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Anyone have opinions on the Sea Princess?


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I know she is cruising the World now...

 

But, we will be boarding her on her return to SYD, on 20 Sept. 2018 for a 10 Queensland/GBR cruise...and continue on with the 28 day circumnavigation....until Oct. 28th.

 

Just curious if any recent cruisers have some tips to pass along about the SEA....venues you enjoy...secret spots to get away..a favorite item served ...best bar for views, drink specialty....etc....

 

 

Thanks...L:Dri

 

 

BTW...this is our first adventure in Australia...we are flying from Southern California.

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Try the always available Pavlova for dessert one night.

A New Zealand and Australian speciality.

 

 

Love the wide deck on 7 and it is covered at the front so you don't get blown away and NO stairs like the Grand class.

 

Great for walking around or lying back on the deck chairs.

 

 

Enjoy your time down under.:)

 

 

Karryl

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I am not too sure about the tipping comment. I may be wrong but I think that comment re tipping only applies to Aust. cruisers who have booked within Australia and cruising round trip starting and finishing in Australia. As the OP. comes from the USA (even though they are doing a round trip Australia cruise) this may not apply to them. As I said I may be wrong but what I have said is my understanding.

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And no tipping whatsoever, it is hidden in the cruise fare.:hearteyes:

 

As land lover is from the USA, they will still have to pay tipping.

 

We booked on the Sun Princess last Christmas and as we booked the cruise from the UK, the ship wanted to charge us tipping, but once we told them we are from New Zealand, they removed the tipping.

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Wow..just skimmed thru Kiwi-cruisers Bon Voyage thread...impressive.....

 

But OMG..what a lot of sea days....

 

Thank You :)

 

yes, but from what I have been reading on the blogs, the passengers have been looking forward to every sea days they have, especially after they have had 6 - 7 ports in a row.

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Just curious if any recent cruisers have some tips to pass along about the SEA....venues you enjoy...secret spots to get away..a favorite item served ...best bar for views, drink specialty....etc.....

 

We spent 35 days on the Sea Princess a few years back and one of my favourite bars for views is the "Topsails Bar" on deck 12.

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Try the always available Pavlova for dessert one night.

A New Zealand and Australian speciality.

 

 

Love the wide deck on 7 and it is covered at the front so you don't get blown away and NO stairs like the Grand class.

 

Great for walking around or lying back on the deck chairs.

 

 

Enjoy your time down under.:)

 

 

 

 

Karryl

 

Just jotted down the name and then looked it up on-line. Thought I knew what it was...& I Do...I LOVE crusty meringue.....I'll be on the look out.....my Mom used to make something similar with Ice cream and crushed berries in a nest of meringue....YUM.....YUM... for some reason when I try to repeat her recipe I either over whip or bake the meringue, I understand weather can play a roll in ones success on this dessert.

 

 

Thanks for the tip,....

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Regarding the tipping as other posters have stated

 

on Princess cruises..run by Princess Australia in AUD in 2018(like all my specifics;p)...North Americans, UK, Europeans, etc..... all get the auto grats added.

 

 

 

After reading about grats inclusion for A&Ks and suggestions by posters to pull tips off, besides employees being paid more on OZ Princess ships(a fallacy, from info I gathered). Curious, I did some investigation and found pricing for the 28 day cruise was comparable in AUD and USD. I booked late and only inside cabin cats were available so this was my comparison point, so I tried to compare apples to apples exact same CAT.

 

 

Not that the above matters.. after all Aussies and Kiwis are the customer base for these cruises. And when the sailing showed sold out on the Princess US site.....there was still availability on PA.

 

No worries for me.......My tips are already prepaid...just figured I would get it over with.

 

 

 

But since so many A&K's post they do a lot of cash tipping on board....will I feel cheap or staff expect something if I choose not to give additional cash tips:confused:

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Thank You :)

 

yes, but from what I have been reading on the blogs, the passengers have been looking forward to every sea days they have, especially after they have had 6 - 7 ports in a row.

 

We spent 35 days on the Sea Princess a few years back and one of my favourite bars for views is the "Topsails Bar" on deck 12.

 

What is the demographic on a world cruise based out of AU?

 

 

More than 3 days in a row for me is to much, it used to be 2....in a few years it will probably be 5.:D.this 28 day will be our longest cruise yet and with the prior the 10day...we will see....

 

Topsails denoted....is it good for sail-away?

 

 

I see you are going on the Majestic have you sailed her before?

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Try the always available Pavlova for dessert one night. A New Zealand and Australian speciality. Love the wide deck on 7 and it is covered at the front so you don't get blown away and NO stairs like the Grand class. Great for walking around or lying back on the deck chairs. Enjoy your time down under.:) Karryl
Didn't notice this until I reread your post,.....got carried away with the meringue. Having an inside room as we do, great suggestion....for lounging.....
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After reading about grats inclusion for A&Ks and suggestions by posters to pull tips off, besides employees being paid more on OZ Princess ships(a fallacy, from info I gathered). Curious, I did some investigation and found pricing for the 28 day cruise was comparable in AUD and USD. I booked late and only inside cabin cats were available so this was my comparison point, so I tried to compare apples to apples exact same CAT.

 

But since so many A&K's post they do a lot of cash tipping on board....will I feel cheap or staff expect something if I choose not to give additional cash tips:confused:

The service staff on Princess cruises out of Australia are definitely paid much more than on the ships where tips apply. Please see below -

 

1. When Princess removed the tips on 1st May 2011 they announced that the service staff would be paid the same amount that they would receive on ships where the tips continued to apply.

2. The service staff are happy to work on the Australian ships so they are obviously happy with their remuneration. Many of them come back for contract after contract and say they love the Aussie ships. On a couple of occasions, I have gently asked a young woman steward if she could get a job in a good hotel near home (Philippines or Indonesia) so she'd be close to her kids. The answer is always that they would not get anywhere near as good money as on the ships.

3. There is no way that the militant Australian maritime unions would allow the ships to sail if the crew were paid the very low base rate that they get on the ships where tips apply. Naturally, on these ships, when tips are added, their remuneration is good.

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But since so many A&K's post they do a lot of cash tipping on board....will I feel cheap or staff expect something if I choose not to give additional cash tips:confused:

I am dubious on that. People can say they tip extra, but do they really? From what I have seen on many cruises, there is only a bit of additional tipping on Australian cruises. Staff will not expect it and you need not feel cheap. It is more important for you to fill out the appreciation card at the end of the cruise. These used to be called "You made a difference" but I think they have a different name now.

 

You commented that you are pre-paying your tips. Princess have stated that tips go into a fleet-wide pool. That is so they can even out the remuneration to staff every month. What you pay on the Sea Princess will not be shared among the staff who serve you (cabin steward and your particularly dining room stewards etc.) because they are not part of the fleet-wide tipping pool. It would be an administrative nightmare to try to work this out for the 'overseas' passengers travelling on the Aussie ships. Staff on Aussie ships are entitled to a very small amount of the tipping pool as part of staff incentives. These are small cash awards for long service (5 years, 10 years etc.) or as Employee of the Month on their ship. It would work better for the staff serving passengers from countries other than Aust & NZ, if those passengers removed the auto-tip then personally handed some of that amount to each of the staff who serve them. Please note, I am suggesting you can pay exactly the same amount as you would with the auto-tip. The staff you give the money to can keep it. Don't worry about the behind-the-scenes staff, they are not part of the tipping pool anyway.

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It is more important for you to fill out the appreciation card at the end of the cruise. These used to be called "You made a difference" but I think they have a different name now.

 

The main thing to remember when filling out these cards is that anything other than 10/10 will result in negative feedback to the staff member involved and possibly have ramifications as to remuneration and promotion.

 

Unless you really don't like the staff, give them a glowing report. Either that or don't fill it in at all.

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The main thing to remember when filling out these cards is that anything other than 10/10 will result in negative feedback to the staff member involved and possibly have ramifications as to remuneration and promotion.

 

Unless you really don't like the staff, give them a glowing report. Either that or don't fill it in at all.

The cards I have seen (even as late as last week) do not have the option to give a '10' or any other rating. There is just a space to put the name and position of the person nominated, then the reason for the nomination. Getting these cards helps a crew member to get a promotion and also a future contract.

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We spent 35 days on the Sea Princess a few years back and one of my favourite bars for views is the "Topsails Bar" on deck 12.

 

Not deck 12, deck 15.

 

It's Topsiders on Sun Princess. I can't remember what it was called on Dawn Princess but there was a great bartender there when we did the Top End cruise in August 2015). Not many people seemed to use that bar on that cruise so the poor guy was a bit bored. Once he learnt our favourite drinks, he had fun making different variations on them each day - using different types of vodka or gin, or adding a splash of something different to tweak the flavour a little. I forget what DH's favourite was but I do remember the bartender added a touch of ginger to it one day and DH thought it was fantastic.

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Try the always available Pavlova for dessert one night.

A New Zealand and Australian speciality.

 

 

Karryl

 

Just jotted down the name and then looked it up on-line. Thought I knew what it was...& I Do...I LOVE crusty meringue.....I'll be on the look out.....my Mom used to make something similar with Ice cream and crushed berries in a nest of meringue....YUM.....YUM... for some reason when I try to repeat her recipe I either over whip or bake the meringue, I understand weather can play a roll in ones success on this dessert.

 

 

Thanks for the tip,....

 

Except the little meringue nests they serve onboard cruise ships are not pavlova. Sure, they are tasty enough if you like meringue, but they lack the marshmallowy inside which is the one thing that distinguishes pavlova from straight meringue. It's hard to get right in individual serves, but a guy made some on Australian MasterChef the other week that looked perfect. I haven't tried the recipe myself yet but I intend to - once we get back from our upcoming cruise.

 

Oven temperature is key to making meringues and pavlova. Too hot and they start weeping as the sugar caramelises, too cool and the crust doesn't form properly.

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Topsails denoted....is it good for sail-away?

 

If its open, then yes, it is good for sail-away as you get to see everything going on and its good for wildlife watching as well!

 

I see you are going on the Majestic have you sailed her before?

 

No, this will be our first time on the Majestic and this is also Majestic first time down under :).

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3. There is no way that the militant Australian maritime unions would allow the ships to sail if the crew were paid the very low base rate that they get on the ships where tips apply. Naturally, on these ships, when tips are added, their remuneration is good.

 

The tipped service staff are not Australian labour crew (even if Australian, they are not operating under an Australian agreement) and hence not covered by Australian maritime unions.

 

I would also expect they are not unionised at all including overseas, so unlikely to have any Australian union involvement at all.

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The cards I have seen (even as late as last week) do not have the option to give a '10' or any other rating. There is just a space to put the name and position of the person nominated, then the reason for the nomination. Getting these cards helps a crew member to get a promotion and also a future contract.

 

I'd have thought that 10/10 was understood by most people to mean an unequivocally glowing report.:confused:

 

A less than stellar report will negatively impact staff probably far more than whatever their fault, real or imagined, deserved.

 

As I said, unless you were truly offended by a staff member, either give them unstinting praise or else nothing at all.

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Was experimenting on that last post....just found out what I was trying to do did not work.

And I hate it when you cannot delete your signature....

 

 

Thanks everyone for the valuable posts.

 

 

OzKiwiJJ, this was the "place" u were referring me too, correct? I had no idea the down under group had your own "chat room" thanks all for being so helpful and welcoming to me.

I do have a general question about the Bridge Climb for those posters frm Sydney....I know the existing company lost the bid...they are only taking on-line reservations until Sept. 14 and when I emailed them they just referred me back to the "article about loosing the bid"......So my question is will there be no climbs available during the transition. I have searched for info and seem to be coming up empty handed?

 

 

Any info.....

Edited by land lover
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