bobsydney

From a cruise newsletter I received this afteroon:

He was rescued within 45 minutes.

I suspect a case of too many drinks last night.

Cheers

Bob

Can anyone who disembarked in Sydney recently tell me what their scheduled arrival time was, and what was your earliest disembarkation time from the ship? How long did it take to clear immigration? I'm in the process of planning a full day tour for the day of disembarkation, and need some information with start time. Your help is much appreciated. Thanks.

On our last arrival back into Sydney, estimated arrival time was 7:00am with disembarkation to start at 7:30am and be over by 9:30am. In the event, we didn't dock till 7:10 and disembarkation started at 8am. We were lucky ... one of the first groups off, so was at the train station waiting for a train home before 8:30.

The time previously (on Sun Princess), the ship was 8 hours late into Sydney. Disembarkation started about 4pm, but we were in one of the last groups to go off ... we left the ship a little after 6pm.

Cheers

Bob

To be fair to Star Cruises none of their publicity material or website for SS GEMINI advertizes the beds on GEMINI as being Queen size. Rather the terminology used is two single beds which can be used to form a double bed in size. They are normally pushed together to equal the width of a double bed. I refer to it as a "Claytons" double bed only because it is the double bed you have when your'e contemplating chastity ! Honeymooners need to go for the Queen size beds in Junior Suites and executive suites on SS VIRGO .

I hear what you say but I raised the issue because it came as a huge surprise to us, so I raised it as a warning to others.

We have been on other cruise lines and their wording is very similar to Star's - something like 'twin beds can be pushed together to make a queen' - but they then put a queen size mattress pad over the 2 beds and then use queen size sheets etc.

The point of course is as you say ... honeymooners be warned!!

I take it that the same applies on all Star ships, even Aquarius?? I sailed on her as Norwegian Wind just over 12 months ago and NCL made up our beds as a queen and put queen sheets and all on it. Different arms of the same company doing different things ... maybe it is a culture thing?

Cheers

Bob

Hi all

Have just returned from a sampler cruise on Gemini (Sydney to Brisbane) and having just read the exhanges above about bedding, I have to say that IMO, the beds are not up to scratch.

Two single beds (still made up as singles) pushed together with a double/queen bedspread over them is NOT a queen bed. I wouldn't even describe it as a clayton's queen bed as did kuldalai. And if that wasn't enough, I thought the mattresses were showing real signs of age ... they were saggy and uneven and didn't provide for a particularly comfortable sleep. Put simply, they were the worst beds I have ever experienced on sea or land ... other than those in back-country pubs for which you pay about $20/night and get what you pay for!!

Apart from that, the ship and particularly the staff were great. Gemini is certainly small by modern standards, but I was surprised at how roomy the public places on board were ... even allowing for the fact that there were only about 400 or so passengers on board. The bar and service on board was second to none ... it's very nice when a waiter who had taken one drink order off me the previous day greeted me by name and then asked whether I wanted the same again ... and he was right!!

I very much liked the anytime dining approach in the restaurant and particularly that there were plenty of tables for 2 so that I could choose to dine as a couple (without having to wait for a table to become free) or to join in with other passengers ... it is nice to have that choice, particularly at dinner. The food was also very good by ship standards both in taste and presentation. We are not really buffet people but I noted at one point that the same food being offered in the restaurant was also available in the Mariner's buffet, so naturally I had to do a comparative taste test and was pleasantly surprised at the result. In fact, I would venture to suggest that it was the best quality buffet I have experienced on a ship (at the other end of the scale, the buffet on Norwegian Wind, which is now SS Acquarius, was the worst but I am sure it would have improved since coming over to the parent company).

The only problem I have with small ships like Gemini (and indeed Pacific Princess on which I have also sailed) is that their size limits the options that can be offered to guests in terms of both on board facilities (there is for example only one place to sit and have an evening drink) and activities. That is not a complaint but rather an observation, but I think people who want variety may be better off looking at a larger ship than Gemini. Would I sail on her again? Absolutely on a destination intensive cruise (like what she does out of Singapore) or for a short cruise like what I just did. For a cruise around Australia, though, I would probably opt for a ship like Sun Princess rather than Gemini to avoid the tendency for sea days to become groundhog days.

I didn't intend to write so much when I started so sorry for the length of this. However, I wanted to share my thoughts on Gemini to future passengers in the same way that I very much appreciated being able to read and learn from other people's experiences before I sailed.

Cheers

Bob