PescadoAmarillo

Good to know, thanks! They used to (pre-COVID) be in the Royal Botanical Gardens. Of course, we didn’t know that until we heard them from our hotel room. If it had been a major US city, we would have guessed gunfire, but, being in Sydney, we correctly guessed fireworks.

I forgot to mention yesterday that they used to have fireworks over the Royal Botanic Gardens on Saturday nights. I thought of it this morning but that was too late. Enjoy Manly!

This is worth remembering.

Personally, I would want my first trip through the Panama Canal to be through the historic locks. With Princess, this means on the Island Princess or Coral Princess. If you do choose to go on a larger ship, it will be through the new locks, which are in no way a substitute for seeing the historic locks. In that case, I believe you can do a full or partial transit through the historic locks on a small tour boat on some itineraries (as an excursion). I would highly recommend doing that.

https://the.streameast.app/ncaa-live-streams No sign in. Have to ignore the pop ups for gaming, keep returning to the original tab. Duke-NC State playing right now. Close game, hurry!

Yikes! Purdue just beat Tennessee in a fantastic game! Edey was 🔥.

The sideways interior cabins are roomier, no question about it. I just don’t think they’re the best choice for couples who come and go at different times. When the door to the corridor is opened, anyone walking by sees everything inside, which, if you’re both dressed is fine. If you’re not, it’s a bit…interesting.

Protein bars or even lunch-sized cans of tuna or chicken (unopened, of course) are acceptable every place we’ve traveled, even in strict New Zealand, where your water bottles have to be commercially bottled and unopened when you leave the ship.

Not a grandson, but still, thanks very much. It’s an exciting time for him. Anxious to hear what you’ve planned for Auckland. So many choices!

An arm? A leg? The ship? 😆 Count me out for this one. I’ll be traveling, too…to college track meets. At least he’s a distance runner. Spending two days and nearly $1000 to watch sub-14 minute 5Ks in person. I love it, but will be avidly following your travels. These are all favorites, and I’ll enjoy reading about what you see and do. Safe travels to everyone.

Hopefully it’s a good thing! Details will be released publicly next week, but usually someone here gets some early information.

This has been done for at least 15 years. I used to call it the Elite penalty, when friends with only 4 Princess cruises could get a better fare than we could. The only new issue is that you had an expectation that Princess operated in a fair and forthright manner. Now you, like many of us, realize they do not.

No fingers needed. It all depends on legs and feet, as in track meet performances. Should know more after tonight.

The cruise is not sold out, so anything is possible. The Sapphire South Pacific cruise, another option, has sold out. Live is too busy to commit right now, and may not open up before the ship either fills or sails. Still have 3 nights booked at the Rydges in Circular Quay, so haven’t given up hope entirely. If we don’t make it, I’ll certainly enjoy following your adventures.

You know I’ll be reading! You are going to love New Zealand! Safe travels and bon voyage.

I would definitely book the inside and take the cruise. We’ve done up to 150 consecutive days in an inside cabin and I love them. The forced socialization of a cruise ship cause me to need to decompress often, and there is no better place to do that than in an inside cabin. We’ve booked plenty of balcony cabins, too, for our shorter cruises, and they truly feel like apartment living to me, where I hear everything the neighbors do and say. One difference is that, when we’ve booked extended cruises, we’ve always booked a cabin in the location of our choice, but if it meant the difference between taking the cruise or not (especially the cruise you’re considering), I would take an inside cabin anywhere. In all of our cruising we’ve only had three inside cabins in truly awful locations, (two of them on Princess ships, one on HAL) so I figure our odds of being assigned something tolerable are pretty high.

Ditto Global Entry renewals. During COVID, it took more than 18 months. I submitted mine a day after my birthday in January this year, a year before its expiration and had it back in just over a week.

Eureka! The Search function DOES work! Go Wildcats!!

We took HAL and Princess cruises in Alaska back to back right after cruising re-started. If you enjoy destination and naturalist lectures, Princess wins by a long shot. If you like small(er) ships, choose the Sapphire and Princess still wins.

MTG events….they are the best of times, they are the worst of times. I almost didn’t go back after our first invite, but have learned that, when people “click”, they’re a lot of fun. The officers also add a lot, as was proven during COVID, when they greeted guests but didn’t stay.

Thanks for your great comparative review! I’ve often been tempted to stray (and expect i still might, for the itineraries if nothing else). The Nautical is one of the R-ships, I think, and you didn’t say if you had ever been on one of those ships while Princess owned them, but they are definitely a different cruise experience from the mega ship). I think I could live with everything you cited except the 6:30pm dinner time. That’s late for us. When the economics of cruising are leading to larger and larger ships visiting too crowded ports, it’s nice to know that there are still some smaller options visiting more off the-beaten-path locations. I guess if I choose to cruise a small ship again, I should look more seriously at Azamara.

I thought it was a myth, too, until I did several Christmas cruises. Even then it only happened twice, but yes, it’s pretty irritating, especially when you get in the elevator on 5 and are getting off on 15.

Don’t forget you’ve got FOUR pillows.

I don’t have an answer to your question -sorry- but just had to tell you that, for someone with only 35 posts on Cruise Critic, I am in awe of your proactive defenses. Well done!

Actually, I thought the entire ship looked very much like a decorator got his/her hands on it. Stark, minimalist, designed to be photographed instead of used for comfort and relaxation. It reminds me a great deal of the white/gray/black minimalism I’ve seen too often in recently remodeled homes.