OzKiwiJJ

Whew indeed! Enjoy your upgraded cabin.

The email I got when our bid was accepted was titled "Yay - you got your stateroom upgrade". The new cabin number was not shown in the email, just the amount my credit card would be charged. I got the email March 24th. The transaction on my credit card statement was dated March 26th. So don't panic. Check the app or Personalizer to see your new cabin number.

We were on a land trip that time. We'd spent some time in Tokyo - Rolf was attending a conference, then did a four day tour that took us to Mt Fuji, Hakone, Takayama, Shirakawa-go, Kanazawa, and ended in Kyoto, travelling on buses and trains. It was a great tour. We then had a few days in Kyoto, then took the train to Hiroshima, stayed the night on Miyajima, then went straight back to Narita Airprt to fly home. We certainly packed a lot in to that trip.

It's our first world cruise but we've done a few Princess cruises where visas were needed. They depend on the ports being visited. Princess is usually very good at advising which visas are needed.

It was before the Crystal TA discussion. It was when we were considering whether we'd like cruising and which cruise line would be best yet affordable. Princess ended up being the best choice then and, although we've tried other cruise lines, Princess has been our favourite so far. At least while they've had the smaller ships operating here. We're not fond of the Royal Class ships and the new class is even bigger.

We had to arrange the US etsa, plus a Chile visa for Easter Island which is a bit complicated as you have to have it to embark but you can't apply for it until 90 days prior which is after you embark. Luckily Chile and Princess have been working together on this so you get an email showing you've applied for the visa and Chile will issue it later. Any other are done by Princess.

Yes, the above ground exit from our hotel came out right opposite it. The one we had fun with was the Oedo Line which essentially departs from the same place as the Yurikamome Line. There really isn't much above ground to show there is a station there. Our hotel actually had one lift that went down to the underground level but coming back from the platform it took me a while to recognize where I was, although I surprised how much of it I remembered from our 2018 trip.

I'm getting jittery! Excitement with a touch of scariness! I think (hope) we have everything under control. The battle of the suitcases is scheduled for Sunday. That is going to be a challenge!

Who'd have thought way back at the beginning of 2014 when we were discussing cruising on the old Amazon forums, and you recommended Cruise Critic to me, that we'd be going on a world cruise! 😊 I'm not sure I've got my head fully around the cruise either and we're embarking on Tuesday! 🤔😲🤣

This photo was taken from the base of the mountain where we stopped for lunch on a tour in 2006. Even that close it's a bit hazy.

That's about as clear as it gets, I think. My pics from 2018 are a bit hazy too.

I have a very convenient little paper map showing all the Tokyo lines which I also got on a previous trip there. It has the station names in English so I can study it ahead of time to work out where to go. Plus I had an offline version of Google Maps so could check where I needed to go. The fun bit is when you accidentally leave a station from a different exit than you though you were using. Luckily we only did that once and it was in Asakusa so I was easily able to work out where we were.

Shinjuku is a sod of a station but it's all clearly signposted. We ended up going there twice - once during the day to visit the National Gardens, the other that night with friends going out for dinner. My feet definitely don't like Shinjuki! 🤣 Getting to some platforms / lines at the linked Shimbashi / Shiodome stations was very confusing - we ended up going around in circles before discovering the line we wanted was actually at Shiodome, right next to our hotel.

I forgot my Suica card on for one outing last year so had to buy tickets. I'm sure you could choose the destination when buying the ticket so it charged the correct amount. Note: We had Suica cards from a previous trip to Japan so just had to add more value to them.

We did a bus tour from Tokyo so the visit to Nikko, trip up the mountain to the lake where we had lunch, then a visit to a lovely waterfall was all part of the itinerary.

I just had a look at the wave predictions. It looks promising for the Tasman crossing, Bass Strait, and probably the Great Australian Bight as well. However we might just catch the edge of 3 metre seas leaving Sydney Harbour but those are moving north so we'll be out of their influence quite quickly.

Fantastic!

If you're staying a few days in Tokyo do a day trip to Nikko that also includes going up to Chuzenji-ko, a beautiful lake set high in an old volcano. If there aren't any cherry blossoms left in Tokyo, you'll probably see them around the lake as they flower later there due to the altitude. And if you're lucky you might see some snow monkeys alongside the zigzag road.

And thank you for starting this thread off. I'll be adding to it regularly. 😊

I'm actually more concerned with reaching Fremantle on time than the actual crossing. We're meeting up with friends for lunch. We missed catching up with them last time we were in Fremantle as we were stuck in isolation as I had Covid.

It's going to be an interesting run across to Fremantle. We have 4 days 15.25 hours to get there by the scheduled arrival time, including getting in and out of the harbours. It's 2140 nautical miles between the two ports. If Coral sustains a steady 20 knots it will take 4 days 11 hours. We are crossing two of Australia's most notorious seas - Bass Strait and the Great Australian Bight. Hopefully the weather and sea gods will be kind to us but if not I've got a good supply of seasickness meds!

Coral isn't going to Brisbane. That port stop was cancelled. The NZ world cruisers embark in Auckland tomorrow, 26th April. Sat 27th April - Bay of Islands Sun 28th April - At Sea Mon 29th Apr - At Sea Tue 30th April - the rest of us, including the Brisbane contingent, embark in Sydney and off we go!

Taronga Zoo, Sydney.

The problem is that modern technology no longer counts internet by minutes. I much prefer being able to book a Plus fare with drinks and internet covered (even though the wines are rubbish). I don't have to worry about keeping track of the minutes I've used and even with needing to buy wines by the bottle to get a decent selection it still works out cheaper (just) than not having Plus.

But it was very slow. It was a challenge when you had to restrict yourself to 10-15 minutes a day on a long cruise.