Funkat

Great news! Have a wonderful cruise.

These are the ones I've had for 5-7 years and they look as good as new still. I've never had a problem with a zipper either. https://www.ebags.com/product/ebags/packing-cubes-6pc-value-set/288518?productid=10346308

I agree! I have some of these from ebags and love them.

I had ordered some less expensive packing cubes from walmart.com to see if I liked using cubes before making more of an investment. They were of cheap quality but served their purpose. I found that I liked using them for packing.

I did some research and ordered these packing cubes from ebags. I was so impressed with the quality that I immediately ordered more. I am still using them today (years later). They are strong but yet still lightweight and quality. Money well spent.

Our next cruise in March is sold out. We would consider an offer but I wonder about the airfare. Our flights are booked through Princess EZair but I would think there would be charges incurred to change dates at the last minute? Anyone know how they handle this part of it?

I doubt that we will receive an offer, but still curious. With the cost of our r/t airfare to Sydney, that would definitely have to be a consideration.

But goes TSA rifle through them when they inspect your bags? If so, then it's pointless. I would love to use them but am wondering about this. And a dumb question -- do you roll your clothes in them or do they take the place of rolling? I'm a newbie to this.

My cubes are mostly mesh and easy to see through. And YES, I do still roll my clothes inside the cube. I find it easier to see what's in each cube when the clothes are rolled.

I also love my packing cubes. They do somehow save some space, but as others have noted, they can't help with the weight factor of anything extra that you now have room to pack.

Packing cubes keep everything so organized. When we get to the cabin, all I have to do is transfer the cubes to the drawers and hang the few items that I want hung in the closet. Takes much less time to get unpacked and store those empty suitcases out of the way.

In our carryon, I use one cube for our extra suit of clothes and another for our swimwear & coverups. Keeps the carryon organized too.

Preordering liquor is a waste of time.

If you do you still need to call room service for it. So just wait until onboard and call. It will save you the trouble of pulling out your credit card and online.

 

I too thought it would be nice to have them waiting in the cabin when we boarded; but only give you a voucher to call room service. On top of that, many who order liquor precruise or right after boarding won't get it until the next day as it takes time. We got ours at around 4pm second day of cruise.

Thanks for the response. I'll just wait until we board to order. We get one mini bar set up free, so I guess we'll use that the first day. That still beats the watered down & over priced drinks at one of the bars.

We will be on the Sun in March and are thinking of ordering a few bottles. Do the prices go up if you wait to order once onboard in contrast to pre-ordering?

Ask your steward for the main dining room lunch and dinner menus so you can order from these if you want to dine in your cabin. Also enjoy Sabatinies for breakfast and be pampered in Club Class dining (any time). Send in your laundry it's free. As for complimentary speciality dining we find it best to go to your choice of venue as soon as you can after boarding and arrange it with their reception person, we choose American or Italian theme night. Enjoy and as has been mentioned you'll not want to cruise anymore but in full suite.

WE love the suite perks- repeat as others- your specialty dining is any night. Full room service is the best (we always ask for the MDR menu every morning) and often enjoy it in our room.

Complimentary laundry! pressing, dry cleaning and wash and fold. don't have to pack too much.

Priority boarding- no lines!

Have fun!

We will be in a suite on the Sun in March for 13 days and I was so looking forward to the complimentary laundry perk. However, I've read on other threads that Princess laundry will ruin your clothes. Is that a common problem with the service? I would love to pack light and take advantage of the laundry perk, but not at the expense of ruining our clothes. Should I be concerned about clothes sent out to Princess laundry? I would love to hear more from those who have used this. Thanks

You can make the calls but you are using wifi minutes from the ship. You have to have bought a plan or be Platinum/Elite and using those free minutes.

 

I was in Canada when I discovered that Delta had totally trashed my flights for an upcoming cruise. I spent an hour or so on the phone with both Delta and Alaska Airlines and incurred zero cost as I made the call using the hotel WiFi. I simply enabled "advanced calling services" on the phone and it worked just like a normal phone call. I had entered airplane mode but then turned WiFi back on to connect to the hotel system.

 

Thanks to you both. I don't plan on buying any plan from the ship, my phone stays in airplane mode unless we are docked somewhere. There are enough places with WiFi in port that I could access it for free or much less cost. I'll either use Thark's suggestion or go with Verizon's $25/month text & data or $40/month talk, text & data. Or I could do the $10 / 24hours Travel Pass that we've used before. Decisions, decisions.

I haven't used Travel Pass but you might want to look into whether or not your phone can do WiFi calling. I used it in Canada at hotels. I was in airplane mode but turned WiFi back on and was able to call as I would normally but at no cost.

So Thrak, do I understand you correctly? If you are connected to WiFi and in airplane mode, you can make international calls at no cost? I hope that's what you are saying, that would be awesome. We used Travel Pass when in Canada the past couple of years, but it's gone up from $2 per 24 hours last year to the $10 rate now. Being gone 3 weeks, that adds up.

I have been told on board, that the stewards can keep tips handed to them personally on the Australian-based ships. If passengers leave the auto-gratuity on, I believe it would have to go into the tips pool. It would be far too labour intensive to try to work out which stewards served those particular passengers and then give them their usual percentage of the tips.

 

There is also no auto-gratuity added to the cost of drinks. This applies to everyone, but the initial cost of the drinks is higher than on ships where gratuities apply.

Thank you for the reply.

There are no auto-gratuities for passengers who book through an Australian travel agent. People who book in USA or the UK have the auto-tips added to their account daily. However, they can remove them if they wish and they need not feel guilty doing so. The crew are paid at a much higher rate than on ships where the auto-gratuity applies.:)

I was wondering how the gratuities worked out on theses sailings. Since the gratuities are not automatically added for Australian guests, if a guest from elsewhere removed the auto-tips and personally tipped those crew members that served well, would the extra tip still have to be put in a pool? Seems the tips would be handled differently since some guests are auto-tip charged and others not.

We are sailing on the Sun in March. Our $100 stockholders' onboard credit was posted as only $100AUD with no extra consideration for exchange rate. It definitely feels like a rip off.

lol I have to agree with others, you definitely shouldn't have any problem identifying your luggage at baggage claim.

But then, I also have to agree with your wife. There is no way that I would travel with luggage that had my face plastered all over it.

I guess it may be a guy thing, as my husband thinks these are really neat looking.

I have to say I don5 know it, but it looks OK, you are a bit out of town, so transport might be a little problematic. But Woolomooloo is a pretty nice area now days.

Thanks.

Does anyone know anything about Mariner's Court in Potts Point? It is very reasonable, has good ratings and includes a hot breakfast.

There are also glowworm caves in the Bay of Islands http://kawiticaves.co.nz/ so that could be an option if you want to see all three things on your list.

 

Hobbiton is stunning. It's so cleverly done, you just have to see it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have just booked a tour that includes this. Due to the time that we are in this port, I could not find an independent tour to accommodate us. so I booked through the ship. The price was not more but our tour group is larger. It is what it is!

Are you going to stop in Auckland? The Auckland museum is one of the best in the world and they have a Maori cultural experience there that is very much worth the time. Their artifacts from all around the South Pacific are amazing. We spent the entire day there!

Thanks for the response. I'll need to check this out also.

Our cruise is out of Sydney and goes to: Fiordland National Park (just cruising), Dunedin, Akaroa, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, Auckland and Bay of Islands.

We were in Hobbiton last month. I'm not a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit fan but scheduled it mostly since my husband is. It ended up being the BEST experience of my month-long transpacific cruise to Sydney and New Zealand.

 

Going to Hobbiton is like being in a fairytale. The details are amazing. We had our photo with both of us at the door of a hobbit hole on our Christmas card. We have received many compliments!

 

We took the tour from Auckland, so didn't have time for the glowworms. I would have loved to have seen that also, but the trip from Auckland was long.

 

Ask if you have questions about Hobbiton.

Are you going to stop in Auckland? The Auckland museum is one of the best in the world and they have a Maori cultural experience there that is very much worth the time. Their artifacts from all around the South Pacific are amazing. We spent the entire day there!

Thanks for the response. The more I hear, the more certain that we will include Hobbiton in our plans. We dock in Tauranga in addition to Auckland, so I'm thinking that we would be better to see this from Tauranga. I'll research further to confrirm which would be better.

If your reason for visiting Te Puia is mud pools, you might be more interested in Wai-O-Tapu. I have not been there, but is looks like a larger geothermal area than Te Puia. Te Puia has a geyser, I don't recall myself seeing mud pools, but it's a relatively small area. They also have some animals, a Maori lodge, and a woodcarving school. We went in the evening and had the Maori welcome and performance, followed by the Hangi dinner.

Thanks. I'll definitely check this out. We are not very interested in the performances.

We were lucky to book the Sir Stamford Hotel for 3 nights at a "Flash" sale price. Our cost for 3 nights stay is less than the going rate for 1 night stay. So we're happy!

Breakfast in not included, but I'm sure we'll find lots of places in the area to eat.

Where did you find the "flash" sale?

Having done all of them, I'd choose Hobbiton and the glowworms. Te Puia is interesting, but I'd only start to consider it above Hobbiton if they also included the Maori cultural show and lunch (which they might not include as part of a shore excursion). Our guide at Hobbiton said many, many people who aren't movie fans still love the area. Even if it were a choice between Te Puia and just glowworms I'd likely choose glowworms.

Thanks. I was leaning towards the glowworms & Hobbiton, but needed to hear from someone who has been there.

https://www.newzealanddiscoverytours.co.nz/tauranga-rotorua-port-cruise-ship-shore-excursions-tours Try this, I think this is as close as you can get.

Thanks. This gives me another operator to consider. It's basically what I've found through Viator and others. With these, I still have to choose between the glowworms & the mud pools. This does give me another option. Thank you.

Tauranga Tour - Rotorua to Te Puia? or Hobbiton Movie Set & Waitomo Glowworms caves?

Trying to decide on a tour from Tauranga. We are not really into the Hobbit movies, etc., but have heard that Hobbiton and the glowworms are "must see". However, we have some interest in the mud pools/geyser.

I would love to see both the glowworms and the mud pools/geyser but don't see any tour doing both that can be done as a shore excursion. So, it seems that we must decide between the two. Any suggestions to help us decide?

Thanks

I like Potts Point location, where you can get a bus or walk to the city through the Botanical Gardens. You might like to google DeVere Hotel at Potts Point (3 star).

We are booked at Hyde Park Inn but this one looks interesting, especially the price for the premium balcony. Do you have first hand knowledge of this hotel? I looks good, but the low price makes me wonder. Even the Hotel Challis is less expensive than our current reservation at Hyde Park Inn.

Between the 3, any recommendations? TYIA