MadWoofter

I was waiting for my train last night when it departed.  It looked like there was hardly anyone one it, so much so I thought it might have been crew only

If you just want to go cheap there is a shopping centre at Broadway which has a Kmart.  It's a 10 minute walk from Central Station, or you could get any number of buses that go past it.  Bondi Junction also has a Kmart (it's in another building to the Westfield) if you're thinking of heading that way

Hi

I haven't used it myself as I have an Opal card, but I just checked the Opal website and so long as your card is a Visa, M/Card or Amex with the contactless logo it should be fine.  Adult fares are charged and overseas transaction fees may be applied.

https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/contactless-payments/how-to-use-contactless

I see a lot of people using their credit cards now

Great review thanks.  

Scenario:

Day one of the cruise when everyone is getting their bearings & exploring.  I got into a lift with two excitable young lads of about 14-15.

Lad #1 - Wow, does this lift go sideways?

Lad #2 - Dude, that's the door close button

Every time I get in the lifts now I remember that conversation

I'm on the same cruise 🙂

My understanding is that it depends on weather conditions & currents, but they either head north to around Newcastle, or south to around Wollongong and just do a really big, slow circle. They don't go much further north/south than that but as DDG41 said, they are out in international waters so you don't get to see any coastline.

I travelled loads when I was younger (land travel) and shared with strangers with no problems at all.  Now I'm older and rather less tolerant it's not as appealing - even less so on a cruise where you can't escape.

I don't cruise that often as I pay a single supplement, but it's so worth it to have that small space all to myself.  

Hmmm, difficult question !  I was there a bit over 18 months ago and did the ships tour on Carnival.

Getting to see and snorkel with the turtles was great, but the reef is better at Janek Bay (saying that, I didn't snorkel a long way out and apparently it is better the further out you go).

The glass bottom boat was fun, and seeing the dancers at lunch was too.  The food was pretty good.  The lighthouse was closed when I was there so we couldn't go up it.  We did see scuba-divers, but they were with a separately organised tour (and I don't think even on the cruise) so you might be able to organise something separately if you want.

I really enjoyed the day trip, but for me I don't think it was worth the price that Carnival charged.  If you could get it cheaper with a scuba tour (and want to risk getting back to the ship on time) that might be a better option for you.

There's a Uniqlo in the Midcity Centre - about halfway along the Pitt St mall.

Lowes on the corner of Pitt & Park as previously mentioned and Myer (on Pitt St mall)

You should find what you want at one of these three.

Otherwise Westfield (big shopping centre, again on Pitt St Mall) has some menswear retailers but they're probably at the more pricier end 

Carnival (at least in Australia) have a good reputation for seating solos together, particularly if you book Traditional Dining and the later seating.

Depending where your relatives live in Sydney, you should be able to get take-away delivered to you. A lot of local restaurants will deliver, and both Delivery Hero and Menu Log have a number of restaurants registered with them, you just log on online, select your cuisine, pick a restaurant, then choose what you want, and they deliver it to you (rather than the restaurant itself) for a small fee (around $3). Depending on where you're staying there'll be a number of options for Pizza, Chinese, Thai, & Indian through both of these.

Take away Chinese for 6 people will probably cost you around $120 to $150 (probably same for Thai and Indian). Pizza & garlic bread will be about $80-90 (extra if you want pasta or sides). Fish & Chips from a 'chippy' will set you back about $10 each. Prices will be more expensive the closer you get to the actual CBD too.

Restaurant prices can vary drastically. Most good cafes and restaurants will have a range of entrees at $10-15, mains $25-$40 and desserts $15-20. You can get a decent pub meal for $15-20.

As a guide for something to compare with Canadian Prices, a medium-sized meal option from McDonalds is about $10AUD

Most places will take card payment (it's really only the small corner fish & chip shop that may not), so you may not need a heap of cash.

Hope the emergency situation is resolved quickly

Madwoofter were all the rooms decorated as nicely as the one we saw?

It's been 7 years since I have been on P&O and the room I remember was very basic.

Yes they were sewgood. I had an OV on one of the lower decks and the room was quite spacious. The bathrooms were a bit outdated, having a small bath with a shower over the top. I have a dodgy knee and struggled a little bit, so getting in & out just to shower if you had some mobility issues would be a bit of a nightmare!

The rumours about plumbing are definitely true. Toilets in the public areas were often out of order, and I had plumbing crews enter my room late at night to fix problems (not just mine, they were doing the whole floor)

Hmmm, not sure what to make of it. I haven't watched the other episodes, just flicked around but made a point of watching this out of curiosity :). I didn't realise there were so many 'teams' on board, we kept bumping into those three blonde women (who were loud, obnoxious, and very much "look at me" the entire time even when there wasn't a camera on them), the young hippy couple, and the Fren (?) family on Mystery Island. It was interesting at the end the young couple talked about all the friends they'd made, when we didn't see them intermingle with anyone while they were on board.

Also interesting was how much filming on board they did compared to what actually made it to air. They would have had hours of the young couple in the pool on the adult deck alone ! It seemed like everywhere you turned there was a camera crew, thank goodness they all got of in Noumea and we had a few days of peace.

There were quite a few disgruntled passengers on board, there was no pre-warning that filming was happening until we were on board, and it got to be quite disruptive. They didn't actually ask people to move out of the way (that I saw), but most people weren't going to walk through an obvious filming scene.

The trip over was quite rough and we were delayed getting into our first tender port, and of course the film crew had preferential tender treatment which annoyed people who were waiting to go ashore for a long time. I did hear a few comments about 'attitude' by the actors.

I don't think they did a great portrayal of the Aria itself, a few token shots of bars & the specialty restaurants, although the islands got a good review. As the posh older couple said, a good cruise for an introduction to cruising.

I've only been on a few cruises, a couple of which have been on P&O ships now, but I wouldn't go back unless the price was right. Saying that, if the price was right I'd probably go on Aria, I liked the smaller size, Dragon Lady was fantastic (Angelo's was very ordinary) and it had a nice atmosphere.

Has anybody been watching this show? Tomorrow night's ep they are on the Pacific Aria. I was on that cruise with some friends, so will be interesting to see how they portray the ship, and how the 'characters' are in comparison to what we saw them being (or acting :) )

I second the suggestion to go to either Katoomba or Leura rather than Lithgow.

A completely different suggestion is to catch a train heading south to Kiama. It's a coast town, has some very lovely heritage cottages which are now artisan stores, a lighthouse and the famous (well to Sydney people) blowhole. It's about 2.5 hrs each way and goes through the Royal National Park and then down the coast line. You could even get off along the way if you wanted to explore for example the National Park or one of the southern beaches.

I've been late April / early May for the last few years and it's perfect for me. Not too hot, the water is lovely, and it's outside of school holidays so not really busy either.

If I couldn't do that time of the year then I'd probably look at October

Can't help with the CPAP, but I'm on thyroid meds and have had no problem taking medication on Carnival (or any other cruise line for that matter). if you are at all concerned just get a letter from your GP but you won't need it.

As others have mentioned, there is a good sized Coles at 388 George St. There is a smaller Coles a little closer to Circular Quay above the train station at Wynyard if you only needed to grab some necessities

As an Australian I'm appalled they served Koonunga Hill as a quality wine, particularly a white wine. Their chardonnay is not quite bottom shelf stuff, but not far off.

Saying that, Koonunga reds are better than their whites

Yes.

 

Look for a Chemist (pharmacy)

Or Coles, Woolworths or Aldi (supermarkets) the nearest to you is just near Wynyard Station, that I can think of anyway. Avoid anything labelled a Cinvenience store, they charge Wah too much.

For generic items like shampoo, soap, shavers etc and basic medical kit items (bandaids, antiseptic creams and panadol / pain relief etc) then a supermarket is your cheapest option. There is a Coles at the top of Wynyard station which is the closest to the OPT, and a bigger Coles on George St about a block past Wynyard.

Priceline is a pharmacy chain that provides all your toiletry needs, plus perfume, makeup, through to orthotic shoes and all your medical needs both over the counter and prescription. There's one on George St just near Wynyard station. You should be able to get pretty well everything you'd need there.

Only one more sleep to go for me :D:D

Leaving tomorrow for a short 4-dayer, and my lovely mum is coming with me and she's been counting down the days for the last month, so the excitement is pretty up there.

Otherwise I've got to wait until April next year for my next 10 day extravaganza

There's that first flush of excitement when you book which lasts about a week, then another burst when you pay the final payment. I generally start perking up about a month before hand. The week before I'm generally obnoxious to everyone at work in an annoying "I'm going on holidays your not" way :p

Yes you can. When you go through check in they'll ask if you want to put down a credit card, just tell them you want to pay cash. You then need to go to the concierge desk and put down your hard earned money ! I've never had to leave credit card details.

I always put on more than I think I'll need, I just go back to the concierge on the last night before I go to bed and they give me what I haven't spent back in cash.

I also go to them every couple of days and get a print out of what's been charged, mostly to check if there's anything incorrect but also to get an idea of how much I have left.

Don't wait until you see anything in the Daily about booking Chef's Table, do it on the first day you board as soon as you can. It's very popular and fills up quickly, and they only do one or two on a 9 day cruise.

They do match wines, but if you can't drink red just tell them when they go to pour it and ask for white instead (that's what someone did at our table and it didn't cause a problem).

I went on the Aria in April, and there was a duck dish, a lobster bisque and barramundi, then a palate cleanser sorbet, followed by wagyu with the most divine red wine jus, a cheese selection and dessert

Don't eat lunch that day that's for sure !

No, nothing for hire at any of those ports. You *might* be able to hire snorkeling gear in Noumea, but I haven't seen anything.

Just take a couple of beach towels from the ship. If you think being on the sand will be really uncomfortable then you might think about taking your own.

According to the Taronga website:

Accepted Pensioner Concession Cards are:

(PCC) Pension Concession Primary Card Holder - Australian only

(PCC++) Pension Concession Primary Card Holder - Australian & NZ

(PCC+++) Pension Concession Primary Card Holder - Australian only

But then further down their website they say:

Seniors Card

Only the primary card holder is entitled to a concession rate.

For Australian residents we accept government issued Seniors cards for the primary card holder.

For International guests we accept ID with proof of age 65years and over.

So if you're over 65 I'd say you're eligible !