aussiecruiser66

Never a problem there to find another cruise 🤣 Thanks for the explanation about the FCD's on cruises over 50 days- makes sense.

Oops, I misread your previous post. Though 6% would have been nice 🤣🤣 Will definitely check before we consider booking. Thanks again

Yes, we purchased 4 FCD's on a recent cruise and I did notice that it is now a 1 year expiry. Previously, it was a 2 year expiry- which was much better. Just another changed from Princess!!

Thanks for your advise and I didn't realise that we could use 2xFCD each to get a 6% discount. I just calculated the reduction using the 4 FCD's and it is over $6800- not bad for a $400 investment!!! I would rather the 6% discount than the $600 OBC that we would have received if we'd used it on shorter cruises. I also calculated the fare in the same cabin for the 2 segments- Syd-Dov and Dov-Syd and it was over $8000 dearer than booking the entire cruise Syd-Syd All of your advise has been invaluable- as always. Thanks again, Jenny

We have 6 FCD's active with Princess. We are thinking of booking the 2026WC and I was wondering if we can use two of these FCD's toward our booking and get the extra $300 OBC that we would be entitled to receive? Thanks in advance for your comments. Jenny we

We did a Canary Island cruise in September from Southampton on Anthem of the Seas. We spent 2 days crossing the Bay of Biscay on the way down and it was like a millpond. Different on the way back- probably the worse seas we have ever been in. I had to lie down, I had no sea legs for 2 days. The Anthem is so big ( over 6300 passengers), it is like a brick in the water, we were amazed at how much it was being buffeted about.

Thanks, as always. You are a fountain of knowledge. I think we are booked on the 2025 WC together- hope to share some information with you 👍👍 Jenny

Hi, Just wondering where you go on the Princess.com website to book the restaurants? We are on the Majestic in December 2023 to South Australia. We have a stack of OBC so thought I’d book a few nights at Crown Grill. I went onto the mobile app and it says “too early, come back later” and on the Princess.com website, when I put in “booked guests”, then “ access Cruise Personaliser” and then choose that cruise and then dining options- nothing shows up for restaurant bookings. Any hints? Thanks, Jenny

I remember the South America itinerary- it was fantastic. We would definitely do that one if it was offered again. It included Panama Canal,Antarctica and Easter Island- lots of bucket list destinations. I think it would sell very well if it was offered again.🤞

I hope our ANZ complimentary travel insurance will cover Hawaii 🤞. Will have to check. Also we will only be away 35n (allowed 90 days away). One of the big issues with the WC was that our ANZ insurance would not have covered us because of the 113 days away. I fear that EI is a sail by- very disappointing!

I think some strange (strategic) decisions have been made- not for Aussie cruisers benefit 🙄 Princess has such a fan base in Australia, they had better watch what they are doing!!

I agree!!! Has anyone else noticed that they are not offering the usual 35n Hawaii Sydney return cruise on the 24/25 brochure to be released tomorrow. They usually have 2 per year. I jumped on and booked the March-April 2024 35n Hawaii cruise from Sydney yesterday. Not many decent cabins left, but picked up a nice balcony on Caribe deck.I think it must have been from a cancellation. We were considering the 2025 WC, but the US travel insurance premium and the sail by Easter Island, had us rethinking.

We are looking at the 113 day SYD- SYD option.Just a couple of questions. 1. Does the cruise include gratuities because it starts and finishes in Sydney? 2. Is on board currency in AU$? 3. Does the ANZ credit card complimentary travel insurance cover you for the whole cruise, especially for the US portion, which is only 3 days in port? Looking at the itinerary it shows Easter Island as a black dot which usually indicates a port/ tender stop, but the actual itinerary says scenic cruising for that particular day. If EI is not offered as a port stop then that could be a deal breaker for us as to whether we book or not, Thanks in advance for any input. Jenny

Thanks Julie- you have hit the nail on the head!!! Yes the cruise that is not showing up is the second of the B2B's. Even though they are booked under 2 different booking numbers- I don't have to do anything as far as the phone app is concerned? Thanks everyone for your thoughts and I have noted the phone no. for the Princess Medallion- that may come in handy one day 👍 Jenny

Thank you so much, I did as you said and have found 4 cruises listed but one of my Princess cruises is not listed. I pressed the + sign to add the cruise and when I put the booking no. in it says "No booking number found". I checked on my cruise personaliser and also the printout from my travel agent and the booking number is the same. Any thoughts? and solutions. Thanks again, Jenny

We are booked on a Majestic Princess cruise in February and I have the green line status,so all we have to do is fill in the health declaration the day before and load that onto my phone and do our RAT's. All is good!! My question is- are you only able to have one Princess cruise at a time on your phone app?? We have 3 further Princess cruises out of Southampton in August,September and October. The Sept./Oct. cruises are B2B. Do I have to wait until each cruise is completed before I can add the next one onto my phone. I have successfully checked in by using the web version for each cruise. I am hoping that once I go on to load the next booking number that all of the information that I loaded via the web version will automatically upload onto my phone app. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks, Jenny

I have just successfully opened a Citibank Plus Debit Account. They say that I will receive a "Welcome Pack". Just wondering- will that include a designated PIN for ATM withdrawals (or can I choose my own PIN) and do I choose the "credit" option when using the ATM or the EFPOS option seeing that it is my money that has been loaded. Sorry but it has been a while since I have taken money out of an overseas ATM. Thanks in advance

I found your review very interesting,thank you and a lot of what you said has made our decision all the more relatable- things have not changed for the better. We are 4 star Mariners on HAL (free laundry, priority tendering,half price wine bottle packages etc) and have travelled on many of their signature long cruises- Voyage of the Vikings (32n), Tales of the South Pacific (52n),Circumnavigation of Australia(32n), 3B2B Mediterranean cruises(33n), to name a few. Pre Covid we tended to choose the itinerary over our loyalty to one particular cruise line and back then HAL fitted that bill for us. After our last cruise on HAL, we decided that it wasn't for us anymore. I could list a dozen or more reasons, but I won't. There was just no "get up and go" on the ships anymore. We felt HAL had become too complacent and were relying too much on their repeat customers- who are just getting older and older and are happy to accept the "same old same old". HAL will be left behind in the cruise industry after these poor old cruisers are no longer able to cruise anymore. They haven't looked to the future and it will eventually be their downfall. We have comeback to Princess and RCL and are looking forward to cruising on Celebrity and Azamara also.

People were lining up at the front desk to buy drink packages that you couldn’t buy prior to boarding, maybe there were other reasons that I do not know of. That was also the reason for the queue for the shore excursions desk- you couldn’t book any of those excursions until you got on board. My 2.5 hour wait wasn’t related to these two reasons, but had to be sorted out and the only way that it could be sorted out was for me to present documentation that luckily I had brought with me and it was handled very professionally and in our favour and rectified by the end of the day. To give the front desk due credit, there were 2-3 staff trying their best at all times to help all passengers in the line.

We were on Splendor in October and we were one of the first groups to board. My suggestion to you would be to get in the shore excursions line as soon as you board to secure the excursions you want. The lines were unbelievably long when we got on board. Also if you want to make any bookings from the front desk, do likewise. I stood in line for 2.5 hours at the front desk for a query we had. I met a lot of nice people standing in that line for that long!!!! Good luck.

Didn’t realise that, Mr Walker, thanks for the information. Still think the sums stack up in our favour 🤔

We have an Ovation cruise coming up on the 26th November. I have been tracking the drinks package and purchased when the price was the lowest I had seen and we had a small amount of OBC ( about AU$70) that I put toward it. Paid about AU $94pp/day, We paid in AU$ and it included the 18% gratuity, The cost of drinks onboard will be in US$, plus the 18% grat. I figured if we bought a glass of wine for say $15 plus the 18%, then that would be approx. US$18 which at today’s exchange rate is approx. AU$28. $94 divided by $28 is a lot less than 4 glasses of wine a day for example. The package allows us to have freshly squeezed OJ in the morning, a specialty coffee or 2 during the day, a glass of bubbly pre dinner, a wine with dinner, a cocktail while we are listening to music after dinner, etc,etc,etc The bill was paid for a couple of credit card statements ago, so for us we won’t be getting off the ship with “US$ bill shock” and we will have enjoyed ourselves. We thanked our 2 sons for buying us our drinks package- SKI 😂😂 My husband and I both worked for 40 years in our professions, we have NO regrets about splurging a bit. This cruise, with RCI double loyalty points offer will get us to Diamond status, so we won’t have to worry about buying a drinks package with them on our future RC cruises.

Thanks Julie for clarifying that part of the itinerary. Must have missed that “stop” on the itinerary as.It was a while ago since I looked at it!!!

Just off topic- I was wondering if this cruise has qualified for “duty free “ status?? You didn’t do the International Waters stop at Willis Island and there wasn’t the usual Bali or Komodo Island stop to give you International status. Considering a similar itinerary next year. Thanks 😎

Just an update. We are day 9 and still testing positive. My husband’s symptoms seem to be a little less, but it is the persistent raking cough that is the hardest thing to endure. I had a Telehealth appointment today. I am now taking antibiotics for an URTI which has developed as a secondary infection to Covid. My cough is also persistent and I have no energy. I am having to have a couple of sleep during the day. To those with mild to no symptoms, I envy you- I do not wish what we are going through on anyone. Jenny