arxcards

Actually, just poking around a Pride of America booking, and contrary to my earlier post, grats don't show in the fare breakdown. I am unsure whether they are included in the fare. When looking at the fare breakdown it does say service charges are included, but it would be best to confirm.

Yeah, you should be charged in AUD, as long as you don't have cookie blockers that hide your location. Your fare should also show as inclusive of taxes and gratuities. The AU version of the site shows this phone number in the top right corner of the home page: 1300 255 200. The $AU web address should show as https://www.ncl.com/au/en/ Any fare you see for local currency should read like $1,916 PP / AUD

Charcuterie & Lamb shanks for me please

The OP's decision is whether to pack soft drink in their carry-on, or not, depending on whether they have it available on the ship. The cruise is already booked. Brands of Scotch & Bourbon, now there's a decision point.

Not an issue for us, as we don't spend much time in the theatre. A small bar with no entertainment is our kind of bar. Good Spirits is small on Majestic, but we pick our times to snag a seat at the bar. A proper Crooners is a bonus.

The pic is accurate, at sea toward Melbourne, but they haven't updated the location on their software.

Be careful. If you drink too much, you may end up with a black eye.

It is complicated, but so much easier in your case. Unlike the US, we have domestic cruises. At this stage, we don't have a PVSA restriction that prevents us from cruising between Australian ports which is great, but also creates different scenarios for B2B cruises here. To Australian authorities, your b2b cruises are international followed by international, so you should have an easy day in transit. Your luggage can remain on the ship, and you can depart in the morning to spend a day in port. It is possible that NCL will provide a shuttle for B2B passengers to drop you over near Circular Quay. If not, it is really a cab or uber to get you out of White Bay. Get on the ferries at CQ and explore the harbour by all means, but not practical from Balmain.

Yep, and why I am going to keep using the old one for now. They are saying they are going to roll out shoreside purchases around the world. One ideal example for Australia would be in PNG or on the Islands, ensuring the locals get a single bulk payment to their account and not requiring us cruisers to need to carry kina or xpf for the minor ports. Conflict Islands would be a perfect candidate.

Nothing is compulsory, and our NYE plans don't include TV.

Correct, and it doesn't apply here.

To follow all the ins and outs on the Grand currently, check out -

You cant. You need to log out, then log back into each future booking using the Princess booking number instead of your email.

As with my initial response, it is complicated. It is likely with Australian passengers boarding in Sydney and Melbourne that they will consider the cruise as an international departure from Australia. It is still an international cruise though, and will require everyone to arrive through Australian borderforce with any declarable items upon their return to Sydney. This will also apply to B2B passengers, as the following cruise is domestic (it doesn't leave Australia, so there will be no borderforce to handle an "arrival" at the end of your B2B). As above, transit is only a cruise line term. You will be arriving into Australia at the end of your first leg and still considered to be in Australia until you depart for your flight, presumably through Sydney airport. It is quite possible there will be more flexibility and a more "normal" transit will apply for your general luggage, allowing it to be moved to the cabin for your 2nd leg. If you are required to take any declarable items off the ship for entry into Australia, if impractical to hand over at luggage drop, you will be carrying them around on your tours. As an example, duty free alcohol would be a major pain through this scenario, only to hand it back to be bonded on the ship for the 2nd leg. It will likely work out OK, but it is just something to be aware of. Lots of US passengers expect transit to be just like home, and our Borderforce officials are just like border officials around the world - definitely not fans of entitled travellers. Majestic. In some ways, it is a bit big for us. It was also built for the Chinese market, so I expect the other Royal class ships would suit a bit better. The bigger the ship, the less of it we focus on. We tend to find a cabin near the aft lifts, and spend much of the cruise in the back half of the ship. We find it a breeze to get around that way. I have enjoyed a cruise on Grand through Alaska, soon after she lost her shopping trolley look. Also sister ships Golden, Star & Diamond - they all fit like a glove. It is interesting to throw up a Hawaii cruise from Australia in October. On previous years, the ship would be destined to spend a couple of months in Melbourne, but Princess is not going to homeport there in 25/26. It should be a great cruise, but we are already fully subscribed for our 2025 cruises.

Found

I have presumed you are on one of the October trans-pacific relocations. We have cruised on Majestic Princess for her first Australian cruise of the past two seasons, and they have been hectic days at Sydney's passenger terminal, with lots of unhappy passengers doing B2B cruises and having to bring all of their luggage through Australian borderforce. There are international & domestic variations between whether passengers and or luggage can stay aboard and how transit applies (int to int, int to dom, dom to dom, dom to int). For international cruises arriving for the season, when followed by a cruise with only Australian domestic ports, they are applying the rules to the letter. If you have the same cabin B2B, you just may be able to keep some stuff in-room. That will be up to the cruise line. If switching cabins, they have been instructed not to relocate your belongings. As an in-transit passenger, you can reboard at the front of the queue - BUT - once you have embarked you cannot leave the ship again for a tour. If you wish to do a tour, you will have to do it before embarking, so will have your carry-on with you. When returning to the terminal, your transit card gives you access to the priority lane.

Ahh, cool. It is also what I prefer to do. Some years ago, friends started goading me for food pics and that was how I responded - the proof of great food is all in the taste. If I don't like something, I will also take a pic of the part eaten meal. I see lots of artistic food pics on social media, and you would swear they don't eat much of their food.

It is more reassuring with 3 weeks notice. When you get those changes notified the day before, it usually means reduced power because on of the engines is broken.

24th/25th February? On the 24th, you will arrive to anchor anchor at Athol Buoy and will be there till 9pm. The animals nearby at Taronga Zoo might raise a racket, but are usually well behaved after dark. During the day, the ship tenders will shuttle back and forth between the ship and Man O'war steps at the Opera House. Between 9 and 10pm, Edge will transfer over to the passenger terminal. I don't know what hours the ship will allow you to come and go. If you are on starboard, you might catch a bit of sound from the pubs in the Rocks. On port, you will get the 3 toots of the reversing ferries. On a Saturday night, there are a few services that run till just after midnight. We have stayed in the Quay Grand, on the opposite side of Circular Quay from the passenger terminal, a few times and never had an issue with noise from the ferries. Certainly not enough noise to prevent a good nights sleep. From the overnight ports we have done, it was the ship that was loud. In the days of the gangway "ding", the number of crew heading off the ship to head for a few hours at an Irish Pub would keep anyone with a balcony on that side of the ship wide awake till 2am. Not an issue now, as scanning on/off the ship is a much quieter affair.

The piano bar is pumping while Cassidy Rae is aboard, but she isn't your average cruise ship entertainer. Yes, it was lame for us. Alchemy is expensive, but that keeps away the cheap drunks 🤣 There were a few mixologist variants that went down nicely. The MDR was OK for us with food. We did 2 x brunches, one dinner and breakfast this morning. Service this morning was very slow, but overall it was decent and the food was nice by MDR standard. We had good seats on the rail for the dancing below, but there is something less than magical about others reaching up over your table to get a look. I scrapped my dessert after someone had their hand on my plate. Not Carnival's doing, but yuk. We would have tried the buffet a bit more, but the conga lines were a bit much for us.

No, unless he is a passenger. Is there a food connection with Carnival?

All Carnival ships have revolting colour schemes. Splendor is no exception, but it wasn't as in your face as I was expecting. The cabin decor was fine, as were the passenger corridors. The carpets around the lift foyers are absolutely shot - threadbare in places. No Brule's. Not on the muni on the night we were in the MDR, and not past of the steakhouse menu.

It seems that logging-on via booking number is the go, but that is regressive. We have 4 × Princess booked and can see them all on the same login with the old app. That feature is gone with the new one, so we can no longer toggle between cruises. This is a mobile app, so we will need to carry 4 booking numbers around with us. When logging on with your email, you can only access your next cruise.

Mostly timing Phil. This one had heaps of OBC from covid cancellations, so was rarely in doubt. We cancelled one on Splendor this past July, and it was Coral Princess or Celeb Edge to decide. We had flights booked for Coral, and a non-refundable deposit. Edge deposit was fully refundable, so we will look forward to another opportunity. I will wrap this cruise up later. 2 months to wait for Coral, then a clean slate for a year while we take care of some things at home.