Sallyandtex

Thanks everyone, we might wait until visit and see what the weather is doing, good to know there's an information centre to see what to do. Maybe a Lake visit, or Maybe even a bike hire? We hired bikes in Gisbourne it was fun

hi, Never been to this port, and not a lot to be found regarding things to do. I was thinking of maybe a hire car to get to Lake Tekapo? Are there hire places there in port? Or a bus trip maybe? There are 4 of us. Is this trip a good idea, other suggestions please if you have been there and what to do.

The Royal is one less day/port by the look of next season. Hi cruiser3775 yes I really liked the Westerdam compared to Royal carribean and p and o. We wish they had a syd return trip , only 1 is over Xmas

Thanks I really appreciate the info. So in a nut shell considering if the cabin availability, itinerany and price were equal, you think the Royal might be best as there won't be long waits and big crowds? Or just pick either? We wouldn't get any perks that many others do like skipping lines or free stuff

Mmm thankyou. One of our company is a vegetarian. I was telling her about the Westrdam buffet how there are lots of healthy choices, as many of the other boats we have been on have loads of meat and very poor vegetable dishes. In terms of getting a seat at shows, dining rooms, is there any difference with either of the princess ships? We liked on the Westeram if there was no tables immediately, they gave us a buzzer and we could sit in the nearby bar and have a drink listen to the live quartet. Was never much of a wait.

Thankyou! Any preference Crown or Royal? We like a promenade walk for exercise

Hi, We had to cancel a HAL cruise to Japan for this year due to illness. Looking closer to home things have gone up in price dramatically, and the ships don't seem to do many Sydney round trips. We liked the size and feel of Westerdam, but we would have to get a flight 1 way to or from Auckland. Friends gave warned us of the uncomfortable beds and bad food, and crowds on Princess ships that are large.(crown and royal seem to be the ones that go to NZ) Is this unfounded? Princess have more offerings Sydney return. P.s not wanting fabulous shows but like trivia and other smaller crowd activities We would try out of school holidays like end of Jan or February or March. Thanks

Yes I saw that too . I emailed HAL Australia before my post, to ask no reply as yet.

Has anyone purchased the platinum CPP? Been looking at purchasing a Holland America Cruise protection plan, as the Web pages states you don't need to put pre existing conditions? This would be in addition to our usual travel insurance. I downloaded the documents but it could be for US cruisers only as you select your US state. Thanks 😊

We're you able to use the Suica card for the local trains? And could you reload them easily at the stations?

Oh wow! Thanks for that.

Is it 5 years for the physical card too? We kept ours from June 2018, and are finally coming back October 2024, so that's 6 years!

Not at all. I get smashed with emails with supposed u beatable deals, but when you pick it apart, they just shift money around to make it look good. I also got a better deal 3 months ago on a cruise only fare, even with the extras added now the fare is much higher.

Very true! Am waiting to hear back from them asking why I don't have the booking showing then I will be buying some at that rate!

Only because I have found my bank gives me a better rate than the cruise companies with the conversion. I could be wrong. Anyway , had no luck as the website gave an error when I tried to add my booking that wasn't showing. Maybe a Black Friday crash! Have a lovely cruise!

Thankyou very much for going to the trouble of those instructions 😀. I am guessing then, that you can't pay in USD on an Aussie website, have to pay the AUD they have calculated. (92 days lucky you!) I have 11 months to wait .

Thanks for that, is there a way to compare currency once logged in? So, do you select say $100 usd and then they say how much aud? Or do you just select how much in Aud? I usually use one of my cards most favourable on the day with exchange rates (card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee)

Do you know if it's possible to buy OBC with Holland America? And do they refund any not spent? We have no OBC for a cruise booked in October next year, also gratuities not included which gets painfully expensive with the exchange rate.

Whoa huge difference between AUD and USD and pound!

How much OBC do they give you?

Hi, Those from Syd Australia, approx how many months is a good time to book airfares on a direct route to Haneda?. We are a little over 12 months to sail, and info on web suggests don't book flights until around 6 months prior for best price. Looking at ANA so we have daytime flights, very expensive so far. Thanks!

When we booked Insight and Trafalgar, we had those automatically included, (like cruising here.). When we were finished up in Canada insight, the envelopes still got passed around as most hadn't paid the expected tips. So, if it's part of the fare I think it should always be included I wrote on the front that we already paid those (hundreds of dollars each for host and driver), and as the tour manager was less than average I didn't want to leave extra....we still felt guilty for no good reason. It's always a topic that makes me uncertain , uncomfortable and the system is unfair for the workers.

Oh great! Do you know if they did a review/blog?

Save yourself the trouble, and a genuine thankyou would do for good service. We are more cash free than USA and pay for things with cards mostly, especially with Covid restrictions in recent years and handing cash around.

Those 'gun style' devices are very in-accurate also, especially when waved around in the air like they were doing at some venues, by un-trained staff.