busseltoncruisers

We have done back to back 14 night out of Venice with NCL twice and are booked again on the Norwegian Jade September 2016. We really love this itinerary as it has a good balance of ports and time at sea. NCL have the "Dress up or not" philosophy which is great when you are travelling such long distances and saves on having to take formal gear. We don't have any complaints with food and entertainment. We find overall their pricing is very good value and book with NCL direct. When we cruised in 2013 we had no trouble getting them to honour a significant price drop prior to final payment. For our 2016 cruise, we have the unlimited beverage package and $400 OBC included.

Just jumped on the tender back to the Diamond Princess, approximately a 15/20 minute trip.

Busselton put on a super day, we hired a car and drove through the wine region.

Highly recommended port of call, well done to all concerned.

 

 

 

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Glad you had a great day. We were a bit anxious about the rain but it fined up nicely for the afternoon. Wonderful sight watching her sail out of the bay. Quite a few families gathered on the foreshore to watch the big event.

Did you book through an Australian travel agent?

 

If you booked through an overseas travel agent your gratuities will be added onboard.

They are only included from Aussie agents (they don't trust us to pay them). :D

 

We booked through Princess direct (Aussie website).

Are you on the Oct 17th Singapore to Fremantle leg?

 

Yes. We are going to Bali with the family for a milestone birthday and will fly to Singapore when the kids and grandkids fly home. Then we will have a nice relaxing cruise home.

As she's still based out of Australia at that time, it would be the same. They wouldn't change remuneration and tipping agreements for a single cruise.

 

Now that makes sense. This is such a reasonably priced cruise and sailing into Perth makes it even better.

Thanks

"Gratuities

For our Australian guests, when sailing on cruises departing from Australia aboard Sun Princess, Dawn Princess or Sea Princess, a daily gratuity amount will no longer be added to your on board account. You are welcome to reward our on board crew for exceptional service, however, tipping is not required."

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/experience.jsp

 

In September the Sea Princess is heading up to Singapore and then will go in dry dock. We are boarding in Singapore returning to Fremantle. Would this apply to us ?? Is there anywhere out there that did the 2nd leg of this years Fremantle to Fremantle cruise.

It was awesome cycling into work this morning with the vision of the Diamond anchored just off the jetty. It is a lot closer than we thought. Looks like just a couple of km's from the end of the jetty. The foreshore is really buzzing. The high school band is setting up ready to welcome the passengers and a pop-up market is being set up. The bay is beautiful and calm and the weather is overcast but warm. We are heading down to watch the last tender leave this afternoon with a glass of vino in hand.

Gives me goosebumps.

It will be interesting to watch the arrival tomorrow. Apparently they will be using the finger jetties next to our iconic wooden jetty. The finger jetties form a u shape from the shore and form a swimming area at the main beach. They aren't very wide. We are heading done to the bay once we knock off work tomorrow and hope to see the last tenders leave. Hopefully it will all go smoothly as this will be a fantastic area to visit for cruiseship passengers and will be fantastic for our little city.

That's already included in your fare.

 

Thanks Tickford. I can't find any mention of gratuities anywhere in my booking.

Can any recent Sea Princess cruisers advise if Princess automatically include the daily gratuity in the cruise fare on a Sea Princess sailing to/from Australia similar to Sun and Dawn Princess or will this be added daily to our account ??? thanks...

While I'm on my soapbox can someone enlighten me as to why a Sun Princess cruise (Australian based ship) that operates in AUS$ and sails in Australina waters the quote from US TA in AUS$ for OS cabin is $2500 per person and quote from online Aus TA for same cabin is $3,700??

I agree it is emabarrassing when we speak to US or Canadians on board. We had an exprience on our recent cruise on Princess where we were discussing future cruises with a Canadian couple and they told us they had just booked on board the ship with the future cruise consultant a cruise we were very interested in doing. The price they were paying was fantastic and we made the decision instantly to go and book also. Too our disgust we were quoted about $3,000 over what the Canadian couple had just paid. We asked if we could book and pay immediately on board at the US price but this wasn't possible. We understand about the brochures being printed months before but really we were prepared to hand over our money there and then. This really doesn't make sense to me. Our next cruise is with NCL through a US online TA as NCL will accept our booking. As we are fairly frequent cruiser I know which cruiseline we will cruise with in future.