Aus Traveller

You can order the Medallion. They are collected at the terminal. You can go for the 'no charge' option of the medallion and lanyard or you can buy some extras.

A healthy 80 year old could be covered by the complimentary credit card insurance. ANZ, Westpac and St George cover people who book trips before their 81st birthday (at time of booking), and HSBC, Bank of Queensland and Macquarie don't have an age limit. The Suncorp website indicated there isn't an age limit but someone reported that they aren't offering travel insurance at the moment. There is no indication that these complimentary travel insurance policies are restricted to a certain part of the world. Before I took a 21 night cruise to Antarctica/St Georgia I sought confirmation that the ANZ CC insurance would cover me. The underwriter Alllianz assured me they did and nowhere in their T&C was there any restriction on the part of the world where travel would or wouldn't be covered.🙂

Your cruise could be before ours. We are on 26th June. I am pretty sure that Irene (Cbtours) who is on one or two cruises before 26th June, also had her medallion change from green lane to blue lane. However, Irene said she can't select their Medallions. This Medallion app sure is frustrating, but maybe it gives us something to do while we are looking forward to our cruises.

We have all got the "document pending approval" message. Someone on this forum (I think it was Irene, Cbtours) queried this with a Princess rep and was told it will be pending approval until the paper version is checked at the terminal. I have also got the orange tick against 'Health Documentation. If you read the Roll Call for the 26th June cruise and also the thread on this section of the forum (Princess Medallion) you will see what others have found/or worked out about the Medallion app. We have been in the green lane for weeks and I hope that doesn't change. Have you selected your boarding time?

That particular show wasn't available on our P&O cruises so I can't confirm from personal experience, but I recall hearing about it. I believe there were two options - dinner and show, or just the show. I believe there was a charge for the dinner/show but I don't know about a charge just for the show.

Until people go on a P&O ship they would not be aware that there is a charge or room service. BTW, we have never ordered room service food when delivery has been free of charge. The reports from this first cruise are the first we have heard of a charge to attend a show. I don't these policies would have had any impact on bookings, but it might end up doing so.

As I thought, more insurance companies will be offering cruise insurance. I also believe that more will extend their coverage to include COVID-related claims. If they don't they will miss out on business.

Summer.

Then it was probably shown on Channel 7 in Brisbane also.

Agreed. Plenty of time to see how the protocols work on the cruise ships operating in NSW and Queensland.

P&O kept the same menus in the dining room, but I seem to remember they changed once during a seven day cruise.

Thanks for your posts and your review. $15pp for the shuttle is a very good price.🙂

I agree. I wouldn't buy OBC in advance. I wouldn't want an error to be made and have it disappear in the system.

The arrival of the Pacific Explorer was covered on the Channel 9 news bulletin. Someone else said it was on Channel 10.

Thanks for posting the photo.

Which of those ladies is the lovely Barb? (I hope I have her name right!!)

On the Sea Princess in February-March 2020, I am pretty sure only tablets were used. I don't play bingo, but it was immediately before trivia.🙂

I don't play bingo, but I saw on the last cruise I was on, they played bingo on tablets rather than with paper tickets.

I would bet that P&O will cover the costs. They can't afford not to.

Apply for the Australian visa through the Aust government website. It is easy and the cost is very low. I don't know about the NZ visa.

Not a hope when they are that far off-shore. The coastline isn't usually visible from cruise ships travelling down the NSW coast.

The 200-passenger Scenic Eclipse operates cruises in the Antarctic region. They might have other small expedition ships.

P&O and Princess have always covered the passengers' costs if a cruise is altered, or even if it arrives into port very late on the scheduled day. I doubt that this would be any different. I don't think we have to be apprehensive about booking cruises in Australia. Last minute changes to a cruise can happen anywhere in the world for 'emergency' (what the cruise line calls 'operational') reasons.

There wasn't a curfew on ships sailing from Portside. They sailed at the time they wanted to - usually 4pm - but they had to restrict noise for the sailaway. The same noise restriction applies at the White Bay terminal in Sydney. Complaints from residents near Portside would not have been a major consideration. A new terminal was built because the vast majority of cruiseships cannot reach Portside and Fishermans Island was only a temporary and also a very unattractive alternative.

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".