Ondine

Gone but never forgotten. Rest in Peace. Condolences to the family and especially Maxie.

Received an email from Cunard this morning to say that they have dropped the vaccination requirements and testing for forthcoming cruises.

I believe that 13102 has the angled balcony which is larger than standard. Your balcony is a standard size. I understand that the deck plans for the ships are not accurate in this regard sometimes showing 106 as angled and other times showing 102 as angled. Try googling your cabin and you will probably find some on youtube. It will be the same number cabin on all decks on port or starboard.

Oops I was on that "Rescue at Sea" one but was doing B2B so it didn't really affect us. (Well I do believe that I caught Covid while hanging around in the terminal for 2 hrs waiting to reboard). It had been a bit chaotic the night before with passengers trying to rebook flights etc. Border Force and Immigration arrived as soon as we docked to check out the wayward mariners we picked up in Bass Strait. We made good time from Auckland to make up for the bad weather and then had to hang around for hours off Wilson's Prom for the medi vac. Always hard doing a medi vac there due to the helicopters running short of fuel if they have come from Melb and needing to refuel at Sale. Then of course I woke to the silence of no engines at 1.00am and a helicopter flying around with a search light picking out the distressed mariners in the wild seas. They were so lucky, the rescue craft crew was brilliant. I saw the video on the police website a few weeks ago. Not for the faint hearted. The crew deserve a medal. Sorry you got caught up in the madness on land. We were pitying the incoming passengers.

It was in today's email on healthy cruising in the FAQs section. The other parts had been altered to reflect the new rules so I imagine it is still relevant unless they have forgotten about it.

I go with NIB annual cover. You could try Qantas also. Only stipulation is that it must be Comprehensive cover for over a certain age.

Last season some of the embarkations from Melbourne were held up by Border Force because of disembarking covid positive guests. These guests had to be disembarked after all other passengers had left the ship. Hopefully we won't have this problem again. Fingers crossed. Some cruises went smoothly while others were chaos. Having TV channel reporters meeting the plague ships didn't help either.

At least they will still give you Fcc's if you have to isolate although you are on your own if you test positive prior to boarding. What happens if during my cruise I have COVID-19 or test positive? Any guest reporting or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms should notify our onboard medical staff and be seen for testing. Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate for at least 5 days from the day they test positive and until they have been symptom free for 24 hours. Any guest who must isolate during their cruise, will be entitled to a Future Cruise Credit for the days spent in isolation. The Future Cruise Credit will be the value of the cruise fare paid for the number of cruise days missed less government taxes, fees and port expenses, and will be subject to our standard terms and conditions for Future Cruise Credits

Hopefully there will still be the elite/platinum lane in operation. They have never been strict with boarding times in Melbourne while I have been sailing. Only sailed Princess, P&O and Carnival though.

Yes just got mine and I notice that check in time is actually listed as 1.00pm for Melb and 12.00pm for Adelaide.

I notice that as well, am on the same cruise. I assumed that perhaps they are taking longer to get organised as this is the first cruise for Melb this season so maybe more paperwork and working out the gremlins re restocking and border force etc. I am sure it not anything to do with your status. I am doing b2b and the time for the following cruise (28th) is the usual 12.00 - 4.00. We will have to wait for the 11 day mark to see what the app tells us. I thought they might go back to the olden days when you boarded according to your cabin location.

Finally got an answer from Princess today and they have applied the SH benefit to my October cruises but I will have to wait for the other cruises which are outside the 90 day mark. Email came from Senior Customer Solutions Coordinator at Princess. Sounds like it got escalated. I supplied my holding statement page with the date circled from Comsec and they seemed ok with it.

I have used the both the Carnival and Princess email addresses and also sent my June statement and my up to date Holdings page although I haven't clicked on the + sign. (Will do than when I exit CC) My Holdings page shows my full name in the top left hand corner and the current date on the right hand side plus 100 CCL shares. If I don't hear in a day or two I will try again but it is very frustrating. Princess don't seem to care about us any more since they got the new guy. I have heard grumbles about the new Sun Princess being like a Royal ship with many attractions for kids (roller rides, water slides etc) thereby losing the adult appeal. Not that that should bother us because it will be another 20 years before she comes to Australia. I am rapidly losing patience with Princess with all of the changes being made and the confusion. Thought I had it nailed last year with the app but no I have to start again to find out my boarding time and all the little things. I rebooked a booking over a week ago and still haven't got confirmation. It's in my cruise personaliser so know it has been done. My PVP told me they were having trouble with email confirmations. I also have a complimentary dinner which I cannot pre-book this time around. It tells me I have one but when I make the booking and click confirm says it can't confirm my travel details or something like it.

Similar for me. I applied in June for SHOBC for cruises scheduled for Oct/Dec/Jan and my P&O OBC was given straight away although the cruise is not until end of January. As for Princess they told me to apply with a more up to date shareholding certificate ie within 90 days of cruising plus all the other rules despite I had included all the info they needed. So I again applied for my Princess Oct cruises the other day and lo and behold they came back with the usual list of rules and regulations, eg name ship date etc which I had already provided. My last shareholding Comsec statement was June 30th so I also included the page of my Holdings with the new date (17th Aug) clearly showing when I accessed it and circled the relevant date. I explained that we only got shareholder statements every 3 months but my holding statement should show I still own the shares. No luck it is as if they are just firing off a generic statement and couldn't be bothered. I have fired off another email stating that I am within 90 days of sailing and have provided what they want so am waiting for an answer. I have also filled in the online form as mentioned in a previous post so will see if that has any effect. I have since booked an Cunard cruise so will have to find out who to contact for their OBC. Anyone help me here? If anyone offer a solution as to how to manage Princess shareholder applications at the moment please post it here or if they are successful let us know. I had no trouble last season even getting it applied well before the 90 days. I won't get a new shareholder statement until 30th Sept and my cruise is 25th Oct so that doesn't give me 4 weeks between!!! Very frustrating. Oh and Comsec are revamping their international section next month so I have no idea what that entails. Filled in 2 of my jobs to do however the US W-8BN form has me going around in circles. Grrrrrrr

I can't seem to find where on the online app you upload your health (vacc) papers. I am sure you could do this last season. I haven't tried the phone app. Has this disappeared - will we not need to do it? My photo is still there but am wondering if rules are going to change. Still says you need rat test etc.

Yes it would be lovely if Princess would do us the kindness of informing us of the changes. I got upgrade offers this morning but no mention of all the changes that they are undertaking. Thank goodness for all of you on Cruise Critic or else I would be completely in the dark. On Youtube Canadians are complaining as they are also in the same boat with medallions. I am not looking forward to boarding now because last November when the Grand first arrived it was pandemonium at boarding time. Took us 3 hours to go through the terminal with nowhere to sit and people fainting in the heat. Total chaos. And we were green lane same as almost everyone else. Am I crazy to have booked the first cruise for the Melb season?????? Beginning to think so.

By the way when I tried to book a second time (straight after) and I got the message about my account not verified the free bee didn't come up but I booked anyway. It charged my cc $106 for one person so I promptly cancelled the booking and got my money back. Like I said a price is not showing at the moment.

Last year I managed to book complimentary reservations via the app prior to boarding but for my upcoming cruise this year the app tells me I have a complimentary diner but when I try to update my booking it then tells me it cannot verify my account. I am hoping this glitch will be fixed prior to boarding. At the moment the app doesn't have a price showing for a booking when I look.

Before I went on Grand Princess last season I looked into Alfredo's because it had not been available on Golden Princess. I found then that there were two different classes of Alfredo's. The newer ships seemed to have a larger restaurant and a larger menu with pasta dishes and deserts. From memory some of these dishes were to pay for. However on Grand Princess there were only pizzas available and were free. They are now saying that you will get a 3 course menu for your US$14. I wonder if this new payment will only apply to those ships which had the extended menu because 3 courses was not available on the Grand.

Also have a look at NIB especially annual cover. The stipulation that they put on over 80s is that it must be comprehensive cover and not just the basic plan.

I think it was in Feb Grand Princess ran out of Green Tea halfway through a 2 week voyage. Even in the dining room it was unavailable. They tried to find me some but to no avail. It seemed that we got what food was available when they hit shore. I remember one voyage in Adelaide that a large shipment of alcohol came onboard which was unusual but there was not much available onboard at the time. Grand ran out of Stanley Bears around Nov/Dec and that was that.

Here is a link to a video for cabin 9154 which looks similar to what you will get. https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/slideshow-cabin.php?ship=Pacific-Explorer&cabin=9154

Cunard are also doing round Aus on QE with the choice of Melb to Melb or Syd to Syd. It is 27 nights in mid Oct 2024 (16th or 18th). I know this is expensive but sometimes Cunard have bargain prices a few months closer to sailing when they sort out their bookings. I also saw a circumnavigate for P&O Au sometime in the future but can't find it now.

I can vouch that you can purchase one standard fare and one plus or premium fare when booking. I usually book direct through Princess. Son and I did it several times last summer. I believe that the new rule came in sometime in December. I drink tea or coffee so miss the coffee card. Was advised to buy the non alcoholic package for $40 - no no no. Don't drink that much coffee.

Do some googling of aft porthole cabins on Golden/Star/Caribbean or Grand Princess and you will find some pictures which will give you some idea.