I'm Back from my Back to Back

[icat2000]

Just got off doing back to back on the Luminosa today. All good. Had a great time. No reports of COVID on board. Ask away any questions.

 

REgards

Sarah

[mum and son]

I boarded for my back to back today, so glad to hear you enjoyed yours. Did you use the thermal spa area at all? If so, was it crowded? I'm thinking of booking it for my second cruise. 

 

Food. What venues did you try? I generally stick to the MDR every night on cruises but is there anything else I need to try? I thought the MDR staff were excellent tonight.

 

Any tips for secret spots for drinking my cup of tea onboard? Good shows that I must not miss?

 

 

[MMDown Under]

11 hours ago, icat2000 said:

Just got off doing back to back on the Luminosa today. All good. Had a great time. No reports of COVID on board. Ask away any questions.

 

REgards

Sarah

Pleased to hear all was good with your cruise on Luminosa and you had a great time.  Good news that there was no Covid.  I enjoyed my cruise on Luminosa also.  

[icat2000]

12 hours ago, mum and son said:

I boarded for my back to back today, so glad to hear you enjoyed yours. Did you use the thermal spa area at all? If so, was it crowded? I'm thinking of booking it for my second cruise. 

The ship was full to capacity on the NYE cruise. The lack of the waterslides and probably a second pool for general population could have helped alleviate the crowds. I never seen so many kids in a pool at once or the hot tubs.

 

I didn't use the thermal spa area but people at my dinning room table booked it for the day and loved it and wished they booked the whole cruise.

 

12 hours ago, mum and son said:

 

Food. What venues did you try? I generally stick to the MDR every night on cruises but is there anything else I need to try? I thought the MDR staff were excellent tonight.

 

Any tips for secret spots for drinking my cup of tea onboard? Good shows that I must not miss?

 

 

Went to the Steak restaurant for Pete birthday. Very nice meal. $65 pp book on ship. Did the MDR for remaining dinners and brunch/brekkie where possible.

 

The buffet has a variety of selections. 

 

I loved sitting by the big windows down on Deck 2 near were the central elevators especially early morning nice and quiet. 

 

Staff in all areas were lovely. However, in saying that did not see a lot of the officer rank staff except for NYE. 

[mum and son]

@icat2000thanks for that info. Very helpful!

[MicCanberra]

Welcome back.

[rkmw]

9 hours ago, icat2000 said:

The ship was full to capacity on the NYE cruise. The lack of the waterslides and probably a second pool for general population could have helped alleviate the crowds. I never seen so many kids in a pool at once or the hot tubs.

 

I didn't use the thermal spa area but people at my dinning room table booked it for the day and loved it and wished they booked the whole cruise.

 

Went to the Steak restaurant for Pete birthday. Very nice meal. $65 pp book on ship. Did the MDR for remaining dinners and brunch/brekkie where possible.

 

The buffet has a variety of selections. 

 

I loved sitting by the big windows down on Deck 2 near were the central elevators especially early morning nice and quiet. 

 

Staff in all areas were lovely. However, in saying that did not see a lot of the officer rank staff except for NYE. 

Did you happen to do any tender stops, I was amazed how they operate the tenders  leaving the times in the lounge at 6am and you helped your self to what time you want to get the tender and you can do what you like until your tender gets called 

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, rkmw said:

Did you happen to do any tender stops, I was amazed how they operate the tenders  leaving the times in the lounge at 6am and you helped your self to what time you want to get the tender and you can do what you like until your tender gets called 

HAL did something similar twice during our cruise. The first time was a group for passport control in Hobart which we didn't need as we were booked on an excursion so automatically had that excursion group. The second was

disembarkation times - we went down to Guest Services and picked our colour group and number within that colour. Much better than having a group number assigned to you.

 

We didn't have any tender ports on our cruise but did have shuttle groups but I can't recall if they used that system for those. 

[icat2000]

11 hours ago, rkmw said:

Did you happen to do any tender stops, I was amazed how they operate the tenders  leaving the times in the lounge at 6am and you helped your self to what time you want to get the tender and you can do what you like until your tender gets called 

Two tender stops. Yes. You can go down and collect the tickets when you want them them. We didn't bother and went and got tickets when we woke up. The tenders didn't start from 6 am more like 9 am, but from 6 am you could go get your tickets if you were that eager. It seemed like a fairly organised process. You picked up the tickets from the main lounge FWD deck 2.

[MMDown Under]

15 minutes ago, icat2000 said:

Two tender stops. Yes. You can go down and collect the tickets when you want them them. We didn't bother and went and got tickets when we woke up. The tenders didn't start from 6 am more like 9 am, but from 6 am you could go get your tickets if you were that eager. It seemed like a fairly organised process. You picked up the tickets from the main lounge FWD deck 2.

It is the best system I've seen for allocating tender times.  It is especially convenient if you need to be off the ship for the first tender.  Collect your preferred time from a board from 6 am, then await the announcement for the tenders.  

[rkmw]

18 minutes ago, icat2000 said:

Two tender stops. Yes. You can go down and collect the tickets when you want them them. We didn't bother and went and got tickets when we woke up. The tenders didn't start from 6 am more like 9 am, but from 6 am you could go get your tickets if you were that eager. It seemed like a fairly organised process. You picked up the tickets from the main lounge FWD deck 2.

We stopped at Airlie beach and the first tender was about 7.30 but I found the system very good so if you were eager to go ashore early you could get your ticket at 6am and have a leisurely breakfast until they called your number

[time4sun]

Can you please answer a couple questions for us......

 

Were masks required onboard?  If so, was it inside only?

 

How did they handle the covid testing on the back to back?  We are on a 4 day Airlie and the 22 day Transpacific so we realize things may be a bit different.

 

Thanks in advance!

[icat2000]

2 minutes ago, time4sun said:

Can you please answer a couple questions for us......

 

Were masks required onboard?  If so, was it inside only?

 

How did they handle the covid testing on the back to back?  We are on a 4 day Airlie and the 22 day Transpacific so we realize things may be a bit different.

 

Thanks in advance!

Masks were required for indoor areas but only really enforced in Casino or Thearte. It was also required for Outdoor areas where it was congested (but I didnt really see this enforced either). 

 

No COVID testing for back to back. 

 

 

[time4sun]

Thank you so much!  One more question.....were the drink/dining charges in Australia or US dollars?  How about casino slots?

[mum and son]

Did you have to disembark all luggage in between? Were yours both domestic? Same cabin?

[icat2000]

4 hours ago, time4sun said:

Thank you so much!  One more question.....were the drink/dining charges in Australia or US dollars?  How about casino slots?

All AUD.

[icat2000]

4 hours ago, mum and son said:

Did you have to disembark all luggage in between? Were yours both domestic? Same cabin?

Both Domestic cruises. No didn't have to disembark with luggage in between. Had different cabins. Just tipped the cabin steward extra to what i had tipped him to deliver luggage mainly cause we changing cabins from one floor and one end of the ship to another floor another end of ship.