cruiser3775

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-06/passenger-overboard-on-cruise-ship/103807844

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

If you book early enough, you can book a specific cabin, although not in all grades. Once those allocated cabins are filled, they will default to guarantees so they can be more flexible in how they sell the remaining cabins. Even then, get your T/A or PCP to shake the tree for you.

That's what I do now , thanks to the advice from the experienced people here. When I contact the travel agent, I say I will only book if I can get a specified cabin, and ask them to send me an email with the numbers of some cabins that are available. I tend to go for aft cabins close to the aft lifts. Even if the booking sites say only guaranteed cabins are available, or the cruise is fully booked, I have found a good TA can come up with some choices of specific cabins.

You might also look at flying via Hawaii.  That gives you access to the Jetstar direct flights to Australia from Honolulu. Yes, it's a low cost carrier, but it does have Business class on those flights, at considerably lower prices.

Yes, Sydney hotels are generally more expensive than Brisbane. My go-to budget hotel in Sydney is the Great Southern. It's on George Street, right opposite a light rail stop that takes you and your luggage down to Circular Quay. An old fashioned large hotel, not fancy, but clean and with good bathrooms, and lots of good eating places around it.   My other choice is the Grace Hotel, closer to the port, costs a bit more, but often has discounts.

In Brisbane, I usually stay in the suburb of Hamilton, which has a range of accommodation choices, and lots of places to eat dinner. Plus it's a good location for minimising taxi fares from the airport and then to the port.

2 hours ago, LincolnLegend said:

really sucks to have to add nearly $1,000 to every fare to catch the ship

Yes, it's a big problem if you don't live in Sydney or Brisbane. I've spend weeks hoping the Melbourne to Sydney airfares would drop down to something reasonable, with no luck. Today, just for an hour or two, there were discounted fares on Virgin, literally half the price they were a few days ago.  I booked quickly. When I checked again two hours later, they were gone.  Wish I could also get the cost of a Sydney hotel for the night before the cruise to drop down.

Like you, I also looked at some excellent packages to Bali this winter. The accommodation prices are very low there at the moment.

The Carnival Splendor cruise I'm on is showing as sold out, but the previous one from Sydney to Singapore, 15 days, departing on 21st July, still has few cabins left.  The itinerary has a lot of sea days, but many people don't mind that, and it certainly goes though warmer weather. They even offer a couple of "interior" cabins that actually have portholes, for a reasonable pice.

That's not my experience with Princess. I have always been able to book a specific cabin.

1 hour ago, ceeceeDee said:

That Norwegian pop up is driving me INSANE!!!!!! It's enough to put you off booking NCL in protest!😠 I don't mind if a pop up comes up once, but this constant repetition is getting ridiculous!

I'm on a different computer now, and having the dubious pleasure of constantly getting the NCL popup. When you cancel it, it just comes back again.   NCL are shooting themselves in the foot if they think this advertising campaign is going to get them bookings.

Try changing your browser to Firefox, not Explorer.

You can make it a stool by putting a pillow on it.

 Can you ask for a chair for the room?  Sitting on the bed without a back support is no good for many people.

Sometimes the cruise specialist travel agents have a block of cabins available that booking direct with the cruise line does not show.

Entirely subjective and I haven't actually used the card I chose overseas yet. However, I read the T & Cs for both cards after they were recommended here, and on the Canstar comparison site. I thought both would do the job, but I chose the UP card, mainly because I preferred Bendigo Bank over NAB.  The big 4 banks don't deserve much loyalty after what the Royal commission found out.

Maybe your friend chose a "guaranteed cabin" when he/she booked?  When you do that, you don't get to choose a specific cabin, just the category of cabin eg. inside, balcony etc. When a cruise is nearly fully booked, guaranteed cabins show up as the only choice left, in many cases.

Here is a clear explanation of what guaranteed cabins are, and the advantages and disadvantages.

www.sophisticatedtravel.com/what-is-a-guaranteed-cabin-or-stateroom-its-a-gamble/

Careful which card you choose. There are two with very similar names. Ubank is owned by NAB. UP bank is owned by Bendigo Bank.

Not getting this problem. I'm also using Firefox, vastly superior to Explorer.

I'm doing Singapore to Sydney on Carnival Splendor in August, starting with a week in Penang and a few days in Singapore before I get on board. But first I have to get through June and July. I hate winter.

13 minutes ago, jland said:

Upbank state on their app there is no requirement to inform them when travelling overseas. We have never notified them and never had a problem. 
 

Good to know.  I'm using my UP card for the first time overseas.  Works well for local purchases. My old HSBC card was difficult. They put a stop on my card twice, even though I had informed them where I was going. I had to phone them to get it working again.

The Wise card is linked to Visa. In general, most places accept Visa or Mastercard linked cards. So if your hotel states they accept Visa/Mastercard, it should be OK.

The main thing with credit and debit card use overseas is to make sure you notify them in advance that you will be going overseas. Otherwise, if they suddenly see new charges in a foreign country, they may think it is fraudulent and put a stop on the card.

As for getting a credit card when you are retired, there are some cards you can apply for, and a couple of them offer "No foreign exchange fees".  They are mostly very simple no frills cards with a low credit limit, but they will be handy when overseas, saving you carrying much cash. Applying for them does involve a bit of time and effort however.

Here's a recent article with a list:

https://www.finder.com.au/credit-cards/credit-cards-for-retired-and-pensioner-applicants

Scroll down to page 2 to see the ones with no foreign exchange charges.

You need two kinds of card for overseas travel - a credit card for purchases, and a debit card to withdraw local money from ATMs. Don't take a cash advance on a credit card - you need a debit card.

All the usual Australian debit cards on bank accounts charge large amounts for any overseas money transactions, so best avoided, but useful to take as an emergency backup.

Look for cards in Australia that offer "No foreign exchange fees".  

I have a Latitude 28 Degrees credit card, and an UP debit card. Latitude is owned by a consortium of financial businesses, mostly German, and UP by Bendigo Bank.  They both give excellent rates for overseas travel.  

This article might help:

www.canstar.com.au/travel-insurance/best-travel-debit-cards/

It is very quick to set up a debit card for overseas travel online, as it is your money in the account, so you don't need to pass a financial check, just prove your identity.

When you choose your seats, stay away from ones nearest to the toilets. You get maybe four or five people lining up to use them, and they are holding onto your headrest, bumping your shoulder, or even having a conversation with a fellow traveller as they wait, in the middle of the night.  Choose seats that are at least eight or ten seats away from the toilets.

It will mostly be in darkness, and there's not much to see when flying over the sea anyway.  I'd opt for an aisle seat for one of you, so getting up to use the restrooms will not involve clambering over another passenger in the night.

If the plane is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, then there is a reasonable amount of legroom, so moderately tall people do not feel cramped.  However, if you can afford it, an upgrade may make things easier for you.   Personally, unless someone else is paying, I'd rather have the extra money to spend on better accommodation.  A 17 hour flight is not going to be easy even if you have a lay flat seat.  Take it easy the first couple of days, try to walk around in the daylight to adjust your body clock, and definitely don't hire a car and drive for a day or two.

The weather going north is likely to be better (unless it's cyclone season) and with smoother seas. The weather going around the south of Australia is often rough - it's the notorious "Roaring Forties" that lead to so many shipwrecks in the old days. By the time you get there, you should have your 'sea legs'. So if you go east from WA, you have the winds behind you, in theory at least.

I'd be doing the anticlockwise loop for those reasons.

You can just do it yourself easily. Princess are sure to charge extra for doing it for you.

The e-VOA and VOA cost IDR 500,000 (approximately $A 48)

Bali Provincial Government has introduced a new tourist levy of IDR 150,000 (c. $A14) per person to foreign tourists entering Bali. The tourist levy is separate from the e-Visa.

If you go to the Indonesia section of Smarttraveller, then go to 'Travel', it has all the links for doing it online.

On 4/23/2024 at 9:36 AM, PoppyVelvet said:

Good idea about the hotel slippers. Can they be bought or do you take them from hotels? I have a nice pair from our Tokyo hotel a couple of months ago but they don’t last long. 

The hotel slippers are very flimsy, made to be thrown away after a couple of wears. They also tend to come apart at the toe, which is a tripping hazard.  You can buy similar lightweight ones, but slightly sturdier and with a better sole, at places like K Mart. That's what I take.

Carnival Splendor is doing a cruise from Sydney to Singapore via Indonesia this winter, then back again to Sydney in late August.  This is a change from the usual NZ and Pacific Islands offerings, but apparently because it is scheduled to dry dock in Singapore between these two cruises.