Ondine

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.

I remember about 2 years ago the statement from the machines onboard Grand Princess told us we had $80 of refundable credit still available so we did not bother to spend it. Our OBC had been a mixture of refundable and non refundable at around $900 including military/shareholder/refunded port fees etc. When we got back the statement emailed from Princess claimed the remaining OBC was non refundable. I complained but they said they calculated it differently and there was nothing I could do. Unfortunately I did not keep the printout of the onboard statement so couldn't argue. Lesson learned so I always take a printout from the onboard machines.

I got bitten by bed bugs on the old Pacific Jewel. As I have done around 30 cruises and it was the only time, consider myself lucky to have avoided them on other cruises. After that I used to travel with a can of Mortein and spray the whole bed before I would get in it. Didn't improve the smell and the sheets would be damp. With people travelling from all over the world and staying in various hotels in various countries they are to be expected. A bit of sympathy (and truth) from the cruise line wouldn't go astray. On the other hand I have caught influenza twice and covid 4 times while cruising so I just accept if I want to cruise then these are the risks. Must admit I tend to do longer cruises so catching viruses is one of the disadvantages.

A few years back one of our tour guides explained the voting system to us and who is eligible to vote. Can't quite remember how it went but it was very heavily skewed to newcomers (French). Not simply land owners. There was a lot of unhappiness about it - this was around 6 years ago. The nickel mine accounts for 10% of world nickel production and is the 4th largest in the world so it is important to the French.

Since I live in Melbourne and lots of other passengers will also live in Victoria or nearby it seems odd to be in port and not getting off to go home. Kind of an anticlimax. I just put it down to Norwegian not having home-ported Melbourne before. I think they are learning as they go along. The following Auckland to Melb cruise comes in at 11.00pm so I can understand the reasoning for a 7.00am the following morning disembarkation then although 11.00pm is not a normal arrival time for Melbourne ports.

This cruise goes around Willis Island so there will be immigration/custom cards to fill in. We went around Willis on the Grand in March and the ship forgot to give out these cards with the disembarkation info and was chasing everyone on disembarkation morning to get them filled in. I have done this itinerary before so was prepared for it. Yes it is part of Australia but the ship will be selling alcohol and smokes duty free (not cheap).

I have this on my cruise in January. Not sure why we arrive at 11.00am and yet the disembarkation is 7.00am the next day. Never struck this before. Weird - why not just stay at sea instead of paying the extra wharf fees. Melbourne is the end of the 15 night cruise and ships usually come in at 7.00am and disembark from 7.30am.

I have booked Norwegian out of Melbourne for Dec/Jan total of 29 nights. Happy to give them a go although prices are all inclusive at the moment. Not sure why we cannot take the drinks package off like they can in USA. Will just have to see what comes along in future years and if the only ones from Melb are the expensive cruises then I will just have cut down on the number of cruises I take.

Well that serves them right. Diamond's NZ cruises from Melb prior to moving to Brisbane are pretty well sold out, have been for awhile, with only Interior and Ocean view available on Oct 5th, some balcony (plus int and ov) avail on 16th Nov and Interior, ocean view and mini (no balcony) on 2nd Dec. Prices are none too cheap either. Spitting the dummy with the Vic Government and thinking they could just swan into Brisbane where there is much more competition has backfired on Princess. I don't think the office planners in US realise how big Australia is for getting to ports, home ports are not interchangeable. People from Melb will not just hop on a plane to get to Brisbane. I see that Disney has now got provisional bookings for Dec 2026/27 listed in Vic Ports. Not sure if I would be a Disney person but it is good to see that someone apart from P&O are interested in Melb. Don't get me wrong, I feel for people who have booked on the Princess cruises which have been cancelled but think how we feel down here in poor old Melb. And Auckland cruisers - we were refused entry to Wellington on two cruises last summer at the pilots request. I feel there is more than dirty hulls at play there. I feel devastated for you. It took so long to come out of covid and I guess this is part of the price to pay when the cruise lines went elsewhere in the year we were procrastinating about opening - thank you Mr Morrison. End of rant for now.

I've found that hitting the escape button it disappears straight away but I have to do it for every screen change. Not happy Jan

I tried to click the "Learn More" bit to see if the ad would disappear like when you are watching muster videos on ships but this came up. So back to square 1. I will just have to give up on cc if it does not go away it's driving me crazy.

Prices at the moment are the all inclusive prices of Free at Sea plus discounted fares and some OBC. Not too bad if you like a drink plus $50 toward shore trips, internet, some speciality dining etc. You can also purchase the coupon for $250 which gives you $500 off your fare "whatever they call it". I booked Melb - Auk and Auk - Melb when I first saw these sailings last January. Living in Melbourne I was desperate to sail somewhere when all others were deserting us. I am hoping to re-fare when they release the Sailaway prices (basic) which I believe will be around 6 months or less prior to the sailings. Compared to what I have to pay for the 2025/26 circumnavigation standard fares on Princess out of Melb they are not that much dearer but include far more.

Why does the name Titanic come to mind???

I am assuming that that Stockperks have access to Carnival's list of shareholders which should give your name and address and number of shares. I believe that this would be public property as I worked in the stockbroking business.

When I look at the app it lists all of the Carnival ship brands as being eligible for "redemption". Aida, Carnival, Costa, Cunard, Holland America, P&O UK, P&O Au, Princess and Seabourn. It does make it easier to apply not having to provide an updated certificate. Wonder if any other lines will follow suite. There are other varied companies listed which obviously give shareholder benefits.

I registered with Stockperks when it started (sometime late last year??) and received OBC for the cruises I had booked up until last month. I just attached a copy of my last holding statement. No bank details or anything else. I am with Comsec so people will probably know the problems we have with getting an up to date statement. On Thursday I decided to see if I could get OBC for my next cruise so just went in to the app and clicked on redeem and put in my next booking number and date etc. I didn't have to attach any proof so I assume they can run a check on the share registry since they are in the business. I applied on Thursday 11th and it was granted yesterday Friday 12th even though the cruise is 6 months away and it is a Princess cruise. So simple compared to the old way which applied the 3 month rule and always wanted an updated statement.

Just saw this. Looks like someone who couldn't make up their mind.

We watched the suitcases being taken ashore. Because of their thoughtlessness we were nearly 3 hours late leaving port by the time we got the pilot and tugs back and found another slot in the queue. No idea if they intended to skip ship or couldn't care less about consequences.

...

Early Feb on Pacific Explorer in Auckland, our last port of call before returning to Melb. We were minus 7 passengers at 3.30pm final boarding time. After 15 minutes 3 sauntered aboard. Another 15 minutes and 2 people had phoned ahead to say their taxi had trouble and was late and eventually they arrived. So still missing two. By now we had lost our place in the departure line, the pilot who was onboard had gone elsewhere to another job and the tugs also departed leaving us to sort out the mess. After another hour the call went out to get security to open their cabin and ascertain that these people had their passports with them and pack up their belongings. Their suitcases were duly deposited onshore with information for the ships agent. We were now about 2 hours late with a full speed trip back to Melbourne ahead of us. The captain announced that they had contacted police and hospitals trying to find them and also contacted their family back in Melbourne to tell them what had happened and we were leaving them behind. On arrival in Melbourne Border Force came aboard and wanted a report on why we had left these people behind (now illegal immigrants to NZ) and this delayed our disembarkation by well over an hour which affected other peoples ongoing travel plans. The consequences to the ship are immense with all the extra paperwork, extra costs for the pilot and tugs. The ship is responsible for leaving with the number of passengers it brings in. I have no sympathy for them. We all know the rules. You contact the agents if you are delayed. Try getting an aircraft to wait for you if you are late. I don't think so. It is the same thing.

eeeee Is this some new rule for getting on in Melbourne? When I sailed in Jan and early Feb we were still allowed to drive onto the pier. When boarding Virgin late Feb we dropped off our luggage at the gate but put this down to a Virgin thing since they do everything different to other cruise lines! I know that there have been hassles with frustrated lines of motorists when the "traffic cops" favour one line over another leading to very loud horn honking. You have my sympathy boarding in yesterday's heat. That's a long walk to get onboard. No shade either if you have to queue prior to getting through the gate. I join on Sunday for the Qld trip. I see that the blue lounges have been replaced by white/cream ones on the back pool deck. What was that passenger thinking sunbaking in 38 deg heat. Enjoy your cruise. Like following the posts.

Re my posting 12 months ago re the condition of Grand Princess. I was pleased to see when cruising on her this season that they have completely renovated the Vista lounge and it looks lovely now. All chairs have been reupholstered/replaced . The low chairs in Explorers appear to be re-sprung and although they are still low you are now at shoulder height not chin height. It is still a race to get the higher chairs when looking for a table.

In light of the fact that Brilliant Lady is now not expected to sail until at least May 2025 (originally forecast late 2023) perhaps Virgin might use Resilient Lady to do Brilliant's cancelled expected itineraries. Depending how much interest they had had in Brilliant it would make sense.

Son and I were on the inaugural voyage in December and "rearranged" the set up. He didn't quite fit in the bed along the wall and I didn't want his feet in my face and I wasn't about to give up the other single because one has a spring base while the other doesn't and is harder. They are both hard actually. We put the "U shaped table" at the end of the bed near the window then we put the chair in backwards so the back of the chair would act as a wedge. We put all the extra pillows on the "table" which brought it approximately to the height of the mattress. He grumbled a bit but it worked. We then brought one of the balcony chairs inside to replace the one we had used to make the bed. The metal chairs are awful and I spent most of my outside time in the hammock anyway. We are sailing again tomorrow using credits we got when they cancelled my 20 night b2b NZ cruises. And they wonder what went wrong. They can't seem to make up their minds what they want to do. How can you book in advance when you can't be sure what will happen? I will try to take a photo and upload it when I get back. We find that the cabin not being squared also plays tricks with your mind. It is around a foot narrower at one end.