Over from NZ

Expect everything from (Farenheit) high 40's to low 90's in January in the South Island. And you'll probably get the range too! The South Island gets both the hottest and the coldest extremes.

You're welcome. It was a great cruise. The formal night that I wore shorts - the food didn't taste any different. I think when Princess ditched formal dining.. that was just another step in the direction of casualising things. 5.5 weeks in Europe.. wish I had known as I could have left the suit, extra shoes, business shirts etc at home as luggage space was tough. Enjoy your cruise!

So we had 6 formal nights in June on the Enchanted. First 5 of them I wore a suit and Tie. I observed everything from Tuxedos to shorts and t-shirts in the MDR. On the 6th formal night, I too wore just shorts and a polo to dinner in the MDR. There you go. Not an opinion. - an actual "did". Good luck 🙂

So far, we've done the 50-shades of lemon tour (best meal of the whole Mediterranean trip) and we've done the Pompeii and Amalfi Coast with this company - https://italytoursharing.com/ports/naples-port Works out cost effective if you get a group of 8 and far better than the ship tours. We've also done Capri from Naples.. but we just did our own thing (the Ferry is right next to where the Ship docks). Capri was ok.. but not as good as the Amalfi Coast. 50-shades of Lemon took us to Amalfi and Ravello as well as the lemon tour/restaurant. Highly recommended!

The cruise lines can be a bit extortionate in their pricing for that one. Give them a wide berth haha. Uber should be quite a bit cheaper than taxi (depending on their dynamic pricing and whether it spikes when a cruise-ship hits port). It's about a 30-min drive depending on traffic I would think. You could catch a public bus.. but that would be a lot of fluffing around and eat into your day far more.

No - that's easy to do (and pretty much what we did last visit there). Pre-book your tickets for Sagrada for 9am. Get a taxi there - it's cheap and not far from the port. Then do those other options.. have lunch somewhere in the Gothic quarter or down La Rambla. Easy-peasy.

Politely disagree somewhat. You can dock right near the city in Barcelona, Gibraltar, Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, Istanbul and quite a number of places in the Mediterranean. Although I do still think land is a better way to go. You can do that type of cruise and see a good number of the instagram bucket-list type places relatively close to where the ship docks. SE Asia - you're never going to see "a big chink of it in one hit". Not close. And if they're coming from the other side of the world for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.. yet doing it this way.. you've really got to question what they're doing. Arguably cruising isn't much cheaper.. and you don't really get to see the place you're coming for - so it doesn't make a lot of sense. You might get a snap-shot in say the Mediterranean.. Aussie, NZ, Alaska.. The Caribbean.. where ports and attractions aren't too far apart (even then, the likes of NZ you don't really get to see what all the fuss is about).. but Asia (and by the sounds of it Norther Europe) you get a very poor experience (albeit a nice cruise). If a nice cruise is the driving factor.. why bother flying round the world for that.. do it local 🙂

Nah.. I'd give it a miss. It's not a good way to see Asia at all. The cities you're wanting to see are too far away from the ports. Ho Chi Minh City for example.. we were 2.5 hours in a 40-seat bus down one long highway.. then about 4-hours at max in the city.. before back on the bus for 2.5 hours back to the ship. It's rubbish. If you want to see those places.. fly over there instead.

We've just been in June. Did Ephesus and Mary's place with Curio Travel. They picked us up at 7.30am and had us back to the ship at noon. It was an excellent excursion. It cost us US$84 each for 4 people. If you're departing at 12.30pm though.. you would want to shorten it. Probably drop off Mary.

You're totally correct. As a non-drinker.. there's absolutely no point of a package for me. Yet they're using a mix of the blow-torch theory, death by a thousand cuts and Fomo (which I don't buy into) to coerce people across. All that does is further put me off them. Already I'm questioning the value of cruising anyhow.. this helps lead me and other non-drinkers on a different pathway 🙂

They're just further coercing everybody towards the plus packages. Initially they've grabbed the low-hanging fruit by getting the people with FOMO.. too dumb to work out how much they drink on a cruise. They've then chucked in a few extra cherries. They'll keep tweaking it and further and further.. till just about everybody takes the enhanced package.. then they can remove the no-frills version and boom! They've got everybody on the all inclusive (but muchly greater priced) plus versions. Then.. they can start the whole thing over again.. by introducing a plus, plus, plus package with new things they will introduce over and above. It's all marketing.. it's all big business. It's our job to call them out and if it be.. go elsewhere and/or consider other (and there's many, many ways to spend the dollar) discretionary leisure spending. They're cheeky buggers. They will continue to try and give you the minimum required for the maximum return. That's business. It's also business when the consumer says no.. 🙂

If you're doing an overnight in La Spezia.. why don't you just train to the CT? The first village is only 10 mins from La Spezia station and the res tare spaced out similarly after that.

Seriously, you're over thinking it. The buffet etc is all on deck 16. If it were to make that much difference.. they wouldn't put those up there. We've just done 21-nights on the Enchanted interior, deck 16. 🙂

We've just spent 4-nights in La Spezia before catching the train to Rome for our cruise. From La Spezia it was approx an hour from memory on the train to Pisa. It was only about 10-15 mins from La Spezia to the first of the Cinque Terre villages (and so easy - get off the train and you're there) and then the other villages were only 10 mins further up the track. Another option which we enjoyed as much as the Cinque Terre - is to go to Porto Venere. Catch the Ferry from La Spezia (it also carries on up to the Cinque Terre). Short ride. From memory, no more than 30-mins. Porto Venere is beautiful. We didn't (as we'd been there on previous trip), but you can also get to Portofino from La Spezia. La Spezia itself isn't on par with say the CT or Porto Venere.. but we still found it an interesting city. Given the short times in port with cruise-ships - I would either go to Porto Venere or the CT (I prefer Porto Venere, however if you want the instagram pic to prove to people you've been to the CT..) unless you really want to see Pisa which is also doable. Less time on trains at PV or CT.

3 weeks onboard last month. Have to admit, thought the food was average in the MDR. Sometimes really good.. sometimes not so good at all.. but generally just average. Towards the end of the third week.. we even went to the buffet a couple of times instead as the MDR had lost it's allure. Nothing to write home about.

Aussies are rather "casual" dressers at the best of times. Putting on tidy shorts and a pair of shoes is getting dressed up for an Aussie. The new Princess is a lot different. Wear what you want.. others will be.

Last month on the Enchanted, we had lunch in the MDR when boarding in Rome.

We were in Marseille last month. Second time we've been there on a cruise. We let ourselves down the first time by not planning anything (we just did the hoho). Left thinking it was a rather average port. Only ourselves to blame. This time, we organised an excursion which was excellent - https://www.toursbylocals.com/PrivateGuidedTour-Avignon We slightly amended it though, as we wanted to see the Pont Du Gard. We were back well within time. Excellent guide.

Jeans are definitely fine. In fact, you could wear shorts and t-shirts and still dine in the MDR on formal night (the stiff brigade may glance down their noses at you.. but you'll be welcomed in by the staff). There's generally 2 formal nights a week - our 21-night cruise on the Enchanted last month had 6. I wore a suit for 5 of them and wore shorts and a polo for the 6th. The food tasted just the same on the 6th. 🙂

They need something inbetween the double espresso and the Americano. Like a long black they're called over here. Or I guess a double espresso with some hot water on the side might solve it.

Always wondered why those are seldom available. Is it because they would have to bake too many if we knew they were?! haha 🙂

Your post contradicts itself. You state you know not to arrive the day of departure.. then you state you've booked flights arriving the day of departure. Wake up and go and change your flights.. lol.

It's easy enough to set up the spreadsheet. However.. facebook is the new cruise critic if you follow what I mean.. 🙂

Yes. However, sometimes it was Princess staff.. sometimes port staff. Barcelona for example - had a 6-pack of beer and a bottle of vodka in the backpack which went through the scanner at the port.. and then because had gone through their scanner there was no ships scanner. Nothing said. Santorini - bottle of liquor went through in the backpack.. nothing said (that one would have been scanned on the ship rather than in the port). Athens - couple of bottles of wine. Can't recall what other ports we bought grog at. All rather casual at the scanning to be honest.

Cheers. $65 - AUD? So $55 when the internet taken into account.. but still couldn't justify that for a few coffees and soft-drinks. You would just about have to be one of the obese, sugar addicted soda drinkers to get your moneys worth I would think haha.