Muffinz

you can take all the precautions you like such as wearing masks, hand sanitising...etc... but if other passengers are going to go to the theatre, buffet, bars, pool area while they are sick / unwell then their germs will spread to others... simple as that.

there are probably some people on cruise ships who think that because they've paid thousands of $ for their cruise, they're not going to let a little thing like covid get in the way of their enjoyment.

16 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Packing cubes are great for disorganised packers. They also add weight.

Wife has ones similar to these (except hers are pink!) they are nylon like material I think and they weigh next to nothing. She can separate her tops / dresses / pants / underwear and has 1 for laundry too - she swears by them

2 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

About the only thing I took away from the 'how to pack' brigade (years ago) was to roll clothes rather than fold. I even do this in the 'real' world. Marvellous how much more I can fit into the chest of drawers without crushing anything. 🙂

My wife swears by 'packing cubes' and used them every time - keeps her clothes organised

I'm more of an 'open the suitcase and chuck everything in and hope it all fits' kind of guy 😁

2 hours ago, ELJCruiser said:

Hi all, thanks so much for taking the time to provide your feedbacks and guidance. I really appreciate it.

 

Weather-wise and sea-sickness wise, looks like the Great Barrier Reef is a better itinerary for me. I am excited to book. Just one more quick question, since neither my husband and I are divers, would it be a "waste" so-to-speak for us to go to GBR since we won't be able to take part in diving to see the natural wonder of the reef? 

We are neither divers or snorkelers but really enjoyed the 2 days we had at Cairns and the 1 day in Porrt Douglas

in Cairns we went on the skyrail to Kuranda and that was very enjoyable (was a ship excursion)

in Port Douglas when we got off the tender boat there were people there in the shopping mall area offering tours and we did a 1-2 hour tour around Port Douglas in a minivan type thing and that was about $20 per person from memory

We had to add in a credit card on the Princess site for our December 2024 cruise.... we were unable to complete the check in process online without registering a valid credit card

from memory with Celebrity cruises in 2018 they took our CC details at the Sydney OPT as we were in the queue to board the ship

We;ve cruised the Great Barrier Reef on Celebrity Solstice in 2018 - it was our first cruise and we loved it

Celebrity Edge is a larger ship with more people on board and some of the port stops like Cairns / Port Douglas will be tender ports - where the ship anchors out to sea and passengers are 'tendered' into shore using the ships tender boats and local boats / catermarans.

We had some friends do that cruise on Edge earlier this year and they loved the ship

We are actually doing the South Australia cruise on Crown Princess in December 2024 - Sydney to Melbourne / Kangaroo Is / Adelaide, Port Lincoln / Hobart /  Port Arthur back to Sydney

only 2 of the port stops are tender ports - the rest the ship actually docks in the port

the weather should be ok that time of year and not too humid, although it is generally warmer further north in places like Cairns / Port Douglas (some of the aussie 'experts' her can clarify that)

We were worried about getting sea sick on our cruise but it wasn't an issue for us

As for the itinerary - it depends on what you want to see / do

on our last cruise we took a US and EU to NZ / AUS adaptor and I had a plug that had 4 USB ports on and plugged that direct into the EU or US adaptor plug and that seemed to work

But from what I've been told Crown Princess has USB charging ports on the nightstands either side of the bed...... I'll be more than a tad annoyed if they take the USB adaptor plug off us

I see the OP has not replied to the thread.... maybe they are too embarrased about what they had confiscated?

I remember when we did our cruise in 2018 I was reading the passenger contract (celebrity) and they had a list of what was prohibited to bring on the cruise.... there was all the usual stuff like firearms, ammunition, knives, fireworks...etc... but at the bottom they had 'kayak'.

I'm assuming someone had once turned up at the embarkation port with a kayak... and because it wasn't on the prohibited list they were allowed to take it on board?

when we dropped our bags off they had 2 guys there taking the suitcases waving a multibox saying if we have one to remove it from the suitcase as it is not prohibited

6 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

The best part of it, (sea days in port), is that you almost have the boat to yourselves.😁

We spoke to some people on our 2018 cruise (Sydney to Port Douglas return) that were staying on the ship the whole cruise.... they were Aussies and said they'd been to all the ports and just wanted to enjoy the ship...

2 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

I don't mind sea days, in fact think their a vital part of cruising for us.

We cruise to relax, and be pressure free, if your doing ports everyday, it's not relaxing.

On a couple of cruises with several ports in a row, we have skipped a port, it just gets to tiring.

and gives you less time to hit the bar(s)! 😁

4 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

I walk to the OPT for every cruise from there. Sometimes it is from the hotel, sometimes from the train station at CQ, sometimes from the tram stop at CQ.

We've booked the Hilton in George St for 2 nights before our cruise in December - apparently the light rail / tram stops outside and goes straight to CQ 👍

2 hours ago, MelbTone said:

Even better - just to make you all jealous - I live within walking distance of Port Melbourne. Admittedly it's a 40-minute walk but mostly on a level shared path. I could take the tram but given all the excess that lies ahead, the walk wins.

I could walk to the cruise termial in downtown Auckland... ok so it would take well over an hour and wouldn't be possible because pedestrians aren't allowed on the Auckland Harbour Bridge 😇

7 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

I get this as well but it has never created a problem. The App says "Ready to Sail" yet I also get the Incomplete notation on the Personaliser. I just gave up trying to work out why. This has occurred for my last three cruises over the past 18 months and you'd think by now Princess IT would have fixed it. 

Mine appears to be because I’ve not selected a medallion accessory?? Or at least that’s what I think it is 

but I don’t plan on getting an accessory for my medallion…. At least not one from Princess… I’ll probably stick to the princess supplied lanyard.

I’ve not had the problem resolved… but it’s not that much of an issue for me

In Auckland the ship will dock in downtown and you can easily walk around the CBD. Wellington the ship will probably dock near the big stadium and it's about a 10-15 minute walk into town.

Bay of Islands the ship will anchor out in the harbour and you'll be tendered into the wharf at Waitangi. You would need to take the shuttle bus down the road to get to the town of Paihia. Christchurch the ship will dock in the port of Lyttleton and you would need to take the shuttle bus to get into town, as Lyttleton is about 8kms from the city centre.

I'm not exactly sure where the ships dock in Napier, so I'm not sure how far from town it is

8 hours ago, 1965 said:

My husband is type 2. We've cruised on the Crown 2 times, 28 days & 27 days, & several other Princess ships.The fridge is always cold enough for his insulin. We ask our steward for sharps disposal container when they introduce themselves. If we somehow miss seeing the steward on boarding day I leave a note on the desk requesting the container. Have a great cruise. 😊

thanks for that - much appreciated

19 minutes ago, mtnesterz said:

The cabin fridges are set to 45F, or 7C. A quick look online says this is within acceptable range.

thanks for that - much appreciated  🙂

Does anyone know if the small fridge in the stateroom is suitable for keeping insulin in?

I'm type 2 diabetic and take insulin daily and my spare vials need to be in the fridge

also would Princess have a sharps container I can request for the used needles and can you request an extra pillow or extra hangers for the wardrobe?

if so can we request them through the app or website in advance, or do we have to wait until we board?

any advice would be appreciated

5 minutes ago, rosevew said:

I pointed out to the officer that passengers shouldn't need to have arguments or confrontations with spa staff in order to use facilities that were included in the fare, and that it needed to be totally clear to passengers where they could go onboard. It was a ridiculous situation. Even guest services on crew chat were telling different stories. They denied that the aft pool (which had an adults only sign) was actually adults only when I raised the issue of it being full of kids.

I do hope this pool is not full of kids on our December Cruise from Sydney...otherwise myself or wife will be having words to the crew / staff!

7 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

So, my friend that is onboard right now confirmed the Lotus Pool is open to all, not just sanctuary guests.  So, no change from before.  It happens to be closed right now, as are all the pools because they hit some really rough weather.  
 

 good to hear as we are on Crown Princess from Sydney in December and our stateroom is near the front of the ship - closer to that pool

2 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Just keep in mind that the *entire* reservation system is simply Princess' attempt to spread out the crowd.  They *know* that there will always be "exceptions" to what the system says...like others have said, just go a bit early to your MDR and you should be able to get in with no issues.  Also...just mention to your waiter/server that you want to make the show.  They will do what they can to make that happen for you.  Don't stress over this...

thanks - we're not going to lose any sleep over this as it's a pretty minor issue in the whole scheme of things!

Hi All, 

does anyone know what times the theatre shows will be on for Crown Princess in December?

I've asked this question on Cruise Critic Princess forum and got different answers from 7pm and 9pm, 7:30pm and 9:30pm, 8pm and 10pm... I even just went on live chat with Princess and they couldn't tell me either - just said it varies ship to ship and it will be available on the Princess Patter in our cabin on embarkation day.

The problem is we want to make dining reservations for dinner so we can work in with the show times.

We've made a booking at Michelangelo's for 7:20pm but if the show is at 9pm then that won't work

I'm hoping that someone here who has recently been on a princess cruise in Australia / NZ can tell me so we can confirm our dining reservations

thanks in advance

11 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

Getting there early and being seated depends on the ship I think. We recently disembarked Sky Princess and a couple of times we arrived 5 minutes early and never went straight to a table. It was like Madam Serious on the door denied us until the right time, but I'm sure it depends on the staff/ship. We had bookings every night for 6.40pm. We will be going back to walk in now that they have reverted to that option as I hate being that planned on a holiday.

Yes, you can check each evenings menu on the App. Unless service was slow you should make a 9.30pm show with a 7.20pm dining time.

 

thanks for that - we really wanted a 6:30pm dining time, but Michelangelo's on Crown only has 5pm and 7:20pm... we could get a table at Botticelli's but wife would prefer Michelangelo's as it's right by the mid-ship elevators and less far to walk (arthritis in her knee) 

thanks for the replies

We've now paid for the cruise in full and have booked dining through the app

Michelangelo's for 7:20pm each night with a private table

I gather you can view each nights menu on the app / TV so we can do that before hand to decide what we want and that should make things quicker if we don't have to sit there for 20 minutes deciding!

if we got there early say 7:10pm and the table was available, could we go straight to the table or would they make us wait until 7:20pm?

speaking of medallions I see some people are wearing what looks like a watch with the medallion in - I know you can buy something through princess, but can you buy something similar through amazon or something?

Also would an apple airtag holder like this fit the medallion?

https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/p/apple-airtags-silicone-case-keychain-white/MM5141-CNH21234-1M.html