HelenSteady

I have heard that the new tvs are being put in with the dry dock at the end of the year and they'll be what we had on the Diamond a couple of years ago where you could choose what movie you watched, when you wanted to. New beds coming too, thank goodness.

Then Princess would simply up its price for the package on cruises out of Australia... and still not have to worry about the competition. The higher price - to make up for no auto-gratuities on Australia-based ships - doesn't seem to affect them.

 

It may be -

because Princess has an Australian subsidiary with ships based in Australia, the company is subject to different regulations than the 'foreign' RCI and X.

I was able to pre-buy the buckets of beer and bottle of scotch in October 2013 on the Sea Princess on a sailing out of Sydney to Tasmania so the policy has changed since then. They haven't just changed the policy as I was told I couldn't buy about 1 month ago. And as to Australian laws, if they are subject to International Law once they are out of local waters then this is a load of rubbish.

Just make sure you book prior to arrival!! :)

See someone has mentioned PlayAround in Tassie. We booked this 1 year ago. It's run by an absolutely delightful lady. We loved it and highly recommend.

Take more than that to lure me back to P&O Australia. Last cruise with them was just over 3 years ago, and it had been so stripped back it was dreadful so I swore never again, like never again for Norwegian and from what I hear Carnival is just as bad. Will stick with Princess and Holland America, but am trying Celebrity twice soon.

My cruise on RC out of Sydney last winter, they sent out stagered times to board - I got to the dock at 1 due to the hotel transfer time - my email had said 2 - I was denied boarding until 2. I could drop my luggage, and I went for a walk and came back. At that time there was no lineups at all, and boarding was very quick. Think more cruise lines should look at that.

 

I know, I hear the roar of the ones that insist they paid for "a free lunch" on boarding day and are going to get it no matter what!

But, I would rather board at 2 and walk on than board line up at 12 and wait in that line until 2 and board - not good at standing around in lineups

We were on the Crown Princess out of Vancouver in June and three other ships were also boarding. Luckily, we have preferred boarding being Platinum plus I use a walking stick and we were plucked from the line and sailed (unintended pun) through. Ship was late departing as it took 5 hours for all passengers to board. From what we could see the issue was with USBP as there were just not enough people to deal with the hoards waiting to board one of the four ships. Had the same problem 4 years ago out of Canada Place when I needed assistance to board and we waited for an extremely long time.