cassamanda

Now that we know what your itinerary is, it makes even more sense to make the most of Sydney. You will see plenty of outback samples from Darwin, Port Headland or Geraldton.

As others have said, Port Headland is a mining town. Many of the mines are 100s of miles out in the dessert. Dont listen to some people who say this port is a waste of time. This port has some of the largest ships in the world visit it. Extremely important to our economy. Will be very hot.

Look out for Oil rigs on your cruise down the west coast from Darwin.

Geraldton is sometimes bypassed if the wind is too strong, so just be prepared for that. Has a town shuttle bus. Take a visit to the local memorial of the warship HMAS Sydney, sunk in the Indian ocean and lost fir 60 years.

The OP is sailing on Radiance x2 and Ovation in January.

Strongly suggest you add 2 days to your itinerary. Absolutely no point travelling the long distance to Australia and then rushing your visit. The normal stay at Ayers Rock is 3 days and most direct flights seem to tie in with that.

A 1 day stayover at the Rock is crazy. Just too much to see. Min is 2 days and i would include a local flight either by helo or fixed wing to get a view from above.

Then there is the predawn get up to view the changing colours of th rock or a sunset dinner.

January is high summer so the heat and flies will not be pleasant but many overseas tourist seam to come at that time.

Check with Princess but have taken one at 11am. All depends on ships itinerary.

No, you're thinking of Wynyard Park. Lang Park is about 200m north of that.

On the corner of Jamison, Lang and York streets.

Very historical piece of ground where Gov Arthur Phillip built his first church St Phillips. Now on the opposite side of York st.

Those buses now go down Erskine st to the King St Wharf area and clog up the roads down there before heading gack north.

Rondezvous to the city, I was taking it to Martin Place.

 

300 would be yo Circular Quay.

 

Maybe I misunderstood the question, but I took it to be how far into the city. Now I admit the half hour might be a bit high, but I don't walk real quick.

Fair crack o the whip. The Rocks is all part of the City. It is just at the northern end of it. Heaps of nice views too and close to the Opera House and the Bridge.

My vote is for the Rendesvous. much more activity in The Rocks plus late night eateries such as Pancakes in the Rocks or The Louwenbrau mit German beer:D

Although potentially cutting it fine, with a 7:15 disembarkation group, I would be satisfied with a 10am flight.

 

As far as check in for your flights, prepare yourselves with the reservation numbers and check in online prior to heading to the airport. That way you only need to go to bag drop. It eliminates standing in a check in queue for no reason.

 

I believe bag drop will close 45 minutes prior to your flight departure time depending on the airline. You haven't mentioned which airline so perhaps just double check.

 

 

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The check in queu is now actually shorter than the bag drop line. Again why create stressful situations.

Even if your ship docks on time and you get off with the first group you are cutting it extremely fine.

Sydney airport traffic at the moment is horrendous.

You need to check in at airport 1 hr before = 9 am latest then battle your way through Security which can take 15 to 30 minutes and finally walk miles to your flight if its one of the end gates.

Not for me. Just had a nice cruise only to stress out getting to my flight on time.

Why do you need to take a 10 am flight? I would delay to 11 am earliest, as others have suggested.

So what has this thread got to do with the Golden Princess. Another badly worded title:mad:

I was hoping the thread had some info on the ship.

Had to get ye olde puffer out myself on the weekend. Smoke was very thick. Rain has arrived and the smoke is now slowly clearing.

Looks like Royal is only doing 1 top end cruise next season:mad:

May need to look at Princess.

Dont remind me. I was supposed to be leaving for my bucket list Alaska trip in less than 2 weeks. Bloody DVT. Now looks like Lupus is cause of clot. :(

Sorry to hear that. Plan B could be to cruise the whole way there and back with some layover time in Vancouver or Seattle.

A work colleague of mine is going in August and it sounds amazing! She's doing the helicopter/dog sled excursion as well.

Go early August though otherwise some of the more popular dog sledding tours are cancelled because of mushy snow. Areas around Ketchikan etc can be wet in August. That area has very high rainfall.

Again i can recommend to your work colleague the dog sledding out of Knik River Lodge. Can be done as a day trip from Anchorage. They have various departure times and always have snow.

We went a couple years ago in August and tne snow had mostly melted except for the big mountains but we still had a fantastic trip. Hired a car and did our own thing.

Can highly recommend Knik River Lodge and the dog sledding with helicopter tour. Just north of Anchorage.

first cruise i ever went on everyone (who'd mainly cruised on party ships in the 70s) was telling me to look out for white pointers,:cool: The closest i came was an old set of grey nurses:eek::(.

rotflmao

Water temp Oct more like mid 60s.

Thats why there are so many white pointers at Bondi in Oct. bbrrrr.:rolleyes:

1. Whilst the train is cheap, easy and frequent, a car is great. Not a whole lot to see on the way to the mountains ( unless you go the long way via Mount Tomah ).

A car us really good to explore all the little villages and great sights to the left and right of the main roads.

Don't worry about driving on the "other side " of the road. Just follow the other drivers.

2. Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort and Spa.

Lovely and romantic.

Fairmont Blue Mountains Resort (M Gallery Collection by Accor). A bigger place with nice pools and a golf course)

Both are in great locations.

3. Agree with The Rocks / Circular Quay area.

4. October is too cold for ME to swim.

"Stingers " are not a big problem in Syd. As others said the deadly ones are much further up North. There are of course sometimes a few "regular" jellyfish around that sting a bit. But of course there are sharks, jet skis, Chinese and British tourists and drop bears that are a bit dangerous.

 

☺

Agree with Lilianfels Lodge at Echo Point, a stones throw from the 3 sisters. Also try Echoes Boutique hotel next door. Both are upmarket but with fantastic settings.

Also try the Mountain Heritage at Katoomba. Has outstanding views. Of 1920 vintage but a modern hotel all the same. Another in Katoomba township is the grand Lord Carrington Hotel of 1880 vintage with its high ceiling rooms and bay windows.

Agree with car. Katoomba is 2 hours drive from Sydney but i would make a stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park on the way near Blacktown. Off the highway, so get a GPS.

It's the drop bears what get ya.... 😳😅😜

And watch out for those White Pointers ar Bondi, especially in October;)

Yup. Probably about a 2 or 3 dog night:D

Do the rain/humidity ease up a bit in March?

Much better in October, or earlier but will still be very warm, just less humidity and dry.

Australians have been trying to get cruise lines to think outside the box for years.. There is a very good reason we dont travel to the north in summer - too wet and hot.

Been there! Smelt that!

 

The only ports we didn't get off at were places we'd been to before. We have done a reasonable amount of travel in SE Asia over the past 20 years or so. I have never seen the pollution so bad as on this trip. For example this was the fifth time I've been to Hong Kong, admittedly the previous trip was nine years ago, but I'd never seen pollution like that there before.

 

A Singaporean friend, whom we had lunch with on our Singapore stop, said the pollution has become noticeably worse there in the last couple of years. On some days the "haze", as they call it, is so bad that people are advised not to go outside. Most of the air pollution in Singapore comes from the forest burnoffs in Indonesia and Malaysia. As soon as the wet season is over the burning begins.

Singapore and Malaysia are really bad in September fir smoke haze.

The smoke comes from burn offs in Indonesia, not Malaysia. The smoke is carried by the trade winds coming from the south west.

There is a lift on the right next to the glass entrance doors. Immediatly after the entrance there is an escalator taking you up to the mezzanine level.

In you case, probably best to take the lift.

Thanks! Being able to start our cruise with clean clothes would be great; also a microwave would be nice. I'm going to check out the Meriton's. I'm thinking that "serviced apartments" are the same as hotel suites here in the US? The most important thing to us is cleanliness.

I would equate them to Condo's such as those in Hawaii, Maui although they are not privately owned. The Meriton ones come as Studio, 1 to 3 bedroom.

Many cruisers i know have stayed in these. Meriton Pitt St is smack bang in the centre of downtown.

This is the approach to the entrance at Sydney OPT. At this stage, the location of the Baggage Drop is not clear. An overhead sign or a sign beliw the blue "Quay" restaurant sign pointing the way would help.

As you get closer to the entrance you can see a baggage drop sign indicating to keep going straight ahead whereas in fact the baggage drop area is tucked away to the right.

Thanks everyone. You've been a great help planning our turnaround days.

BTW there is nothing to do at White Bay. The nearest suburb is Balmain and some of the residentials overlook the terminal. However, it is quite a convoluted walk to get there. You could take a cab into the main strip and then either a cab or bus from there to the city or walk to the end of the main road and catch a ferry from Balmain East.

Balmain is not a tourist destination though unless you like to join the coffee set.

I tried to book an inside cabin for three on the 5 day Tassie cruise and it's already sold out!

Probably because there are not many inside cabins as such, most are ocean view or balcony.