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BecAus

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  1. I really wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading about your time on S1 & seeing all the great photos you posted - it was wonderful to read about how you enjoyed yourselves on your 2months onboard and I looked forward to seeing what you’d been up to when I was able to check in - I meant to post & tell you before it ended! You did a brilliant job of keeping us all updated! (we had a really sad & unexpected bereavement in the family early Jan & the inevitable things that go along with dealing with that went into Feb so whilst I checked in occasionally I didn’t get around to posting much but I very much enjoyed reading your daily reports when I could - really brightened my day when I saw your posts / photos - you have a wonderful way of expressing yourself) Hope you have a great upcoming cruise on Wonder and your upcoming adventures before you rejoin S4 in Barcelona - we will probably be like ships passing as we get off & you get back on!
  2. Beautiful pictures! Thanks I thought he might have been from a couple of posts I've seen from him. I thought #2 for us originally but I'm not too worried either way now as we plan to get off in CT either option & rejoin later. I think my husband thinks there might be too many sea days to CT on option 2.
  3. As far as I am aware it is just the FWC's and the full S3 guests who get to vote. We have the webinar in about 15hrs which I believe is open to the same group of people (I think it is in the theatre onboard) which is going to hopefully answer a lot of the questions that we've submitted so we can make an 'informed decision' about which option is the best one to choose. I could be wrong but I 'think' they said the Captain will have the final say. I don't really know what that means - in the unlikely event there is a tie ðŸĪ·â€â™€ïļ
  4. Sure, I can see how you might think that but this was never a normal vacation as I don't usually take 3 month vacations. And the FWC's who booked the whole thing weren't looking for a normal vacation either. Of course this adventure is not for everyone! I look at it now that it's opened up some opportunities for us. A Safari is not something we would otherwise have done. We will now spend a few days in Rome as that was the one stop I was really struggling with in how to see it all in one day. My husband has been there before but I haven't. From Ringers0815 reply it sounds like the cruisers are continuing on as normal with their cruise and this is just another small bump in the road for them so that is great to hear. We are looking forward to hopping aboard in Dubai and joining them for part of their journey!
  5. Firstly, thank you all who have been contributing to this thread and I must express how sorry I am to the mini leg people who have been treated pretty poorly by Royal in all this. I really feel for you! This is just my thoughts as someone who is booked as a full segment 3 cruiser. Full segment'er here - booked 2 years ago when the segments were first released. Not much point complaining. We know it's out of Royal's control and they had to come up with something. Personally, we would never have booked this segment based on this current itinerary. We very specifically booked S3 because we wanted to do the Suez / Egypt / Turkey / Greece and all the ports thereafter - it is a bucket list trip for us (from Australia) and we haven't been to most of the places. I know, I know - don't book a cruise if you actually want to go somewhere because it is never guaranteed but this whole segment was so ideal and to be able to see all these places and only have to pack and unpack once for the 62n was really appealing. I have zero interest in doing a cruise around Africa. I thought we would pick option 2 initially but that is wayyyy too many sea days. It is thought that most FWC's are probably going to go with option 1 and we're ok with that, it will probably work out better for us than 2 with our plans anyway. I don't mind the look of the stops on the way down to Cape Town on option 1 so we will look at boarding in Dubai and sailing to Cape Town (on either option) and we will then disembark and look to re-board in either Bari, Italy (option 1) or Istanbul, Turkey (option 2). From what other FWC's have researched it looks like the YF vaccine may be required and I can't have this due to a medical condition. Even if my Dr decided I could, we have no interest in the Africa west coast itinerary anyway. We have been to Cape Town before and my BIL who is S.African went over the itinerary with us and told us a bit about the areas they are stopping at. Each to their own but it's not for us. We are looking into a Safari once we disembark in Cape Town then thinking about a few different options after that. ? try for a couple of days in Cairo (might be too dicey to risk booking), other options are Istanbul / Athens or just fly straight to Italy after Safari for a week or so. Now, this is probably premature 😃 but I have booked a cruise out of Rome on Odyssey for 7n on 9th June - it was pretty heavily booked and it was the only date that really worked for us with joining back with Serenade.so I went ahead yesterday and booked it. I was lucky that I signed up for a 'book later' reservation at Next Cruise on our last sailing. This cost us a $200 AUD deposit. In doing so we got $150 AUD OBC off our room charges on that cruise. So, in the end, all this reservation that I have made on Odyssey cost me was $50AUD. Some might think me nuts but that was an acceptable risk to me to have something locked in. Now of course, I won't actually need that cruise if they choose option 2 as we will end up going to those places on that option but Santorini in particular and Mykonos were must do's of mine. We would then travel from Rome (probably by train) on the 16th to Bari and plan to meet up with Serenade in Bari on the 18th. So that's where we are at. It is to be noted that they haven't offered us a cancellation option at this stage. It's not known if that will be offered after the final decision is made but we're not thinking of taking that anyway. I stupidly booked non-refundable accommodation in Paris and London after we disembark Serenade in July so we are still looking at going regardless of how this all ends up. I've received another email from RCI today advising the next steps. Any questions in by the 20th, webinar on 21st (gotta work out what day & time that will be here in Western Australia), make our decision of which option to select on 26th & final itinerary announced on 27th. They have stated again that "we can debark and rejoin at any point we prefer and we will receive a pro-rated refund of your days off the ship". It is unclear whether this is on top of the 25% off the pro-rated S3 cruise fare compensation offer for option 1. I'll submit a couple of questions re: this and also checking that they will allow our debark / re-board ports that we think we want. So that's it, a lot to happen in the next week before we start to know for sure what the plan is! I was a bit depressed about it all on the weekend, particularly when Royal sent us 2 x cancellation emails, by mistake we assume based on what other full segmenters received, along with the 2 other emails we got re choosing option 1 or 2 but am feeling a lot more optimistic about things now!
  6. Yes it was, it's really a once in a lifetime thing for us and we live in Oz. Plus... woke up this morning to an upgrade from an obstructed JS to a GS on Dk 11 after bidding just a fraction over minimum - this was a last minute booking on a nearly sold out cruise that only had a JS & 2 high end suites available so wasn't expecting an upgrade to come through - first time for us! @orville99 I sincerely apologise to you. I did not mean for my posts to take over your thread. I've had conversations with IslandLady in the past on here so replied to her a couple of times. I apologise. I see you're on board now. I hope you have a wonderful cruise and look forward to any other tidbits you find out about improvements etc.. on the ship.
  7. Ha, ha - ok. I kind of figured that must be the case. It will help with getting everything in though, I'll just have to be careful of the weight. I'm still mystified how I'm going to get it in to 1 suitcase but I will have to master the art of packing light real quick - not my strong suit! Thank you for your reply 🙂
  8. Thank you - that reminded me to pack the hook magnets I bought (8) to try out. Previously I've just managed to hook the hanger over the back of the chair on the balcony but I will try the hook idea this time. I haven't used the clothesline line before but I read that a lot of people do. It's a very small item to take (just a piece of rope basically) so I thought I'll throw it in and see if I think I would use it. Yes, I've been reading your posts about Viking, seems like a great fit for you! I remember well your 2 x cancelled cruises ðŸĨē The NZ cruise next week on Ovation was unplanned. As we are on the World Cruise (even though it's 1 segment only) we got an invite to the event / function that Aus/NZ RCI management is having at the Sydney Opera House this Friday night. Drinks/Canapes for two hours followed by an evening show in the main theatre of the OH. We are on the West Coast and have never been inside the OH so I thought, why not! Of course it's costing an arm and a leg to fly across the country as, like everywhere, airfares are through the roof, particularly last minute ones! We hadn't planned to go away till we leave for the WC for 3mths in May next year but my husband is in desperate need of a break after the last few hard months at work so it was a real easy sell to him!! I had a look online and they had a 10n NZ Cruise leaving on the Monday after the Friday event. Only room left was 1 JS so that's what we've got. Don't ask what that cost 🙄 It is what it is! Cruised to NZ 3 - 4 times. Last time we did the south island in NZ there was bad weather and we could only head in to Milford Sound and then out and head north to Wellington. They had to cancel the other 'sounds' and going around the bottom island to Dunedin so am hoping we'll be able to see all of that this time. We've only seen those 1 time back in ~ 2011. Either way, the break is going to be very welcome at the moment!
  9. Hi Sorry if this is a dumb question ðŸĪŠ In regards to using the vacuum storage bags. I understand it compresses so you can fit more in. I'm definitely going to need to consider doing this. What does that do to the weight of the suitcase? Does compressing take some of the weight out of the items or will they still weight the same? We have a pretty generous allowance of 30kg/~66lb flying from/to Australia with Singapore Airlines but I believe the train from Barcelona to Paris is only 23kg/50lb and they do weigh your luggage I've read. I have bought a 'foldie' soft bag and if need be i'll have to shove ~ 7kg in there if the suitcase is too heavy. Although.....we fly in to Dubai and then straight on to the ship for 62n. We would use a lot of the consumables over that time that I need to pack for the trip so by the time we get off to catch the first train our cases 'should' weigh a little less perhaps. I could also likely pack quite a few of the consumables we'll use (like tin coffee, essential meds, washing 'stuff' into a soft 'foldie' type carryon and leave my suitcase just for clothes / shoes etc. It's hurting my head thinking about it 🙃 Enjoy your upcoming cruise, I look forward to reading about your trip!
  10. My understanding since they announced the laundry facilities is that it was only going to be for the full WC's. Those of us on segments wouldn't have access. I believe even those who swapped from the full WC to the 17 mini's won't have access as they're not classed as 'full WC's' now. I personally think that's a little unfair and petty to the few who did change to that but that's not my fight to fight! I believe you are going to need to swipe your sea-pass to access the facilities and they might be in a crew area. I was thinking they would perhaps be in those areas off the cabin hallways where you see them come out with their housekeeping carts but who knows! I used your tip (that I read on one of your previous posts) of the collapsable wash tub on our last cruise which was a 17n TP. It worked well and we also sent out a couple of bags of laundry. I think that will work ok for us. 3 bags of laundry per week (my husband will put all his clothes through there) and a bit of hand washing for some of mine. I just need to make sure that most of my tshirts and shorts that I pack will withstand their wash! I'm also going to get an outside line to use on the balcony. My biggest issue will be my inability to pack light. We are travelling onwards via train for a couple of weeks so I was hoping to only travel with the 1 suitcase as we're going to have to lug on and off trains as we move around. My husband will be able to pack light but I'm going to struggle! We have booked a last minute cruise from Sydney to NZ next week. Although it will be different weather as it's going to be cold in NZ I am going to see how I go with only packing 1 suitcase - not hopeful but I'm going to give it my best shot!
  11. I don't recall seeing larger taxi's when we've travelled to HK, not saying they don't have them but I don't remember ever seeing any. When we had six people we took two regular taxi's as I recall.
  12. We didn't go near the shore at all, I don't know about the longer tours but we got on the jet ski at their dock and off again at their dock, other than getting in the water to swim with the rays / sharks which is optional. Perhaps email the company, they might be able to advise more. We ended up really liking the TP / sea days and will do it again in the future and probably go further ie. Aus - Honolulu - Vancouver - Alaska next time. I was concerned about the number of sea days given previously we had only had about 2 sea days in a row. I thought my husband would hate it but he liked it even better than me. It's amazing how quickly you settle into it and we are not even very involved with most of the activities they have on board. To be honest, we probably don't spend enough time on the balcony to really warrant the cost. We used it a bit as we always do - I sometimes have a coffee out there in the morning and my husband sat out there a few times to read. Every time I book think I'm not sure we're using the balcony enough to warrant the extra expense but I would find it hard not to have it now. Having the balcony makes it feel a little less claustrophobic to me but it really is a personal choice.
  13. What didn't I like - everything. The speed, the rough bumping up and down over the waves, the tight turning. Don't take my hate of it as advice though. MOST people love it I'm sure, it just definitely wasn't for me - you won't catch me doing it again. The guide did say it's not as much fun if you're the passenger. I wouldn't have liked it either way but I think most people would. Most people in the afternoon group were doing the 3hr tour so there was a heap of them together and a lot had their own jet ski instead of sharing. If sharing I'm sure you can swap 1/2 way, You were able to swap drivers on the ATV tour We were the only ones doing the 1hr tour so we got our own personal tour guide which was great and we could therefore choose exactly what we wanted to do ie. go spend more time at the ray/shark area. No, there is no ladder. It was a bit of a problem for me. I have RA and leaning on my wrists is a problem which I needed to do to push myself back up at the back of the jet ski. The guide was happy to put a knee there to help you jump up but I needed more help than that. I had to get my husband to get off and help me back up. The guide was concerned as he wanted him up there first to balance the jet ski as its very easy to flip it but we were able to manage to do it, leaning away from each other and balancing it without any real trouble. There's kind of a flat / platform area at the back of the jet ski that you lift up on to / sit on as you get yourself up. It's shallow, standing area where the rays/sharks are so most people would be able to manage getting back on the jet ski ok it's just with my condition it made it difficult for me personally but we managed to get it done.
  14. Hi We did the crossing on Quantum in April this year. 1. No, there is no limit. They wouldn't be stopping at those ports if there was. That's why they had to drop Bora Bora due to limit on passengers. We got 2 days in Moorea instead but from this season they are changing from that to the new port of Raiatea. 2. As Chili mentioned, RCI tours always have priority. Generally they are running 2 tender departure points (forward and midship) and RCI tours will use one and other passengers the other. We were in a suite this time so I can't really recall the tender ticket process but I think passengers had to line up to get them at a certain point the day before. If you are in a full suite or a Pinnacle we were given early tender tickets in the SL. I think she said she had tender #'s 1 - 10 put aside. 3. We did RCI's snorkelling tour in Papeete in the morning. It was pretty good. A couple of different snorkelling stops including one with a plane wreck (a real one, not one they placed there for the tourists!) that was pretty cool. In the afternoon we did a private island tour in the afternoon. First day in Moorea we did a snorkelling, motu island lunch tour with Moorea Miti tours booked privately. This included a couple of snorkelling stops and swimming with sting rays and black tipped sharks which was REALLY COOL! Second day we did a private tour with Moorea Activities Centre doing a 3.5hr ATV Island tour followed by a 1 hr jet ski tour. They have many different combo's of varying time lengths of each activity. The ATV tour was really cool. Thank goodness I only booked the jet ski for 1 hour because I discovered I HATE jet skiing - my husband liked it though, just not my thing. We spent 1/2 hr of that jet ski swimming with the sting rays / sharks again. We didn't have to do that but I hated the jet ski so much I was begging to get off it! It was actually really great though as there were less people than the day before so we got great time with the rays / sharks. They recognise people as well apparently (the rays that is!) and our guide was one of their favourites so they were all over him and up close to see. Moorea Activities also take free photos of your day so we got heaps from the ATV and also underwater ones from the jet ski tour which were cool. The ATV / Jet ski wasn't cheap by any means - it was $475AUD for the 3.5hr / 1hr combo for the two of us but I definitely would say it was worth it for us. I know they were booked out so if you are considering booking this sort of activity then I would book it early, like now if they're not booked out already. I paid by credit card at the time of booking (I have a fee free international credit card) Hope that helps you
  15. Wow, I would not have expected to see that there! We have seen a lot of them in our travels throughout Asia.
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