mr walker

Yes it's funny how you just stumble across something you remember forever on your travels. We loved our time around Banff & Lake Louise & Jasper.

On a travel day, we drove from Jasper to Kamloops, just following the road. Looking for a place for lunch we found a little Mum & Pop Diner in a little town along the road totally by chance. Looking back now at the map it may have been at a place called Clearwater? The diner was just like something out of the movies. It was decorated with LP records & music memorabilia all over the walls, had great food & coffee (bottomless), the proprietors were wonderful hosts, came & sat at the table with us to learn about these travelers from the other side of the world & insisted we sign their visitors book. We had trouble getting away from there, as they would have talked with us for the rest of the day 🙂 It was one of those truly unexpected life experiences. 

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

Indeed.

The other part is seeing how closely your experience comes to matching-up with your plans, and what unexpected highlights trump your planned highlights.

That has happened to us. When we were planning our Alaska/Hawaii/Syd repo, we planned to cruise on the same ship all the way. There was a week missing in our plans as the ship was to do a 7 day charter cruise before departing Vancouver, so we hatched a plan to 'do' the Canadian Rockies by land to fill the gap.

Subsequently, we changed to another ship & there was no gap in the sailings, so we didn't need to do a land tour to fill the time gap. However, by that time we had become so excited at the prospect of a week in the Canadian Rockies, that we still wanted to do it. So we went earlier & did a 10-day road trip to start our trip. Turned out that the Rockies trip was the highlight of our whole trip!!!!!!! And to think it was not in our original plan 🙂 

Congratulations on your anniversary Lyle & Lynn - looks like you had a good day to celebrate the occasion.

Most of us downunder would be very happy for 29C temps right now 🙂 

Hope the situation over there with the fires comse good quickly.

Cheers

Neil & Tracey 

4 hours ago, rkmw said:

Being D+ with RC I like the 5 daily drinks too

We are 3 nights from D+, so will be there latest in March, if we don't find something before then.

Agree with the comments that all cruise prices have increased, but so has everything else in life. Also agree that RC's itineraries are restricted in where they sail here & hence an increase in our Princess cruises. Of course, the onboard charges on RC are US$ which is problematical these days, but we don't tend to spend much these days, as our drinks are basically free, and we have a USD kitty on a travel card from when our $ was much better. 

As the sayings go, "we are a long time dead", and "it's only money & you can't spend it when your dead", so we will continue to cruise while we can. Good news for us is that we are retired, and started drawing down on super in January & the balance is higher today than then - hope it continues 🙂 

OP, glad you got the result you wanted, and if the threat of Fair Trading helped the cause, then that is good luck. From my experience, not cruise related, NSW Fair Trading would have been as useful as udders on a bull.

As we slowly make our way towards Princess Elite & the opportunity to partake in the mini-bar, still happy with the Royal Caribbean C&A perk of 4 drinks per day from any bar on the ship - but no takeaways with them of course 🙂 

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

P&O ?

Change of undies & a stubby holder in a plastic shopping bag? 🙂 

16 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

Call me a Luddite but I also refuse to use self service checkouts. 🤷‍♂️

14 hours ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

 

I prefer them for small purchases. Bread and milk. In and out 

 

But not this business  of a whole trolley.

I also find the self-serve checkouts very convenient for a small basket of goods, but not for a 'big shop'.

Supermarket self-serve checkouts align well with internet banking & on-line booking, including for cruises & cruise related purchases 🙂

I've also discovered on-line ordering for beverages. Order on the app for a cheaper price & they send a text when your order is ready, drive to the parking spot & they bring the drinks out to you. I almost feel like I'm on a cruise 🙂  Thanks Dan!!

21 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

 

.....For me, one of the (many) things I enjoy about cruising is disconnecting and getting away from screens. I stood my ground and just turned up for breakfast each morning and told them they could book me in. DW thinks I can be a bit bloody minded at times… 🤔

21 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

We will just be turning up at the dining room for breakfast - no booking in. I am prepared to pre-book dinner times. We don't carry our phone around the ship with us.

I almost always carry my phone onboard- in flight mode. It serves as my general purpose camera, my clock, counts my steps & helps me to be where I want to be.

Also, sometimes when we travel with others we engage, for a spot of fun, in a sort of treasure hunt, where we choose things for the others to find, taking a photo which we show them & they have to find. They then show us a photo as proof! Without a phone with a camera it would be hard to do, as I am not a good drawer 🙂 

21 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

I tend to got to the MDR for breakfast. I ask for a shared table and enjoy conversation. It’s much more civilised having someone bring breakfast to me. And I eat less than I would at the buffet. 
 

DW & I mostly do this - and the idea of being more civilised is the same for us. Sometimes though we are too late for MDR breakfast & buffet it is 🙂 

16 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

DW's sister is on that cruise at the moment but they missed Norfolk Island due to the weather. 😱

Always a chance of that happening - it would have been very disappointing for her & the others on the cruise.

We did the Bounty cruise last year & sure enjoyed catching up with NI, one of our favourite places on earth - we had been 4 times previously by air.

Hopefully one of the cruiselines will do something similar again one day. The locals look very much forward to the ship visits.

7 hours ago, Bubbeh said:

Anyway, aren't you ever concerned that common use pillows (ship/hotel/motel etc) aren't properly sanitised?  I always imagine that they're crawling with bugs, skin cells and dandruff.  Have you ever removed the pillow slip and pillow protector and looked at the actual pillow? 

 

Further to the above, I have neck issues and suffer if I don't use a contour latex/memory foam pillow.  

No I'd never thought of that at all. I guess I just expected all would be clean 😮

7 hours ago, Kristelle said:

 

 

No, that doesn't bother me

 

Ive slept on other people's pillows in private houses, hotels, boats etc  for 6 decades - hasn't hurt me yet so not going to start worrying about it now

My thoughts also.

7 hours ago, Cbtours said:

I say “thanks” which should have a. Exclamation mark!!! I haven’t ever thought about anything crawling and what will I do now if I can’t think it 😣😣😣😣

Yes, now I'm concerned that I will think of Bubbeh's information every time I check in - once the point has been raised, very worried I will never be able to unthink it 🤣

Lots of interesting stories on this thread.

During the last 20+ years of my working career (I retired 2 years ago) I travelled a lot, domestically and OS. Those travels, plus holidays on land & on cruises, amounted to close to 100 nights per year not sleeping in my own bed.

Not once did I ever had occasion to think, I wish I had brought my pillow from home 😮

15 hours ago, JohnGc said:

Love to do more cruising but when you are over 80 yrs old insurance companies price you out, I guess you are too much of a risk. Got our cruise from Singapore coming up but I think that will be our last one where a long flight is involved. We have a cruise to New Zealand booked in early 2026 from Sydney and then we will see how we are health wise from there. As sad as it is but being realistic we do not want to book too far ahead. We have had a fantastic time cruising and are grateful for all the good memories. Never have had holidays to a regular place every year but when we have had the need to relax and get away from it all we found Rainbow Beach, Sunshine coast Qld was ideal.

 

Cheers John

Many more happy travel days ahead for you I trust. Cheers

20 hours ago, NSWP said:

Mogo pies on Princes Hwy, south of Batemans Bay, present the 'Burger pie' beef patties and cheese in a pie.   Yes Uncle Les is stll alive and recovering from a broken shoulder and arm, now in a Riverside villa at Moruya Illawarra Retirement Trust. No more high rise. Best wishes to all.

 

G'day Les. Glad to hear you're on the improve mate. Hope your new place is working for you & that there is a happy hour there.

We were planning a trip down to Merimbula next month, joining friends in house-sitting for their daughter who is off to UK. Unfortunately my mate has to have an op soon & will be out of action for a few weeks, so trip is off. Our plan was to try & catch up with you then, but we'll have to wait for next trip.

Take care & stay safe. Cheers, Neil & Tracey

13 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

We are supposed to have big cats in the Blue Mountains…not sure if there is any truth to it though.

Yes many reported sightings over the years. Nothing has ever been confirmed, so nobody knows for sure if fact or fiction. Many locals in the mountains swear the story is true.

Many stories of the origin of the mysterious Blue Mountains panther(s), from a US military mascot released by it's company, to an escapee from the Warragamba wildlife park or a travelling circus, to the creature being an escape by a panther used as a game day promotion for the mighty Penrith Panthers Rugby League team back in late 1960's.

Not sure we will ever know.

When we travelled the Canadian Rockies by car in 2014, we saw lots of signs warning of bears, but never did see a bear 🙂 

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

There was a business card on the bed on the last day, suggesting we could buy a bed just like that one - I tossed it in the bin.

The card or the bed?? 😮

Where is the money? or perhaps more aptly, where does the money go? is a huge issue in Vanautu.

Apart from Geoff's points above, I am aware of the situation with the Convention Centre, opened in 2016 built with Chinese money (USD$16M reportedly). Local tourist operators will drive you by, saying that you can not go in, as the country does not have enough money to pay for the electricity to turn on the lights.

Apparently, the deal for the Centre was tied in with the building of new Offices of the Prime Minister's Department.😮

I'm up for a CC working bee!!

30 minutes ago, arxcards said:

It also confirms why sailaway party doesn't start close to White Bay terminal - a $12,100 "good neighbour" charge that is rebated if they comply with noise restrictions.

Amazing!!!

On 6/13/2024 at 11:57 AM, Mycruiseobsession said:

Yes my opinion is that we are currently  experiencing an advertising technique that is based on FOMO

 

(Fear of missing out)

 

"Everyone's booking and it's so popular!!"

 

OR

 

"Closing down, last chance!"

 

Either way it's catering to the impulsive urge to either be in with the crowd or not wanting to miss out on that last opportunity.

Yes, but where are the "60-80% OFF" signs normally associated with closing down sales?? 🙂

2 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

OK, I'll bite. I'm not a gambler at all, don't even know how to play a poker machine.  How little can I gamble on a ship's casino in order to get free drinks?

I don't know but I am sure it's a lot more than people let on. I had a work colleague who often got a 'free' P&O cruise (3/4N) courtesy of casino play. They always downplayed their donations to the machines, but I know they were not putting just the odd $20 in 🙂 

We have used CBA travel money cards for OS travel for 10 years, for purchases and taking cash from ATMs. The main use has been to pay our onboard account on RC cruises, using pre-loaded US$.

We were advised that 'money-cards' can be used on cruises as long as they have a name on them.

Advice at the time was that the pre-bought 'anonymous' money cards bought from retail outlets would not be accepted onboard. We have never tried so I can't comment on that.

We have registered our cards on-line ahead of the cruise each time, just like we would an A$ regular credit card, and have never had a problem.

Our Princess Captain's Circle & P&O Cruiseling Codes numbers are the same. We did nothing to make this happen, so it must be somehow 'automatic'. 

Our Carnival VIFP # is different.

5 hours ago, Badatz2 said:

Sorry but I am not clear with your comment.  If I want to see local animals, kangaroos, koala, wombats penguins etc.  which of the three zoos should I go to.  I am not interested in lions, tigers and bears etc.

To clarify, my suggestion to focus on Australian animals is Featherdale, if that fits with your plans. Featherdale is located at Doonside in Sydney's west, and is best visited as part of a trip to Blue Mountains to make the best of your time. The most convenient way to do this is as a day trip with one of the Tour operators, which are not cheap, but you will see everything to see. It is possible to take the train to Blacktown to visit Featherdale, taking a bus from Blacktown.

Good find Chill. I'd been looking for a good price Celebrity cruise to try it out - we had one booked for 2021 that didn’t happen.

Unfortunately can’t do this one as already booked on Ovation to NZ at that time. It will get us to D+ on RC, so Elite+ on Celebrity on the new match deal