Ondine

Funny I hadn't even noticed. You read what you want to read. Or I should have gone to SpecSavers!!!

I can only think that someone at Princess stuffed up the booking or forgot to pay the holding fee. It doesn't state anywhere on my paperwork where embarkation will be. Usually Outer West for embarking passengers. Only says Melbourne 4.00pm. I think that used to be on the boarding pass which no longer exists. I see that Explorer has a 7.00pm departure which is unusual for Melbourne. She is doing an 80's 3 night cruise. I notice that the cruise schedule has not been updated since 5 October so will wait and see what pops up on there. Really weird that they would change the itineraries for 2 cruises causing problems for anyone on the NZ voyage who now get an extra day and may find that inconvenient if they have flights or work to get to. We were not offered any compensation. Only a pro rata refund of 1 days fare. It's going to be messy with 2 ship loads of passengers debarking and embarking what with luggage, taxis, busses and the general chaos of the bottleneck at the pier. Doesn't seem logical. I await further information from Princess.

You do kind of walk on the ramp as a walk on passenger. An entrance at the side of the ship which if you keep going through another door is the ramp. I know - took the wrong turn coming off on Wednesday. Went left instead of right. Sorry if I don't explain it properly.

I came back through the Spirit of Tassie terminal on Wednesday. They have removed all the tv screens and various other items to take down to Corio and the new terminal. That berth would be IESP. I think it would be possible to embark passengers for a cruise ship but not if it requires customs. In February the Grand Princess will be coming in from NZ and departing for Fiji so customs required. Pacific Explorer is only doing a 3 dayer to nowhere. They already have lifts and an escalator for admittance. There is a passageway for security checks which has tables and a scanner at the end. However to get on board the ship that escalator goes back down to pier level where you would embark on the Spirit via the back ramp. So need a boarding bridge. Not sure what other rooms/spaces are available at the terminal which I haven't seen or I can't recall. Quite possibly it could be brought up to scratch to enable Australian cruises without too much trouble for this season. I wonder what will happen to the truck holding yard. Could this be used for parking? There are 3 cruise ships due in in 2 weeks for Cup Day but they are not doing turn-arounds so not such a big problem. Just visiting.

Received an email the other day saying that our 14 night cruise to Fiji departing Melb on 9th Feb has been shortened to 13 nights due to "port congestion in Melbourne" and so we will miss Isle of Pines (which was a given) and depart on 10th Feb. However when checking Melbourne Ports website Grand Princess has disappeared completely and on the 9th Feb we have Regatta and Celebrity Eclipse visiting and on 10th Feb we have Seabourn Odyssey visiting and Pacific Explorer doing a turn around. I can't see how we can manage two ships doing both debarking and embarking on the same day in Melbourne with only one terminal and both loading supplies etc. Don't think they can use the Spirit of Tassie terminal. Not really set up for it. mmmm

Me too. Not sailing Saturday but in 3 weeks. Samsung also and I do not want to tempt fate.

As soon as you have a booking with P&O if you go into Cruise Control to check the cruise it will come up with Register Vaccination Status and it will inform you of the restrictions for children and unvaccinated adults. If there is a child in the booking then the exemption application is clearly stated and the link to the form required. This rule was clearly stated when the protocols were released for resumption of cruising. I guess some people never read the rules. We have a family (12) cruise for New Year and the youngest is only 11. He has had 1 vaccination and I am like a broken record trying to get his mother to organise the second one. grrrrr This cruise has been moved-over twice and rules are different to the original 2020 booking. grrrr

I understand that Disney has closed down their head office and booking centre because of Hurricane Ian devastating Florida. Apparently some bookings got done very early in the morning before everything went out. Enormous amount of damage over there.

Isle of Pines and Mare were the first to shut down well ahead of the others. They closed around late January/early February 2020 if I remember rightly. I ended up with a magical mystery tour on Carnival Spirit because of that. Very cautious. Probably very little medical assistance available.

Thank goodness for cruise critic friends who keep us informed of changes. Worth their weight in gold.

This was the address we used several years ago when son registered for Military benefits. defencebenefits@carnivalaustralia.com. After the first cruise the benefit was attached to his URN number which is the same for all Carnival companies.

I cannot find any confirmation of this new rule on the Princess or P&O sites yet. Perhaps they are yet to be updated or with Carnival Splendor due soon they are getting the protocols ready for her.

3 days ago Carnival updated the rules on Covid testing for Australian cruises. Cruise & Travel Guy commented on it and he said that it was for all Carnival Company ships (eg Princess/P&O etc). Sorry it is a bit blurred. You now need to photograph the test with proof of time and proof of identify.

I have been watching this couple post videos on the current cruise from USA to Sydney. I imagine that some things will change when they reach Sydney.

I did it via the ship's tour on Pacific Jewel around 6 years ago and it was one of the best tours I have done. Took about 7 hours. Think it was called the Rugged coast tour (could be wrong). So interesting. We met one of the owners and he told us about the history of the place. Only drawback were the corrugated roads which rattled the old bones. Wild and wonderful. Would do it again if ever I get back to Port Lincoln. One of my favourite ports.

Strange that cruises from Melbourne are considerably cheaper than the others, at least going on the quoted prices for a 2 nighter. But considering that they are in US$ - eee out of my league.

I was looking at insurance offerings about May/June so have slipped up on the age. Sorry Old Age taking its toll. Head was spinning with all the options from different companies at that time. In the past I always used Insure&Go but now they obviously don't want me. About a year before lock-down they started making over 75's (think this was the age) wait till 120 days prior to sailing to take out the insurance policy. I queried this and pointed out that many cruise lines start having cancellation penalties 180 days prior to sailing. Not fair either. No more Insure&Go for me. I do believe it is deceitful to advertise 100yrs and then have restrictions in the fine print.

I had the same problem with them. I needed someone younger with me and even then it would not give me a quote for cruising. Frustrating - then I found that hidden in their PDS there was a little item stating that they wouldn't cover anyone over 75 for cruising. Always the fine print. Went with NIB and got an annual policy so I don't need to worry about change of dates or itineraries for this summer. Peace of mind.

I found that most of my cruises were showing green lane but one was still blue. Found out that I hadn't completed the request for the medallion bit. Hadn't hit submit. Did that and that cruise changed to green. All are too far away to do the medical part yet or pick a boarding time. First cruise is just over 2 months away so in about 10 days I will be tearing my hair out again going around in circles trying to get boarding time.

Sometimes the Princess site goes haywire with pricing. The gremlins get in. I have had prices come up that my Princess Planner can't see. Good hunting.

Thank you so much. Some days I am green other days blue. I thought that the health status may have something to do with this. I find the web version is easier to use but will use the phone if I have to. Definitely will be taking paper copies of everything.

I heard back from Princess yesterday early evening so that it was around 30 hours. I had used the shareholderbenefit@carnivalaustralia.com email address for both P&O and Princess. They knocked me back on 1 cruise as "the current promo cannot be combined with shareholder benefits". Not sure what that was about. It was a replacement cruise but so were several of the others and they caused no problems. Oh well - win some lose some. I got the OBC for 6 cruises out as far as March next year. On a slight tangent: I noticed yesterday that I can now print off luggage tags for my first cruise (Nov 4th) since the lock down. Can somebody please enlighten me about the boarding passes. I seem to remember that pre lock-down they were attached to the luggage tag part. I am referring to Princess. How do I now print off boarding passes? Can I print them via my computer or can I only get a version on my phone? When do they become available and is this when you can choose your boarding time? Please help!!!!! It was so much easier when you boarded according to your cabin category. I know somebody will be able point me in the right direction. Many many thanks in advance.

Wow - I applied for my shareholder OBC late yesterday afternoon (first time applicant) for several Princess and P&O cruises this summer. The OBC for my P&O New Year cruise was applied this morning. Is this some sort of record - less than 24 hours? Princess are yet to show up but fingers crossed they won't take too long. First cruise is on 4th November. Have a gold star P&O Au.

I found that when I was booking dining on my computer it told me that I had complimentary speciality dining available and allowed me to select which night and restaurant I wanted it. So I did just that and booked Sabatinis. However I have B2B and when I bring up the second trip to book the dining times it gives me the itinerary for the first leg even when I log in using the correct booking number. eeeee Win some lose some! It still shows the same cabin for both cruises which is also wrong.

Yeah the first few cruises from Melbourne have been sold out for ages so there won't be any bargains for us Mexicans. The only "bargain" cruise that I have seen is the New Zealand one sometime in November added by P&O when they revised their cruise start up time. Unfortunately it clashes with my Princess cruises which have been booked and moved around for the past couple of Covid years.