sanne

This is where a good travel agent is worth their weight in gold. I have an excellent long standing relationship with mine both for booking cruises, land trip and flights. I do all the research as others have mentioned above then contact my agent. Always competitive plus they have access to fares that we don’t see. We always fly business overseas, just returned from South Africa. My husband became unwell the last few days. I emailed my TA to research changing our flight if need be and to arrange wheelchair assistance. This would have been very difficult for me to do in the middle of the bush with limited wifi and no reliable phone service. Plus ringing airlines directly has had its fair share of problems lately. Giving the job to my TA took away a lot of the stress particularly when I was so concerned with my husbands health. Just a different view.

Thank you so much Fletcher…love reading your posts. Some of the best on this site. You make everything come alive with your descriptions and humour.

Peter57…. Twice we have done this itinerary in your time frame with 2 different couples from overseas….everyone loved it. -2 nights in Broome - Broome to Darwin on Coral Adventurer ( expeditionary cruise in the Kimberley) - 2 nights in Darwin - Darwin to Adelaide on the Ghan. As stated above, the Ghan books out very quickly whereas there will be availability on the cruise to fit into that plan.

A different perspective….. We are Titanium ( many short to medium cruises ) but due to not living in the States or Canada have never had the luxury of included flights. Instead given a flight credit which no way was the full cost of our air. I would be more than happy to pay to talk to Regent to sort out our included flights.

There was no way to know exactly on our cruise. We heard of people that were quarantining but no idea how many. Of interest …. There is a website on the NSW Health dept that lists all ships that have Covid on board. It’s mandatory that they have to report this if they are cruising on the Eastern states. It’s a tier system, Tier 1 being the lowest, less than 30 positive cases per 1000 passengers/crew. On random searches I would suggest that most if not every ship that docks in Sydney has Covid on board and all are at Tier 1.

Australia still requires cruise passengers to have a negative test to board. We did this recently. Took a photo with my iPhone of my husband’s iPhone which showed date and time and next to the phone placed 2 negative tests and both our passports. Showed this as we checked in. Also needed to do another test on board 3 days later.

I believe that on Regent Splendor and Explorer they offer lunch in one of their specialty restaurants.

I I have been through the Horizontal Falls 3 times. First time not long after that accident. It’s a wonderful experience but it’s easy to see how things could go badly wrong in an instant even with experienced crew. I’ve always chosen to go when there’s the least flow!

A woman died in a zodiac accident in 2007 at the Horizontal Falls Kimberley Australia. The zodiac was from Coral Princess on a 10 day cruise Broome to Darwin. The zodiac overturned throwing the woman into the water…sadly she was unable to be revived.

Thanks Florisdekort. Where did you find this information? We are on Odyssey soon and would like to see official information about masking and Covid testing before embarking.

No mask mandates in any states in Australia except some medical facilities. Some states have recommendations for masks on pubic transport. Rarely see anyone with a mask except when I have a doctor or hospital visit.

Hoping for breakfast and lunch served in the MD on the Odyssey. We would normally enjoy going to the Colonade but with the current situation I think I will be concerned being in such a crowded place. Can anyone confirm what is happening at the moment on Odyssey… we are sailing soon.

Suggest you use wifi to ring, or Skype.

There’s no regulation currently in any state in Australia to wear masks.

Are you saying that your cruise was fully paid? If so that’s great.

Thank you for your advice . My B2B2B Dec 2023 excursion PDFs are now in my mail box following your instructions RELS and edgee.

We used to be able to download or receive by email, a PDF of excursions for a booked cruise. Where can we find that now? I’ve looked but so far cannot see it. Thanks .

This reminds me of my first Seabourn cruise in 2011 having been a Regent regular for many years. The wine glasses for our red wine were rather small…we had seen other tables with much larger ones. We asked if we could have the larger glasses and were told ‘ those are for the purchased wine, your glasses are quite adequate for the complimentary wine’.

Does anyone know which cabins have King beds? Mostly it seems they are Queen. I can’t seem to find this information on their web site. Thank you.

Thank you so much for all your very helpful replies. We are very well travelled, all over the world many times during the last 25 years pre Covid….retired in our 50s to enable us to do this. But age and mobility problems have got in the way of travelling as easily as we did in the past. So now we have to look at how we can continue with our travels and get as much help as we can find. We no longer do land based holidays, cruising is perfect whatever mobility problems you have, it’s just the challenge of getting to the ship and then back home. Not having to deal with suitcases on and off flights, in and out of pre cruise hotel stays, is very appealing. As I’ve mentioned in my first post, many of our American friends use a luggage service with great success. It costs of course, but for us it’s worth it if we could find such a service in Australia. I will check out all your suggestions and let you know what I find as this may be useful in the future for some people, who can still manage their luggage now, but have difficulties later on and still love to cruise.

Thanks for your suggestions. We have the most lightweight suitcases and hand luggage you can buy in Australia. All new with great wheels.

Heavy for us is anything over 15kg. And if it’s just a warm weather 2 week cruise we can manage.

We will be cruising from Sydney White Bay cruise terminal in January on a longish cruise. Both of us are struggling with lifting and dealing with large/heavy suitcases. Some of our US friends use a company that picks up their luggage at home and the next time you see it it’s in your cabin. And visa versa if they are doing land tours after their cruise. I’ve searched but so far without success for a company that does this in Australia . Would love to hear if anyone had any information that I could follow up. Thanks.

Think I’m more concerned about vaccinated passengers now getting on the ships with Covid ( known or unknown) than unvaccinated people having a prior embarkation test. Possibly time to now take control of one’s own level of risk and if worried, wear a mask in crowded areas, use hand sanitizer before eating especially after touching a menu and keep away from anyone coughing or looking like they have a cold…all these things practiced by us on every cruise we’ve ever taken.