AKAMum

We were on Adventure in late November and chose Early dining - our reservations were for 5:45 pm but we were able to modify individual nights to other times and/or restaurants if we wanted and there was availability.

On 10/8/2022 at 9:23 AM, RKHOOKER said:

It appears that P & O are a little behind the times. 

 Those rules aren't P&O's decision - they're part of the current Eastern Seaboard Cruise Protocols that all cruise lines need to follow:

"5.1 Masks must be worn during embarking and disembarking, and indoors onboard where social distancing is not possible. Regular reminders will be critical to ensuring passengers adhere to the recommendation.
6.2 Passengers must have a PCR test within 72 hours before boarding, or a self-administered RAT within 24 hours before boarding. Pre-embarkation PCR testing must be done at private laboratories."

https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-06/Eastern-Seaboard-Cruise-Protocols.pdf

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

You should be all good to go with your E Ticket. I can't see that VeriFLY helped at all in the embarkation procedure and it certainly wasn't used at all on board.

VeriFLY isn't designed to be used on board - there's a separate P&O-specific app to use on board, has your boarding pass, etc.

"VeriFLY is a free and secure health app available for Apple and Android devices, which is used by many travel destinations, airlines, and cruise companies to simplify the pre-travel process of completing COVID-19 requirements and documentation."

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone knows the options on the pillow menu/concierge?  The only info I can see is "choice of up to 3 different types of pillows" but I'm not sure if that means just the filling, eg, feather, poly, memory foam, or if they offer different shapes/sizes.

I'm happy to take my own but if they have a suitable option, that's one less thing I have to pack and remember to bring home again 🙂

Thanks!

My understanding is that Splendor is currently based at Long Beach and Panorama will take her place there when Splendor comes here - perhaps that's where the confusion has arisen.  If Panorama was coming to Australia it would be all over every single Australian-based cruise forum and website!

1 hour ago, cruisin-m said:

Can take 12 cans, they don't allow bottles and non-alcoholic only.
 

Carnival out of the US prohibits bottles but Carnival Australia allows up to 600 mL bottles of soft drink. 

https://help.carnival.com.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/53/~/liquor-and-beverage-policy
 

Quote

Bringing Alcohol On Board - Embarkation Day:
Guests are prohibited from bringing alcoholic beverages on board.On embarkation day, each guest may bring a small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages on board and only in their carry-on luggage. A small quantity is considered a maximum of 12 bottles, cartons and/or cans, 600ml each or less.

 

Meanwhile on Carnival Australia it's gone from AU$45 to AU$55.

We like Exploding Kittens.

How did you get your flu shot 4 months ago? The vaccine for 2018-2019 just got released for use a little bit ago.

We don't have to point out that Australia (along with the rest of the Southern Hemisphere) is at the tail end of winter, do we?

When cruising I use the cubes for the clothes, nightwear, etc, I need for the day or two of travelling from home to the port. I pack everything else using the bundle method - https://www.onebag.com/pack.html - which looks complicated but once you've had a trial run is simple and keeps everything neat and tidy and wrinkle-free as clothes can't shift around. Everything is in one giant parcel so it doesn't work well for getting out one or two things at a time but for cruising where you only unpack once, it's brilliant...and hence the need for packing cubes for the travelling day/s.

I use my business address on my luggage. Would Never use home address. No need to advertise an empty house.

We use c/o my parents' name and address (which is in the same town as us) and they use ours - same general idea, slightly different execution for those who don't have an appropriate work address (they're retired, for us a school address isn't useful when it's closed all holidays).

Also because we are from the US we were told that we can't pre book our shore excursions.

It's not because you're from the US. Carnival Australia operates as a separate company with different rules to Carnival US and nobody can book excursions except on board. Note also that they only offer Bottomless Bubbles and Cruise the Vineyards - Cheers isn't available.

They must have heard a New Zealander using the word “togs”, no one in Australia ever calls them that! They’re “swimmers” in Australia.

I've lived in Victoria all my life and grew up calling them either bathers or togs. Swimmers seems to be a NSW thing. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2016/01/togs-or-swimmers,-australian-lingo

Here in Australia, Celebrity Head is a game where you wear a hat/headband with the name of a celebrity written on it so everybody except you can see who it is. Then you ask yes/no questions to see if you can guess which celebrity you are.

I don't know if that is the same as Carnival's game or if what we call Celebrity Head is normally called something different in the US but can't be used,eg, for copyright reasons.

Are they going to change to the correct spelling of "Splendour"?? :p

They've always been slippers here in Oz and most of us think it's quite funny to see them worn as a "fashion statement" by starlets overseas.

I have an Android phone and use the c:geo app occasionally instead of our Garmin etrex. I know with that app you can store caches for offline access so you can load them at home before you go. I'm not sure what the go-to app is if you have an iPhone - either the geocaching forums or a local geocaching group on FB would be able to help in that regard.

Unless she is on an Australian-based sailing in which case no alcohol may be brought aboard.

Our first cruise we flew to Queensland (one-hour drive to airport, two-hour flight), rented a car and spent three days doing the theme parks before our cruise. We booked an afternoon flight for our return so we didn't have to rush off the ship and ended up getting home around 5 pm after getting off the ship that morning. We had two car seats to lug around with us on top of our luggage.

For our cruise this year we initially planned to fly until we realised that with us coming back the day before Good Friday, return flights Melbourne to Sydney were going to be in the vicinity of AU$1200 - $1500 for the four of us. :eek:

So we drove instead. Credit card points paid for our fuel and a night in a hotel in Sydney, and we packed a picnic for the first day so it worked out very cheap. Driving was our means of transport rather than part of our holiday so we left early on the Saturday and went as far as Mittagong (800 km/500 miles), stopping for a quick break and to swap drivers every two hours or so. Then we had a relaxing night, drove the remaining 90 mins or so to Sydney the next morning and spent the day exploring a bit of Sydney (the boys had only been once when they were babies) before embarking on the Monday.

We did self-assist debark and were on the road headed for home by 7:30am. We did the trip in one day on the return and were home within 12 hours.

Driving wasn't any more tiring than flying as when I wasn't driving I could relax and snooze. It was cheaper and much less stressful than trying to wrangle two kids (including one with ADHD and Asperger's) and all our luggage through the airport.

TL;DR - with just two cruises under our belt so far and two kids, we prefer to drive to the port if feasible.

Only in sealed cans (no bottles of any kind) and they restrict the amount.

 

Alcohol on Carnival limited to one 750ml of wine per adult.

This is not true for sailings from Australia (the OP mentions they are on Carnival Spirit). Here the rules for Carnival are:

- A small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages on board in their carry-on luggage. A small quantity is considered a maximum of 12 bottles and/or cans, 600ml each or less.

- No alcohol including wine may be brought on board.

I'm pretty sure that it's the same for the cruiseferries between Sweden and Finland/Estonia/Latvia. I have never seen a pilot onboard those.

In addition, the captains of the two Spirit of Tasmania ferries are qualified pilots for going through The Rip at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay which is a very dangerous stretch of water.

If you are visiting Mystery Island, there is a box to drop off books and school supplies behind the airport building - the school is on the neighbouring inhabited island as nobody lives on Mystery Island itself. They are in need of books for their school library as well as stationery. Apparently one of the market stalls is run by the school council president or similar and will also accept donations but we found the airport first :)

We took a backpack with exercise books, pencils, sharpeners, erasers and a couple of maths sets (protractors, compass, etc) we bought at Kmart.

This is an interesting thread to me as even on Caribbean cruises, I don't spend the day in my swimsuit, so my packing is vastly different from what many of you describe. :p I'm just not a hang-around-the-pool kind of person, so that's a consideration when packing. I probably pack a little more than those of you who spend most sea days in your swimming attire. :D

This. Most of the day we're dressed in clothes to participate in activities, kid's club, play minigolf, chill out and read, etc. We put our swimsuits on to use the water facilities and when we're done we change back to clothes again. Though being in Australia and fair skinned, this is also due to the better sun protection I get from clothes than a swimsuit and coverup.

As we tend to shower at night before dinner, I try to choose clothes that can do double duty as both casual wear for evening (perhaps a top with nice capris, sandals and a necklace) and then be worn the following day (with denim shorts and flipflops). Some people don't like doing this but it's no different wearing a top for 4 hours tonight and 10 hours tomorrow than it is wearing it for one continuous day and evening (plus it gets to air out a bit on the hanger overnight).

I think Serendip Sanctuary and the You Yangs are great but I live locally (my kids' school has a classroom at Serendip where they all spend a week each year and it's walking distance).

Serendip is great for seeing birdlife (including emus), kangaroos, wallabies, etc. Whether you will see koalas is a bit more hit and miss as it depends entirely on where in the large sanctuary they have decided to spend the day. If you're a birdwatcher I'd recommend Serendip without hesitation.

The You Yangs certainly has koalas (and feral rabbits and goats) but it's more a place you visit for the bushwalking and native scenery and views to Geelong and Melbourne.

You could organise a private tour to come down here but doing it on your own via public transport would be tricky. Vline train from Southern Cross to Lara is easy but then you'd need to get a taxi (there's no taxi rank at the station, you'd need to call one) to take you out of town to Serendip and the You Yangs. It would be luck of the draw if you got a helpful, friendly, interested driver or not.

If your priority is to see Aussie animals, I'd probably go for Healesville. If it's not your first visit, you want to see a bit more/different Australian countryside or you only want a half-day tour (as I imagine Healesville is a full day), then coming down this way would still be worthwhile.

We got our allocation for our cruise on Carnival Spirit on Monday night, 126 days out - deck 5 aft interior.

We booked three months ago on their last 72-hour sale and another one started yesterday morning so I suspect they were allocating at least their paid-in-full guarantee cabins to see exactly what they had available. For example, I noticed that in the new sale they don't have interior guarantees for our particular sailing.