Muffinz

Still no change to Australia though....

Sadly there has been no update / change regarding cruises leaving Sydney (Australia) and a negative test is still required to board I know that this is the rules of the Australian Government and not from Princess Cruises themselves hopefully this will change before Feb 2023 when we cruise out of Sydney

I see there is still no change for Australia / NZ but this is no fault of Princess - it's the Australian governments rules however it may change before Feb 2023 when we cruise out of Sydney

Sorry to hear of your experience.... our cruise in April 2020 (on Celebrity) was cancelled due to the pandemic and it took us over 6 months to get the full refund from them through our TA... like you we were calling and e-mailing most weeks to little effect

we are on a cruise in Feb 2023 that stops in Brisbane and I believe the new terminal is in operation now I don't know if Princess are providing a shuttle into town though

I suspect for our Majestic cruise from Sydney in February 2023 she will be pretty full to the brim! being in the heat of summer 'down under' I hope they pack plenty of cold beer 😁

Yes - but if I'm getting in a taxi / shuttle I don't want to have to fumble about with a suitcase and an overnight bag.... Sure it's not the end of the world, but I did find it a bit of a pain

that's true, but if we are getting a taxi / shuttle to the airport straight after the cruise I'll have to find a spot at the pier somewhere to re-pack our suitcases as I'll need to pack what is in our overnight bags back into our suitcases.... we had to do this last time and it was a bit of a pain really - repacking your suitcase in front of everyone else walking past staring at you....

thanks for the reply.... yes the more I talk about it with the wife the more we think it might be a good idea to get the later flight.... for piece of mind really We do have friends here that are on the same cruise and they have booked the earlier flight back to NZ I would however like to be able to walk off with my own luggage though if possible.... I don't know if Princess do this but on Celebrity we had to pack our suitcase the night before disembarking and leave it outside the stateroom door, so we were left with just an overnight bag to disembark with and had to collect our suitcases at the pier after disembarking... this was a bit of a pain.

Ideally you'd take a photo of yourself (or get someone else to) holding up the test strip and have the date function turned on your phone / camera. I had to do this for work earlier in the year when I got covid and had to send it through to my boss

Thanks but we’ll probably book directly with the airline (Air New Zealand) the 11:45am flight works best with the arrival time in New Zealand there is another flight at 3:30pm but that would mean sitting around in the airport lounge in Sydney for a few hours....

Do Princess allow passengers to 'self-disembark' with their own luggage on arrival into port? The reason for asking is our cruise docks in Sydney (Australia) in March 2023 and we are looking at booking a return flight to New Zealand that leaves Sydney at 11:45am - this means we'd have to be at Sydney Airport by about 9am and we'd probably have to disembark by 8am to get a taxi / shuttle or train to the airport. does anyone know if it is possible to do this? any advice would be appreciated

They did need to be a supervised / monitored test, but I'm not sure if that's the case now, or if you can just take one at your hotel room on the morning of check in and just tell Princess when boarding that you took a test and it was negative.... someone in the know would be able to tell us bus as I said the cruise is 6 months out and the Australian government could have changed or dropped the requirement to have a negative test by then

Chemist warehouse or bargain chemist will sell RAT tests. There’s stores all over Sydney. We’re on the same cruise as you in February and it’s 6 months away so things could have changed by then

Thanks for this thread... we are on Majestic in February 2023 and are really looking forward to it do you know what time the shows were on? Princess said 20:00 and 22:00 but some on other princess ships said they were 19:30 and 21:30 thanks

Government of Canada rules would apply here - you follow the rules of that countries government

interesting - I was told on Majestic Princess that the show times are 8pm (20:00) and 10pm (22:00) I'll have to check that out closer to the time because we too will be scheduling our dinner times around the shows

If we were booking multiple cruises / trips / hotels, then we’d use a TA but for our cruise next year we’ve booked the cruise through Princess and will book a hotel for the night before and airfares ourselves

it's not really worth it..... we just chose not to use them again

The TA hadn't done anything though.... it was my wife that did all the work and found out we had been put through as a 'group booking' by our TA... that's what was holding things up, but our TA should have been on their case. Others who booked the same cruise through a TA got their refunds much sooner than we did

We booked out first cruise in 2018 through a TA and had no issues, so used them again to book our cruise in April 2020... however the cruise was then cancelled and getting the refund back took over 6 months... the TA just lost interest... just told us to wait.... so my wife had to do all the ringing around and e-mailing. Then to top it all off the TA took some money out of our refund for their 'time' pursuing the refund... when in fact they did stuff all! We've booked a cruise for Feb 2023 - direct with the cruise company

We're also doing a cruise from Sydney in Feb 2023... and post #3 sums up the requirements as they stand at the moment... but as others have said that can all change between now and Feb 2023

yes - 6 months is a long time away and the Australian Government have have changed their requirements by then

same as Australia...

So it looks like we still have to test before boarding in Sydney (Australia)?? that could all change before February 2023 though