bazzaw

I am wondering what itineraries the Quantum Class ships will be doing - with such large passenger numbers, I guess Mystery Island will be out ?? 🙂

I hate to generalise about Nationalities - but I think the answer to your question does depend a lot on what Nationalities are onboard a ship. I have always liked Americans and had a great time around the Hawaiian Islands on Pride of America - BUT came across a few truly obnoxious ones on that cruise. P&O UK and Cunard sailing from Southampton are always topped up with Poms - I understand Poms well having been married into a family of them and also serving with their Submarine Armed Forces and also love travelling around Pommyland a fair bit over the years. They come is several "Classes" - a sometimes "snooty" class . a sometimes dreadful working class but an agreeable class in the middle 🙂. I have always found that the friendliest Poms on board these ships are people who have visited Australia at some time or have some other association - like family in Oz. The ones that dislike us the most are usually the ones who have never been here and have preconceived incorrect notions about Australia 🙂 There was a contingent of Germans onboard a Cunard ship once - none seemed to speak English so it was difficult to talk to them and they seemed quite insular. Our experience with them told me that I would not like a majority German ship.

I do know somebody who it has very recently happened to - won't say who but we may hear more about it later. The money was raised on the day but at great stress to the persons partner. The Insurance was also approved on the next day but once again at great stress to the lone partner. How about $24,000USD for 3 days in the ships hospital??? I have no idea at the moment how that figure was calculated or justified. Not any of my business anyway and dont want to further stress my friend at this time. It will probably all come out later and our education will be further expanded 😞

I think the answer is - a bit like the Insurance itself, you will "probably" never need the ready access to cash - but come the day that you need it, you will NEED it . BTW - my question was not a hypothetical question.

How well loaded Les - $40K???

I have learned very recently about something that I have often in the past thought about. It is about Travel Insurance. You have Insurance and you are on holiday in New York - or maybe you are on an American cruiseship ? Something really bad happens to your spouse and he/she are taken to a hospital - or a cruiseship sickbay. They need to treat you urgently in New York - or perhaps they need you off the ship as quickly as possible on the cruiseship. Your Insurance Company has not yet approved your spouses urgent callings. They want more info - as Insurance Companies do before they commit. But the New York hospital needs a guarantee of your financial worth - or the cruiseship needs you to clear your debt before the ship sails at 5PM . What do you do? Do you have a credit card that goes to maybe $40-$50,000 -- I certainly don't. You have 6 hours to find a solution. Is there somebody who knows how to solve this dilemma that I don't know about???

The "how much" is a bit hard to answer - but whatever it is, try to get the smallest notes that you can. No point in bringing a $100 Australian note with you

It is always handy to have some local currency for small purchases in different countries. I will often see if I can obtain before departure maybe $100 worth of the local currencies for the very first day I arrive. After that it is easy to get local currency from Banks and money exchanges.

18 night cruise with 13 ports - $Xpp for inside cabin. $x+$1000pp for outside cabin. $x+$2000PP for Balcony. Cruise in Northern Autumn coming into Winter. So $2000 extra for a window , $4000 extra for a balcony . Your thoughts please.

How many people are crowding into lifts - and wearing paper/cloth masks????

I am hearing that staff onboard Cunard ships are no longer required to wear masks

I thought this was supposed to be the El-Cheapo cruises thread 🙂

I found them very hard to find here in Brisbane

Only as part of here Round World Voyage in early 2023- you can still book Sydney to Fremantle M307 for 12 March 2023

You don't get to see the FULL dress code in action here in Oz waters - where almost every man is in Tux. Most Aussies don't wear Tuxes - and I don't blame them because they are very difficult to find here in Oz and generally expensive. In the UK you can buy a Tux in ASDA 🙂

I got an email from Cunard today saying that I should carry proof as per this suggestion --" One (1) photo which shows all together the RAT result, government issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license) and a clock displaying the time (e.g. a watch, mobile phone, wall clock)."

More to the point - they will not get the full Cunard experience in Australian waters .

Just wondering - in light of their most recent announcement re Covid https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/norwegian-cruise-line-eliminating-covid-19-testing-masking-vaccination-requirements

Not the case, I am afraid to say! The paranoia will disappear here soon but not just yet. At least we are back to some sanity now ashore.

One of my favourite places in Noumea. You just have to get out of the city around the port -- on foot!! in La Baie des Citrons

It's called an Internet Hyperlink 🙂 just click on it and see what it does 🙂

Have been trying to follow Stu ( Kiwi Cruiser) voyage on Majestic Princess- but Marine Traffic website does not show where the ship actually is somwhere between LA and Honolulu( without paying to see via satellite) . My understanding is that the AIS system only works close to shore?? Actually, wife and I got a bit alarmed yesterday when the Marine Traffic website said that the ship was proceeding at 20 knots in a direction 025 degress - ie back to Los Angeles 🙂 it's still showing that today.

Sort of - we were one of the very first cancellations for 38 day May 2020 cruise. They initially promised us a full cash refund plus 25% FCC. Took us 8 months to get the cash refund and then I just wiped out any thought of an FCC. BUT 12 months later we got an official FCC for over $5000. - which has paid for the bulkof this short cruise to Tassie.

Yes - just yesterday booked a room in Rydges Circular Quay for $300 - for cruise on Cunard Queen Elizabeth in January . I got an 8 day balcony cruise on her for $200 total per person 🙂 Who said that Covid was all bad??

Depends on why you want Insurance. For example, I do not insure to be able to make "small" claims - I insure to protect us from "disaster" - so in regard to our house/contents Insurance we take the highest excess they offer. I have never made a claim on our house Insurance in over 50 years - but have paid a small fortune in Premiums over that time - so now, if I were to have a loss of say $5000 , I can easily support that myself - however a loss of $50,000+ leads to the territory of disaster. An excess value of $5000 leads to considerably cheaper premiums. This "Medical only" insurances sounds good to me - I had never heard of it before.