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That sounds interesting. Maybe we'll get a more American-skewed menu for the first week and then to more Aussie flavours?

Stuff like smoking in the casino, etc. Just curious as to what RCI regard this cruise as it leaves the USA and arrives in AUS

So would this cruise be classed as a US cruise or an Australian cruise for purposes of its operation and regulations it needs to follow? Ovation of the Seas HNL --> SYD

I was able to add it to my FitBit pay as well as Google Pay. I it's just a Visa.

The one I ordered has my name on the back of it. I guess I can assign to my onboard account and see what happens.

We'll be flying into HNL before our cruise out of HNL back to Australia. We'll be staying in Hawai'i for a couple of weeks. We booked only a one-way flight with HA and therefore ticketing is only inbound to the US. We will be sailing with RCI to Sydney. I know the CBP will require us to provide some sort of outward journey proof but what might that be? In my Royal Caribbean account page, the ability toprint out my itinerary and so on doesn't seem to be available. I get the message below. I've checked my email for PDF documents but because this was a kind of lift 'n' shift due to cancellations, I can't find anything. I emailed RCI but have had no response. Will the CBP have a system in-place that identifies us intending to leave the US on the cruise? I looked up the CBP's website but and they had a sample declaration card but I couldn't zoom in on it to get a clearer picture. We have completed our ETSA documentation. Sorry if this seems elementary but we haven't travelled overseas in years and the last time we flew to the US, we had outgoing ticketing on the same airline. I don't want to be left at the border entry gate without anyway of proving to the CBP agent that we're only staying a couple of week.

True. The ship will sail whether or not I'm on it but with a small offset, I can at least play a small part. I might just find an airline carbon offset that looks legitimate. Hopefully it'll buy a square metre of rainforest somewhere

Would anyone know which pub or bar would be showing the NRL semis and grand final in Honolulu? My team ain't in 'em but I wouldn't mind sitting back with a frosty one watching a few games when we're over in Honolulu for a couple of weeks. I remember the last time we were there in 2016, there was a bar that showed a lot of international sports but I can't remember the name.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I ordered myself and received a travel money card where I can add US moolah at a very favourable rate. The card will then "dispense" the currency of the purchase so RCI wouldn't convert any rates. I might use that card to associate with my Seapass card I don't see myself making many purchases onboard with the packages we've bought

Ok, thanks. I'll try and hunt down a provider of the CFP currency. The RCI site for our cruise suggests taking local currency on the tours, etc. in Tahiti.

It's been over 3 years since we cruised the South Pacific and we sailed to New Caledonia. The currency I ordered locally here in Australia before sailing to NC was CFP. On our first cruise when I ordered currency for New Cal, I noted there was a second currency which I think was called South Pacific Francs. This is what I thought they used in Tahiti. When I look up the currency for Tahiti, Wikipedia claims they use CFP as well. I thought, this doesn't make sense. This is the currency NC uses. When I use Wikipedia to look up what a CFP is, the specimen images are completely different to what I remember. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFP_franc, the sample images of the notes are as follows: I remember CFP looking like this as well an an image of what I bought back in 2018: Has Tahiti changed over to CFP over the time I initially ordered Francs? What currency should I order? When I go to Australia Post's website, where I can order foreign cash, there is nothing listed for either French Pacific Franc or South Pacific Franc. Have these territories changes currencies very recently? Are these notes accepted in Tahiti

We've got a 13:30 check-in so we'll be right behind your check-in time. With laundry, do we need to add a gratuity to the bill?

I checked us in earlier and was asked if RCI should do the conversion of not. I selected No. Again, I doubt I'd spend much on board as we've pre-paid drinks, internet, dining, etc.

I've already prepaid some dining, drinks package deluxe and internet so I hope I shouldn't have too many other purchases.

Ok thanks. Unlike Carnival's website, I can't seem to find any cruise contract documents on my account page. I'll dig through my emails but I don't recall getting anything like I do with Carnival.

With cruising opening up, we are taking Ovation of the Seas from Honolulu to Sydney this October. We've never sailed Royal and never sailed a transpacific itinerary before. Our cruise was booked via RCI's Australian website in AUD. Can anyone confirm if gratuities are included on our cruise and also, what is the onboard currency? Is it USD or AUD? I can't seem to find any useful information in RCI Australia's FAQ section and I don't want to ask in the Royal Roll-call forum as it appears it's mainly Yanks in there and they might not know the correct answer especially if they don't book from Australia. I'd rather someone who's booked via RCI Australia's website and has first-hand knowledge. Any updated, current insight is appreciated.

This was our first Princess and our first alcohol drinks package so we didn't know what to expect but I was surprised to see so few wines varieties for both Plus and Premier packages; I thought there'd be more types. We're not big wine drinkers but often, the boss'll have a pinot grigio or riesling which wasn't on the list (at least for Plus) and I'll have sauvignon blanc. She ended up drinking mostly SSB or the rosé and I mostly had the SSB or the sparkling Willowglen brut in Bordeaux. We mostly had wine at lunch and dinner when in Bordeaux and cocktails, and scotch for me, elsewhere. I'd get the Plus package next time still; it met my needs even with the wine list they had. I can't say I disliked any of the wines I tried though. As, I said, I'm not a big wine drinker so I wouldn't know what these bottles cost in the outside world.

I had a number of Carnival cruises booked in 2020 and opted mainly for the future cruise credit as well as $900 onboard credit rather than refunds. However, it is so difficult to know precisely how much FCC I have. I have to ring Carnival up and give them all the booking numbers and they manually match up what was refunded or what I elected to keep as FCC. On HAL, P&O and Princess, I can quickly log in and see the amount of FCC I have. Not with Carnival, though. I don't get why Carnival Corp doesn't have a unified web platform which is customised for each of their brands similar to what RCI and Celebrity have.

And this is what I don't get. They had Spirit and in the years past, Legend. Both of them have the standard Carnival inclusions such as the slides, Serenity, Guys, Red Frog, Alchemy, etc. Just bring those two ships back and stick Luminosa elsewhere. Keep Spirit or Legend full-time in Bris and have the other a seasonal ship. I've never been Splendor but have sailed both Legend and Spirit and love that class of ship but it needs the Carnival signature inclusions.

I was on the 16th sailing and found no one was really sipping and covering. I did initially but felt pretty stupid being the only one doing it when seated in places like Universal and Explorer's. Also, I packed my own mask which is essentially a shell that holds a replaceable KN95 filter which I found was not easy to scrunch down to uncover my mouth for the sippin' part. A lot of people wouldn't even bother wearing a mask when moving about in mask-mandatory locations but other than a recorded announcement, no real enforcement occurred except at Bordeaux (which was out restaurant) and Horizon upon entry.

Yeah, the boss uses and recommends GHD. But you'll the difference between the in-cabin dryer and the GHD. A really good solid amount of air comes out when on correct mains supply. She made-do with the in-cabin one but she thought her hair would be too frizzy. The hair straightener just took a lot longer to get to temp

I'm going back to my electronics technology days but most things should be ok even on 60 Hz but a heating element and a fan might give a slightly higher output as it's not rectified. Maybe with continued use, you'd prematurely burn the motors and elements out but 60 Hz shouldn't be too much of an issue. Bringing along an old TV from the 80's might change the scan rate of the tube and some incandescent lights might flicker when you take video footage... But who's gonna bring along an old CRT TV?

I understand, but other rooms had outlets. And with so many other cabins empty, we felt the offer of being moved to another would not have been too much of an imposition but slithery room was offered. We didn't unpack until we spoke to our steward and finally guest services, none of whom understand volts, amps and watts, etc. They just see our plugs have a funny male pin-out and the wall socket has a more familiar female connector. The solution? Just put in a plug adapter. Add I wrote elsewhere, you'd need a transformer to step the voltage up. As one moves through the corridors, the names of the people in the cabin is shown on the LCD panel by the door. Empty rooms did not list anyone's name.

So we've sailed Legend and Spirit before and the hair-dryer has always worked without issue but on Coral on 120v, it just didn't achieve the same fan speed or heat. We didn't find any euro sockets either, hence why I was a little disappointed the cabin wasn't really ready of our hasn't been fitted with an Aus outlet.

Yes, there is. The app will show you how to get to different places onboard as well as how to get to your ship mates. You can, within in the Medallion Class app, bring up a screen for any one in your party and if they're already in bed, you can locate them on the app or the touchscreens around the ship and then tap "show me how to get there" or words to that effect I never tried it on the app but I think I can usually get home OK after a few Schotchies.