2 hours ago, villageidit said:

From what I've read you are given tags your first night for the luggage going directly to the ship. These bags are stored and then delivered to the ship. 

Good to know.   Thanks

I’m planning to leave suitcases at the hotel and not take them on the land portion. Do we have to get back to the hotel and pick them up ourselves or does the hotel deliver them to the ship for us?

Delta Amex always gives you a free bag.  Does not matter where you purchased the ticket 

On 9/5/2023 at 11:48 AM, Princess Cruises Fann said:

You're welcome. Happy to answer any other questions that come up. 

Thanks again for taking the time to answer questions.      

1.   Did the Bob Woods group ever contact you prior to getting to Australia?

2.   Did you order your medallion and did you receive it prior to leaving?   When we did our Alaskan land/cruise last year, our's did not arrive before we left?   

Thanks

19 minutes ago, Princess Cruises Fann said:

The guides had tickets for the whole group. They did make sure that we sat by our traveling partner. 
 

 

Thanks for the help.    
 

Where you able to upgrade to first or at least comfort seats?

did Bob Woods ever send you any emails or contact you in any way?

On 9/2/2023 at 8:14 AM, Steelers36 said:

@compozer could check their profile and review what email address they are using for Cruise Critic.  Also, within the member profile area, this page (see below) has settings and perhaps they aren't set to receive notices?

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/notifications/options/

 

No email in my inbox or in spam and I did check my profile.  I checked my profile and everything in settings is set to receive notices.  🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

1 hour ago, Hogbay said:

You're bulky luggage is put in luggage storage under coach . You're purse is kept with you and soft carry on ,no hard wheeled cases not enough room under your legs or in coach storage compartment .

Yes we know the large pieces go under the coach but on other land cruises, a few people had two small pieces instead of a large one.   There was never not enough room underneath on any of our land tours in the past.  How many people were on the coach with you?   And I have seen people hold their carry ons in their lap.    My husband does not have a purse and only has a small soft wheeled carryon.  His meds, tablet, important papers, etc are in there and he wants them close to him so he is willing to hold it on his lap.

Need Help with flights around the island on the land portion .  

We are on the land portion on their cruise/tour this October, flying from Sydney to Uluru, Darwin, and Cairns, most likely, according to Princess, on Qantas.  

From Princess website: Land Tours/Australia:
For domestic Qantas flights within Australia, you are allowed to check one piece of luggage per person, not to exceed 50 lbs per bag. One piece of carry-on baggage is allowed, not to exceed 15 lbs.

Hand-Carry Tote/Backpack
    •    You'll want this bag with you every step of the way, so include only the essentials.
    •    Items to pack in this bag include travel documents, photo ID, important medication, toiletries, camera, insect repellent, and any extra layers of clothing such as jackets or hats.
    •    Your hand-carry tote bag should be a size that is comfortable to carry and should be able to be stowed under your seat. We recommend soft-sided tote bags or backpacks no larger than 17" x 14" x 4" with a zip enclosure.
    •    Wheeled carry on cases that are used to carry-on luggage on airlines are too large and are not suitable as hand-carried luggage on motorcoaches in Australia.

From our itinerary:
LUGGAGE INFORMATION  
Luggage information For domestic flights within Australia, you are allowed to check one piece of luggage per person not to exceed 50 pounds per bag. One piece of carry-on luggage per person is allowed, not to exceed 15 pounds. If you have more than one checked bag, a $40 AUD excess baggage fee will be charged per additional piece of luggage for each domestic flight segment. If you have more than 50 pounds, a heavy charge of $30 AUD fee will be assessed. Please note: baggage fees are subject to change by the airlines. These prices are accurate as of 2015.   For ease of travel, please pack your tour clothing separately from your cruise clothing. Storage of one bag of your cruise clothing per person will be available in Sydney.

We are particularly interested in hearing from people who have done the land portion in Australia, most recently!

Questions:
Are wheeled carry on REALLY not allowed on the motor coaches?

Were your carry ons weighed before the flights?

It says that you are limited to one carry-on, per flight and one 50 pound bag in the belly.

Are you also allowed a personal item like a purse?

very frustrating!!

No one from Bob Woods group has replied to us,    And Princess reps are useless.   I keep asking to talk to a supervisor but reps all say, “ I am very knowledgeable.”  All they do is quote from my personalizer.  They never transfer me to a rep.

thanks for any help.

4 hours ago, Victoria_BC_Mom said:

. You should contact Princess or your TA.

Glad it worked for you.   Did contact both, said to contact customer service when we get on the ship.   TA said other clients are having the same issue.

1 hour ago, Worldtraveler 4727 said:

We LOVED the Connoisseur Tour: land and sea. This might help you decide....

 

Fantastic trip review!!!

 

thank you for posting

7 hours ago, J13C85 said:

 Viking wanted final payment 15 months in advance. Talk about an interest free loan 

I would not agree to that, either.

2 hours ago, Sprocket said:

 

I upgraded to Premier on the weekend and already have my specialty dinners booked. 

 

When you made your specialty dinner reservations, did you have to pay with a credit card?   We are suppose to get two dinners included but we were not able to use the credits.                                    Same thing happened with excursions - they charged our credit card rather than use OBC.  We were told they will refund our money when we get on the ship and talk to customer service.   Makes me think they want to have use our money for months.  Thanks

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

You OBC is just that, money to be spent onboard or beforehand for excursions.  
 

Our problem is that when we purchased excursions, there was no option to use our OBC's so we had to put it on our charge card.  I have a lot of OBC so I am hoping they might work with us and transfer the charge and take it out of our OBC's.   Same with specialty dining.  We are suppose to have 4 dinner credits but there was no way to apply them so we had to charge the dinners to our Credit card.

I have always just paid for the upgrades.  I need to check out how many miles I have

I have done it but I had to wait until after final payment.   Call your ta and maybe you can pay flights ahead of final payment.

I agree about the new packages,  OzKiwiJJ

I downloaded the same site that I used on my phone and posted a screen shot of.  It worked fine but would not accept a picture.  Trie 15 times then I decided to try taking a picture outside.   Worked great the first time.   Did the same with my husband.

all done!

thanks for all the help

16 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Regent, of course, as you'd expect being one of the luxury cruise lines. 

We did our first Regent cruise last January and loved it.   We have always booked full suites with Princess but have been disappointed since the perks are disappearing.  We are also trying out several other lines.  But we will book with Regent again.

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I just did a cost comparison between our two next cruises - one on Diamond Princess and one on Regent Seven Seas Explorer. 

 

Regent is all-inclusive including excursions. We have a mini-suite on Diamond so cabin style should be comparable and I added in all the extras to match what Regent offers. Both cruises were booked during sales. 

 

The difference was less than $50pp per day!

Which cruise line was more expensive?      

this is the app I downloaded.

https://nzeta.immigration.govt.nz/

Request an NZeTA

I downloaded the app on my phone.  Mine was the one that asked for payment at the end

thanks for the fast reply

I had no problems applying for the Australian visa for myself and my husband.

A friend told me when she did the New Zealand one, she  had to pay ($99 plus $35) before she could enter any information.   When I did it, it did not ask for payment until the end.

After 20 tries to get a photo of my husband, we were finally successful. I filled out all the information then they asked for payment of$58 - $23 for electronic travel authority fee, and $35 for international visitors conservation, and tourism levy.

Talking with my friend we don’t know which site is correct. People have talked about third-parties that charge a fee but I don’t want to pay until I make sure I’m on the correct sight.   
Anyone apply lately?   Thanks for any help.

11 hours ago, AZjohn said:

@compozer, Not to sound pessimistic and hope this isn’t the case but, when you said you exchanged points for these e-cards 15 months ago it brought back a nightmare I experienced several years ago.

 

Princess once or twice a year runs a special for a 10% bonus e-card when purchasing regular e-cards (for $).

Example: you purchase a $1,000 e card and they send you an additional $100 e-card (10% bonus).

 

What I didn’t know at the time is this “10% bonus” e-card was only good to use for 12 months and then expires (the original $1,000 e-card did not have a expiration time).

 

I just really hope your 10 $100 e-cards did not expire after 12 months.

Me too!

I will be pissed if that happens

TSUmom,  thanks so much!!

we are flying to Sydney with a 5 hour layover in Dallas this October so I may take a walk around and check out where the Grand is so I am familiar with the airport layout.    
thanks again 

I really appreciate your help!