Sparky74

We are currently on a land based trip and staying at Airlie Beach. This is the view from our balcony today, Sunday 30th June.
I believe that it’s the Pacific Explorer  

10 hours ago, Cbtours said:

Weren’t you celebrating aunties cruise the first cruise we met you on 🤣🤣🤣

Yes, one of today’s antisocial media "memories" was that two years ago we were at Airlie Beach on that cruise.

Today, we are again at Airlie Beach with Auntie. 
It’s her 80th birthday on Monday. 

10 hours ago, CDaze71 said:

I'm so desperate I booked my first ever 3 nighter. Never done anything less than 7 nights before. 

When?

We’re doing 3 nights on Pacific Encounter from next Saturday. It’s Auntie's 80th birthday on Monday so everyone is flying to Airlie Beach to celebrate. DW & I decided we’d need a short cruise to recover. 🤷‍♂️
No visit from the upgrade fairy for this cruise yet. 

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

...For those that have yet to add your signature, I would encourage you to read Adrian's @The Cruise and Travel Guy  petition, and consider lending your support.

 

Petition · Lower Port Fees & Extend the Cruise Vessel Exemption Under the Coastal Trading Act 2012 - Australia · Change.org

 

Thank You

Geoff

I’ve found Adrian's YouTube videos to be quite informative. 
 

As I recall they’d stuffed me around with the booking for this cruise. I can’t remember the details but I remember getting really cranky when someone assured me they'd ring me back with a solution to my issue and then failed to do so. 
I did wonder at the time if the upgrade was a sort of apology, or sweetener, or bribe… It was a bit of a strange cabin, an aft balcony with a pillar in the middle of in. That was on Brillance OTS.

We also received a complimentary upgrade on our first ever cruise, 4 nights on Legend OTS out of Hong Kong. Three of us: DW, a friend, and myself shared a cabin and were upgraded from an inferior to an oceanview. The ship was sailing at about ¾ capacity. We were so green! LOL. We learnt a lot about cruising on that trip and have learnt a lot more since.

A friend is doing the World Cruise on the Crown Princess next year. He says that he’s continually receiving emails trying to sell him the Plus or Premier package. 

This "memory" popped up on my antisocial media today. 
From the days before bidding on a cabin upgrade was a thing. 

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

Easy solution that you have chosen which is great advice. Do both.

If only it was that easy. 🤣

This thread has piqued my interest as we are considering cruising on BOTH the Westerdam AND the Crown Princess next year. 😱

We've only cruised once with HAL so far (Alaska in 2022) and thoroughly enjoyed it. We sailed with Princess three times so far and enjoyed those cruises also. 
 

This doesn’t help answer your question, though. 🤷‍♂️

You may also like to check out the Oceanliner Designs channel on YouTube. Lots of videos about the Titanic. Lots of videos about other maritime disasters. Lots of videos about ocean liners (as opposed to cruise ships). Presented by an Australian, Mike Brady. 
 

https://youtube.com/@oceanlinerdesigns?si=A-Bxu276jiRrihkL

The Plus package isn’t worth it for us. 
We don’t drink alcohol. 
We're not big coffee drinkers. DW doesn’t touch the stuff. 🤣
DW will have 1 or 2 soft drinks/day on a cruise. I try to steer clear of them. 
It’s nice to disconnect when on holidays so I’m happy not to have wifi. 
 

We used to buy the soda package on RCI, back when I drank softdrink but I’d get to the end of the day (especially on port days) and realise I hadn’t had 3 drinks which is what I needed to have to be ahead. So we gave that away and DW just buys a drink whenever she wants one. 🤷‍♂️ It works for us. Now we have Diamond status on RCI, so 4 drink vouchers/day. And shareholder OBC when sailing on Carnival Corp lines. 
 

Free laundry would be nice but I’m not chasing status. I can do a lot of laundry for $65/person/day. Heck, I might even start up a freelance laundry service on our next cruise, undercutting the cruise line. 🤣🤣🤣

I wonder if they’d give me double points if I bought Eggs Benedict every morning on P&O. 🤔🤣

6 minutes ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

 

Did you take an actual  photo? If so photography of monitor screens are not the best.

 

I would suggest a screen shot. Depending on what operating system your laptop uses you can use the Print Screen Function and save it as a jpeg.

 

Then you will have a clear image  to upload.

I wanted to take a screenshot (of something else) on my laptop the the other day and realised there was no PTR SCR button. Goggle to the rescue! The Windows logo button + SHIFT + S takes a screen shot and puts it on the clipboard. You can then paste it into an email or wherever. It worked for me, but this wasn’t in relation to shares or OBC. YMMV

Perhaps like me you mainly stay on this board on CC. If so, you may not have heard the latest from Princess. I haven’t received an email so I wonder if this is happening I down here or only in the US? 🤷‍♂️

Apparently Princess is give double Captain's Circle points to people cruising between August and December 2024 if they purchase the Princess Plus or Princess Premier package. 
As always, there will be winners and losers.

I haven’t read 8 pages of comments on the Princess board but I reckon you might want to bring your own popcorn. 🍿 🤣

Perhaps the sensible thing to do would be for the government to grant an exemption until 2030 (say) but reserve the right to withdraw the exemption and/or change/amend the Act to anytime. This would give the cruiselines and the industry some level of certainty while still giving the government an "out". 

1 hour ago, possum52 said:

 

The property used for the filming of Kath and Kim is quite near to where we live. The house has been bulldozed and a new one has been built on the block.

It’s a little sad that it wasn’t heritage listed as culturally significant but we can’t keep everything. 🤷‍♂️

10 hours ago, Mareblu said:

As Kim would say:  suites with toilets are only for effluent passengers.

Look at moi. 

And let’s not forget that cruiselines are in business for one reason and one reason only. And it’s the same reason why the supermarkets, the banks, the lawn mowing service, and your Internet provider are in business. And it’s the same reason many get out of bed each morning and go to work. Cruiselines are in business to make money!

And investors naturally want to see a return on their investment. 
 

I think many of us are surprised to learn how slim the profit margins are. It’s no wonder that they just haemorrhaged money and took on huge debt during the lockdown. 

46 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

True! I had to make first one ever last year when we had to change all our travel plans due to my daughter being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer (side note after gruelling chemo and major surgery she is all clear🙏🏻).

I had westpac complimentary cc insurance and Frank had an annual policy with Qantas. Both paid out in full within 10 days 🥰

Glad to hear that your daughter is OK, Irene. I’m sure there was lots of prayer in addition to the chemo and surgery. 
 

We're hoping to rely on the complimentary Westpac insurance for our next few cruises but I need to delve into the T&Cs. It’s good to hear some positive feedback on it. 

The trouble with insurance is that you don’t know how good it is until you have to make a claim. 

41 minutes ago, Jean C said:

"barking day" - don't ya just love involuntary auto correct!

Sorry, that’s an intentional malapropism. 🤷‍♂️

I start the cruise with barking day and finish with disembowelling day. I make sure we complete our mustard drill and if I have any problems I go and talk to them at guess-who services. 
DW reckons I’m not right in the head. 🤪

14 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

I have a VERY vague recollection of choccies on the pillow on Pacific Dawn in 2016, but don't recall receiving them since.

I don’t remember chocolates but we started cruising in 2010 and stayed loyal to Royal for a number of years. I remember towel animals every night, spectacular carved fruit displays in the buffet, and ice carving demonstrations every cruise. 
Times change and I must admit that I join in with the moaning about cutbacks but in reality it’s either that or prices will increase even more. We are fortunate that (at the moment) we have a variety of cruise lines to choose from which offer different inclusions and different price points. 
DW & I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary in November and have a week's leave up our sleeve. I’ve suggested a couple of different cruises as options but she wants to do something different for this special occasion. I’ve priced a few alternatives and I’m still convinced that cruising offers great value for money in spite of rising fares and diminishing inclusions. 
At the risk of going back "on topic" 🤣 we board the Pacific Encounter In three weeks. I wonder if the Waterfront will be open for lunch on barking day. 🤔

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

I found a nice video for you.

I have a mate who drives trains between Central and Lithgow (Blue Mts)/Bathurst. 

8 minutes ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Yes of course.

 

Lot's of ifs.

 

If you bought today and it jumped next year to pre-covid values then sold them... $$

 

If you use the 100 shares to make you feel better about booking more cruises 🥕 💡

 

If, If, if....

And some people like to feel like they own part of the ship they’re sailing on. 
 

Come to think of it, over the years I’ve encountered quite a few passengers who act like they own the ship! 😱

19 minutes ago, arxcards said:

On today's price, you are looking at around $AU2500 to get the minimum number of 100 CCL shares. Dividends and growth aside, that is 50 short cruises to recoup the value in OBC. That is also money spent, not saved, although it does reduce your onboard spend if you were always going to spend that much regardless.

 

I have recovered a lot of my $1400 spent, but technically they haven't made me a cent. It will be nice to see some small dividends returning in the next year or so.

True but you still own the shares. If they cost you $1,400 and could now sell them for $2,500, then you’ve made a "profit" (capital gain) of $1,100. Of course you can only realise this if you sell your shares.