OzKiwiJJ

Also according to this thread Wet Ones may also do the trick

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=935088

I just checked and Australian Wet Ones do contain Benzethonium Chloride.

Hopefully one of these days someone will invent a wipe that does work on viruses.

Just discovered someone does

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Advanced-First-Aid-Anti-Viral-Hand-Foam-200ml_1036207/

Unfortunately they don't ship to Australia!

Whilst I agree that the media tends to often sensationalise, I found it interesting that your own "Media Release" contained some words that are an obvious "cut and paste" from the NZ Herald. :D

Who me? Nah! Couldn't be! Purely coincidental! All my own work, honestly :D

Seriously though, I just wanted to do a different spin on the NZ Herald article so it was easier to use clips from that. I probably should have put "With apologies to the NZ Herald" below my "press release" LOL.

Washing hands is the ONLY way.

Antibacterial gels/wipes don't work on viruses.

Hopefully one of these days someone will invent a wipe that does work on viruses.

Advice from a nurse on Sea Princess "wash your hands before entering the dining areas, in the buffet serve yourself then the last thing you do before you sit down and pick up your utensils is wash again as you can't depend on those who have gone before you to have clean hands" . I think even the back of the chairs can be contaminated so we use antibacterial wipes at the table. Shame it has to be like this but its better than being ill on a cruise and something that, with care and thought for others, can be avoided.

Unfortunately it's those who don't have any care or thought for others that cause these outbreaks in the first place :mad:

Potentially it could happen with any cruise ship if passengers don't observe proper hygiene precautions.

Shame that the media beat it up as the fault of the cruise line. Imagine the reaction if they told the truth. Here's my "news release" ;)

"DIRTY PEOPLE DELAY CRUISE SHIP BOARDING

Passengers who failed to observe the most basic hygiene precautions have caused an outbreak of norovirus on the Diamond Princess. It is due to leave on its next voyage from Auckland today but check-in will be delayed by about four hours while the ship is thoroughly sterilised.

The highly contagious bug can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, lethargy and headaches, among other symptoms. Norovirus can be transmitted through faecally infected food or water, person-to-person contact and surface contact."

:eek:

Thank you for sharing!

 

Has anyone reading this combined the railway journey with a visit to Larnach Castle? All comments are welcome.

Does your cruise company offer a combined excursion to both? If so, I'd take it even if it is a bit expensive. The Taeri Gorge train trip is gorgeous and Larnach's Castle has been beautifully restored and, personally, I think it is worth visiting.

There is a possibility that you might not be able to do the train without booking it through your cruise as, if there is more than one cruise ship visiting that day, the train may be fully reserved for cruisers.

It also very much depends where the train is going to that day, Middlemarch trips arrive back in Dunedin later than Pukerangi trips so there would not be time to do much sightseeing around Dunedin after a Middlemarch trip. http://www.taieri.co.nz/index.htm

Yes, we are very lucky, and since travel costs between Australia and NZ aren't too foul we are able to see a very diverse range of scenery.

However where both Aus and NZ fall down is that they are both relatively new countries. I've been lucky enough to have a few trips to the Northern Hemisphere, including seven weeks in Ireland and the UK last year (which was on my bucket list), and being able to see beautiful old buildings, ancient monuments and henges, villages that have existed for hundreds of years, and much more, gives a completely different view of the world.

I love to travel, be it within Australia, my birth country NZ, or anywhere else in the world, as I always discover something new, interesting or exciting.

IrishCraig,

Some ports seem more suited to self-touring but with others it's probably best to bite the bullet and do an excursion organised by the cruise company, especially if you want to go somewhere that is a distance from where the ship docks.

RCI seem to have a few excursions that should suit you from Brisbane, to either the Australia Zoo or the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. They do look quite expensive but at least you are guaranteed to get back on board the ship. I haven't been to either of those places recently so can't advise which would be best but I can't see RCI managing to stuff up those excursions too badly.

In Sydney, I'd highly recommend a trip to the Blue Mountains as the scenery is quite stunning. If you can find one that includes a trip on the Scenic Railway, take it. Or you could just hire a car and drive up there - it takes about 90 minutes from the Sydney CBD to get to Katoomba where most of the main sights are. Also take a ferry to Manly - you'll get gorgeous views of the harbour and once you arrive in Manly you can walk from the harbourside to the surf beach in just a few minutes, so different scenery again. When you get to teh surf side go left along the esplanade and there is a lovely walk around to another small beach. Look out for the artworks embedded in the rocks along the walk. :) If you don't want to do an expensive BridgeClimb you can just walk across the harbour bridge. The pedestrian walkway is on the Eastern side, from The Rocks to Kirrabilli. There isn't much at Kirrabilli other than some good cafes.

Incidentally if you like seafood I'd recommend Garfish which is down a side street opposite the bridge stairs at Kirrabilli, and also over the road and one block south from the ferry wharf in Manly.

I hope you have a wonderful time visiting and cruising Australia. It's certainly quite different to Ireland - we were in Ireland for 8 days last year and loved it.

Bazzaw, there is a distinct difference between recommending / not recommending a location based on the stated preferences of the OP as opposed to "knocking" a location.

So much depends on whether the cruise ship departs on time, how long it takes to get away from the wharf, and whether it has to turn around before heading out of the harbour - can't remember whether they reverse in to the OPT or go in frontwards and reverse out.

There is another ferry at 18:50 which may catch up with the cruise ship and pass it but you'd have to just try it and hope, I guess.

Those ferries don't mess about once they pull away from the wharf at Circular Quay. If you caught a ferry that left at the same time the cruise ship was expected to depart the ferry would probably be half way to Manly by the time the cruise ship rounded the Opera House. The big ships take a while to get moving I think.

I would say that you'd have a better chance of getting a good look at the cruise ship if you were coming back from Manly. It would be very hard to work out the timing going in the same direction

The OP did say they like to be fairly active, wanted to see wildlife, and didn't want to sit on a beach all day so, personally, I don't think the Gold Coast would be a good excursion for them.

Funny you say that about the water. I didn't like the coffee so I started drinking liptons tea which I have at home. I thought it was the plastic cups that made the difference or the long life milk. Either way, it wasn't the same!

Some brands of long life milk can definitely make a difference to the taste of both tea and coffee.

I almost never drink tea or cafe latte in Italy as most places use UHT milk and it tastes horrible, I drink espresso instead. Milk for tea in Asia can be a problem. When travelling I usually take enough teabags and enough of those Anchor single serve UHT milks (for some reason they don't taste awful) to have one decent cup of tea a day. If I have that first thing in the morning I'm happy to have espresso for the rest of the day.

We are going to be cruising NZ South Island for 9 days in early Feb. I am trying right now to decide what to pack. We will be gone for 35 days and follow the cruise with 2 1/2 week driving tour. We also have a week in Tahiti coming and going. I hope to keep luggage to 40 pounds as lifting in and out of car trunk is back "hurting" business. Right now I have planned 4 short sleeved blouses, 4 ss t shirts 4 long sleeve tshirts 1 fleece 1 vegan (fake) leather coat and 2 sun rash guards (great for the severe sun exposure of no ozone layer in NZ.) 6 pair knit pants, a dress, 3 knee length shorts, a skirt, swim wear. I probably will have to have a winter coat/hat/gloves for the trip to the airport but hope to mostly throw it in the suitcase when get to LAX. Do you think this wardrobe will do for trekking around in a small (70 passenger) boat with the occasional trip out on a zodiac to visit the whales and penguins:D?

 

Thanks for letting me on here. NO one from the company we are sailing with has ever come on Cruise Critic --lonely!

For travelling I swear by those hiking pants that you can get from most outdoors stores, especially the ones that you can convert to shorts. They are usually made from synthetic fabrics that dry very quickly, which means you can hand wash them and they will usually dry overnight. I find them warm enough to wear in cool weather, certainly they would do for the South Island of NZ in February, and they also keep you cool in hot weather as they wick away sweat. I would replace your shorts and all the knit pants with two pairs of those, and also take one pair of dressier pants and/or dressy jeans. Make sure your long sleeve tshirts work as layers over your blouses and short sleeve tshirts. It very much depends on how often you intend doing laundry but you seem to have a good balance of clothes overall.

I would also add my vote against going to the Gold Coast from Brisbane. However I would recommend looking to see if there is a suitable tour that takes you up to O'Reillys Rainforest Retreat in the hinterland, where there are lots of birds and a lovely short bush walk including a canopy walk section. I did a day trip from Brisbane up there many years ago, and also spent a couple of nights there about three years ago. Beautiful scenery and the road up to O'Reillys is amazing.

I'll add my vote to the Kuranda day trip from Cairns. There are two stops on the gondola where you can get off and walk through the bush. Kuranda itself is a bit touristy but there are some interesting attractions. The train trip is great and, yes, go Gold class. However it is also possible to do Reef tours from Cairns if you didn't manage to do one from Airlie Beach.

There is plenty to do in Sydney - you can walk around past the Opera House to the Botanical Gardens and on up to Mrs Macquaries Chair which has lovely views over the harbour. Take a ferry to Manly and walk from the wharf on the harbourside to the surf beach. Personally I think the scenery at the Blue Mountains is stunning so I think it's worth doing, especially if you can take the scenic railway down into the valley where there is a lovely bush walk around to Katoomba Falls.

I'd second the winery tour from Newcastle.

We have Kindles so need to be able to charge those via USB port.

I use my smartphone for all sorts of things other than just a phone: it's my alarm clock, I have some games on it that I enjoy as a break from reading, and most importantly all my travel notes and documents are downloaded on to it using Evernote. So that needs USB charging as well. Also my phone is my WiFi hotspot when travelling within Australia with a laptop, saves me hunting down free WiFi hotspots or paying exorbitant hotel WiFi rates.

My new camera has one disadvantage. It has a specialised battery that needs a charger and power socket :( and this is one of the reasons I've bought a combined USB / power socket travel power board.

Sometimes when I'm travelling I take my laptop so that also needs a socket. Over the years I have found it useful, and it was invaluable on our UK trip last year after my handbag (including phone) was stolen. However I probably won't take it cruising.

Australian and Asian hotels are usually pretty good with easy access power sockets but not so in the UK & Ireland. We really needed a powerboard there.

Interesting! I've seen posts elsewhere on this forum that seemed to indicate that they were OK, and other posts saying that double adaptors were OK. Maybe it depends on the size of the powerboard? One with six sockets would be a big issue. If appliances and chargers were plugged into all those sockets that could cause a power overload. The Bunnings one is essentially a double adaptor with a couple of USB ports, and USB ports don't draw much power. Oh well, I shall see in due course. Might have to pack a separate USB charger just in case.

Probably due to rough seas down the west coast of the South Island.

http://www.metservice.com/marine-surf/coastal/grey

http://www.metservice.com/marine-surf/coastal/milford

Princess sends the second class ships to Australia.

 

The Sun Princess has had some upgrades but these were aimed at the Japanese

Market

Second class ships? Or just smaller ships for a smaller market? Perhaps other Princess line ships will also be upgraded as per Sun over time.

I must remember that, sounds like a great place to be for sailaway. Thanks, John.

Good to hear vegemite will be available. ;) Sounds like cruise ships are no better than hotels re bacon LOL.

I always take my own shampoo and conditioner. I have very fine, straight, short hair that has a tendency to do what it wants it if I don't treat it right :eek:

I just found a really great travel powerboard at Bunnings. It has two USB ports, two three pin sockets, a one meter cord, and is surge protected. $29. I've been looking for something like that for the last year or so.

Not sure I'd get value from the drinks card. I tend to mostly drink water (and we'll probably bring a supply onboard with us) and will probably want a real cocktail or two each day rather than a mocktail. ;)

Can you get decent boiling water for tea? I prefer to take my own teabags when travelling but I understand that most cruise ships don't have tea making facilities in the cabins. By the time hot water was delivered by room service it probably wouldn't be hot enough for tea. I know BYO kettles are a nono but what about those little immersion heaters you pop in a cup of water?

We just did Christmas and New year's on the Oosterdam. To me the highlight was New year's on board. It was wonderful!

It was such a great party atmosphere :D

 

We are now looking to book one for this year. The kids loved it so much they cannot wait to get back. They voted it the best Christmas/ New year ever!

I'd love to have tried the Oosterdam but it's cruising to NZ at Christmas. Since I grew up in NZ, and we visit there regularly, we really wanted to go somewhere different. Besides, if we did an NZ cruise I'd end up having to catch up with too many friends and rellies on port days. ;)

Oh great choice. Only been on princess, but the more I read about other lines, the happier I am we flukes them 1st cruise! Still keen to try other lines, but princess suited us & was hassle free so would use them again in a heart beat. :)

Thanks, Cruise_me_Crazy. It's great to hear that others have enjoyed Princess cruises as their first cruise.

Some friends on another forum I chat on, one of whom also posts here, also recommended the Sun Princess cruise. I'm sure we will have a great first cruise :)

I found a really good travel powerboard at Bunnings yesterday. Two USB ports, two standard three pin sockets, 1 meter cord that neatly wraps around the base when not in use, and surge protected. $29.

I've been looking for something like this for the past year or so.Not just for cruises but for travel in general. Some places we stayed in the UK last year had very awkward power points. Something like this, with the appropriate adaptor, will work really well everywhere that has 220-240V power.