losfp

Yep it's very different making something from a sachet with lukewarm skim milk that's been sitting there, vs a hot chocolate made with properly steamed milk. My wife and kids are spoilt because I am a coffee machine nerd and make everyone's hot chocolates... so the sachets will be harshly rejected by them! Just trying to work out how we will do it for our January Majestic cruise. Wife and I will have the plus package so we're sorted.. but if I buy a coffee card for the older daughter, she might have one mocha or something, then all hot chocolates, so it would be a waste. Might have to just buy as we go.

I think a few lines will be watching. As well as P&O, I can see the following ships with Noumea in their schedules for example: Oct: Westerdam, Quantum OTS Nov: Quantum OTS, Ovation OTS Dec: Carnival Splendor, Majestic Princess, Celebrity Eclipse, Quantum OTS, Ovation OTS If the Pacific Islands are off the table for longer than they might have to scramble and reschedule some cruises, or maybe even redeploy a ship or two 😞

It varies a LOT. Freezing cold in Fiordlands and baking hot further north around Bay of Islands/Tauranga. So I would pack the same as I would for Alaska in the summer. lots of layers so you can put them on/off while transitioning from inside to outside. Cruising through the Tasman you always get a chilly breeze. I think mostly you'd be wearing pants, shirt and maybe a light jacket - with a heavier jacket on in the southern parts of NZ. That's how it was for our Dec/Jan cruise in 2018/19 and I expect the same for our Jan cruise coming up.

How useful can that even be though? There is an almost complete changeover of passengers between cruises, so how does one cruise impact on the next one unless it's completely run through the crew as well?

Ah that's a bit annoying. The older child would only want soft drink and hot chocolates so that would have been perfect. I think what we'll do on our January Majestic Princess cruise is to just bring on our allocation of cans for the kids and buy coffee cards for the older girl to buy 15 hot chocolates as she sees fit for teh 13 night cruise. We got the plus package for ourselves so the adults are sorted. We might have one alcoholic drink each per day or something but will make back the promo price easily just from soft drinks, coffees and hot chocolates. Tell you what though... we are booked on RCI for the first time in late 2023 and based on the drink package prices I'm seeing.. I much prefer the value proposition on Princess!!!!

Yeah it's not a huge surprise. They've had all this extra time to prepare, so there should be no excuse when the gates opened again... but here we are. My parents are scrambling to get their passports renewed in time for our Jan cruise. Ours and our kids' passports are good (valid to 2027 and 2024 respectively) thankfully.

Hoooooooooowheee. That was a gutsy effort. Down 5 goals in the first quarter against the ladder-leaders, fought back for a tough win. I'll take it!!!

Fantastic 2nd quarter by Sydney to sneak in front by a couple of points. Melbourne are a strong team though - they're not top of the ladder for nothing! And the challenge for Swans is can we keep up the pressure for the second half.

Hello RCL boarders 🙂 I have never been on RCL (We've sailed a number of times, mostly on Princess, P&O Australia and Disney) but have always wanted to try one of the mega ships to see if it's a style of cruising that we'd enjoy. We've not been able to do a big trip for a couple of years for... reasons. But we are looking at one in Oct 2023. We'd like to do one of these trans-atlantic cruises: 14 night from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale on Symphony of the Seas, or 15 night from Rome to Ft Lauderdale on Odyssey of the Seas. Now we have never been to Europe so we're wary of knowing what to do, deal with the language difference etc, so we'd ideally like to pair that with a shorter cruise, maybe one of these: 3 night from Rome to Barcelona on Symphony of the Seas (and linking up with the 14 night above) 7 night from Barcelona round trip on Symphony of the Seas (likewise linking up with the 14 night above) 5 night from Barcelona round trip on Serenade of the Seas (and linking up with the 14 night) 7 night from Rome to Rome on Symphony of the Seas (and linking up with the 15 night above) I would love to do the Symphony/Odyssey double so I can finally try the Oasis and Quantum class ships. But if time and funds only permits us to do a transatlantic, does anyone have any opinions on which of the Oasis or Quantum classes would make for a better experience? We're a family of 4, 2 daughters will be 10 and 15. I would love recommendations or opinions from anyone who's cruised on any of these 3 ships (or other ships in the same class which might be similar). TIA 🙂