Aus Traveller

I am pretty certain they are still paid even if they are off sick. Signage in the crew area also states that it is a 'disciplinary offence' if they don't return to their cabin immediately they feel unwell and report to the medical centre when it is open. Medical treatment is at no charge to the crew. On the Australian ships there are no auto gratuities so that isn't an issue. On other ships the gratuities make up part of their expected monthly remuneration so I doubt that it would be affected by time off work for illness.

My roughest ship trips were crossing the Drake Strait on the Ocean Endeavour, a small ship (12,907 tons, 21 metres long). In 6 metre seas I was literally thrown out of bed and across the cabin. My second roughest was 12 metre seas on the Pacific Pearl. She was 63,500 tons, much smaller than other ships in the P&O fleet. During that weather event, the Pacific Dawn (ex Regal Princess) had some damage after going through 14 metre seas.

Even with a sun umbrella you can still get sunburnt on the beach from reflected light. If you are going to be on the beach for more than a very short visit, it is advisable to use sunscreen.

I wonder if you could contact a local tour operator who could personalize a tour for you including Lone Pine, Mt Coot-tha etc. Your luggage could be kept in the car/van with you.

Deep cleaning involves a very thorough cleaning of the ship with more crew than are usually involved in cleaning. Teams seem to follow each other and clean areas that have already been cleaned, particularly the public areas - to be sure, to be sure. There would also be cleaning in the area of the terminal where people wait.

That sounds reasonable. The point I was making is that it is not just a Princess agent who can split the fare type - travel agents can also.

Great that you have a good rep to look after your bookings. BTW, I understand that now anyone can book the drinks package just for one passenger. Earlier people reported that you couldn't do it.

We have booked both ways - either direct with the cruise line or through an agent. Usually an agent will give us a few sweeteners in the way of extra on-board credit and/or specialty dinners. The agent we use is very good at getting us good cabins. We aren't permitted to mention travel agents' names. Before you book with an agent, I suggest you check what their T&Cs are on cancellation. You can't avoid the cruiselines mandated cancellation policy, but some TAs charge on top of that. Although when you book you wouldn't be planning to cancel, life can get in the way and you might have to cancel for a reason not covered by your travel insurance.

You can use what we call a 'maxi taxi'. They are vans that seat eight people so could easily take three adults and luggage. After our last couple of cruises there were four or five maxi taxis lined up waiting for customers along with 20 or so normal taxis. The taxi marshall was simply asking people who walked up to the 'line' if anyone needed a maxi taxi. Last Monday two maxis sat at the start of the line waiting for someone who needed one. We only needed a normal cab so we took the next one.

Reef Sprinter takes passengers either to the Low Isles or to the Outer Reef. They are located in the marina at Port Douglas. I have done a couple of trips with them and find them excellent.

When we disembarked from our last few cruises into the BICT there have been at least two dozen taxis lined up waiting for customers.

It wasn't a wedding, it was a planned marriage proposal. 🙂The young couple had left their passports (and the ring) in a backpack that they checked in before heading out to sightsee in Sydney ahead of boarding.

Every time I have tried on the Princess email, the relevant person must have been on holidays! I am glad it worked for you. Have a great trip. 🙂

I have never ever had success emailing the benefits@princess.com.au address. I have always ended up emailing shareholderbenefit@carnivalaustralia.com and got an almost immediate response. I have used that latter address for Princess cruises and also P&O.

I loved this bit - The respondents were also apparently prepared to cancel the cruise if one of only nine PCR tests from the immediately preceding cruise had returned a positive result. Those matters suggest that to cancel the cruise would not have been unduly burdensome. Because Princess was prepared to cancel the cruise if COVID was detected on the previous cruise, it wasn't 'unduly burdensome' and therefore they should have cancelled the cruise. I think that it amazing reasoning.

It is very unlikely that Mr Karpik boarded with the virus. He would have caught it on board. I have read that genomic testing of the virus that circulated on the Ruby Princess showed that the strain was NOT present in Australia before the ship returned from the ill-fated cruise. By the way, this was known fairly early on, even well before there were claims that COVID was on board the Ruby during the previous cruise. If it was, it would have been spread in the Australian community from those passengers. It has been stated many times that there was no COVID on the previous cruise, but there was a respiratory infection.

Get Your Guide is a 'consolidator' who then books with a local tour company. Maybe research tours available in Burnie and book direct. The company then doesn't have to pay a percentage (often 25%) to the tour consolidator. However, using a company like Get Your Guide or Trip Advisor often has the benefit of allowing you to cancel up to 48 hours in advance to receive a full refund.

We also thought a NZ cruise was safe. Our cruise was on the Sea Princess just before the Ruby Princess went to NZ. A couple of family members who haven't travelled overseas were concerned about COVID, but we assured them that it wasn't running wild in Australia and it wasn't an issue in NZ. We were very lucky that the European and American passengers on our cruise didn't bring COVID on board, unlike with the Ruby Princess. BTW, genomic testing of the strain of COVID on the Ruby showed that it was not present in Australia before the ship returned to Australia on 13th March (I think it was the 13th). It was brought onto the ship by someone who boarded the day it left Sydney. They might not have felt ill so wouldn't have been picked up by temperature testing.

We did so to take advantage of the free credit card travel insurance. However there was one time in the past when we booked 20 months ahead of a cruise from Fort Lauderdale, around Cape Horn and ending in San Francisco. The other cruises that have to be booked well ahead are the World Cruise.

We have gone on a couple of cruises after my husband's 81st birthday, and fortunately haven't had to claim on insurance. Actually we only have claimed once and that was in 1999. We have two more cruises booked and we will be relying on the wording printed in the PDS for the insurance, namely trips booked before the person's 81st birthday. If ANZ or Allianz decide to change it, I am sure they will notify us in writing.

Thank you for your helpful information.🙂

The ANZ Platinum Visa insurance covers people for trips they BOOK before their 81st birthday. This could vary with other bank credit card insurances.

We haven't bothered to do the vow renewal when it has been offered on a ship. There didn't seem much point.

I look forward to hearing you report in due course.🙂

Thanks for the info. 🙂I am sure there will be more discussion on this topic before our cruise in January.