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You can find reviews on the ship and cruise here Some will include excursion reviews or just research independent port excursion reviews by port name.

Your choices for dates and cruise lines are limited. Depending on budget your choices may be limited even more. Out of the ones available, Viking, HAL, Princess, Oceania and Cunard, I would go with Oceania having more port stops and better onboard facilities. There may be other lines that I missed but try a google search or search on a particular OTA that has a great search engine.

What you have described seems to be what you would find in a hotel or licenced club dining room. Regular restaurants in Australia are fairly similar to regular restaurants in the States apart from the servers here are not usually in your face touting for tips. Our wait staff in a restaurant WILL occasionally ask if everything is all right or if you need anything but they do this as part of their job and don't expect a tip although are grateful if one is offered.

Puffing Billy can be easily done DIY from Melbourne without combining a tour to Healesville Sanctuary. Healesville is the best but given that you will be on Phillip Island and Kangaroo Island, it is probably superfluous to add extra native animals to your voyage. to get to Puffing billy, just catch a train from Flinders St Station to Belgrave and then walk across to the Puffing Billy station. The train to Belgrave is about an hours journey. For Phillip Island, a whole day will give you plenty of time for wildlife including koalas, kangaroos and pelican feeding. The penguin parade is a must but you will need transport to it and back to Cowes for your tender to return to the ship. The penguin parade finishes just after sunset which is about 6.30pm on Sept 29th. There are varying levels of penguin viewing, which can be found here. There is also lots to do on Phillip Island for the rest of your time there of which ideas can be found here. You can book taxi's on the island to get you around but personally, I would hire a car for the day as it will be very worthwhile in getting around to all the different attractions. https://picarhire.com.au/ I would also do the same for Kangaroo Island. Both Hertz and Budget have agencies on KI.

Many Americans were brought up on WB Loonie Tunes cartoons (and many Aussies) One character is Taz, the Tasmanian devil, quite understandable to extrapolate the diminutive of Tasmania as "Tazzie"

If you google "Adelaide shore excursions"a number of results appear. Look for individual tour guides, not consolidators. Bums on Seats is one which looked good to me.

We are not allowed to link TAs on this board but an Australian TA is advertising a music cruise on this sailing. the ship has up to 3000 capacity so there would be different groups taking the short cruise for different reasons. As it is 4 days, many would be sailing for different reasons but groups of inebriated Aussies would not be my idea of fun. The music component may be Ok if you like this type of music and can join in. “Join us to farewell Gill Delaney on her last Music Cruise before she retires. It will be a wonderful opportunity to cruise on the luxury Celebrity Edge, enjoy fantastic music/entertainment, and spend a day in beautiful Hobart. The cruise is fully escorted and includes fun-filled singalong sessions, and other special events, with Gill Delaney and John Howie.”

If you prefer national and state parks, 3 sea days extra doing nothing worthwhile would be, to me & my wife (also in her 70's) a royal PIA. I would ditch the 4 day party cruise, which is what it will be, and do a road trip from Sydney down the south coast on the Grand Pacific Drive, through Royal National Park (second oldest national park in the world), Stanwell Tops and hug the coast until you reach Nowra. There are many beautiful places to stop along the way as well as historic towns. From Nowra, drive to and through Kangaroo Valley to the Southern Highlands, Bowral and back to Sydney on the inland route. This will give you a taste of some spectacular scenery and native wildlife in their natural environment. 4-5 days is a perfect amount of time for the trip. If you are interested in art, a visit to Bundanon is a must. The home of one of our most famous artists, Arthur Boyd who left his home and property to the Australian people

The Australian ETA is $20 via the app and for most people takes minutes to receive. To do otherwise you must apply for a 600 visa which costs $190 and can take up to a month to process. If you don't have a phone or tablet, you can ask a friend or family member to do it for you. You do not have to have your own phone or app to apply for the ETA. For the technically minded without a phone, you could also download an Android emulator to your PC and obtain the app via that.

You can't tip "Greeters" In Australia or worldwide as their policy is "No tipping of any kind" They do, though, encourage you to make a donation to the Greeters organization which will be explained after booking with them

Not 7 days but Ponant do a 9 day cruise, Azamara 14 days and Lindblad 21 days

As mentioned above, there are 2 methods of paying your bill according to restaurant, actually 3. 1. The server will bring you the bill, when requested, and also give you the opportunity to pay by card or cash, then bring back the receipt. 2. Bring you the bill, then direct you to the pay station. 3. You get up when ready to leave, pay at the pay station and go. Wait staff do not automatically bring a bill, they will come up and ask if there is anything else they can get for you. You either ask to pay then or ask for something else

I have not tendered at Yorkeys Knob, however, generally tenders run 24/7 (not literally, but run all the time) while moored at a location. If otherwise, the ship will give you instructions as to when.

The documentary is available in Australia for free on ABC iView

Melbourne is the shopping capital of Australia. If you like malls, Chadstone (Westfield) is the largest in Australia. They have a free tourist shuttle bus which goes from Federation Square. https://www.chadstone.com.au/tourist-shuttle If you prefer outlet shopping, there is Spencer Outlet above the Spencer St Station or DFO South Wharf which is larger. For souvenirs, the best place to shop is the Queen Victoria Market. It is not open on Monday or Wednesday and closes around 2 to 4 pm on the other days, so get there early. The best day is Sunday when there is the most number of stallholders with a huge variety of goods on sale.