OzKiwiJJ

I'm not sure but one of the sommeliers used to work there and said "don't use credit cards or you'll get scammed". He was very emphatic about it.

Definitely a furphy! My guess is that there is something that needs to be done to Station Pier that the Victorian authorities aren't telling anyone but has caused them to limit or stop any disembarkations/embarkations from Melbourne . That may explain why the Diamond itineraries have ended up as they are. I suspect the original plan was for Diamond to homeport for the whole season in Melbourne but Princess had to change things due to whatever is going on with Station Pier. Princess isn't the only cruise line to pull out. Cunard is no longer coming here other than as port stops on it's world cruises. Virgin has also redeployed.

We paid $3,821 for a mini-suite, Plus fare, on Diamond last year for a 9 night itinerary. Now they want $5,159 or more!

All cabins should have a small sofa. On the only Royal Caribbean cruise we've done even the inside cabin had a sofa.

We'd be happy with something very similar in size and design as Coral but a couple of changes: The first, of course, is cabins with better bathrooms and comfortable seating in all cabin categories. The second would be to redesign the Bayou restaurant/bar so that it feels less like a brick barn. Other than that it's close to perfect for us.

Please also pass on regards from Julie and Rolf to Yalcin. We met him on Coral on several cruises we did during the Australian restart in 2022. We're back on Coral at the moment doing the world cruise and we miss him.

Does your phone allow WiFi Calling? We'd had problems overseas last year with our old phones but so far it seem to be working on Coral Princess with our new phones. Fingers crossed it will stay that way for the whole cruise. We tend to just use the debit card we have specifically for overseas travel to just withdraw cash when needed, and use a credit card for everything else. However we have been warned not to use credit cards in Cape Town. Hopefully we can safely get some cash there otherwise I won't be able to buy a fridge magnet!

Oh no! I'm really sorry to hear that, Les. Wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery with no lingering after-effects. Take care, mate. 😘

A lot of small businesses took a financial hit when most people stopped paying in cash during Covid so I can understand why they have added the charge. I don't like it though.

We did Brisbane to Cairns many years ago when they still operated Queenslander Class on the trains - pullman sleeper cabins, lounge/bar carriage, dining carriage. It was great, similar to the Indian Pacific but only 30 hours. I can't remember what it cost but it wasn't cheap. Although they now only have sleeper seats if you like train travel it would be worth doing once.

Oddly enough that wasn't noticeable by eye. It's also in the first picture if you look closely.

The problem with doing passport control at sea is that two Border Force officers were committed to only that one task and therefore were out of action for several days. With more ships doing the NZ /Australia runs they needed those people available to process more than one ship in that time frame. Our last cruise with onboard processing was in 2017. In 2019 the passport processing was done in Hobart.

Our afternoon in the Sanctuary was cut short by a passing squall but just before we left there was a gorgeous rainbow right off the stern of the ship. I've never seen a rainbow that close before.

It depends on what we're doing each day. Today they were collecting passports for the Mauritius stop so we had to get back to our cabin by 9am but usually on sea days we have breakfast in the MDR unless we sleep in too late. On ports days we often have to go to the buffet if we're doing an early excursion.

Not me! We got up there about 8am.