Lazy_Whovian

Hello all.

I'm just wondering if anyone can remember seeing any taxis lined at the Naples ports that carried more than 4 people?

Do they charge more for the fixed fares than the 4 people taxis?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

Thanks that's really helpful :D

Takuhaibin - also called Takyyubin - is not offered by cruise lines.

It is offered by delivery companies.

At most Japanese ports, all Japanese Shinkansen stations, and at all Japanese airports, these companies have desks set up where you can drop off your bags.

A few cruise lines arrange with the delivery companies to have the pre-printed forms available at the ship's front desk.

Most 7-11's in Japan also offer this service.

 

On rare occasions you can get your bags delivered the same day.

In most cases, it is an overnight delivery promise.

Thank you so much for that information 😁

I'm just wondering if takuhaibin luggage delivery is a service that NCL offers? I've read conflicting reports to say that this service is usually available at port and/or some cruise lines have to organise for it to be available at port.

If it's available at the port (regardless of the cruise line) does anyone know if we can get our luggage delivered same day to our hotel in Tokyo (Shinjuku area)? Or will it be an overnight delivery? Some information that i have read states 2 days delivery.

I didn't end up buying the luggage but I was claiming the TRS on something else so I asked about claiming it on bigger items. Apparently you approach the staff downstairs and they'll ask one of the customs guys to come downstairs and sight the oversized goods in question. Apparently it is up to their discretion as to whether they'll give you the refund so I doubt you'll be able to claim in on a fridge :)

You may want to have another read of the conditions of TRS, in particular the section titled 'Bringing goods back into Australia for which you have already received a TRS refund' Any item brought back into Australia counts towards your duty free limit, if you exceed the limit you are required to pay the duty and repay the gst on all items.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'm not planning on purchasing anything while away and i'm travelling as a family unit so am able to pool our duty free allowances.

Do they cost more than $300 to start with.

 

Given that they have / will be taken way before you get to the TRS desk in the Departure area... I guess you will more or less be somewhat 'not able' to claim.............

 

... unless you take a pic of them, and have your receipt... and hope that the TRS 'accepts' your pic.

I was looking to purchase a set so yes...

Don't know that that's true. The Sydney airport TRS counter is in 'international territory' ie after immigration & customs, certainly way after you check-in your luggage. So unless there is another TRS counter out in the airport terminal that i don't know about, it's not possible. And the same of course at the cruise terminal.

 

Of course as you say, you do not have to remove goods you claim the refund from Australia permanently, else some one OS would have a nice video camera with videos of my family & friends :D That said, i think that is the intention of the scheme ie it is to return the GST paid by visitors on their departure from Australia.

There are very clear instructions on the website about how to go about claiming on oversized goods at the airport. If anyone else is interested you can find them here https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Ente/Tour/Are-you-a-traveller#claimingtrsliquids

I just don't know how i can make this happen at the cruise terminal. As i'm not sure that there will be an australian border force office there. It looks like i'm going to have to make some phone calls to track down the answer of how to make this work by boat instead of by air.

I've read that at the airport you can present things that you plan to put into your check in luggage and then go and check in. I was hoping that I could do that at the cruise terminal...

And yes i'm pretty sure that they'll believe that i'm taking the suitcases out of the country, and it doesn't have to be a permanent removal...why would anyone present suitcases (not to mention lugging them to a different state) before an international trip and then not use them? Also they won't spend ages interviewing me if they knock me back, they just won't give me the refund ... and maybe submit my name for a future tax audit lol.

I'll bring the reciept and the smaller suitcase with my fingers crossed and hope for the best. I'll probably buy the luggage regardless of if i cant get the GST refund it would just be a nice bonus if i can get it.

Thanks... I've never tried to carry on larger luggage... Do you think they'll let me get away with it? lol

I'm looking to buy a new luggage set before setting sail to the South Pacific from Sydney.

Does anyone know if i'll be able to claim the GST back on them? From what i can understand we won't be able to go through TRS until after we have we have done the bag drop with the bigger luggage. This will probably just leave us with smaller carry on and the receipt for the set.

Any constructive advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

I didn't sail on Ovation of the Seas but we did attend the character breakfast on the Mariner of the Seas. Shrek and Fiona were the only characters to appear and we found the whole experience to be a waste of money (In addition to our own kids we treated my nieces and nephews to the breakfast).

I may not have felt that way if we hadn't done the Cat in the Hat/Green Eggs and Ham breakfast on the Carnival Legend (which was cheaper and where some obvious effort had been put into the decorating, experience and menu).

The RCL character breakfast was a really lazy set up where there wasn't much offered that you couldn't get at the breakfast buffet and the decorations on the tables were pretty much non existent. They didn't even bother to send any of their professional photographers for photographs (which i was really annoyed about because we had paid for the unlimited digital photo package, but i guess they thought that we could just line up when the characters were due to do their meet and greets. Which admittedly we couldn't be bothered with).

Thanks for that information.

I visited the 'big buddha' about 12 years ago. I think we took the ferry followed by the bus (i'm not sure the cable car was an option back then). The bus is not for the faint of heart the road up that hill is really windy and bendy. I also have very fond memories of the vegetarian banquet at the monastary.

Thank you! That was really helpful.

I have been keeping an eye on the website to see what time it's open in April but as you said they haven't published it yet.

I would probably be happy to pay more for the taxi if it gave us extra time at DL but it sounds like this will be a gamble.

There's a chance that more of my family may decide to come with us too. So the MTR will probably be the go if that happens. From what i've heard hiring a minibus and driver can be hard in Hong Kong. Do you know if this is true?

Thanks. Fingers crossed that it won't take us more than an hour too :D

Thanks, but I'm fairly sure that we're docking at Kai Tak. I've worked out how to get there by subway. I'm just hoping that some other magic solution that doesn't involve a shuttle bus and 3 train changes appears in a cloud of fairy dust. lol.

Has anyone been to the Hong Kong Disneyland on the Ching Ming Festival day? Was it really crowded?

Our cruise docks in Hong Kong on the day of the Ching Ming festival (at 1pm no less) and it's already going to be an up hill battle to get to Disneyland from the terminal. I think we'll arrive at Disney at 3pm (probably later). The Cruise ship doesn't leave until the next day (in the morning - no chance of going on day 2) so we can stay until closing time.

From what i can understand the Ching Ming festival day is a pretty solemn occasion where traditionally people honour the dead and visit their graves. So there's a chance that Disneyland won't be so crowded but i would like to have confirmation from someone that has been there on previous Ching Ming festival days.

It's still a public holiday so solemn occasion or not it could still be more crowded than usual.

Also any tips on how to get there or what to see first or how to make the best use of our time (with 2 boys age 5 and 8 who are into Lightning McQueen, Planes, Star Wars, and super heroes). I normally won't spend the money on the cruise line's tours but if they offered a tour to Disneyland i'd book it in a heartbeat!

Thanks for taking the time to read/answer my long waffling post :D

Is there two VIFP programs running side by side? Aussie and US?

I'm really confused by the VIFP club.

Have any Australians seen any perks on the Aussie sailings? Did you have to sign up?

We cruised with Carnival back in 2013 and are about to cruise with them again soon so I thought i would sign up to VIFP. When i clicked on the link to join, it put me over to the America site and their system couldn't find me, so i went back to the Aussie site and put in an enquiry through the contact us link.

Here was the response:

"The Australia software does not recognize the Carnival past guest VIFP program from the US.

You will get credit for all sailings, but AU sailings do not offer VIFP perks, and cannot list your past guest numbers in the reservation.

You may join the Carnival VIFP program an CARNIVAL.COM to get your VIFP numbers but they cannot link to your AU reservation."

After that, i wondered why Australians would bother to sign up at all... It seems like a bit of hassle for little return. I'm keen to know other Aussie's experiences and if it's worth signing up, or if i should just wait and sign up if i ever book a sailing with them outside of Aus.

We went on MSC Sinfonia in October 2014. It was terrible. My child, who is a sociable little chap and loves the kids clubs usually, hated the kids club and refused to go there, the food was awful (we found the food on the plane on the way home delicious and started saying 'well you know the food is bad when it makes airline food seem like a culinary delight') and you pay through the nose for everything (more so than the other cruiselines - they don't even provide jugs of water at the dinner table, you have to pay for a bottle) ....

So even if they did start doing cruises out of Aus, I would still pay extra (and we're tightar$es!) to go with someone else.