thistledoo

1 hour ago, Aloha Cruisers said:

Yes, the past few years and this past winter Diamond Princess provided hot

water kettles.  

Thank you for that information, we'll bring our favourite coffee from home.

Do they have kettles in the cabins on the Diamond?

2 hours ago, erewhon said:

Pity, the weather is beautiful in Dunedin and forecast to remain so, but that the luck of cruising.

We were sorry to miss Dunedin, but they were looking at the logistics at getting back to Australia on time. 

We’re on the Radiance OTS in Arkaroa.  Dunedin and the Fjords have been cancelled due to impending high seas.  Instead we are turning around tonight and doing Wellington and Picton instead before heading to Sydney.  

According to the Captain the waves were expected to be up to 15m around the SW corner

Many years ago we watched the ANZAC Day parade through the city followed by the Essendon-Collingwood game.  The march and the ANZAC ceremony at the game made for a very emotional day and the roar of the crowd at the opening bounce was spine tingling.  It was just the best experience.

19 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That counts as an Australian cruise, unfortunately, so no water packages. 😡

It's very annoying.

It sure is.

Not only cruises from Australia - there is none showing to Australia from Asia on the Sun Princess.

We have been allocated cabins with connecting doors twice as part of a GTY booking.   Once we had neighbours from hell and the other we never heard a peep from our neighbours.   Luck of the draw, but given a choice I would not book one of these cabins.

We did this cruise in 2017 on the Sun Princess - it was one of the best cruises we have ever done and thoroughly enjoyed the ports we visited.  Lots of World War 2 history -  we had a good historian on board who gave a fascinating insight to the battles that went on in the area.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages "Columbus" Sydney-HK 27n $2,399 27 Feb 2019.  OV also less than $100pn.    Even more discount with promo code "Festive".   On their web site.

Gotcha, thanks.   That particular crossing regularly has nice price drops.

Is it the Pacific crossing?   Can't find another one at that price.

Check out your cruise planner as Celebrity are having for the next few days a pre-cruise sale for booked guests.   We were able to get a drinks package at 50% off - although it appears the discount varies from cruise to cruise.  I think there were also discounts to upgrade from a classic to a premium package.

In Aug/Sep 2020 there's a B2B on the Crown Princess, 14n Norway to North Cape followed by another 14n to the Baltics.   Both ex-Southampton.  Something to consider.

17 hours ago, koolforkatz said:

Just got 50% off our premium drinks packages for our Chile to San Diego cruise in 2020. Amazing deal.

The same for our TP in Sep2019.   We bought classic packages - happy days!

Haven't got a pic to put up right now, but we were in one of these cabins for 27 nights on the Constellation last year.   The window was huge, and we have booked the same cabin on the Millenium for a B2B next year.   Our favourite cabins by a long shot.

Search for:

34 night back to back cruise

Never heard of them either, NSW based, Inside cabin $3897.   Too cheap?

Thanks all.   

Yes, thought it was a good price after checking the main boards and seeing what they were paying from the US.    Shouldn't have any problem getting value for money 

We don't normally cruise with a drinks package unless it is already included in the price, but as our next cruise will be with a group and a lot more social I'm wondering whether $67.62 per day is a good price for a RCCL deluxe package - I can't tell whether this is a sale price or is the norm.  This works out at $US49.

It was a magical sailaway from Sydney on the 20th in the midst of a spectacular electrical storm.  We were surrounded by lightning and thunder well past the Heads.  It was a bit bumpy yesterday afternoon heading back, a few green faces around.

This was our first time on the Solstice and we loved it.

Little to no compo was offered, as they were cancelled more than 12 months out. For one we were offered a choice of 3 alternate cruises at the same price as the original booking - when none of these were satisfactory, we had our deposit refunded. Another was booked using a future cruise deposit, and this was placed back on our account with a very, very small OBC to use on a future cruise. You learn not to pre-pay anything that is not refundable.

We've had 3 cruises cancelled - a B2B by Royal Caribbean and a South American one by Princess, luckily all before airfares were booked.

Thanks for sharing. That was excellent!

Celebrity Solstice 20 October 9 nights is on sale again on their site, $999pn inside GTY, full payment due 26th (tomorrow). For the next few days, Qantas has 25% off points for economy reward flights.

We had a meeting at 1:00 pm today for B2B passengers. There were approx 100 present. They gave out about 12 door prizes. We won a dinner for two at either Tuscan or Qsine. The also gave away bottles of wine, 48 hour internet packages and bags of free laundry.

 

Thanks very much for that. Similar to the Constellation last year, but without the freebies or the transit pass.

Enjoy your free dinner!