Cruising from Sydney-Update

[Pansy2801]

I am now on Royal Princess cruising from Sydney to Auckland. 

Since I asked few questions regarding this cruise that seemed different from other cruises I took, I want to update :

We were told embarkation at 3pm and then it changed to 2 pm.

We checked out from our hotel at 11 and took a taxi to the port. Being on Sunday we were told that we had to take a different longer route to the pier. Were able to leave the baggage right away. There were people in a line and others sitting on some benches. We chose the line since there were no sitting places anyway. But after maybe 5 minutes the line started to move quickly and before we knew it we were on the ship few minutes before noon.

The  “embarkation lunch” was served in Alfredo .

Since we were not able to preorder water, I got 2x1.5  litters bottles in a bag and sent them with the suitcases. They arrived ok. 

I also had few small bottles with us and they did not cause any problems. At one supermarket we went in Sydney I did not see packages of 6/12/24  smaller water bottles.

I hope that this can be useful to some future cruisers.

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, Pansy2801 said:

The  “embarkation lunch” was served in Alfredo .

I believe you missed the actual embarkation lunch which would have been held in one of the two mid-ship DRs.

[OzKiwiJJ]

The reason for the longer route to the Overseas Passenger Terminal is that on weekends there is a market in the street that you would normally drive down. It's a pain but it only takes a few minutes longer plus you get a nice view of the harbour when driving under the bridge.

 

Smaller "Metro" supermarkets may not have the packs of bottled water but if they do they may just be in a different place. 

Edited February 20 by OzKiwiJJ

[Pansy2801]

I did not have any questions when I posted earlier. This is what happened on Sunday and should answer the questions on embarkation time, embarkation lunch and how to bring drinking water on the ship. 
Steelers36, you answered questions that I had in the past, but if you are not on RP now you don’t know that on this sailing breakfast and lunches are in Alfredo and not in Concerto dining room. I am elite and I know what is the “ embarkation lunch” ( shrimps and avocado, salmon…)

I was in Woolworths on George street to get water. Maybe was not big enough but looking for water was not the main point in being in Sydney. And the trip to the port was more than few minutes longer but I guess is expected for taxi driver to overcharge foreigner tourists. I mentioned this only because I don’t know when exactly  the embarkation process started. But as I said we were on the ship before noon.

[Pansy2801]

Sorry. I mean Allegro not Alfredo. 

[leck57]

I always get a little surprised when people pay thousands for a cruise and go to a fair bit of trouble to save 10 bucks on water. It is not hard to get a pack of 24 small bottles of water at just about all supermarkets would have them as standard stock. I'm familiar with the WW on George St and they usually would have them. There is a couple of 7/11's right near the pier that would have them.

Not sure what your point is about the embarkation lunch. It is always available in one of the Dining Rooms, as it was in your case. I must be missing your point.

Edited February 20 by leck57

[Pansy2801]

I think you did not follow when  several members asked recently if you can bring water on a cruise that starts in Sydney. I don’t want to argue with anyone about water. But I hope you know that on this cruise the information is that you need to take on shore only original water bottles. And you can’t preorder them. Before you are on the ship you don’t know if there are available there. With temperatures around 80 degrees these days, for some having water is important. It is not about few $. 
Another question without answer was about embarkation lunch since this was a port day( the cruise started in Auckland few days earlier). That was the point.

Edited February 20 by Pansy2801

[capriccio]

2 hours ago, leck57 said:

Not sure what your point is about the embarkation lunch. It is always available in one of the Dining Rooms, as it was in your case. I must be missing your point.

In the first post @Pansy2801 wrote "The  “embarkation lunch” was served in Alfredo."

 

Since Alfredos isn't an MDR, @Steelers36 assumed that the embarkation lunch MDR had closed by the time Pansy boarded. Pansy reiterated "if you are not on RP now you don’t know that on this sailing breakfast and lunches are in Alfredo and not in Concerto dining room."

 

Turns out it was just a bit of confusion given that the names are similar. Pansy meant the Allegro MDR as explained in post #5.