arxcards

One extra possibility in late November is our "local" Carnival Corp brand - P&O Australia. Personally, it is 2nd prize vs Princess, but this one is mid-late November. Pacific Adventure is the former Golden Princess. I haven't compared prices, and this will be in $AU, but you do get to cruise out under the bridge which is becoming rarer with the ships getting larger. Not so much a recommendation, but food for thought .... | Kiwi Adventure | New Zealand Cruises | P&O Cruises Australia (pocruises.com.au)

Shame to lose your holiday Mic. Get well soon. I hope your big rubber band mends 100%.

I think you have a good shortlist, and don't see any need to steer in a different direction. a) It will be a direct path unless the weather is particularly nasty. It is a bit misleading for distance as Melbourne to Auckland is a longer distance by sea than Brisbane to the fjords. When departing Melbourne, you are heading south for many hours before turning toward NZ. It could also be an extra day to align with available berths in the ports - which can be a real juggle for the schedulers. b) Yes & no. School holidays will mean more kids aboard. The ports will be a bit busier, but NZ cities are not like New York. c) More chance of the October cruise missing the fjords due to weather. The weather could also be perfect, just a bit less probable. d) Not worse, but Edge does have extra ports. Edge is a larger ship to make your way around, and Bay of Islands is a tender port if they are both an issue for your mobility. It is a pity that Edge doesn't visit Wellington, which is the capital city of NZ. The round trips are great if you like your sea days. The one-way trips give the option of doing a bit of land travel in each country, and it is just as easy to fly into/out of Auckland as it is for Sydney.

What had changed in the interim, was that the app was allowing you to use your voucher to pre-reserve your restaurant/date/time. Yes, no control with the smaller ships, but also no control over the extra volume of "vouchers" in circulation on short cruises. When these short cruises book out, not even the maître d' can change your booking, except to offer surf & turf in the MDR. Premier would make more sense to provide one specialty restaurant voucher for each week of a cruise vs giving you the same 2 vouchers for a 3 night or a 60 night cruise. The fine print is more strictly worded than it was last year. The fact that it is fine print has me agreeing with @cruise_critical that these vouchers aren't a bonus, but paid for as part of a top shelf package. I purchase premier to eat in Crown Grill, not Harmony.

No serious updates at all on the schedule for Luminosa. Pacific Encounter has gone back to get her slides belatedly fitted, but there is no FUN2.0 planned for Luminosa until at least March 2025. I agree it doesn't fit for Brisbane, but a waterpark is less useful for the other half of the year in Alaska. Splendor will be somewhat overdue for refreshment when she gets her drydock in August 2024. I don't know of any "upgrades" beyond the usual TLC. In digging for more detail, I have found a pretty good reveal. QLD Ports holds bookings year round in Queensland for Luminosa beyond the end of her current schedule through till October 2026. It will be great news for Brisbane to finally get a non-P&O choice through winter, but I believe Luminosa is just a place marker for another ship that would be better suited - Spirit, Legend or similar.

They know about it, and I suspect they are the ones that removed the functionality. The fine print about these 2 x specialty dinners for premier has changed. They can allocate your voucher to any restaurant on any day of the cruise, so are taking away the option of app savvy premier passengers of being front of queue for their preferred time and restaurant. Last season, the shorter cruises had Crown Grill/Bayou fully booked prior to embarkation, and those not pre-booking with the app (including 1st night for suite guests) were being bumped into Sabbatini's/Harmony/Bistro at 8 or 9 pm. Even worse, some vouchers could only be honoured with Surf & Turf in the MDR. So, most likely is that those with vouchers will see them in their cabin, and for shorter cruises they may already have booking place & time already allocated on them.

The closest VRBO property listed looks really interesting, although is a bit further away from the overseas passenger terminal than it shows on the VRBO map.

That image is just what is in place in that part of Regal Princess, so I don't think it is about having more chairs to fit more passengers.

Had Brisbane built theirs pre-federation it would have been called Brisbane Town Hall, the same as for Hobart, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth & Melbourne.

Hopefully they still have a mix of both. On the promenade, I prefer the ones that are more upright, as I find the full loungers to be really uncomfortable. For years they have had timber chairs that are reasonably upright, with leg rests that also recline a fair bit. I figure these chairs are being routinely replaced when they get a bit manky, which means getting the same chairs that their newer ships have. Certainly not the same, but reasonably ergonomic. Not all progress is great - also note the faux vinyl teak that the chairs rest upon.

I hope all is well. Looking at their current track, it looks like they skipped Juneau yesterday.

Definitely. And remembering the local advice given to teenage boys - get off the train at Civic instead of going into town. Looking at all the above places of leisure around the country, we really are a lucky lot.

In my part of the world, The Bay is Nelson Bay, The Lake is Lake Macquarie, The Valley is anything past Maitland, Town is Newcastle, the Big Smoke (or the rat race) is Sydney.

Sure is. That was just the regulator setting the rules going forward. One of the almost big banks has announced their exit already as mentioned in an earlier post, and I expect the other banks will follow suit within 18 months anyway.

Think Stayz or similar.

Your package works out well. Maybe the Feb 4 nighter will get cheaper in a month or so too. For now, a cabin on Resilient Lady for the 4 nights in Feb to Burnie or Hobart & back will cost the two of us $2636. We could book a 4 nighter for the two of us on Majestic Princess in March for $998. Even with inclusive Premier package fares, they are still much cheaper at $1758.

Note - the overnight in Circular Quay has the ship heading out to anchor in the harbour at 4am, so day 2 will be tendering ashore. I figure they won't be mentioning that bit on their site. Sounds like fun to overnight at Tauranga and also overnight next to Taronga Zoo. I have put some thought into the 4 night Burnie trip from Sydney in February but they are just too expensive ATM, but it might be still a possibility if the prices drop by 60%. $330 pp/pn for undersold inside cabins is crazy.

Cruisin' Country has been dropped by CYC, and replaced with a "Flashback Cruise". The line-up is a similar genre to the Cruise N Groove charters of the past. They have had a bit of trouble filling the Cruisin' Country for this year, but I hope it will be back in the future. I might have to discuss this one over with Barb. Most T/A's have these charters these days, so you don't need to book via the link on the poster.

Back in the morning after a semi-bumpy ride across the Tasman.

Sure, not free but lots cheaper than $100 per room and the crew get a night off the ship. They also get to run most of their Port Douglas tours from Cairns and bank their commission. P&O used to drop Port Douglas "last minute" quite often. I get the feeling that the butt scrub was more important. Good luck with your OBC.

The way they are restricting access based on age, it is pretty much like they are treating old age as a pre-existing condition already.

I have left cashless tips even way back, by going to customer services and asking for a tip to be extracted from our folio and paid to our steward. Particularly useful on $US ships.

In canning Port Douglas, why didn't they just stay in Cairns for an extra day?

Yes, you can pay for public transport with a contactless credit card or your card details in your phone's wallet app - tap the sensor when entering the station or bus, tap the same card again when exiting. It is all very well priced, and no card fees are added. The train to/from the airport has an expensive private station fee added ($AU16 per fare).

As an add, initially this wouldn't have gone down well, as the cruise was available to book as a Sydney departure for approx 6 months prior to Port Kembla being announced. In the end, Norwegian managed to relocate their 13th January 2021 turnaround back to Sydney, well before the season ended up being cancelled for covid.