view— regardless of your opinion that Americans think USD (and anything else) is welcome worldwide. 
I was on CC months before asking this same question, and was assured by many that  Australia was #1 a country whose citizens enjoyed a living wage, and while tips might be welcome, they are not necessary. #2 I was assured that I did not need cash, and so far that is absolutely true. 
Having leftover euros, yen, pounds, and pesos at home, I hated to possibly add AUD to the unused piles. 
Therefore, I brought no AUD with me. 
I am asking this question again to receive some reassurance about doing what is correct in this culture. 
Thank you to all who helpfully and kindly reply. 

Save yourself the trouble, and a genuine thankyou  would do for good service.

We are more cash free than USA and pay for things with cards mostly, especially with Covid restrictions in recent years and handing cash around.

19 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Was any organization doing temperature checks that early on in the pandemic? Certainly they became common eventually but I don't think it was when that cruise departed.

Those 'gun style' devices are very in-accurate also, especially when waved around in the air like they were doing at some venues, by un-trained staff.