arxcards

If booked & pre-paid with credit card, no. With premier package dining credits, yes. They = Princess, and this is listed in the Plus/Premier packages T&C. I wont bother to link the Australian version I have pasted from. Specialty Dining – two Specialty Dining meals are available per each Princess Premier guest. Each specialty dining meal consumed by a guest in a stateroom with this package will have the meal credited against the entire stateroom. It is recommended that guests make the Specialty Dining reservations pre-cruise using Princess® App. Princess Cruises reserves the right to pre-assign Specialty Dining times and location. The Specialty Dining included in Princess Premier does not include items with extra charges on the menus. Availability of Specialty Dining might be limited on certain cruises. Restaurants vary by ship. So, as explained to me, if everyone wants Crown Grill and it is booked out, you will not be guaranteed to be able to use both of your Premier package bookings there just because you got in first.

That is true, but it feels like they are sitting on a street corner with a cardboard sign. Ten years ago, CLIA was respected and constructive as they were lobbying to open-up Australian ports to offer more variety for cruise lines to sell to their overseas markets. As with this past week of Royal's "new" offerings, passenger lament is about the lack of anything new, not the cost of port charges. We will still cruise domestically to keep our toes wet and escape for a few days. As for Australians have not just returned to cruising, they’ve come back with enormous enthusiasm and at a faster pace than in other markets worldwide, it could have something to do with being shut down longer with massive credits in our pockets that needed to be redeemed in 2023. With less ships here next summer, it would seem that we are now losing enthusiasm at just as fast a pace. Not the fault of the cruise lines or CLIA, but we are now in a spend-less economy. Grudgingly, I might accept that booking cruises may not be essential spending.

Nothing seeping from the usual cracks. It must be quiet in PCP land.

We have encountered this issue on short cruises. At one stage, you could pre-book your restaurants via the app with your dining credit, but we have even had those bookings cancelled without notice. Premier seems to be more popular with shorter voyages, as the price premium is not large for the per cruise items such as dining & photos. Princess oversells the premier packages, and there are large numbers of passengers with two specialty dining credits on a 3 or 4 night cruise. They now say they can assign your dining at their discretion for day, time & restaurant. On an occasion we had a booking cancelled due to overbookings, we were given an alternative to use the credit for surf & turf in the MDR. I don't know if this is regularly offered, or was just an on-the-spot solution for us from the maitre D. Since then, I just don't bother with a premier package. Now I will just go with Plus, and use my credit card to pre-book a confirmed specialty restaurant booking at the time and place of our choosing.

Yep, shorter cruises equals more cruises equals more passengers. A couple of extra players in 2023 helped that along a bit too. CLIA are good for a stat. They used to pump the climbing numbers of Aussie passengers, and us being the most cruised per capita in the world. Now they have found a different stat to push, which is great for 2023, but will fall away in 2024. The key reason for pumping a stat is all detailed in the last paragraph - the industry lobby is lobbying for better facilities (I applaud) and cheaper port charges. Costs for all land based tourism in Australia are going through the roof, yet the cruise line association wants to lower costs for cruise lines.

I still see $100pp per night inside as a line in the sand. For insides on Luminosa, I am seeing 3 & 4 night cruises for around $150pp per night, but that is offset by $500 of OBC (VIFP offer) which looks like it gives a nice discount, but OBC is money spent, not a cheaper fare. P&O is also around $150pp per night for non-refundable deposit fares. No OBC. They have more consistent prices with their balconies, but they are still not offering bargain basement pricing. I went looking for some cheap pricing that was around for Pacific Explorer departing Cairns to PNG, as well as end of season relocations back to Brisbane & Sydney. No bargains to be found, as it looks like P&O has pulled the pin on them sometime in the past couple of weeks and added some Explorer cruises into Brisbane. Brisbane to Sydney 2 nights on Explorer in July is $198pp, so you can get a sub $100pp per night domestic cruise, albeit in winter, coming up to final payment, on the oldest ship, it is P&O, and an airfare to be added.

It is an altered one way itinerary that sails in less than two weeks. It is an anomaly that you won't get within double that price on any other Princess cruise.

Kookaburra swims in an old chip fryer, Flapping up and down with his butt on fire. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh. How hot your beak must be.

It has gone midnight in Cape Town and both Virgin & HAL ships are still in port. That makes it an overnighter, and hopefully they will get a few hours ashore for their Thursday as well. They were lucky to get in at all. Docked by 2pm, but local webcams showed the port shrouded in fog again by 3:30pm. Currently, clear skies at midnight.

More of a fish out of water story Phil, but an interesting comparison from an "outside" writer vs all of the social media guff. Full of stereotypes, and a few cultural in-jokes, but an attempt at situational comedy within a travel story. Yes, it won't change anything. The story is more about general cruising weirdness anyway.

I only just noticed the timing of the message in my inbox. They are just moving towards the port now. Current Cape Town time is 1:09pm, so 6hrs late. Passengers on Virgin are hoping for an overnight in port, but not confirmed yet.

Different time of year, but might be a consideration when trying to line-up a tour. If we were on one of those cruises, I expect Cape Town would be one of our big days. A bit like Mt Fuji for Japan or Mt McKinley for Denali, it would be a shame to not be able to see Table Mountain from the port.

It would see the main issue is that there are countries that restrict your entry after you have visited one of the designated YF countries and/or areas. As an example, if you were planning on flying to India after visiting a YF affected area, you would need a vax certificate or wait 6 days - similar to Australian requirements mentioned above. For a cruise itinerary, you would need to identify if you are visiting any YF outbreak areas, and where your itinerary will take you in the following 6 days for any restrictions that apply for entry to those countries.

As a side note, it might be worth checking out for what is typical weather in Cape Town, particularly at this time of year. Both Resilient Lady & Zuiderdam are waiting it out off Cape Town, waiting for a blanket of fog to lift so they can dock. Resilient Lady is currently hoping to dock around 3.5hrs late.

Thanks Den, Thanks for your thoughts. I hope you both had a nice relaxing break. I can relate to most of your comments, especially with the dining. We have done somewhere around 20 P&O cruises, and lament what they used to be. The main reason we no longer cruise with them is food, both quality & variety. I never did gain a love of cruising by dining out on cafeteria meals. Given that soon they will be the only ship in town for you, at least they are more committed to WA than their competitors, and I quite like those Sun class ships. In many ways, P&O made the public spaces feel fresher and much more contemporary than the faux timber from her previous life as Dawn Princess. February is a fair way off. At this stage, we are waiting that long for our next one too. Hopefully P&O can give their food & menus a bit of a rebirth for you between now & then.