stingau

To answer your questions the packages avail in US based ships are not available here. So no $5 a day unlimited

Where is no free internet on board

Internet on Legend and Spirit is charged at $0.75 a minute

There are packages the more minutes you buy the cheaper it gets. Downside is what you don't use you lose, no refunds or carry over to a future cruise

You can either use the computers onboard or your own device as long as it can connect wirelessly.

Coverage is supposed to be anywhere onboard but realistically like your mobile service you will find the odd black spot

As far as package pricing maybe someone who has cruised recently can assist, from memory if you brought 400 minutes you pay about $200

Hope this answers your questions

Just curious the bottle of water is that one per stateroom or if there are 3 returning passengers in the room do they get one each

Forward the email to Carnival Australia telling them that the TA quit on you and could they take over the booking.

I have spoken to carnival they are not interested it was hinted that but not said openly that I should have death direct with them in the first place.

Everything should be fine, Carnival will not even confirm how much OBC I have. It doesn't show up in the cruise personaliser well not that I can see in total I have 600 OBC.... 500 at time of booking and 100 defence force offer.

Will no doubt find out at checkin time. If not there maybe time to put my war face on lol

I'm no chance for an upgrade fairy visit, after final payment my TA informed me by email she is moving on, and Am Iok to print my phone win documentation and luggage tags out.

Because I used a TA Carnival Australia will not deal direct with me. It looks like I'm at the mercy of the gods

My Mother-in-laws reasoning when she couldn't get insurance at 87 years old was "We never needed it anyway". :( She and her husband travelled around Europe for a few months every year for several years and never thought about insurance. :confused: We would have been the ones who had to pick up the pieces if anything went wrong.

Tell them to try insure and go they insured my neighbour, OK the premium was a bit expensive I think 600 for a 11 day cruise. But he is 90 his partner is 79. He has had a heart bi pass surgery.

Not t sure if they had exclusions but still well worth it

Can i ask who that's with stingau - sounds like a good one

That is thru an online mob called insure and go

Make sure you select the cruise option

I also have free travel insurance via a veterans group but it is a basic one and outside of medical and repatriation it covers minimum extra such as lost luggage and travel delays which cause you to miss your cruise.

Insure and go has three levels of cover which on paper sounds good value but at the end of the day you can only tell a good company when it comes time to claim

They also pay out if your confined to your cabin as a result of illness.

When your looking you can get cruise specific policies. We have one for our upcoming cruise that even covers and pays out on a missed port. No more "Ionly went on this cruise to visit xxxxxx island. This way if the itinerary is altered or changed they will pay out this payment can be used to rebook another cruise

I'd say the chance of it coming by Easter is pretty small, but we can always hope! I'm on the same cruise as you so I've got my fingers crossed as well. Not sure if I could drink enough to make it worthwhile though :rolleyes: but it would be fun to find out :D

I might manage enough coffees mixed in with the odd mojito. :D

Princess released and activated there package with very little notice so I still hold out a small glimmer of hope but with or without the package I am sure we will still have a great time

I am not starting a rumour.... This is pure conjecture and wishful thinking.

Gradually Aussie based cruise lines have introduced drink packages. Carnivals sister lines Princess and P&O now have packages. What are the chances of Carnival introducing a package before Easter.

This is purely wishful thinking LOL but it seems unusual that Carnival is the only line to my knowledge not offering a package.

Btw...guess when my next cruise is lol

Ok looking for advise from those who have experienced this or even a TA advise.

For the first time in yrs I have booked a cruise on the Spirit via a Travel Agency. Today I was asked if I wanted an upgrade option. From what I understand I have two choices but can only have one....well three the third is keep the stateroom that I have.

1/ complimentary upgrade, if I request this if selected for an upgrade I must take it, I can't reject it and keep my current stateroom.

2/ select a pay for upgrade offer. With this I will get an offer ...maybe... In which I have to pay X dollars to upgrade, I can reject this offer

I currently have an aft facing extended balcony 8M, the only upgrades are cat9 premium balcony some of which are obstructed or a suite

Any opinions gratefully appreciated

Yes we used to have a number of river cams covering both the cruise terminal and Fishermans Island. They have disappeared a few years ago, I had thought that it was an anti terrorist issue as about the same time or not long after we had an American warship in port.

On our up coming Easter Cruise onboard Carnival Spirit we booked an upgrade oceanview to balcony deal. Paid gaurantee oceanview price and got gauranteed balcony cabin. When we recieved our allocation a month ago we were very surprised and happy to get an aft facing extended balcony cabin with cabins above and below ( less noise)

I was not expecting to get such a high grade cabin and any fears about getting the unwanted leftover worst cabins are now gone. This is our first gaurantee cabin, in the past we have always selected our stateroom

What I have noticed and take advantage of is that due to the high number of ships ported in the U.S. As it gets closer to sailing prices drop dramatically the closer the date gets. Tho as more ships are coming down under it is changing here, yrs ago as it got closer the prices went up in some cases. I have taken advantage of a 5 night offer a couple of yrs ago while I was already over there.... 5 nights twin share $259 per person with 150 OBC.

When cruising from the States, we look and book cheap flights then search for last minute deals on cruises with an excess of 200 cruises per month possibly even more it's not hard to find one you like.

While the AUD was higher this was a bigger incentive, now given the lower dollar the advantage has slipped. What the U.S. Ported cruises offer tho are... newer ships, more facilities/ onboard activities, better drink and Internet packages, Carnival US now offer a $39.99 unlimited wifi/ Internet cafe deal this price is for your entire cruise not a daily rate, free room service food.... Ie more bang for your buck!!!

I know the best place to buy booze is Vanuatu but our cruise isn't going there.

I assume Mare would not be the place to purchase, so out of Noumea, Suva, and Port Denarua/Nadi which of these would be the best value or would Carnival Spirit be the place to buy.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Don't forget all those noisy Xmas presents that comsume $20 worth of batteries a day lol.

We brought our first grandson a drum kit...his mother used to wake us up coming home late now it's her turn to be worked up

Just to clarify, maybe you vodka comparison given the tax is a good one.

My point was that as Aussies we pay more, get less, and get ripped off by global companies. Movie tickets are another example.

Why does this happen, I believe is that for years we didn't know any better, or if we did there was nothing we as consumers could do about it.

I do see it eventually we will slowly catch up to the benefits overseas cruisers get. It's a matter of consumers voting with their feet and wallets. Years ago, cd's were over $30 ea. when online music sales became popular prices dropped dramatically are music companies losing money....no but realistic charges are in effect. Competition does wonders that benefit consumers.

When the Aussie dollar was strong a few yrs ago and airfares were cheap we discovered that cruising from overseas ports cost wise and benefit wise was so much better.

I still regularly get emails from an overseas travel agent that I have used. One offer was for 5 nights for $269 twin share with a $150 obc. Ok the cruise sailed to Bermuda and spent 2 nights tied up to a wharf which reduced fuel costs but you will never see deals like that here, they don't need to due to high occupancy rates. cruisers/ ship ratio is a figure that would be interesting to know.

Price drops of over 80% are common for cruises departing USA ports. When we cruise overseas we first select the time based on airline flights, then wait till final payment cut off to select a cruise.

I would also recommend the gorge railway, it was fantastic, we did it in winter, snow everywhere.

Can also recommend the chocolate factory if you have kids

Wait till you go ashore and buy perky na na bars...... Best snack out

You could always go from the airport to Portside, where there is a cafe or two, drop bags off then get a ferry cat up the river and back....no need to get off, you will pass under the story bridge, past the city garden, past the CBD and Southbank, continue up the river where it turns around and goes back to Portside.

Not a lot to do in that part of town... ESP in the mornings.

The breakfast reek hotel is renown for the best steaks in Aust.you get to pick your steak and they cook it the way you like, but why buy food before boarding.

DFO is not always that cheap ESP if your going overseas

My suggestion would have been to fly in the day before early that way you have Australia zoo ..a 90 min train ride nth of Bris

Dreamworld, movie world and two water parks about an hour Sth of Bris.

There are very reasonable basic motels near the terminal for overnight then a late breakfast you can often drag the check out out till midday then go board.

Otherwise you can catch the airport train to the city, leave your luggage at Roma Street transit centre then wander round the CBD. Then either catch the train back to doomben station for a short taxi to the ship or catch a taxi direct from Roma St transit centre. We also have Southbank parklands in the CBD which is a man made swimming lagoon with restaurants shops and a 3D cinema

Get used to seeing this all the time.

 

[YOUTUBE]6d4vDOR_atM[/YOUTUBE]

A greatconceptbut goes out the window as soon as you put your hand on the toilet door to exit. I also use my foot to open these doors or if it opens inwards towards me my left hand pinkie finger as high up the rail type handle as possible.

Oops now that I've told you lot that you will all start contamination,y area of the handle

Australia has always been yrs behind overseas. If you go to Carnival cruise lines main USA webpage it offers all these great deals allowances and packages..with the rider..."not available for Australia cruises"

Slowly we are catching up, until recently Australian cruises didn't have drink packages. In the states we were able to prepurchase a duty free bottle of spirits delivered to our cabin on embarkation day...not here you can't.

The internet packages are better, a lot more things are included such as free room service menu.

I think it's a matter of being a geographically isolated area we don't know any better, until recently we were limited for choice with limited cruise ships available.

This will change as more ships head down under but we don't have the cruising numbers to enforce changes and competition. Prior to low overseas flights we knew no different.

This is not only restricted to cruising, DVDs,clothing and booze is so much cheaper overseas. Try buying a litre bottle of vodka here in Aust. For $10 like I did recently in Florida.

I have noticed that they randomly weight carry on luggage..ESP if it looks heavy.

So don't groan when you pick it up lol. More importantly is the size, they have a test frame this is to ensure that it will fit in the overhead compartments which to my mind are getting smaller, or are my bags getting bigger

No added too much time and hassle and extra costs like petrol and parking or air fares so for a last minute it has to be from Sydney

Overnight xpt is 230 per adult kids are 2 dollars and that a return price