Suzbluz

Jinek bay is great so I'd book that ticket straight up. If you snorkel on the beach near where you get off at lifou you can be lucky and see turtles. I recommed booking into kids club straight away too.

Its very busy in the blue mountains on weekends so if it was me, I'd try to go on the Friday. I second the recommendation for the hydro majestic. 

Have a look at wild life Sydney zoo. In the city so easy to get to. Not as great as taronga zoo but if what you want is native animals it would have what you're after and doesn't take long to get around. 

You might enjoy 'wild life Sydney zoo' which is a small zoo in Sydney CBD which has a lot of native animals. You can hold a koala etc. They used to have a discount pass that includes the aquarium, Sydney tower and madam Tussaud. Sydney tower gives a great view of sydney too. 

35 minutes ago, SuitesRbest said:

Ok, these packages cover a range of products not only alcoholic beverages. My wife and I will have 2-3 bottles of water and maybe 2 specialty coffee's a day. This is 4-5 beverages each already without alcohol (a value of no less than $20 each right there and I am swaying on the lowest cost here) Not to mention the cans of coke no sugar we may have by the pool in the afternoon and on sea days.

 

4 cocktails through out the evening each (@ a $12 average=$48 each) will put us over the $62 package that we have purchased on the up coming cruise (RCL), already at a $68 cost if we did not have a beverage package. My math over a 14 day cruise consuming the very modest number of drinks saves us $168 right there.

 

This is in no way excessive and killing my liver. The above beverages would be a very modest cruise day for us.

This is similar to how I get my value for money. Plus by buying in advance in Aussie dollars inc grats on RC it is even better value. 

As others say it all depends onhow much you want to drink. Brisbane41 always responds that no human can drink enough to justify a drinks package and they are a massive rip off but I disagree. On our last cruise we paid $63 a day and easily got our moneys worth.  I'm on holidays and let my hair down for 10 days and for me it makes sense but if it was $20 more then I would pay as I go. Its not something someone else can really decide for you. Have a great cruise!

Hi. 

 

Im on 3 nights Pacific Explorer to Eden on 15 November 2019, thanks 

 

suzbluz

 

 

 

We chose to do a cruise of Queen Charlotte sounds out of Picton and that was a really good half day excursion.

I really loved Ovation. There was lots to do. Solarium is a nice spot to relax in. The staff were all great. Actually I don't have anything negative to say about it. We cruised NZ for first time in December on Ovation and loved it as a destination. Have travelled by land before but enjoyed new places like Napier. I would do that cruise again tomorrow. 

our recent cruise with RCI we booked in Australia in Aussie dollars and gratuities were included in the fare. 

I think sometimes they are worth it and sometimes not. For our recent royal Caribbean cruise we paid $63 AUD grats included. Compared to paying on boardboard per drink in US dollars plus grats it was a bargain as I let my hair down on holidays and it didn't take much to get value. I'm certainly not an alcoholic and I think its pretty judgmental to say anyone who gets a package must be. 

I just booked at the restaurants themselves. We loved chops but I wasn't mad on izumi. Lovely ship, I hope you enjoy it. 

Also, if you want to see our animals there's a wildlife park and aquarium at darling harbour. The zoo is amazing but it takes all day to do it justice. 

I second the hop on hop off bus for a bit of an overview. If adventurous I suggest harbour bridge climb. Less adventurous, there are great views from Sydney Tower. 

I did a three night sampler on P&O explorer about 18 months ago with my sister who was curious about cruising. I didn't notice it being particularly boozy but maybe we were lucky. We booked quite close to sail date and got a good price. It was long enough to get her hooked!

That’s exactly what I do Steve. Works beautifully. 

It depends who your Australian phone is with how expensive it is. Im with vodafone and have a great plan for OS. When in US it was easy to get a sim for my son but unfortunately i cant remember who it was with. You will be able to get at airport, they cant wait to get you!

I have done spirit to the islands and never had to wait that long for tenders, that must have been frustrating! I'm sure we did get a tender time for jinek bay but I recommend getting them anyway as the snorkeling there is fantastic. There's only one tour available for mare and I love the beach there so I'd recommend that too. Talk to the tour desk people I'm sure they will help you out.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app

The main issue is that they have a bit of a name for cancelling flights. I've flown with them once and had no issue so its whether you want to gamble but that said I don't know the stats on how much of a gamble it really is. If you have time up your sleeve you could wait for a sale and you might get a better fare on Q or V.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app

I think Canberra is worth a visit for a couple of days. Canberra to Sydney is a very easy drive especially if finishing around the airport. Freeway virtually the whole way. You could train from Sydney to blue mountains and then drive from there. I'm not sure where you'd pick a hire car from out there though. Maybe you'd have to train back in to the airport and drive to and from Canberra.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app

Suzbuz - Tripadvisor has the hours for AWM as Sat & Sun., but good to know it's open every day! I probably misinterpreted the "Sat-Sun". Before making a decision I would have looked at their website. I did find an affordable airbnb close to the area. San Fransisco is one of our favorite places to visit!

 

I don't think the drive to Canberra would work for us since we only want to be gone from Melbourne for one night at most. And at our age, we don't do 7 hr drives without stopping at least for a bathroom break ;-). We've already paid for our airBnB so we'll be eating the cost for one Melbourne overnight plus adding another night cost for either Canberra or Hobart.

 

Absolutely the old Melbourne gaol is on the list! I also find old cemeteries gold mines for history. I made DH spend one whole Thanksgiving weekend visiting old gravesite in rural Mississippi.

 

GUT2407 - I'm not familiar with the Female Factories. Will have to look in to them.

 

I'll need to make a decision soon. I imagine lodging might start to get tight the longer I put it off.

 

Another question : Tiger Air - I've heard good and bad reviews... Opinions? Best airline for in country flying?

No I see driving not a good option for you. I'm not a fan of tiger, they have a reputation for being unreliable. Virgin or Qantas are best options.

 

There is an old cemetery in Carlton. You could do the gaol, then cemetery and dinner in Carlton on the same day.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app

PS assume you have old Melbourne gaol on your list

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app

Mr Walker - Auto check gives me headaches! ;p

 

The Shrine of Remembrance is on our list. Since we are going to have a car, we'll be driving to Phillip Island to visit the Vietnam Memorial there.

 

While checking out the feasibility of a side trip to Canberra to visit the AWM, I read that the only days the museum is open are Saturdays and Sundays. So that puts a bit of a cramp in the planning.

 

Another option is to fly to Hobart. Weird as it sounds, I have this thing for prison history. On our drive trip through the North Eastern US, we toured the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia PA. It's the oldest prison in the US. All US prisons use it's design concept. And of course there's Alcatraz. Visiting at night, feeling in all it's creepiness and spookiness.

 

The other thing that I would really like to do is tour one of the hospitals. I'm a retired Pediatric Orthopedic RN. Seeing how other hospitals compare to my experiences always fascinates me.

 

So you can tell our interests are quite varied. And when I say "we", I mostly mean me. My husband likes to say he puts out his clothes for me to pack for any of our trips and just shows up at the appointed hour to begin the adventure :):)

AWM is open every day so not sure what someone has written to make you think only open on weekends. None of the big attractions in Canberra are closed during the week?? If you have a car anyway you could drive from Melbourne. Freeway all the way. Tassie is lovely though, you're spoilt for choice really. Just like we were in US. Alcatraz was one of my favourite attractions there.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app

Hi Lee Ann. Melbourne is just a really nice city, great vibe. I always go to the Queen Vic markets and there's great shopping in the city. I don't go often enough to recommended restaurants but if you like Italian try Lygon Street in Carlton. You can walk there from the city. Tram it to st kilda, see the beach and check out the amazing cake shops there. I can't remember what month you were looking at but if you have any interest in sport an AFL match is a must.

 

I live in Canberra so am biased but it's worth a visit. While the shrine in Melbourne is a meaningful monument, the war memorial in Canberra is a totally different thing. I'd say it is our number 1 attraction and you could spend a whole day there, they have so many exhibitions. The good thing about Canberra attractions is that they are almost all free because they are in the capital. My second recommendation would be Parliament House.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app

Hook turns don't really make sense until you see them done. You'll likely get it as soon as you see it. I love Melbourne, it's a great city. Hope you have a great time.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7600-F using Forums mobile app