Over from NZ

Any suggestions on excursions etc?

Exactly! 😁

Cheers. I avoid those events.. so we won't bump into each other lol. I can't comment on Celebrity or RC.. but on Princess it's rife. Who cares how many times you've cruised. 😁🤣

Yep. Yet you can go to the supermarket where they work on low margin, high turnover.. and they don't charge an extra cent if you use your c/card. Obviously the c/card companies are having their wicked-way with some retailers charging them up to 3% when they can charge the big retailers next to nothing. Time they were taken to task as a near-monopoly. 😁

Yep lol. I reckon it would as cringey as anything haha. All the noters trying to out-do each other as to who's more "elite" haha. But if that's your thing.. 🤣

Now that's something I would avoid!!! 😛

Yes, but you can (and should) ignore that on the eft-pos machine when it pops up. Yep, we're seeing it occur more frequently in the tourist hop-spots.. where the eft-pos machines are asking you if you wish to add a tip. The answer we want to give is - "hell no, do I sound like an American?". I think the poster above was right onto it though - the simple explanation that should be given to US visitors.. is just don't do it! If you want to offload your money - just buy more. Eat out more, upgrade whatever you're doing.. do extra excursions. I.e. spend more.. but don't tip a cent. Excellent service is what's expected for the base fare.

A wrap-around promenade! Turn up the volume a bit on the MUTS for movies. Ditch smoking indoors (it's 2024 for goodness sake!). Make sure to include the Irish Bar! And while we're designing the ultimate Princess ship - can we chuck in a suggestion for the itinerary. Spend more time in the ports! This nonsense of 6-8 hours in a port and then slowly cruising to the next annoys me. Give us longer in each port.. or heck, even overnights in the ports! 🙂

Well the good thing is that next to nobody uses cash anymore.. so you don't even need to round the bill up. When they hand you the tap & go or the eftpos machine.. it's going to be $47.50. Maybe with the demise of cash.. we can kick this tipping nonsense to the curb 🙂

Last year, we used these guys - https://www.ephesusshuttle.com/categories/kusadasi-to-ephesus?id=1 They were excellent. The tour guide was Melis. Highly recommend. We did it as a group of 4 and it was only USD$84 each.

Mykonos is very walkable. We had on our list to see the Wind Mills, the old Harbour, Little Venice and the Bougainvillea and white-washed stone streets from the picture-cards.. and they're all in the same general area.

Out of Aussie; it's the same people on Princess.. just a generation older. 😂

They're exceptional ports if you're willing to put the effort in! 🙂 We've been to them all twice. First time around we sold ourselves short in Marseille by not organising anything. Was our fault. Second time we went to the Palace of the Popes in Avignon and the Pont Du Gard.

We didn't take our teen when we did the Med (twice). However they were "ghost towns". Almost no kids/teens on the ship at all (May/June both times). I even took a pic to show him that he probably wouldn't have enjoyed it like he enjoyed the South Pacific cruises over holiday periods.

Are you looking for best or cheapest? Taxi or Uber is by far the easiest.

Many of them do. There's usually on average about 2 a week. It was a 21-night cruise in the Mediterranean.

Yep. Our last Mediterranean cruise; after wearing a suit to the first 5 formal nights.. I duly presented in the MDR in shorts and Polo-shirt for the 6th like so many others I had observed. I enjoyed the food as much as the first 5. I did feel a bit self-conscious.. but that was all in my head. Once I got over myself and realised that nobody cared what I was wearing.. I was fine lol 🙂

We really used to enjoy traditional dining and taking that away was a negative. Be good if they brought it back on other ships too.

Traditional dining is long gone. Difference in motion will be negligible. Worrying about nothing 🙂

In the Med.. shorts and Polo shirts will now suffice for formal night. It must be rough & ready in Alaska & the Caribbean then!! hahaha.

Gotcha. We had 4-nights there last year. Purpletraveller's post sums it up very well. We did all those things. We also had a trip to Mdina (about 30-40 min bus-ride) because the wife is a GOT fan (and it was a great wee medieval walled town!) and a day-trip (similar bus-time) to Marsaxlokk where we saw the traditional Luzzo boats and had a ride in one to the grotto. However if you're just there for the day.. would look at Purpletraveller's recommendations. We enjoyed Fort St Elmo.. but even just wandering round Valetta admiring the old buildings, city walls etc was great.

Are you just there for the day?

Easy solution. That particular itinerary can start and finish in Rome. Fly into Venice.. spend a few nights there and train to Rome. Then do the 21 night round-trip, Rome-Rome.

The mighty dollar talks.. for now. Cruise ships are not exactly endeared by the public in NZ.. and I'm sure many would like to see them gone altogether. Reading the article and seeing just how bad they are.. does make me cringe a bit and I'm obviously guilty of having partaken. You might find at some point.. a country such as NZ with a green-coalition and not as much invested in the industry, says.. 'nup.. no more'. But I can't see countries with big dollars invested in the cruise industry turning them away. I think they're too big of a thing in Aussie to get rid of. I don't think the writing is on the wall for cruising.. nowhere near it in the near-future. For now they can get away with virtue signaling.. but it's going to have to change at some point in the decades to come. At some point as global warming etc ramps up and the bigger economies get more serious.. the cruise industry has a major problem coming. I wouldn't be buying shares in them for the long-haul lol 🙂

Wow. Without fact checking any of it.. if that video is correct.. that's a horrific indictment for cruise-ships. It's just horrible. But horrible enough to make us all feel ashamed?