mr walker

We are currently traveling back from QLD & are in TamworthNSW where I attended the Dawn Service this morning instead of usual home venue of Penrith. Good turnout & lovely service. Lest we forget

Strewth mate, you two take care of yourselves & get better soon.

I hope the rainfall does not meet the maximums predicted & I hope everyone stays safe & any flood damage minimized. We’re hoping it clears by Sunday as we head off to QLD from Sydney for a driving holiday, including a family wedding in Sunshine Coast next week. good luck all.

Almost every ship sails 'full' or close to it. When people talk about filling the ship, they are talking about selling it out at 'full' price. Unsold cabins are filled by discounting, some of which is not visible to all. TA's have clients who can sail at short notice at the right price and this fills unsold cabins. An old rule of thumb is that 80% of cabins sold at regular prices meets the costs of the cruise, the other 20% can be filled below 'cost' as those passengers will drink, take excursions etc which provides the all important revenue. I have been receiving emails from RC once or twice a week for months offering special deals - they are always for Quantam out of Brisbane, not for Ovation out of Sydney.

Might be the time for savvy investors to buy in - in the 21st century the (bad) news cycle is very short. And no, I'm not going to invest 🙂

Getting that close to Sydney, and turning back, is almost like teasing the passengers hoping to board now on Sunday 😮 Hope all goes well.

A$230 pn for presumably an IC for the Anthem cruise is certainly showing that cruise costs are high. Gone are the days of a $200 balcony 😞 Lucky we get the C&A 'price' for drinks 🙂

Between 2014 & 2018 we travelled to Norfolk Island each year. The little dog was always there upon arrival sniffing around. The dog detected something with a woman's bag just along the line from us. The officer asked two or three times if she had any food. She replied "no" each time, and was becoming a bit annoyed & her husband also asked her about whether she had anything. A banana was located in her bag, she said she didn;t remember having it, and then her & her husband had 'words' - not a great start to a holiday on NI!

I hope it arrives back in Sydney before 22 Nov - we are booked 37N roundtrip from Sydney departing 16 Oct 🙂

Imagine my surprise when we awoke in Noumea, expecting our starboard balcony view to be out over the beautiful harbour & city, only to see piles of ore & an ugly cargo vessel. Never expected that the master would have chosen to reverse park 😮

Agree on that for sure. Whilst Elvis was the King, and we have enjoyed 'Elvis shows' over the years on land and at sea, I can't imagine enjoying a whole cruise entertainment schedule being Elvis' or perhaps it's Elvises or Elvii?? We have done a number of country music themed cruises, but a variety of artists, even in the same genre, would be our choice. Slim or Willie of even Dolly every day would not work!!

Happy Easter to all here on CC - may you day be enjoyable & celebrate whatever Easter means to you. Enjoy your day - we have our adult sons coming today for a lunch get together. I told them it will involve drinking beer, eating food & Easter Eggs - a real Aussie event. 🙂

On our recent Majestic Princess cruise we saw a great Elvis show - by a kiwi by the name of Che Orton. He was billed as having recently been named as in the top 5 Elvis acts worldwide & won the Parkes 'Elvis' event this year. He is to travel to US to represent Australia in an Elvis competition. He did a second show as himself & is a great entertainer. He was so good as Elvis, that I think some onboard thought he was the real Elvis 🙂

We thought the 'stadium-style' seating in 'Live' on Majestic was really good in fitting the crowd in for trivia, games shows etc. The design provided much more capacity than other lounges in a wide range of ships (Princess & others) typically used for these types of activities. Many venues have oversized furniture which is suited for drinking and talking, but severely restricts the number of punters for trivia etc due to the space the furniture takes up. I do accept Julie's point about the design making it less than perfect to teams of 4-6 to sit around for the quiz, but for the 2 of us, and for groups of 3-4, it worked well & a lot more players can take part.

Is that ‘Princess Live’ venue as on Majestic? OK I see that Geoff already answered 😁

Methane & methanol are not the same thing 🙂 That said, it would be a good thing if a cruise-ship could be powered by methane - a herd of cows down on deck 0 could power the ship & provide milk and beef. The by-product may present an issue though - perhaps they would need to be housed on the poop deck! 😮

I’m sure a good time was had by all mate. The club & surrounding area has changed a bit since then, but it is still Penriff. It’s funny that the Penriff name started as an insult by others, but now is celebrated with pride 😁 You’ll have to come by sometime to check it out - my shout!!! Cheers

I'm thinking that Lyle & Lynn may get a chance for a pie at Harry's at the Panthers Club on their visit here next year 🙂 So then they can compare with Batehaven Bakery 🙂

There are a lot more planes, trains & automobiles than cruise ships. Also, the number of cruise-ships in the world is a small percentage of the total of ships in the seas. People 'exposing' specific problems mostly have vested interests influencing their views. Maybe a few should swim (no planes or ships) to places like Jakarta to see real pollution in action. We can all revert to being subsistence villagers. only walking for travel - problem solved. I'll keep on cruising.

Yes, & I saw that others had answered with good advice on what you asked. Then.................... Enjoy your cruise and so whatever you are happy to do.

Wow! Really?? So giving a crew member some $'s in appreciation of their efforts is abuse?? Your post has caused me to break one of my 'rules' of not commenting on tipping threads. On our recent cruise (where we had already 'paid' the tips included in our fare), we tipped, in cash, on the last evening, our room steward, our dining room waitress & the guy who served us on the pool deck throughout in appreciation of the extra efforts they made to look after us and help us enjoy our cruise. None of them knew we were to do this, and the tip was accepted with great appreciation.

Perhaps the IT people ‘fixed’ the app or it comes good after completing first cruise using new app?? Since we returned Majestic 23 Feb, I see now that the app remembers my info, keeps me signed in & allows easily toggling between each of our 2 booked cruises. For our next cruise Royal 30Nov all I need to do to complete check-in is accept passage contract - all the other data is pre-filled.

On cruise ships it is always a dilemma of clockwise or anti clockwise (even counterclockwise) & walk on left or right. Perhaps they are inter-related? I often think that I’m glad I’m on a ship & not on a road😁 And don’t get me started on shopping trolleys in supermarkets 😳

You must be boarding in Brisbane. We will be somewhat settled in as we board in Sydney on 16th. Looking forward to it & hope to meet you. Only 587 days to go 😳 Cheers Neil

Good to hear from you mate. Bit of a lifestyle change, I'm sure you will settle in well & enjoy yourself in the new surroundings. Hope to be down your way later in the year & hope to catch up then Cheers Neil & Tracey