Ondine

I think of my PP at P&O who I have dealt with for many years. Before and all through COVID - booking-cancelling-moving bookings, through sales of Pacific Jewel, Pacific Aria and Pacific Dawn. Re-booking when they were sold. He has been an angel especially with my New Year family cruise (6 cabins) which was amended so many times trying to keep cabins together when cruises got cancelled constantly because of lock-down. I do hope they keep the current P&O staff to take care of Australian passengers.

Hope we travel on the same cruise one day cause I usually travel solo but am a bit of a shrinking violet and rarely make the first move. Am happy to join a group/other solo when invited.

I was watching Fraser at Sea the other night on Youtube and he was in Barcelona and there were 8 cruise ships lined up at the wharf and some of them were the 4,000 to 5,000 passenger ones. Unbelievable.

I too have never had any trouble selecting a room. I have always booked through a P&O Personal Planner and just told him which room I wanted. I would look at TA's web pages to see which cabins were available and let him know. I had also read that you could choose your cabin in Cruise Control as per stated above but never had to try it. I fully understand Go gty bookings are different but if you have a Value fare you should be ok. Have you tried Cruise Control or put a request on the P&O page for help. With Value and Premium package, you are able to select your room in Cruise Control once you’ve completed your booking. Note: Room selection is subject to availability.

I'm booked to get on her on 19th Nov in Melbourne (28 nts). Once she gets to Fremantle it also becomes a circumnavigation of Australia cruise so there will be much coming and going of passengers. It is one of two Princess cruises that summer which Melb passengers can board, albeit in limited numbers. The other is another circumnavigation in March 2026. Boring itinerary but hey it's a ship that I can do a round trip from Melb on. I'll take that.

Absolutely gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing with us.

My last trip on Grand Princess I brought one of the balcony chairs into the cabin and covered it in beach towels and a cushion. Cabin steward didn't say anything. We did have a difference of opinion as to where the waste bin would go. He wanted it under the desk which meant it was in the way of my feet each time I sat down and I kept putting it at the side of the fridge cupboard on the opposite wall. Nothing was said, we just kept playing the moving game. However about half way through the cruise (it was 14 nights) he gave up moving it back each day and I won.

Yes the balconies on deck 10 are the best. They are around 3 times the size of the normal ones. The covered section is the same size as on deck 11 or 12. If you look upward then the covering/roof is the floor of the balcony above on deck 11. Private near the door and plenty of space to put the lounge and footstool if you want. When Princess had these they were BD/BC/BB depending where you were along the side.

Very strange. Adventure is here at Outer East arriving 16th departing 17th and again arriving 19th departing 27th allowing Viking Orion to have the berth on 18th March. Encounter arrives on 19th at Outer West departing 22nd and arriving again on 24th departing 27th allowing Crown Princess to pick up passengers on 23rd for her circumnavigation cruise. Both are listed as Transit rather than Turnaround (but this doesn't necessarily mean much). Maybe they will invite the Victorian government onboard to try to win them over as they will be Carnival ships by then but I won't hold my breath. Don't think they will be taking passengers. As someone, I think in Alice in Wonderland once said - curious and curiouser. Vic Ports site was updated last Wednesday.

On my last P&O (Explorer- 13 nights end of January) we were given chocolates 4 times. They were Australian ones made somewhere in NSW. We were very surprised. Sorry don't remember the brand. This was a funny trip. In order for the stewards to get toilet paper they had to use up what they had in storage. It was not unusual to find 4 rolls in your bathroom one day and the next none. Thought I was going mad. I queried my steward and he explained it was their way of hiding what they had in order to get more.

Norwegian are strange. I have a b2b (Melb/Auck/Melb) booked with them for this Christmas/New Year. On the return cruise we get in Melbourne at 11.00am Saturday. Then overnight Melbourne and disembarkation is sometime after 7.00am Sunday. So I will be able to stand on the deck and almost see my house but not get off till immigration clearance is done presumably on Sunday. Why not spend the day at sea and save on mooring fees? First time Norwegian and I am learning as I go.

P&O Au used to use Australian food on board, like milk and cereal etc. Now that they will be USA ships then I would expect to see more long life food from America like we see on Carnival and Princess ships. Some packaging looks the same until you look at the place of origin bit, even yoghurt, milk and cereal. So sorry for our suppliers but another saving for Carnival.

Up until yesterday most of them didn't even have a clue that P&O Australia even existed. Watched one (who usually knows what she is talking about) saying that P&O have 5 ships and what a good thing it was for us. I guess Carnival Adventure will stay in Sydney because she can fit under the bridge but not if they put a whale tail on her. By rolling P&O into Carnival I guess they will be able to advertise in USA and get more overseas passengers to sail on "OUR" ships. Also not sure about the "Sunset" bit. What, was P&O dying? What a strange way to describe "shutting down". I do think that they will be able to save lots of money by amalgamating the companies with back office stuff and probable won't have many tax obligations in Aus now, payroll tax etc.

When Carnival spat the dummy last year and withdrew from Melbourne (they weren't actually here) but took Cunard away from the end of last season and Princess from Dec this year there was no mention of P&O Au which also sailed under the Carnival umbrella. That tells me that this was well on the way to be implemented then. Another reason why Grand Princess got itineraries for Alaska when she was expected to replace Explorer. Been in the works for a long time and the spat with the Vic Government was a red herring.

I just did a mock booking and it has changed since I last booked some time ago. After I selected a room it then asked for transfers from airport. Then it asked for travel insurance before going through to payment. I could only select Use a FCD, Risk Free deposit of several hundred $ or pay in full. Only 3 options and no 3 day grace.

Oh no. How long do you have to be confined? Hope your symptoms are mild. All the best.

Even if they could dock in Noumea (which they can't) there is no way people could travel ashore from the pictures of the devastation that has been wrought to infrastructure so why go. It is just too dangerous. Just another reason not to send ships to Australia - problems with Melb and I think NZ (hull cleaning), Red Sea attacks and more importantly they can get better returns elsewhere. Now we are running out of places to sail to. However I think that cruise companies will cut their own throats by sending too many ships to lucrative ports. I have been reading that there are problems in Alaska with some ports limiting cruise numbers, Barcelona is limiting ships, Bar Harbour also in US trying to stop anything over 1000 passengers per day. Santorini is another one which is causing problems with too many visitors. And we all know that Venice is angry.

Reconsider your need to travel to New Caledonia due to ongoing civil unrest and travel disruptions. This is the travel advice from the Australian Government so I guess there is not much the cruise companies can do. This warning will probable impact or void people's travel insurance also. The Australian Consulate is closed and while the govt is evacuating Australians from Noumea I don't imagine they want any new ones to go.

Cruises from Melb seldom get to Luganville because of the extra distance. It's right at the top of Vanuatu. The only time I managed was when the world was shutting down as covid hit and ended up with a magical mystery tour of who would let us in on Carnival Spirit. Personally I liked Santo. If ever I get there again I intend to check out the medical centre which does such good work. I did the interesting military tour last time. Terrible the way the USA destroyed all the equipment when they left after WW2 instead of giving it to the inhabitants.

Had a look using your link and the price is $180 pp/pn for an inside or $263 pp/pn for balcony. Not exactly a sale. That equates to $7364 for 14 nights for 2 in balcony cabin. I have a 14 night booked with Princess mini suite for $6,200 with OBC on Diamond Princess. P&O in Melbourne or Adelaide charge like wounded bulls.

I think with cruise lines abandoning Melbourne it will also affect Adelaide. Feel sorry for you.

It's lovely to see British food that looks like what I eat instead of watermelon soup etc which gets served on Princess.

If I go there and put in Melbourne dep then I get a message saying "Looks like you're adrift at sea". Guess it is only for certain voyages and if there is no competition in Melbourne then why reduce the price.

Some years ago I had a lot of refundable credit from a move over offer. They gave us a new cruise with an upgrade and the same benefits and the price of the old cruise back as refundable credit. About a month after I got home I received a cheque for the refundable (it was pre this bank account stuff). It was Princess.