fixi

And let's hope they don't change!

You will need a copy of the prescription/letter from the doctor, and they will allow up to three month's old supply. https://www.tga.gov.au/products/travelling-medicines-and-medical-devices/entering-australia https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/can-you-bring-it-in/categories/medicines-and-substances

This would be annoying since we just bought their next cruise offer last week. We are most certainly not travelling half way around the world to use it. Oh well.

But the Port of Geelong is still under the Victorian Port Authority (Or "Ports Victoria") - it's the same state and same government body. That's like saying "I hate Carnival. I am going to stop going on Princess and I am going to go on HAL instead". As other's have pointed out, there is clearly something else going on because the timelines are complete hogwash. For someone who had 'no warning' about this $3-4 increase per passenger, they sure acted quickly by cancelling Cunard Melbourne homeports for 23-24 way back in 2022, and then selling 2025/26 Princess Australia itineraries which exclude Melbourne two weeks before the changes were actually announced. Comparative to their income, where the price of a 5 day cruise on princess in 2023 is now the price of a 4 day cruise in 2025 (a 20% increase) this is a drop in the ocean. Let's not forget that this is the same marketing people who sold us "The new and more expensive plus and premiere packages are better because we took away what is included from the basic fare". Putting actual numbers into this. The site occupation fee per passenger is going up to $32.78AUD before GST and $36.06 after GST in Melbourne. Oh this was too expensive and let's go to Sydney. Well the Site occupation charge for passenger vessels at OPT and White bay cruise terminal is $36.64 before GST or $40.30 after GST. So...yeah that's a lot of savings for carnival...??? However it is probably cheaper at Brisbane as they try to court some business (price for cruise ships at BICT is listed as POA so I can't say for certain). Odds are, they tried to strongarm Ports Victoria into a sweetheart deal (probably threatening to go to Brisbane, and citing Brisbane's willingness to do non transparent POA deals for cruise ships) and the port authorities didn't fold. So they acted (as they are entitled to) and here we are. We will see how successful they are at filling their ships, given that Melbourne is still the second most populous city in Australia (and this is probably the hand that Ports Victoria tried to play) and they are just moving into an already crowded market. Meanwhile, I sincerely hope you enjoy your extra ships! Have another drink for us poor Melburnians stuck in the power plays 😛

I believe you can. For example, when I tried to sign up on day one it was $100 till end of voyage. On day two (when I needed it for the meeting) it was $80 till end of voyage.

Interestingly enough, I was thinking the same, but perusing the provisional port schedule in Melbourne for 2025/2026 shows that there are possibly plans for the Grand Princess to sailing from Melbourne again for what seems to be six cruises, from 18/10/2025 to 13/12/2025 after basically missing the 24/25 season.

1. Prices for espresso, hot chocolate, milkshakes & zero alcohol cocktails Single espresso shot is $3, $4.5 for a double. Espresso based coffees are $4.5 - $6.0. No idea about Milkshake and mocktails, sorry. 2. Cost of a single wifi package $27 AUD for one day, $100 for 5 days (so $20/day till end of voyage, pro rata) 3. If you can use one wifi package to switch between multiple devices You can, in theory, and I got it to work once (switched from phone to laptop) but I couldnt reload the medallion net portal again afterwards on the laptop when I switched back from laptop to phone, so I just hotspotted off the phone. I did manage to do a 3 hour work meeting (with video) using the onboard wifi so I was pretty impressed with starlink.

I sailed this past week on the Grand Princess, and have recevied the email for the so called 'onboard "AU/NZ regional spending credit" of AU $25' for standard fares due to the nickel and diming changes which was supposed to be issued on the first day of sailing. Nothing came through, went to customer service on the second day (waited around 45 minutes to get served, being the third in line) and they knew nothing about this, and tried to argue that the credit was only for Plus packages (it was clearly not). Said they would send an email to head office. I have since disembarked and never heard from them again. My advice: Don't expect to get this credit, despite the email, or ask them about it as soon as you board and hope for the best. It was not worth my time to line up another 45+ minutes to get a non-answer. I am aware that the customer service staff onboard are likely powerless to do anything about this. Tangentially, they really should put more front desk staff on during sea days. Even the dedicated 'Suite and elite' line was well past the shop entrance on the second sea day. Saw more than a few exasperated passengers dealing with the front desk (more than one audibly exclaimed how disappointed they were 😛 ), and understandably (we are only human) this negatively affected the customer service staff and some interactions with the front desks were curt and borderline confrontational. Typos on disembarkation information and timing of disembarkation forms added to confusion of customers (for a 5 night cruise, we were asked for disembarkation preferences on the first day after embarkation, with the wrong location for disembarkation printed, and they required the forms to be handed in to the front desk in person, with nary a drop box and couldnt be given to your steward) all of which culminated in quite a frustration experience dealing with the customer 'service' team. I don't blame the humans who work there, I do blame the poor management.

@Essence08 @RobinBancs @yes!yes!yes! Thanks a lot! Much appreciated. Hope everyone has a great rest of the cruise!

Following with interest and appreciate the effort! Is there any chance you can get a picture of the Children's menu from the dining room? Will be taking our kids on their first cruise in a few weeks and they are hungry for any information about the ship. We have only been able to find ones from 2020 and not from the Australian cruises.