kiwi sailor

Who remembers Jane McDonald from the BBC series from the late 90’s called The Cruise. Well she is back on New Zealand TV screens next month in a new series called Cruising With Jane McDonald on Sky’s Vibe channel. The first episodes feature Sydney and the beautiful New Zealand as she travels on the HAL Noordam. The series kicks off on Wednesday 13th March at 7.30pm.  Compulsory viewing for all cruise lovers.

Tipping is not expected in New Zealand. We just give top service is a matter of fact. You may find in some restaurants that when they present you the bill, there is provision to write a tip amount there. But not required at all unless you felt you had exceptional service. Some cafe have a jar on their counter for tips to go in, normally it only has a few coins in it. No need to tip taxi's, the fares in NZ are not cheap to start with.

Same with professional services, hairdressers etc. Not expected, but up to you if you feel the service was exceptional.

A thank you and a smile is what makes Kiwi's drive to do better.

Avoid connecting cabins on the Regal, Royal and Majestic. There is no sound proofing. You can hear everytime your neighbour goes to the toilet. Not to mention their conversations. Will never book a connecting cabin again. We were in A509 on the Regal. And yes the connecting door is in line with the walk in wardrobe / bathroom entry.

Thanks for the update. We will be on the Regal in a few weeks. Sounds like the captain is making the right decision and keeping everyone safe. Will you ship go straight to New York?

Yes, the current plan is to go to NY arriving Saturday morning. More news as it is announced.

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We are currently aboard the Regal Princess on the Trans-Atlantic crossing. The Captain announced this morning that we will now not be calling at Boston and Newport as we will be taking a more southerly direction to avoid Hurricane Jose. At present we have very calm seas.

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I believe that the Spa is going to use them during the day for water jet flossing. $15 to 10 minutes. Will be worth photographing. LOL:D

Most notable item of tangential interest to Princess fans: the first two of the largest ever builds for Carnival Corp (183,000 tons, 5.000+ passengers) are being allocated to Costa and P&O Australia--in the latter's case that lines very first non-hand me down ship. Initial plans reportedly were that one of those ships would go to Carnival Cruise Line and be based in either Miami or Ft Lauderdale but capacity issues could not be resolved at those ports (even though PortMiami has no issue with larger and larger RCI ships :confused:). In the case of Port Everglades preliminary surveying was done to have the ship fit into Berth 2 which the new ship would share with Princess, presumably getting first priority and bumping Royal, Regal and their future twins to a different berth. But it is all moot now. (Nicely tied back to Princess, yes :rolleyes:)

I believe that the new build for P&O Australia has now been scrapped. They will receive a hand me down from Carnival. One good thing about all these new builds is that Australia and New Zealand will get a bit younger hand me downs and not something doing a detour for a few seasons before beaching herself in India.

The Auckland Port is right in the city. A cheaper option might be to catch the Auckland Explorer Hop On Hop Off Bus, but it is NZ$45 each, so if there was two of you, it would be cheaper to take a taxi (approx $20). The Museum is only 12 minutes (4.3kms) drive from Princes Wharf. I'm pretty sure the Ferry Terminal (next to Princes Wharf) has Luggage Lockers. The Britomart Rail Centre (also close to the Ferry Terminal) does have them, but there is major renovations going on there with the new inner city rail line being constructed, so access is a bit more difficult.

Getting out to the airport from Downtown is easy. The SKY Bus departs every 10 minutes and is only NZ$18 per person. it departs from Customs Street in Downtown. 5 minutes walk from the Ferry Terminal if you store your bags there.

Hope this helps and enjoy your time in beautiful Auckland - Home of the Americas Cup.

John

Maybe make the Elite status the same way as some of the airlines do with their loyalty programme. You need to re-qualify again each year by doing x amount of cruises to keep your status. I seems strange that once you qualify you keep that status for life.

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Unfortunately the Pizzeria is now home to Share. The new look buffet (Horizon Court) is very user friendly and the full size, wall-mounted TV with a great movie selection is wonderful for cabin times.

Yes, have to agree the Movie selection was great, the TV series were just OK. The picture quality was very good and the screen size was great, they were Samsung TVs.

My wife and I just a had a short two night cruise from Brisbane to Sydney last weekend. We were last on the Sun Princess back in September 1998 and I've got to say she is great shape. Maybe even better than me, 19 years later. Without getting out a magnify glass I couldn't find any fault with her. Just don't remember her being so small, but been on few giants since 1998. Crew seemed happy and very helpful. Neil the CD was everywhere and always acknowledged everyone he passed while walking around. Princess certainly do look after her older girls compared to P&O Australia. Certainly would have no hesitation on sailing on Sun Princess again.

John

That is for both P&O UK and P&O Australia/NZ

They told me I had to book the next cruise to get my laundry back. :o

So that was you seen walking off the Regal last month naked.:')

US CUSTOMS QUESTION

We are cruising on the Regal Princess in September from the Baltic via Scotland and Ireland to New York. Just curious when we hit the US Customs process?

When we leave Cork? (US Customs on board)

When we arrive in Boston?

When we arrive in New York (final USA port)?

On our last TA with MSC, we cleared US Customs on board after departed San Juan and prior to arriving in Miami.

Hopefully it won't be as we arrive in Boston cutting into our precious shore time.

Thanks for any advice we can get on this.

John

Captain Lavadera is still onboard April 19th.

I guess Regal will get her Sea Witch bow paint job in April '17 when she goes into dry dock for her tummy tickle.

I'm guessing she will be sporting the new Sea Witch logo on her bow, like her sister after April's Dry Dock.

hi everyone

 

hopefully someone can help.

i know this is new to pearl and you have to pay for it, but what "adventures does the Pearl have".

i've somewhere it's 8 out of the a possible 15???

is the pricing different on each ship depending on what they are offereing.

sorry about all the questions, but i'm pretty sure my daughter will be keen on this later this month

 

thanks

We were on the Pearl over Easter and they had Zip Line, High Wire Walk and Segways operating. They had, but never saw in use, rock climbing and walk the plank. We timed how long the zip line ride lasts. The actual ride was 10 seconds in duration. Hope that helps. John

Need help regarding if a International Drivers Permit/Licence is required in addition to your own full home countries drivers licence with photo.

I'm getting mixed reports. The rental car company T&C's are confusing.

Any helpful advice is appreciated.

I have since found out that SKY Italy's Sport Channel has the rights to the Rugby World Cup matches. We would not have entered the Atlantic at the time the Semi Finals are on, so hopefully we will get to see those games. We are bobbing around in the middle of the Atlantic at the time of the Grand Final. Has anyone been successful in watching SKY Italy in the middle of the Atlantic previously. Otherwise NBC Universal have the rights in the USA, so not sure if the ship picks up that service.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks John

I'm hoping that they will be playing the Semi Finals (25th & 26th October) Runner Up (31st Oct) and Grand Final (1st Nov) of the Rugby World Cup. Especially as it will be the mighty All Blacks against England or France in the final I'm predicting. These will be sea days and we will be in the middle of the Atlantic. Any past history of MSC covering these big events?

Around 30 of us on our small Roll Call are looking at having a Meet & Greet on our first full sea day aboard MSC Divina. Any suggestions on a suitable bar/venue to hold this and any tips on who to contact at MSC to book out this space?

Thanks John

Slightly confused after looking at Skier52's attached 2012 drinks list. Is the no wine included at all in the complimentary list for the Yacht Club members?

On our last cruise we tipped the barman, butler and assistant butler throughout the cruise.

 

However the best response and thanks that we got was when I handed out (and pinned on) Australian Flag Pins, thanking them for making our holiday special.

 

The waiters, maitre de, barstaff and waiters all seemed REALLY thrilled to get something more personal.

 

Perhaps you could get some NZ Flag pins (before you change your flag!!).

But which NZ flag, we have got 70 versions floating around as an option at present. We can't be mistaken as Australians you know. LOL

Hopefully they only mean on sailings out of the US. I like the Mediterranean menus. No of dense to Americans but if I wanted American food I'd go to the US or book a US cruise line.

Well said.