lissie

Well if they weren't well maintained they wouldn't be allowed to cruise out of the USA! You need a smaller ship to get into many ports - we chose this one as it only takes 1400pax - to go any smaller you are looking at expedition style ships which are very expensive

Thursday Island? There is nothing much accessible up that coast - the Great Barrier Reef is a bit of a problem

We're doing that one - its out of Boston and includes Greenland too X349 25-DAY CANADA, NEW ENGLAND & ICELAND (hollandamerica.com) - I suspect that the price you are quoting doesn't include port charges (US based pricing neverf does - and there are a lot of port charges). I'm not sure how much of Australia you've driven (I've circumnavigated it on land - and i can asure you its not the cruise companies fault that there are aren't a town every few hours along the coast! I believe that Portland Main - our fitst stop from Boston is about a 2 hour drive depending o traffic. There are 5 ports in Iceland - again they are a few hours drive apart. Australia is a BIG country. You'll also find - that just like here - no one cruises out of Boston in the middle of winter - in fact I think the ship is repositioning there now via the Caribbean

You know there is an app that turns your phone into a compass. And another that will display what you should see in the night sky whereever you are in the world

You may need to - it depends if the rule is there because of the US rule or whether Cunard is setting the rule

It's fairly irrelevant to the cruise line though - NZ dropped vaccine requirements for entry via air months ago - still required for cruise passengers as of last week. The season is pretty much finished now- suspect they may drop requirements for next season

Cheers! I'm hoping you are aware that most Ozzie craft beer is a little bit more alcoholic than Bud light! The maritime museum right on the water front is very good too - Western Australia has a stupid number of 17th / 18th century wrecks - ships coming from Africa needed to turn left to get to Batavia (Indonesia) - but many didn't.

Fremantle is my favourite part of Perth when we lved there a few years ago. Wander along the water front to my fav brewery Fremantle Functions, Brewery & Event Venue - Little Creatures

Oh I see - that's odd - I assumed that was the new one as in 2020 we ported near Port Lytton- miles from the city! There is still a bus but takes forever like 1.5 hours - I'd be ubering it. At least the new one is near the airport

Bus is every 20 min - 16 min walk to the stop - I generally find google maps is accurate - though I've not tried it in Australia yet - my point is that its a hugely more frequent than the shuttles and obviously far cheaper.

You were the last scheduled arrival in Wellington for the season. The weather has been awful since Feb (we had a great summer earlier on) - but even in a normal year I'd never recommend cruising to Wellington in April - because of the weather. The end of season cruises are cheap for a reason

Not unless you want to spend a fortune - train your contacts to use Whatsapp - uses far less data than facetime. Or use Skype - not free - but you are paying a fraction of a cent per a minute and you can call any number.

Which is why so many of us use uber - walk of ship - book uber - know how far away and when it shows up - easy

Or you could take the bus, ferry or train - plenty of options - all within a few minutes walk ANZAC Square, Brisbane City QLD, Australia to Brisbane Cruise Terminal - Google Maps

Ive just checked on our trip on Zaandam the cheapest bottle is over $100 for Vodka! They don't even say whether the bottles of gin and whiskey at $120 are 1 litre or 750ml!

Star links is not necessarily a cure-all. They flew some starlink terminals into remote villages which were cut off in recent floods in NZ. It wa good enough to send messages but crashed when someone tried to Facetime! (ie a video call)

Its either the wifi within the ship on the data connection to the satellite or both. Do you know where the routers are (the staff should) - you may have to go and sit near there if the wifi is struggling in your metal box ie cabin.

That must be itinerary dependent surely - I can't imagine a ship allowing indoor smoking in Australia or NZ waters for example.

Fair enough - I don't use any of the loungers because they are in areas with no shade - and I don't sit in the sun to voluntarily get skin cancer! The old-fashioned wooden ones on the promenade deck which are quite well shaded were much more popular on our hot-weather cruises.

They are not really loungers - more like couches - don't recline

We like lots of cocktails, and some coffee, don't drink pop. We drink wine with dinner - we don't come near to 1/2 the price of the alcoholic package - just order what you drink and add it to your account.

We don't need visas just a passport according to the link given above -so we should be good to go

Yeah Russia won't be happening anytime soon for any of us! There is an online for for arrival in Canada by plane -but not sure if that works for cruise ships too. Yes I guess we'll have to go through customs again in Boston on return - but I've got heaps of time that day - so it won't be an issue.

We were going to use the water taxi - as we don't leave until later in the day and they will hold our bags for free (though its pretty$$$)

Hi we have New Zealand passports. We have Canadian ETAs (not required for cruise arrivals but are required as we fly in after the cruise) . Our first stop is Sydney and we are picking up a car I'm wondering if our arrival will be delayed for immigration formalities. Can any Commonweath citizens comment ?