Gwendy

Hadn’t thought of using world cruise bag for shopping it just sits at top of wardrobe. Will get an outing now. Blue Princess bags have all disintegrated, Celebrity ones still going strong. The best bag given out on a ship is the one from CMV, no longer operating. Strong hessian and large.

I was standing in the aisle at KMart, a shop assistant came up and asked if I needed help to find anything. I told him I had lost my daughter, he immediately wanted to take me to the service desk to put a notice over the store pa. I thanked him but told him my daughter probably wouldn’t like that as she is 50. The look on his face was priceless. and yes I found her after I texted her. Lol

One world cruise received set packing cubes, group photo, on another a large insulated carry bag. Depends how cruise segments are sold for mini bar, one cruise,mini bar in London, then New York, then Lima, then nothing till we got home. Lol

Would be nice to see it remain as is. Isle of Pines and Lifou have been changed and not for the benefit of either locals or tourists.

You can order water on P&O cruises in Australia. Princess does it differently. You can order water package on board

Loved this ship when she was Pacific Dawn. I was looking at the part world cruise from Perth to Tilbury but unfortunately a bit too expensive as a single. In 2018 I sailed with CMV from Singapore to Tilbury. Very cheap and cheerful. You can overlook some issues for that price.

Years ago we gave some children some colouring books and pencils, after checking with their mother first. About30 mins later we were sitting on the beach when this very fierce looking man approached us. He was the kids father and gave us a bunch of bananas and thanked us again. Such a special time on all the islands we visited and Alotau and Rabaul. There were not many cruise ships visiting then and people were super friendly and lovely.

It’s not as if they didn’t know about the hull cleaning. Just lazy and inefficient.

On a similar note at disembarkation I found my bag in its allocated place, no problems. 40 minutes later, daughter still didn’t have bag. Then she had a brainwave. Our number was 29, she went and looked in 26, there it was.

Years ago I bought a bright orange bag, best idea ever. On a land trip in India our driver asked us to check when we left our hotel to make sure our bag was in the luggage trailer before we left. All those people checking which black bag was theirs, me a glance in, yep there’s the orange Jaffa. It was also great on luggage carousels at airports. Sadly lots of coloured bags now and mine has worn itself out and gone to the big carousel at the dump.

Have had bags not delivered on a few cruises, always go for a walk on my side of ship and opposite side, have always found them outside someone else’s door.

Define shoes, thongs and sliders were ok on P&O for formal nights. Lol

Have always loved Melbourne, used to go there every year for AO. However lately I haven’t felt safe at night in the city area, so many homeless people, some quite aggressive. I used to walk home from AO at all hours of the night, would not do that now

Looking at the latest crime statistics involving teens it seems some parents have little interest or control over their children.

On Melbourne Cup cruise on Encounter there were a number of people who thought they were at home and had bare feet in buffet, in bars on decks etc

Qantas don’t care much about anything any more. Oh except for making more money

On our Antarctica cruise crossing Drake Passage our Captain made an announcement requesting ladies (and men) leave the heels in the cabin and wear flats for formal night. Always safety first, fashion a distant second lol

I had total knee replacement 2 years ago, still have some stiffness but can still do most things. On Enchanted in April a lady was on the Rome excursion classed as strenuous. She was using two walking poles and when chatting to her she mentioned she had both knees replaced four weeks earlier. Wow I was impressed. She was coping better than me on the cobblestones. It depends on the person, but talk to your doctor and maybe factor in the difficulty of shore excursions,

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I didn’t read all 5 pages in the South Pacific the locals refer to the cruise ships as the big white ATMs. Lol

Also on Encounter for Melbourne cup cruise. Never saw any bugs. The only bugbears for me were the very loud groups in the dining rooms and some women who were laughing like very loud hyenas all through the meal.

Just got off Pacific Encounter yesterday. At the Pantry/Buffet area I was the only one washing my hands. Amazing no one bothered at all, Hand sanitizers were placed near entrance, just pump bottles, no one interested in them. For 90% of passengers there would be no problem, their alcohol intake would probably negate any issues.

No P&O enclosure this year, to get discounted Hill stand seats we had to ring them, they were never offered in web page or by emails as in previous years. Encounter docked at Mirrat commercial terminal, only way in or out by shuttle. Some themed activities on board, couple of speakers, fascinator making at $65 or $85. Hobby horse racing with $5 cash bets" Atmosphere a bit bogan, with so many sea days, 6, a lot of people drank all day and or stayed in casino all day.

I’m beginning to think good ones are like hen’s teeth. Once I used a TA who tried to book me into a hotel 20 kms from city centre, ‘oh I’m sure you will be able to get a bus’. Booked my own hotel right in city centre and for much less. That’s why I do most of my bookings myself. If it turns out bad I know who to blame. Lol

Great idea

Airlines don’t do this any more. Some currency exchanges will take your coins and donate to charity. Some can’t be bothered. Even the exchanges at airports aren’t interested in my growing bag of coins. Tried really hard to get rid of them, but some small shops in US didn’t want them either. Lol.