cruiselvr04

I’m not caught up for the last couple of days but we made it to Sydney Australia. 19 hours on 2 planes and a 10 hour layover in LAX but we are here. Flights were uneventful and all 4 checked bags made it. Yesterday we were able to check into our hotel by 8:30 a.m. so we spent the day exploring the CBD of Sydney. The shopping here is off the charts. So many stores, many high end and a lot of people. It wasn’t our intent to shop but DH broke his carryon handle the first flight so we were off to find a new suitcase. We found one, had lunch at a food court and went on a walking tour of “ The Rocks”. We forced ourselves to stay up until 8 p.m. then crashed for a good 12 hours. We are staying on the quay with lots of action right off our balcony. I’ll post a picture. Today Princess is here, yesterday it was P and O. This area is FULL of restaurants and fast food, it’s a bit overwhelming to pick a place to eat. We had planned to go to Manly beach today but not sure the weather will cooperate. If not we’ll do more walking, maybe the bridge and museums.

Pretty sure I need this done. I’ve been told I don’t need it replaced but under my knee cap the cushion is all gone. It doesn’t look pleasant. I had to have more skin cancer cut out of my face in December. My plastic surgeon likes to inject steroids into the scar line and scar tissue. So that was Thursday and no it wasn’t fun especially when it’s in a tender area.

We do this and have still gotten charged. I hate the towels system. I understand people can’t be responsible though, leaving them on a beach is wrong. But at least if they make you do it, they need to get it right! I doubt anyone wants to take them home as they are thin and stained. We’ve taken late excursions and had to race to dinner and there sit our wet towels, usually until the next day when we have time to make the trip to the pool deck. It was so much nicer when the room steward took care of it. If the stewards would have a stack to at least exchange them when they find wet ones in your room that would make me happier.

We did this in December and it was a $20 taxi ride. We asked Royal people outside and no one acknowledged there was even a shuttle. Google did not show it was walkable. Getting to FLL to Miami or other way is actually better. They will put you a free bus. It’s a bit irritating that it isn’t handled better but not a huge deal.

We have but have heard from others that they don’t always do this and may depend on the ship. We try to talk to our steward and the new steward the day before turnaround and find out what the plan is. It’s a whole lot easier if they do. If they only have a couple of luggage carts for the whole ship and a lot of people switching cabins it may not work out.

I applaud anyone who can pack for more than 4 days in a carry on. I can not especially on a cruise when I like to dress for dinner.

Ah, so sorry. This is always said news for those booked.

Very well said.

I’ve had this happen with a sold out cruise.

I’ll try and post a few. We aren’t getting the internet package so I won’t be on much but I’ll definitely try to post a few from Sydney before we leave.

Sounds good but that’s not the way its done here. Prescriptions are sent electronically from the doctor to the pharmacy. We don’t see the actual prescription. This is alway true with narcotics as it prevents unauthorized duplication. Plus all ours are renewed automatically every 3 months and either sent by mail or picked up. Truthfully I haven’t seen an actual prescription in years.

We package all our meds for a trip in daily tiny plastic bags. I have the original labels from the pharmacy with me. We have done this in other parts of the world. Hoping Australia is no different. OTC are in small labeled baggies, most are blister packs. We’d have to bring an entire case with vitamins and meds otherwise and that’s not practical. I do not have “copies” of the prescriptions. Our pharmacy doesn’t give that out and I did ask. I will declare we have them, they are all for personal use. I’m hoping the labels are adequate. They have everything on them a prescription would have on it, maybe more as they describe what the pill looks like too.

Packing today for our 2 month trip to Australia and NZ. We got a Royal Up to a balcony on the last 2 B3B which is the circumnavigation around Australia. Although one is really obstructed we are happy as we placed really low bids. The original cost for a balcony on these was almost double and we couldn’t justify the cost. When Royal changed ships from Enchantment to Brilliance we lost our original cabin and had 3 different cabins anyway. Fresh air for 34/46 nights will be wonderful.

We did the Grand European 14 night Budapest to Amsterdam with Viking and agree it was wonderful. I wish, in hindsight, we’d added the trip to Bucharest.

I’m guessing some on the WC had done very little cruising and maybe expectations were wrong. We’ve done about 50 cruises. Every time we walk on board we are excited and the ship feels like a second home. In fact the sign on our cabin door says “ beach house” because that’s how we feel about a ship. Some cruises are better than others but never are they bad.

Hoping that these are innovative but not floating amusement parks.

My sister lived in Valparaiso for several years. We were young married, little kids and poor so I never got to visit. She has lived many places and she still talks about how beautiful it was. I’m looking forward to your pictures. We have really enjoyed every High C’s we’ve heard but they are always too loud! Royal always finds great talent for them!

I may have to encourage DH to bring a sports coat. He was just going to wear nice button downs for dress up night. Also good to know the Australia kids will be back in school the week we sail. We love kids but in smaller doses.

I’m hoping but it doesn’t say as it’s an excursion from the ship. It’s some kind of floating platform they stop at. DH is undeterred. I’ll go but not promising I’m getting in the water.

Wonderful! We’re doing lunch on Brilliance on embarkation day and hoping for a good steak. It’s seems like it’s always a gamble.

DH favorite ship. She really is lovely.

I have seen some nasty pool towels on just about every ship I’ve sailed but yes, it’s gross. Dirty cabins are not acceptable. Maintenance should be at a certain level, temperature control hanging by wires are unacceptable. Twice on our last cruise I stepped on the floor in our bathroom and the tiles came up on the bottom of my foot. I told the steward and it was fixed both times by the end of the day. We’ve had maintenance issues even on brand new ships, leaking pipes but it was handled quickly. Maybe she’s so old they can’t keep up.

Okay I knew you had stingers but I had never heard of irukandji. I watched a video and am now terrified to go snorkeling in the GBR.

We leave in a week for Sydney. Very excited! Watsons is on the list.

Ours kept talking about leaving a legacy. I think we’ve finally convinced them that’s not our plan. If we kick the bucket early they’ll get it. Otherwise we are spending it. Today was the DH’s last day. In a couple of hours he’s officially retired!!!