Aus Traveller

With my experience on Princess (Aust cruises) your husband will not be over-dressed on formal nights. In my estimation, half the men wear a dark suit, one quarter wear a dinner suit (tuxedo) and the remainder wear dress pants, L/S shirt and tie, or whatever.

You could be OK with those cruises. The one to PNG has been replaced with short domestic cruises. Maybe it is cruises to PNG and the Pacific Islands that will be scrapped, leaving domestic and (in several months' time), cruises to NZ.

Do you think so? 🙂 I know that system works where the auto gratuity and gratuity on drinks applies, but I doubt it is otherwise where the stewards etc are on a higher fixed wage.

Congratulations! Enjoy. You have earned it.

Pobman has posted a commented that he has received emails from two on-line TAs offering tomorrow's cruise at really low prices. We can't mention particularly TAs here, but you might be able to find this if you look for prices offering by the most common TAs.

You take the prize for that one. 🤣

Thanks for your help. I will post on the Roll Call for this cruise.

Maybe the Wheelhouse is the best. It would be quiet at sail-away. I will post on the thread for the 26th June cruise and see what everyone thinks. I wonder if we should set a time of 3.45. Hopefully people will have un-packed and if they want to go up top for sailaway they still can. In the last couple of cruises the ship left at 4.30. What is your opinion please. Thanks very much for our help with this.

Would the Sanctuary be a no-go at sailaway? Crooners Bar is also a good suggestion. Irene, what do you feel would be best?

No. That is the FB get-together and we don't want to clash. I am trying to organise something at the time of sailaway.

The Wheelhouse Bar could be good. I am dubious about the Lido Bar because I think it is right above where the sailaway party would be held.

I have got one of those, but I just use the hairdryer that is supplied. It is very slow but OK for me as I have short hair.

We haven't had a problem using the 240-240v 60 Hz. Electrical appliances run tiny bit faster. I heard of someone who had a plug-in clock. They didn't realise it would be running 20% faster and they were puzzled when they went outside for breakfast, that the ship appeared deserted. Eventually they realized that they had got up very early.

Yes. You can bring a hairdryer and also a hair straightener if you use one.

I was told that the voltage was changed and that this was fairly simple, but they didn't change the cycles per second. The latter would be more difficult. The result is power that is 240 v but 60 cycles rather than 50 cycles as Aussie power is.

If your cruise was on an Australian-based itinerary and if it was within the last 14 years, there wouldn't have been a gratuity added to the cost of the wine.

I will post my suggestion again, this time quoting your post so you will get notification. If you are really keen to go on the cruise, maybe it would be worthwhile phoning Princess to ask if you can get a cabin.

Bottled water is included in the Plus package, but someone mentioned that it is the small bottles, not the 2 litre ones.

If you are really keen to go, maybe you could phone Princess and ask if there is any chance of your getting a cabin.

Yes, there is. It is in the restaurant on deck 5, open from 12 noon to 1.30pm. It is the Bordeaux Restaurant. Check the back page of the Princess Patter when you board.

With all the stewards new to the ship, they mightn't be able to help in the Great Power Point Hunt.

These first few short cruises are sailing at less than full capacity - around 70% only so there probably would not have been much chance of anyone clearing a waitlist. In addition, because the cruises went on sale fairly recently, there wouldn't have been many if any cancellations. Cancellations because of a positive COVID test would be too late for that cabin to be re-allocated to someone on a waitlist. Anyone on a waitlist would be advised well ahead of time.

I have been ploughing through the requirements to register details on the Princess Medallion app. I don't know what to put for Travel Information. So far I have "starting your journey" (one of the two options), "Private Car" then "Own car". Does this page only have to be filled out if we have bought Princess transfers? Otherwise some of the questions are silly. My husband has lost patience with the Medallion app. He grumbled "We have to spend two weeks filling out stuff for a one week cruise".

Below is a spreadsheet showing the results of my research into complimentary credit card insurance. The analysis will give an indication of which credit cards might be worth following up on and reading the product disclosure statement. The information has been extracted from the pds from each of the banks, but anyone reading it should independently verify it by reading the pds. They are all available on the internet. Important information - 1. Only a few banks have no age limit for travel insurance. This is one of the key factors for us as my husband approaches his OBE (over bloody eighty). 2. Because of COVID, Macquarie Bank is not currently accepting applications for new credit card accounts. This will change in time. 3. Most of the banks do not cover COVID-related claims, but this is likely to change. 4. Some banks have a few different levels of credit card. I have given only a very general overview. 5. In some cases, a certain level of income is required to be eligible for a particular credit card. 6. I have not included items that all banks cover (or the limits) such as loss of luggage, lost/stolen property, hijacking, kidnapping. Check the pds for what is important to you. Please click on the spreadsheet to enlarge it. If anyone wants to print it out, they need only save it to their computer, then print. If preferred, I can email it.

P&O have advised us that our 27th August cruise on the Pacific Encounter that was supposed to go to Noumea, Lifou and Port Vila will now be a cruise to North Queensland. It isn't surprising. We would prefer the international itinerary as they are more interesting than ports in our own state, but, it is what it is. We got a good price on a balcony cabin so at the moment, we are planning to go and just relax and enjoy the ship.