bazzaw

You lost me in all that 🙂 - but at the end of the day, you have to make a choice - the same as these Companies have to make a decision (regarding all kinds of things) about their operations. They are here to make money - and cruising is not compulsory .

Seems to me like the Stock Exchanges are no more than a Casino - or possibly akin to the odds of a Bookie at Randwick for different horses. All this money that the US Govt has printed and continues to print and all of the "money" created by debt, all has to find a home somewhere - and that home is Wall Street. All this Fiat money will tumble down sometime - just like Humpty Dumpty's wall.

Don't care too much about all this - we have just about exhausted our cruising in Aussie waters.

I worry a bit about the large Eastern Brown snake that has take up residence in my garden just outside our front door - you know the Eastern Brown supposedly the most deadly snake in the World 😞

I have enjoyed my times in the USA - but the times have changed

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=9295c298037651d3&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU1074AU1074&sxsrf=ADLYWIIsnpmsLAc1O4SFGXr7LHbsf0WUjw:1716155845952&q=bed+bugs&uds=ADvngMiNoZJqxV0OCKWajHtN7FUDK3D8QzQGI41yZVSM18jwyic7k7ixcgc0N1iTB01aI1T48TjhRh_9jFxhH6x5vSkANLJ4WW4pDhhqkw-YM6Ypag4nLVmrMsClah2yO6jIB1j-MQ4Ap6xztvT-pLU9Pfw4BAdkHyI8pIAEky2jZbWu16Hjo_S_d3RoO2pTwKnFjQ92R77mPhfPNREiBa9zTNfHUCRpSCjfqOeY-9CIZjeELE4Tcwnw7Jh8bXt9Ceo28vJHyARlnq59krNA6DUJezAbZlrRfL4Wu_VVYa6ofHWA9VIKZ2KTn8uN288LvQMN9j65KW4O&udm=2&prmd=isvnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiG0M7c2pqGAxVY1jgGHbITDGoQtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=1745&bih=901&dpr=1.1

Bed bugs are definitely NOT invisible 🙂

My understanding is that P&O have pioneered and developed cruising in the South Pacific - all these other cruiselines are just carpetbaggers in the area. An example is the building of the Jetty on Kiriwina Island in PNG (Trobriand Islands)

AAH! I found this webpage which tells what ships go to which berths in Yokohama https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp.e.sj.hp.transer.com/kanko-bunka/minato/kyakusen/nyuko/2024.html Seems that most go to Osanbashi with some ( what appear to be smaller ships) go to Shinko pier

I am surprised to hear that you departed from Shinko Pier - what cruiseship was this? Shinko pier is adjacent to the main Yokohama Cruise terminal. I did not know that it was used for cruiseships. In 2020, we were to leave from Yokohama pier ( I think it is called Osanbashi Pier??) On Cunard Queen Elizabeth - but cancelled by Covid. This year we departed (also on QE) from the new Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, which is basically in Tokyo itself ( at least you can get to it on one line of the Tokyo Underground network)

I don't know!! 🙂

I don't think Tanna could handle cruise ship passengers

I'm not sure that they know?? I have known many people who are unhappy - but do not know why and therefore cannot do anything about it.

You can't use the words "interesting itineraries" and " cruising around Australia" in the same sentence. 🙂

In Life, there is only one thing worse than having no choices - and that is having too many choices!!

Did the Queenslander Brisbane to Cairns a couple of times years ago - boring as whatever!!! All you see from the train is scrubby bush flat country up to a point up North and from there on, nothing but canefields . All of this as opposed to the crossing of the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas from either San Francisco area or Vancouver area

THREE days in Honiara - sounds like fun (NOT) . I visited Honiara in RAN Submarine about 1980 - I expect that it hasn't changed much 🙂

Anybody looking for a pre-cruise hotel with the cruise starting from Yokohama - I would stay in Yokohama itself. It is a great city of almost 4 million people - a great place to walk around on the waterfront - Chinatown in Yokohama is the largest in Japan . And there is a cafe there at the wharf adjacent to the cruise terminal that has Hokkaido crab Ramen to die for !! 🙂

I know that I am NOT an alcoholic - because I do not/will not drink Sake!!

HINT - there is no storm and no ice falling from the sky!

We had a friend in Quebec who brought out his ice wine stash when we visited - I had never even heard of it but I do now know it is created by the Gods!!! I also never knew what an "ice storm" was - it is certainly not what I imagined it to be.

I am old and I don't know what a Ghibli is!! But we saw this clock in our wanderings and saw that it played a few times per day so we came back at an appropriate time. I was more impressed by it's existence than by what it did. 🙂 But I have to admit that at my age, I am not easily impressed anymore. What did impress me was that somebody paid for this installation for the public to see. We are both tight arsed and unimaginative in this country - if it doesn't produce a measurable positive monetary outcome we don't want to know about it!!!

Just did a quick check re comparative prices - 10 nights on New Guinea cruise P&O FROM $1044 -- 10 nights Alaska cruise On QE FROM $1529. Certainly there is a 33% difference there and we would have flights to Canada for the Alaska cruise - but Americans and Brits would have flights to Brisbane for the NG cruise . No - $500 difference does not account for the different demographics!!!

The demographic was my problem to on our Pacific Endeavour cruise - SOOOO different to the demographic on Cunard Queen Elizabeth around Japan.

Not all - even the cheap APA brand have two sizes of rooms - around 11sqM and a DELUXE 22 sq m at twice the price :(