Aussieflyer

Here is an article from 2020 noting that some cruise lines do not allow Australian residents to book using US sites. I have booked Celebrity through the UK and Azamara through US but that was a while ago. I am not sure if anything has changed but I think it pays to do your homework. Booking a cruise through US agent

I found sewerage smells in some parts of the sisters (which is part of the reason I don't like them even in new incarnations at P&O) but not on Coral when I was on here last year. She was great.

The Indian Pacific is a great trip though the section from Sydney to past Broken Hill has very poor rail beds and is both very bumpy and also a lot of stopping and starting for goods trains. The limited Adelaide - Brisbane and VV (for when the Ghan doesn't run) looks good and is on our agenda at some stage. I have travelled a lot for work in the NT and Centre so the Ghan holds less appeal for us.

Yes I read your HAL post - the hotel seemed quite a let down (and as someone else posted, nothing at all like its web photos). Glad the next one is better. We are looking (at some stage in the future) of taking The Canadian train across your great land - understand it can often be delayed but if we have no rush to be anywhere, not a problem.

Whilst SS or similar are our preferred, I (not so much DH but then I will sail with friends) am also perfectly happy with Princess or Celebrity etc. And I accept the size and crew/pax ratio make a huge difference in terms of economy of scale. My comment was more that the OP's observations seemed to indicate that there were things about his HAL experience that maybe we would find disappointing. But if a great itinerary came up I wouldn't cross off HAL.

Thanks for the 'blog' of observations. From your posts, I am not sure HAL is a good fit for us - think we will cough up the extra for Silversea or Seabourn in future,

But I would opine that the crew facilities are not really. more than on other ships these days. I have been on ship tours on many other ships and this seems to be par for the course.

Well done and congratulations

I agree that food should be at the proper temperature. I don't know the set up for specialty restaurants and galleys on HAL so was making a general comment on whether it is worth paying additional for a specialty restaurant.

Yes, I was talking of the previous system (as in last year) - here we are all Blue at the max now.

Though if you want a special meal (or for a special occasion for example), I don't mind the extra charge. It is usually not a huge amount and on many ships there is a quantum leap in quality of the dishes/ingredients. The fact that many speciality restaurants on board have their own galley means food is likely to be somewhat more freshly prepared.

I thought Green was the 'good to go' lane.

Might be easier to book a transfer through the cruise line if you can - no problems with taxis.

Glad you managed to work it out - only just saw your post. The Medallion app is fraught with 'exciting' tests of our ingenuity - and sometimes it just doesn't play nice at all! The update seems to have made it worse. I am not on Princess soon but I have a friend who is and she has been having all sorts of problems with the app - not recognising her, not accepting her CC, not allowing her to add info etc.

Wonderful to hear - hope you have a fabulous time on the two cruises.

Some truth in that bazzaw. 😂

Borderforce had a go at digital entry a while back (early last year?) but I thought they pulled the whole thing as there were too many bugs in the system and it was also set up to capture vaccination status of incoming passengers when there were different rules around quarantine and entry, now no longer required. My last few flights/cruises have used the hardcopy incoming passenger cards. Border force info

Thank you for the great report and fabulous photos - we are on Muse later this year again and are looking forward to its lovely ambience and food.

Operative word - 'as yet'.....🤣

Many people loved the three sisters as they were called - Dawn Princess, Sky Princess and Sea Princess. I was not one of them and they were not my favourite ships at all. I have never cruised P&O but I have heard reasonable reports of Explorer and P&O food in the main restaurants seems to get good reviews. I guess it depends on what your expectations are. I would put Princess well ahead of P&O, RCI also ahead (though I prefer Princess). There are some reviews on this board so maybe do a search and see what comes up. Hopefully others who have more experience will chime in for you.

Thank you for your review - it mirrors many of my comments on our cruise in July on Splendor though I found the hot water temperature in the shower fine. Agree on the food - MDR was quite so so whereas the buffet and the extra outlets were much better. There did seem to be a reasonable number of older people not part of the large extended families on our cruise but suppose it is luck of the drawer. There were things we enjoyed (and ended up in a trivia team which was a hoot) - we liked watching deal or no deal for example. I would go on Carnival again and know what to expect but for me it would be a fill in for when nothing else is around. Interestingly people do say P&O food is quite good so maybe even them for a winter quick get away.

TomBeckCruise was asking about Shadow (when Arts Cafe isn't open at that early hour before they go to the gym) and cotto22 is on Cloud which doesn't have an Arts Cafe at all - no dedicated coffee shop on that ship.

A fabulous gift - it will be a wonderful night. Such a special son.

OT but there are definitely no bowties showing on Muse Auckland to Sydney 7 December. Not sure whether they haven't updated yet to include them or even if there are formal nights.

We are on Silver Muse in NZ in December and I noticed the same thing - included excursions seem to start at 8 am (now I know this may change a bit when we get closer) so unfortunately no chance of a leisurely start to the day with a bit of a sleep in. Had a similar thing on a mainline cruise to the South Pacific last month with mostly a 9am start for their shore ex. Maybe the way of the future. ☹️