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Yes, but someone referred to Princess. I’ve checked and it looks like you don’t have to upload them but you need to probably have them in case you’re asked, so a printout for example. 

Don’t you have to upload this in the wellness check (Princess).

Yes, it’s likely that there are a few. 

I don’t begrudge the cruise lines putting prices up, they are really trying to keep everything going after a horrendous two years. On our upcoming cruise, I’ve upgraded us considerably so we’ll have lots of fun. On my following ones, I may feel it more. I like to prepay so I’m not too stressed about the costs onboard. But I also prepay onboard credit to use - it’s already spent, I might as well enjoy it. 

Oooh! Karaoke at a reasonable hour! Yay!

Across from the cable car is this great perfumer and on the other side is this space museum. We spent hours in that little area and missed seeing Wellington city entirely. 

We did a Speight’s tour in 2018 which was great. Did a Guinness tour in 2019 in Dublin and it was awful, too fast for seeing anything useful according to my husband. 

In the dining rooms, do they do breakfast? We always go to Horizon Court, but I’d like to try it out. Do you just turn up or do you book? 

I was going to suggest go to MOTAT but it’s shut on Christmas Day. Here are some suggestions for you: https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/new-zealand/doc-holiday-what-can-we-do-in-auckland-at-christmas/news-story/0a185a34aa0d55055b783875c9a14abd

You might be able to hop on the ferry and go across to Devonport which is nice too. 

On 12/17/2022 at 8:33 AM, buchhalm said:

Well, reading through the jungle of Australian awards for the hospitality sector for example, the average person would need a lawyer specialising in labour law to REALLY work out what a - for example  - chef would be entitled to.

Modern awards have been vastly simplified. It should not be too difficult to identify the award someone should be paid under, and the employer should make this transparent to the employee too.

We waited about three months for our children’s passports. It was stressful. 

Akaroa has the best fish and chips. We found a little shop around the back and had  a magnificent lunch. I also went to this beautiful little shop called Fire and Ice, and bought an aromatherapy necklace. It was a lovely place to visit. 

We’ll be joining you in Melbourne. Have you done the progressive trivia? What does progressive mean? I’m thinking of changing my dinner booking so I can go. 

I have always wondered how people book back to back cruises. How do you manage to keep the same room?
EDIT: reread your posts and see you’ll be shifting during the cruises. That must be annoying! 
 

Do you book it all yourself online or through a travel agent? Do you get any kind of discount for doing it that way? How far in advance do you do it to ensure it’s seamless?

We're closer to the front - and it's an M(letter), so I think it may have been a glitch. Like I said, it's not important either way, we'll be happy with what we get. We were originally booked in an interior room (four of us including our children), and we decided to pay extra to upgrade to a mini suite during sales, that meant we only had to pay an extra $1500 or so.

Yes, we'll just wait and see and be grateful for whatever we get. 

I've been on one 2 day cruise, and one brilliant 12 day cruise. This is our second 12 day cruise coming up, and we're still feeling our way. One thing I did not like was that we didn't understand what was included, what "perks" we actually got, until a few days in. I think this time we will more likely enjoy what is available because we will know to look for it. 

Like I said, I couldn't actually ask for a Club Class mini suite this time, but it was done over the phone with Princess when we changed our original booking to upgrade during a promotion, and perhaps we lucked in without realising. 

I suspect it is some kind of glitch. 

Last time we were upgraded to a suite and it was amazing. This time, we're not quite going that far, so we don't expect to have the same perks, but just wondered how it all worked. 

Logged out and logged back in and it says anytime dining. But if I do the traditional dining, then switch it to anytime dining, it goes back to saying Club Class as above. 

I won't get my hopes up, we'll just see what happens. 

I have us booked in a mini suite and would have loved to have Club Class, because we were lucky enough to score an upgrade last time that included it. However, there were no Club Class mini-suites available for purchase when I organised our booking. 

However, I have been umming and aahing over whether to have set dining times or anytime dining (I've never had the set dining time), and have changed it back and forth a few times. I changed it back to anytime dining today and now it says Club Class dining requested, Club Class dining confirmed!! 

Does this mean we will have Club Class? Because I loved the breakfasts in Sabatini's last time, and really would love to do that again. I'm just not sure if this is some kind of quirk or mistake. 

I was a bit unsure what it all meant, I still don't really understand but I will ask at the start of our cruise next time so we know where we're meant to be. 

I certainly didn’t mean it in a negative way. I can fully appreciate how annoying it would have been for you. What I meant was that at least you were not the ones who missed out while others go to go. Unfortunately things will happen that are out of our control, and they may mean that you miss out on something that was the highlight of your intended trip, but at least you were not personally singled out to miss it, but were instead one of many who wanted to do it. 

I completely understand how horrible it would be that something you looked forward to was then no longer available. I have a booking for next year that we have been planning for the entire year, and if any of the plans go awry, we will be upset. In the scheme of things though, we hope that we manage to see as much as we possibly can. 

But at least YOU didn’t miss out, unfortunately everyone did. You would still receive a refund of prepaid funds though. I definitely prefer to prepay and have no stress about the money while I’m on the holiday. Just got to be careful about shonky operators.

I believe that the really good ones also offer to pay for costs or organise getting you to the next port if for some reason they do make you late. 

I have very generous cancellation coverage (which I paid extra for), so that if I have to cancel something because of something else I have no control over (illness, flight delay, death in family etc), I will claim back a considerable amount of prepaid costs. Peace of mind. 

We get just under six weeks for our Christmas holidays, including the main Christmas days. It leaves us about four weeks to fit in holidays and get back in time to organise ourselves for the new school year. Unfortunately, it also means that the costs are exorbitant, as they know that's our only time to get a big chunk of holidays.

But that's how it is, and we have to deal with it. I'm a teacher, and I'm not working at a school at the moment, but when I am, I certainly won't be able to take time off to go away, and neither will our kids.

Edit: I'm working as a casual teacher at the moment, and I am not going to look for an ongoing role until after next year. We have planned a cruise that is personally relevant to our family history, and it does entail taking two weeks off at the end of term 2 and one week off at the start of term 3. I hate that we're doing this, but it's a special event, that we'll never get to do again like this.

While they are sniffling and snotty, I don’t believe they should be at school. When your head is all stuffed up, it’s hard to concentrate, and you usually feel pretty miserable. At that time, I definitely think staying home is more important than perfect attendance.