joejoe 59

20 hours ago, arxcards said:

Yes, I am sure they will have something for Encounter & Adventure, as well as Pacific Explorer departing Fremantle.

 

Then they have much fanfare again a couple of weeks later when Encounter & Adventure get a red stripe.

Any excuse for a party🥳

We also got the email reassuring us it made no difference to our upcoming bounty cruise, which I wasn't worried about at all.

I wonder if they'll have a big send off cruise for P&O out of Brisbane & Sydney. 

On 5/31/2024 at 8:28 PM, Mycruiseobsession said:

The Explorer is a bit tired, and I did notice that she's worn at the edges. But there were still some nicely kept areas amongst it.

 

The rooms are smaller than Encounter.  It was pretty squishy. 

 

We did fit our bags under the beds as we have duffle type bags with wheels.

 

Other friends couldn't.

Wow,  that looks very shabby. 

Yikes I always take my own pillow.

Today i bought some Aerogard crawling insect spray to pack for our cruise in July,  I'll go in & nuke every little hiding spot in our cabin. I also read bed bugs hate lavender oil or tea tree oil, so I'll take that as well.  At least I'll feel better trying to prevent them.

@Corinne288 I'm so sorry this happened to you & also from the backlash you received from the P&O fan clubs on that other site. Those groupies can't stand anything negative being said about P&O.

I have a fear of creepy crawlies in general.  Do you or anyone else have any ideas how you could try & avoid picking them up or getting attacked by them?

I cruise in July with P&O out of Brisbane. 

3 hours ago, mr walker said:

We did the Bounty cruise on Pacific Adventure in Oct last year.

 

We have been to NI a number of times over the years (flying) & we had family who had not been there before with us on this cruise, so we rented a car (booked ahead of time) and showed them the island. So much to see for such a small island. Took the tender ashore & the shuttle bus into town - the rental car place was right next door to the bus drop-off point.

For Tonga, in Nuku'alofa we just walked off and did a walking tour with some lovely students who were studying tourism at University. They had a small marquee set up along the wharf, not at the main Tourist Info marquee, & providing the tours was part of their studies. At Vava'u we just walked off the ship & walked around.

Thanks for the info.

1 hour ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Hi @joejoe 59 that is going back pre covid days but I am going to guess we booked a p&o tour because we  arrived on tenders!

 

I usually will book through the ship's tours when there is a tender this securing my spot off the ship as early as I can!

 

Actually yes, Norfolk we chose the cheapest  general sight seeing bus excursion  and then we were dropped back to town to wander and buy lunch, we caught the courtesy bus back to the ship.

 

We did book a tour in Tonga via the ship also, due to Tonga being different to Australia  in terms of healthcare etc and we like having the promise that the ship won't  leave us in countries like that.

 

Where as say New Zealand  I booked all those tours privately  online beforehand  because  I wasn't  worried if he got stranded there! 

 

 

Thank you for all your info I really appreciate it.

I've had 2 tours in my cart through p&o for both places for a while. I will now go ahead & book them now you've confirmed what I was thinking. We are the same if we are in a safe place like NZ for booking private. 

On 5/12/2024 at 12:30 PM, Mycruiseobsession said:

We have done this one, thoroughly enjoyed it and we were lucky that the weather was perfect.

Did you book a a ship tour in Norfolk Island or can you get around by yourself? 

Could you get around to see things on your own in Tonga or is the ships tour better?

We are doing the Bounty cruise out of Brisbane in July. Booked way back in 2022.

I'm so looking forward to it, as we are away in our van at the moment & the weather is atrocious here in Port Stephens & has been for the most part of 2 weeks we have been travelling. 

On 4/26/2024 at 7:57 AM, Gwendy said:

P&O drinkers don’t see 15 drinks a day as a limit, they see it as a challenge.

A pretty derogatory comment.

I had a plus package on Princess & managed 5 drinks on one day out of 11, & that was my biggest day. 

We have an upcoming P&O cruise which we booked on the Here's to you sale, can't imagine I'll drink any more then last cruise. 

We enjoyed cruising on Voyager back in 2014 but I do think Brisbane deserves something younger. We cruised Quantum last year to NZ, I found the ship way to  internal. 

On 3/23/2024 at 8:42 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

No, I'm not going off half cocked. I had a discussion elsewhere with someone who is currently on Coral, who had booked the Plus fare before December 2022, and who is limited to $16 without paying extra. I didn't believe it at first then I checked the T&Cs on the website which, as shown in my original post, now have two different sets of conditions depending on when you booked your Plus fare. I don't know exactly when this changed but it wasn't like that last time I looked although that was probably a few months ago. 

 

However there seems to be some variation as to what people are experiencing. It may be ship-dependant. It seems like a total mess. Since we only paid $40pp per day, as long as we get our internet, bottled water, coffees, some of our favourite cocktails abd liqueurs, and 25% discount on wines by the bottle we'll have got our money's worth. I've given up expecting Princess to offer decent wines by the glass.

 

Go to the bottom of those T&Cs and you'll see the weasel clause which gives Princess the right to change as much as they like about the drinks package, with no notice, and whatever version of the T&Cs are in place when your cruise starts is what you're stuck with. 

When did the change come in? We cruised last month on Coral with an old plus package, we paid $30 for. We had no trouble getting $22 long Island ice teas at no extra cost to us.

The information from princess we have is that it's organised by the cruise line & a visa fee will be added to our account. We cruise Brisbane to Singapore stopping at Lombok. 

I took a screenshot to put up but have no idea how to.

2 hours ago, anaco_angler said:

Yes, the weather will be much different from your Australian summer weather, but February should have more hours of daylight than December. I think you will appreciate that. Some of the Hurtigruten Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen cruises are astronomy cruises. Those who are interested in astronomy book those particular sailings and they will have daily lectures as well as a resident astronomer on board. I believe there's an additional fare for those in the astronomy group (a small number of the total passengers on board) but in our experience, the astronomer will also have some lectures for the general public and he will be alert to when the Northern Lights are expected to be visible. The astronomer on our sailing was very generous with his knowledge, including best practices for photographing the Northern Lights. It was an unexpected bonus to be on that sailing.

As for the cold, yes, it can be very cold and windy, layers are important as are hats and especially gloves. Make sure you have gloves you can use while taking photos, especially if you're using a cellphone. Taking your gloves off in order to take photos is a recipe for very cold hands and potential frostbite. There are gloves which have touch-sensitive finger tips but be sure to try taking photos with those gloves before you get on deck. I had gloves, but not the right type. And if you're using a cellphone for your photography, make sure you have it secured in a lanyard around your neck. That way you won't worry about dropping it, and you can put it back inside your jacket between sightings, preserving your battery.

Frostbite doesn't sound good. Thanks for the info. 

I know that people are now denied boarding if they don't have any cover or correct cover for New Caledonia.

Hello from Australia, I've really enjoyed reading all your posts & information .

We are thinking of doing this trip next year in February.  I imagine February weather is much the same as December & very much different to our Australian summer weather 😄

20 hours ago, Mareblu said:

We've never been told that we have to have the actual card you book with.  If you're not paying until you arrive, any card should suffice.  Maybe it's a way to ensure international guests will actually arrive.  Seems a tad strange.  Europe has always required your passport, which they make a copy of, so maybe we're moving to that now.  I don't know why a photo ID is necessary.  We've never had to show photo ID in Australia.  As Mario just said, "all they want is your credit card"😉.  I've just sent you an email, Lyle.

We had to show our passports in Fiji in 2022. They took them & photo copied or scanned them, which i felt a bit weird about.

5 hours ago, arxcards said:

A nice suite breakfast in Sabatini's this morning, where the coffee is great & the crispy bacon is nuked off the planet.

 

It looks like a calm day ahead. A nice day to be at sea. I haven't heard any numbers, but if feels like the ship is only 75% full.

Haha that's a different way to present poached eggs, i thought it was mango & yoghurt until I brought the photo up a bit😁

Sound's like the perfect start to a cruise to me...enjoy 🍹🍺🍸

We did an overnight there earlier this month. It's definitely worth getting off & going for a walk. The harbour is beautiful early evening.  It was daylight saving still so only just getting dark when we arrived. 

I'm interested in what to do in Lombok as well. Not there until next year so plenty of time to follow what others do.

Thanks for all the good information on this thread.  

We are cruising to Singapore out of Brisbane next year on the Crown & will have to look into what visa & entry requirements we'll need.

I hope I can find my way back to this thread when needed.

50 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Here’s a screenshot from a YouTube video of the promenade deck chairs @valantine80 mentioned aren’t padded.
 

@arxcards If possible next time you are on the ship can you please grab a couple pictures of the wooden slat chairs and loungers etc. that are all on the promenade deck. 

As of now I’m booked on her for 16-nights for a Panama Canal cruise and was very much looking forward to those chairs. 😁

Hi we got off Coral last Monday.  The chairs in your photo are definitely no longer there. They had upright slat chairs with a matching coffee table between, I found them quite comfortable. 

4 hours ago, lorri111 said:

Am coming to that conclusion myself. Now of course since I have decided to upgrade they are having technical problems putting the package on my booking -sigh

Hopefully you can get it sorted.

I don't have a price list but last week on Coral a glass of wine started at $14, beer $10.50  & cocktails about $16. We did have the plus package  & even though I'm not a big drinker...5 drinks most on one day, I think it's worth it with water coffees & wifi.