boeckli

Luggage tags for my upcoming Noordam cruise do not say anything about priority for Club Orange 🤔 (but at least my boarding pass does 😉) I also laminate with clear packing tape and attach with cable ties or staples.

Curious about white noise app - can you recommend one?

Sorry, I don't remember, I was there five years ago. But I'm heading back there in a couple of weeks 🙂

You can also pull up deck plans on the Navigator app (under the 'Plan' tab)

Looks like they're up the creek

Same as what I did before you 😜

Laos

I believe it's in Paihia https://www.fndc.govt.nz/Your-district/Visiting-the-Far-North/Visitor-Information-Centres/Bay-of-Islands-isite-Visitor-Information-Centre

From a visit to the Baha’i House of Worship in Sydney

Thanks Dave 🙂 I knew about the folding glass door. Full blackout blind definitely wouldn't be my thing 🙄 And heat and humidity ain't much of a problem in this part of the world, especially when you're out on the water 😉 May have to check for some last minute deals at some stage that might make it worthwhile to try out one of these. Glad to hear you had a great time - ship certainly looks stunning 😃

Hi Dave, I'd be very interested in your thoughts on and experiences with the infinity balcony. We have the Edge here down under but from the photos and YouTube walk throughs I've seen I don't think I'd like that balcony. To me it seems like an OV with a window that you can open ... Loved your gallery of Apex photos 😀

No, what you got was the old (very favourable ) rate. At their current exchange rate it would be AU$666 for a 14 day trip, so the difference to the bank rate is much less.

That's all I did on my Majestic Princess cruise in December. Never had a problem, no waiting even. You may have to check out the different dining rooms though.

So if you want to see land from your balcony, you should probably choose one on the other side. https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=RP

delete, see next post

Must check out ING. I didn't think banks offered transaction rates better than the RBA published rate (latest 0.6575). HAL is still better than that.

Welcome to Cruise Critic 🙂 You haven't told us which ship you're thinking of booking but I assume from your mention of DMW that it might be one of the Princess ones? For the itinerary you describe port side (left in direction of travel) would be the one facing land, as per your preference.

IMHO woeful is a bit strong. Even though HAL's exchange rate adjustment late last year made it less attractive to pre-pay for us Aussies, it's still better than the current rates you can get from the banks - YMMV.

I was on Noordam Auckland to Sydney in Feb/Mar 2023. Our first Australian port was Hobart and I'm fairly certain that we had to do a borderforce face to passport inspection in the terminal as we went ashore in Hobart. I'll be doing Auckland to Sydney again next month, this time first port is Melbourne. I'll try to remember reporting back here.

I was lucky enough to be there just a couple of months ago 👍

Sadly not true 😢

Sheffield Tasmania?

I think it's rather bad form to poke fun at a situation like that ☹️

I paid $162.82 for 14 night Dec 24 a couple of days ago (Elite 50%), so that's a slightly higher rate than what you had 😕 I wouldn't buy it at the new rates.