arxcards

I think the doctor should stick to doctoring and not be offering travel insurance advice. It might be lower risk, and of no risk at all to the cancer diagnosis. But, if an insurance company will not medically insure you, it means they will not cover any kind of medical episode or accident.

Milford Sound is part of Fjordland National Park, which also covers Doubtful, Dusky, Thompson & other sounds/fjords. On ships itineraries they are interchangeable. Any ship listing fjordland or fiordland is intending to visit Milford Sound Any ship listing Milford Sound usually intends to visit all of the others as well. Yes, Milford Sound is the most spectacular, but the others are beautiful as well and they all make for a wonderful day of scenic cruising.

To add, Brisbane ports has further bookings for Luminosa for 6th, 10th, 13 April.

There has been some holes in the recently listed 2024/25 schedule, but these are now pretty much in place. Royal Caribbean will not have the music charter cruises in late 2024, and these have been moved over to Carnival Luminosa. The music charters will not show on Carnival's site and not able to be booked directly, so it is contact your preferred agent. Choose Your Cruise September 19 2024 - 22 night transpacific - Seattle to Sydney October 12th - 4 night Tangalooma from Sydney October 16th - 7 night Bravo (performing arts) music charter - Syd to Noumea, Mare October 23rd - 7 night Rock the Boat music charter - Syd to Noumea, Mare October 30th - 8 night - this is presumed to be a similar charter for Cruisin Country, which is yet to be announced November 7th - 3 night Sydney to Brisbane November 10th - first Brisbane departure for the season - 7 night Qld Coast At this stage, the itineraries have her based in Brisbane until April 3rd. At this stage there is no relocation cruise back to the US. One wonders - could she be staying?

It wasn't originally scheduled, and they were there too long for a medevac. They skipped the sail-past Willis Island to shortcut back to Bundaberg. The seas are calm, so that wasn't done to avoid bad weather. I hope they still scored their duty free.

The conditions being shown on AIS would suggest it to be a bit rough, so kudos to them for getting ashore. @Kiwi_cruiser - have you taken note of what Carnival Splendor is doing today? Currently anchored off Bundaberg. A butt scrape perhaps?

I can't say we have had any UHT milk checked, as we have never taken any on. It is all luck of the draw though, as it all rides with the person on the X-ray machine. Anything we think they will want to check, such as cans of soft drink, we just put through separately in a shopping bag as it saves the need for unpacking/repacking the carry-on. And since our first cruise, we have never packed liquids in our luggage. Not a good sign when your bag is dripping in the corridor.

Just to honour history, today is the 28th. Definitely more miss than hit, but I feel a few more have landed over the years. An interesting place. My mum spent a few days there last month and had the fun of sitting through three attempts to land the plane. The video of the landing was an eye-opener.

By their own terms it is contraband, but there is rarely an issue taking aboard. As mentioned, take in carry-on. Security will likely want to inspect it, so even better to have it separate in a disposable carry bag. It has been a while for us, but they did have it on Spirit a few years back - dining room, buffet & the main coffee bar.

The FAQ will catch-up in a year or two. 😉

As capitals go, Darwin misses the list but beats them all, mostly as it doesn't feel like a capital city. I will stick with Newcastle over any of those, as it is a really good match against most of those criteria, and I don't need an e-tag to drive on the local highways.

Looks like she left Dubai pretty much on time, with the destination matching the schedule and doing 17kn. Hopefully everything is hunky dory.

As mentioned, no military OBC for Carnival - anywhere. A military discount is available on selected cruises, but it is very selective, especially in Australia. Just do a dummy booking with and without the military box being checked, and see if there is a price difference, as that is the only way of confirming if that cruise is any cheaper for military (and/or over 55s as well). The military check box was only added to the Aussie site a few months ago.

The missing puzzle piece has finally been added. It is a nice itinerary from Singapore, 8 x Asian ports, then 2 x Hawaii and onto LA, departing 17th October. It would be really nice to B2B with a Panama cruise, then jump ship for something in the Caribbean. Cruise Details - 32-Day Southeast Asia, Hawaii & Pacific Crossing - Princess Cruises

Between Sydney and the US, I am also a firm believer that a stopover in a resort in Fiji or Hawaii is good for the soul. We usually save it up for the trip home though. Long legs and long flights are a pain, and the 3-4-3 configuration of most economy seats now is something else to contend with. We look forward to a flight to Heathrow in a couple of years' time to catch the Crown world cruise home. I have been considering business class seats, but also figure that money could be better spent on upgrading to a mini-suite for 57 days, more involved port experiences, or most likely - a cruise around the UK prior to jumping aboard Crown Princess. Of all of these ways of spending our money, the business class seats are at the bottom of the list as it is all spent in 24hrs. Business class is great, but not when traded-off against extra days at sea in bigger cabins. Snagging us a twin seat in premium economy would be a reasonable compromise. As to the original topic, I am watching keenly, and have been poking around some of those sites. The obvious candidate is QF1 via Singapore, but also the option to fly to Perth, then direct to Heathrow. There are cheaper options - what airlines do people prefer when heading to Europe/UK?

Looks like Ketchikan to me, taken from somewhere near the lumberjack show.

Thanks Chez. I think we can find plenty to keep us happy. I am hoping one of the resident musos will be back on for her piano bar residency in December. A show or two there, late night comedy, 1am pizza and drinks, a sleep-in followed by brunch - all sounds like fun. All very different from our eat early, eat often motto on most ships, so it is just adjusting to the rhythm of the ship. No plans for the spa at this stage. Actually, this is now all in the air a bit. We are still booked and only have a small deposit at stake, but lots of OBC to use. We are now due to become grandies in the first week of 2024, so our boxing day cruise might be cutting it a bit fine. We will make a call close to final payment day.

Splendor's next scheduled drydock is in August 2024. We have cruised on plenty of "tired looking" ships, and will admit that the age of the carpet etc isn't a deal breaker for us. We have one of those big OBC cruises to use up between Christmas & NYE. No duty free, so it will be a challenge to get it all spent on a short cruise. It has been a while since we have been on Carnival and are looking forward to it.

True. 8th spot would be a credible season from here though.

Very congested from 8th to 14th. That % boost might just come in handy in August.

Bon Voyage. Let us know how breakfast goes 😉 I mostly like I Bloody Mary as it is the only legit breakfast cocktail. Also, my wife loathes them, so I can get a headstart for the day. Still, without a drinks package I wouldn't be bothered.

Sorry, I missed a word out here. The EOFY sale is $1500 OFF per cabin, not a cabin for $1500

Yes, but later in 2024 than for 2022 & 2023. They find it easier to sell a LA to Sydney relocation than a LA to Brisbane one, then are spending a few weeks of the shoulder season in Sydney before heading to Brisbane.

Final payment date for this one was back in May. Any of those change of mind cabins are long gone. In their eagerness to accept bookings, they expect some late cancellations, and slightly overbook the ship in anticipation. We have had one of those last minute phone calls asking if we wanted to cancel and move over to another cruise.

That is really disappointing. They are showing 18 knots, so they are tracking pretty well, but understandable they need to fix something. I believe they are boarding/disembarking passengers in Dubai, so they won't be able to depart Dubai early if they are not aboard.