linanles

WE have a Jetstar Platinum Mastercard (Macquarie Bank) and we are covered from the minute we pay for a cruise. I called them a few days ago because we are taking a tour of Inda (not a cruise) and if we pay via Paypal with payment coming from our credit card we are still fully covered.

No matter what travel insurance you have you should take a copy of the PDS and contact details with you.

If your luggage tags are ready for printing, print them out and you'll see the rules for bringing wine on board are printed on the luggage tag.

Have a luggage tag on your carry on luggage and if challenged, show them the rule. I've had over zealous security people tell me I can't bring wine on board. These are usually shore based security who don't realise that the rules vary between cruise lines.

Does anyone know how many invitations I will need?

I usually print about 12 -1 5 and take them to the Service Desk and ask if they will put one in each Senior Officers pigeon hole and that works.

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This is actually the other way around. Princess uses Meet & Mingle, all others use Meet & Greet!

If you have a look at the Boards Roll Calls Sub-Forums you'll see Royal Caribbean "Meet & Mingle" Roll Calls. I think that says it all.

I wonder why we can claim Shareholder's OBC conveniently in Australia by email with an attached copy of a share statement dated less than 90 days from sailing but in the US you have to fax it in.

I guess that's why they call us the Lucky Country. :D:D

We sailed on the Diamond Princess in November 2016 and the food at the Crab Shack was the worst seafood I've ever had. Overcooked and the corn cobs that came with it were on the verge of rotting. The service was very poor and the staff were disinterested. We must have been booked in at the end of their shift and it seemed like they just wanted to get us out of there. This was unlike anything I've ever experienced on Princess.

Never again.

Thanks for finding that. Do taxis hang around the area where we get off the ship, or do we need to book ahead?

I would imagine there are taxis there when ever a ship comes in. I've only been to Fisherman's Island once. Cruise ships only go there if they are too big to get under the Gateway Bridge or the berth at the Cruise Terminal up stream is already occupied.

According to the Taxi Fare Calculator found here;

https://www.taxifare.com.au/

The fare from Fisherman's Island to Lone Pine Sanctuary on a week day leaving at 9:30am is from AU$95.79 to AU$134.11. That's a maximum of AU$22.35 pp for 6 people. Be sure to ask for a Maxi-Taxi when booking.

Can you please cite your source because the rest of the technology industry seems to disagree with you. Yes skype uses its own propriety protocol but that doesn't exclude it from being considered a VoIP service. That's just like saying a video isn't a video because it uses an MP4 codec vs avi.

VIDEO is not a protocol standard so any video is video but not all video is MP4. Just as not all voice over internet is VOIP despite the fact that some people have bastardised the term. Another term that is miss used is MP3. Not all music files are MP3 but a lot of people use the term to refer to any music file.

For further info see Voice over IP and Federated VoIP in Wikipedia.

To save boring the other members of this forum let's leave it there.

If you bring along a tablet, you can download Google hangouts. Calls routed through ships wifi and are free, assuming a microphone on tablet or plug in mike with headphones.

Have you tried it? Surely Google Hangouts or any other internet based app needs internet access. Connection to the ship's WiFi gets you to the ship's network but to connect from there to the internet you need to pay for internet access if you are below Platinum status and login.

There have been some changes on the Princess website, when I do a booking it is showing ALL OBC offered......even Military, which I am not entitled too. I have never seen that before. It is showing what you could get.......not what you get:rolleyes:

That's funny. In my booking under Payments and Credits > Onboard Credits for this Booking it only shows Onboard Sales Promotion and Shareholder Benefits. No line for Military OBC. I wonder why the difference.

No we use a TA mostly and apply directly for the OBC with no issues. Shareholder OBC should have nothing to do with the TA or what offer was made when booking.

Exactly and that is what I put in my reply. She has put it through herself after all and notified my TA of the change.

Shareholder OBC $99.99???? FCD OBC 2x$67.50. TA OBC NIL.

Why is that whenever I apply for Shareholder OBC it is answered by someone who doesn't know what they are doing?

Have those of you that received your Shareholders OBC booked your cruise direct with Princess?

I just emailed the relevant page from my broker (Commsec) to the email address above and received the following reply.

"In regards to your recent email, unfortunately I will need to refer you back to your travel agent who needs to have this added for you as this may change the finacials on the booking. Your travel agent will need to contact ourselves directly to have this added quickly for you."

How do you figure? VoIP is simply the use of an internet based connection to make a telephone call vs using a traditional phone line, hence Voice over Internet Protocol. Skype is a VoIP service, the bandwidth it uses has nothing to do with it being classified as a VoIP service or not.

VOIP is not simply voice over the internet. The acronym VOIP refers to a specific defined protocol for the transmission of voice over the internet and Skype etc have their own proprietary protocols for voice transmission over the internet. Skype etc could be called voice over internet but it is not VOIP as defined in the VOIP protocol specification. Google is your friend.

Skype is not true VOIP. As with many things in the IT world many people start using a word/acronym in correctly and it become accepted.

If you have a true VOIP account you can then install a VOIP client on your smartphone and configure it with your VOIP account details. True VOIP is not bandwidth hungry and works well over WiFi. I haven't used it onboard but I have used it via free Wifi services in a number of ports without a problem.

As true VOIP doesn't use much bandwidth and is not that popular I doubt that it is being blocked. The most common IP port used for VOIP is 5060.

I could only see the 2 classes on their website. The booking was done by the travel agent who offered the fly/cruise deal.

You'll find details on this page. Scroll down to Scootinsilence quiet zone.

Ask your TA for a price to upgrade.

Unfortunately for our flight it went from $189 + luggage/meal for economy to over $600 for their "business" class - looks like everyone had the same idea:loudcry:.

It's not Business Class, just the Economy Quiet Zone. You get more leg room and no babies and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

We just booked it with friends :D. They do use Scoot for Air - we're flying direct from Gold Coast.

Having flown GC to Singapore with Scoot before, I can recommend upgrading to the "quiet zone".

We are sailing on the Sun Princess in late August in a Balcony. I knew we had requested a Queen Bed and had confirmation but I just checked the details in Cruise Personaliser and it shows "Bed Configuration: Non Convert. Queen". It will be interesting to see if it is a true Queen or two singles pushed together. In the past it's always been 2 singles but we weren't bothered by the ridge.

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Simple answer. Get a Citibank Visa Debit Card. You can use any teller machine in any country to withdraw in local currency. No ATM fees, no foreign currency fees and the exchange rate is good.

Search here or Google for more info.

I don't find Kiwi wines expensive. You can find NZ sem sav blac for under $10 in the discount liquor stores. I buy the same for under $5 from Grays online auction and that includes buyers premium and $20/carton delivery.

If you have time, I would get a new card such as 28 degrees, which doesn't have international transaction fees and the currency conversion rates are pretty good as well. For Cash advances from ATMs I would go for a card like Citibank which also has not international fees.

It should take under 3 weeks to get these cards.

I agree. After seeing recommendations for both on CC we applied online for both and found them so convenient.

Thanks very much, did you book most of your trips in advance or just when you got off the ship and can I ask did you did you take different currency for each place you visited?

All were booked prior to the cruise via the internet. Some we paid fully before the cruise, others we paid a deposit before the cruise and the balance in local currency on the day.

Before the cruise I applied on line for a Citibank Visa Debit card and withdrew cash from ATMs in Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore with no problems. There are no foreign exchange or ATM fees associated with this card and the exchange rate is very good. I also applied for a 28 degree Credit Card online. Again there are no foreign exchange fees and a good exchange rate. I got these cards on the recommendations of others on Cruise Critic.

Does anyone have the current wine lists for Princess cruises out of Aust/NZ? Do you remember what wines you had to drink on your last cruise? :D

The beauty of a Princess cruise is you can take your favorite wine with you. You are allowed to take two bottles of wine on board at embarkation and not have to pay corkage on them. If you take more than two, the is no limit, you will have to pay $15 corkage on each extra bottle. That way you are sure of getting your favorite wine. Wine list prices on board are similar to what you would pay in a restaurant in Australia.