charliedalrymple

I may be wrong, but I'm guessing your concern is the fact that our personal information is loaded in China, making it vulnerable. Fair point--but I assume that the Chinese already have all the information on me they could ever want. Unfortunately, they'll find I'm pretty boring.

Could not agree more! We are a dying breed. I'm fascinated by younger colleagues who can type with their two index fingers almost as quickly as I can with all ten.

I've had a valid passport all of my adult life, and I'm always careful to renew it well before the expiration date when I won't need it for travel. Of course there are unforeseen circumstances at times, but there's really no excuse for trying to travel with an expired passport. Does anyone really travel with a birth certificate? I'm surprised at how many people have mentioned that.

Your tipping choices are probably going to depend on where you are from. Europeans and Australians don't have a culture of tipping like the Americans. Of course, we pay service workers a living wage.

Same! I had asked our broker to buy 100 shares of Carnival stock, but was able to stop him when I learned that it couldn't be combined with the military benefit.

A bit off topic, but what I really miss are the days when flying was an "event." You looked forward to it for days and got dressed up for the flight, which was an enjoyable part of the entire holiday experience. And flight attendants actually cared about your comfort. Sigh....

Correct. Also note that neither Australia or NZ has a culture of tipping, so you could get by with much less cash.

We once admitted that we had walked in a "wild" creek during a South Pacific cruise. That led to a secondary biosecurity screening, which took some time. Be aware that Australia has very strict rules about any non-native flora or fauna making it into the country.

No worries, mate!

Sorry, but we say "She'll be right (mate)!" 😉

As a tech dinosaur myself, I can totally relate to this. We'll be going on our first medallion cruise in December and I'll withhold judgment until afterwards, but I'm not excited about it.

I just love super-specific questions like this. It goes to show how we all value different things on a cruise. Honestly, it's one of the joys of reading this message board!

I was going to make some sort of snarky comment, but you beat me to it!

That was going to be my recommendation, so I think you made the right choice. The Norwegian fjords are stunning.

Well, don't keep us in suspense! Has your partner reached age 40 yet, and did he manage to visit all 50 states by then? I finally could say that I hit all 50 when I did an Alaska cruise for my 60th birthday. By the way, I'm a bit of a purist--I don't consider airport transits as having "visited" a state. 😁

Yes, this. It's not so much the quality of the fare as it is the tradition of high tea shared with others. There's something very civilised about it, and we love it!

We booked our first P&O cruise a year before COVID with some trepidation, because we had the impression it was a notch below most of the larger mainstream companies. Even our travel agent warned us against it. However, the itinerary and timing suited us perfectly and we went ahead. Long story short, it was a lovely cruise, on par with Princess and Royal Caribbean cruises we have taken out of Sydney (including the "busy" factor). We liked it so much that we have booked again next year for my 65th birthday, this time in an aft-facing suite. Really looking forward to it!

We will have a suite with Byron Beach Club access on a cruise next year, and I was curious whether it's worth it. How large is the area, and how crowded does it get? Is the service a bit better there than in larger public areas? Are children allowed--and if so, how many of them tend to be there at any given time? Thanks for any insights you can offer!

$44 per person seems pretty chintzy when you had COVID for 1.5 days--and you actually did the right thing by reporting it!

I've never read so much on Cruise Critic as I have in the last six months or so. We will be on the Enchanted to New Zealand this Christmas, and at times I find myself wondering whether it's even worth it when Princess seems to have so many issues and problems these days. However, I've come to realise that I probably wouldn't even think about or notice 99% of the things people complain about here, so I'm not going to worry. I'm just letting it all go and I'm sure the cruise will be wonderful. As AstroFlyer said, we've never had a "bad cruise"--just varying degrees of good!

I can assure that the non-cruisers in Australia are also really great. 😉

I want your travel agent!

No advice on booking excursions. However, our Alaska cruise was in May and a fair number of people said it was too early. I can report that the weather was perfect every day and it remains our favourite cruise.

We book as soon as we decide on a cruise, because we want to have the largest selection of staterooms possible.

I was going to make that point, but you did it first. I once got 100 pills of a controlled substance in Mexico (for which I had a prescription and a legitimate need) when I could only get ten at a time in the U.S.!