Kinkacruiser

Value your comments, Westeast. We have decided against this tour + cruise.

Many thanks. Your holiday in Japan sounds perfect. I was also concerned with the steps to temples, but the bus seat could be the lifesaver for my husband.

Greetings All,

We are looking to book a Japan pre-cruise a  5-day land tour and follow up with the  9-day Japan circumnavigation cruise in June 2025 or 2026.

My husband will be 82  then and I'm somewhat concerned at the amount of walking involved on the land tour component. I understand the bus groups are smallish (under 20 persons). I am quite fit and 9 years younger and would really enjoy seeing Japan in a little more depth than is afforded with one day in port.

I would appreciate your comments as to the mobility issue that my husband could face. If you are familiar with the land tour component of this Princess cruisetour, I would really like to hear from you.

Cheers,

Anna

14 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Can anyone tell me how corkage is charged on the Coral Princess? Is it before boarding the ship or is it on bottles taken to the dining room?

I've read that's it's charged when one enters the dining room.

We're strictly cabin drinkers re the wine and always bring 2 bottles from Yeppoon. Corkage is way too expensive, especially when you have to cart that precious drop all the way from Yeppoon!!

Hope you're keeping well Les...nice to hear from you and take care.

Anna

3 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Hi Anna?,

Yes & Yes

Good to know. Thanks Geoff? Yes, Anna here. Keep well! 

Hello Everyone,

Just need to check if we are still allowed one bottle of bubbly per person (to drink in our cabin of course!)

Also, does Princess still present Elites with the mini-bar set up? We haven't been cruising since our March 2020 NZ cruise. It cut short when Princess was closed for the "Covid break". Much catching up to do now and we're  off in about a month  😊

Sending very warm get well and feel better wishes Les.

Anna 😉

Searching for a company that will cover you for a pre-existing conditions is frustrating. Just when you have the time, some spare cash and would love to travel, you hit this minefield. 

Galesa..like yourself, I doubt we'll ever get over to the USA again.

Best wishes to those in the travel insurance search process and scoring something reasonable. 

On 6/18/2023 at 2:58 PM, rkmw said:

Anna I have used Qantas and they were ok for me but sorry no luck for you 

Hi Rob,

It's definitely a challenge to find good insurance for pre-existing, especially if you're aging, as we are. Have you moved to the Sunny State? Tried out the new Brisbane port?

Keep well!

Anna

6 hours ago, rkmw said:

Anna have you had a look at Qantas insurance and they cover for 80+ also covid cover 

Thanks Rob. I checked them out but no luck.

19 hours ago, icat2000 said:

Judging by our 20 days on the Grand you can basically wear anything but your togs into the dining room formal or not. Maybe not shorts on the formal night. But it was pretty relaxed.

This is good news. Not having cruised since the infamous Ruby Princess 'covid' cruise of March 2020, it's good to hear about the relaxed formal night attire. Hubby will be delighted to know that he won't need a new dinner suit 😉.

Finally found a company willing to cover our pre-exisitings and mature ages 7 months out from our cruise. I was quite surprised as One Cover would never have considered us when we started cruising in 2006. Just over the '000 but peace of mind and they will cover Covid 😉 ....should it still be about in January.

Hubby will be 80 in 2 weeks time. Does anyone know if 80 is a cut-off age? I couldn't find reference to age limit anywhere??

1 hour ago, jland said:

We have used AllClear for many years due to my husbands many pre existing ailments. They are the go to company for major illness cover. Yes they are expensive but at least they will cover almost all major ailments and age groups. We have claimed from them and although they were very thorough, they did pay us promptly.

So happy to hear about your positive experience with AllClear. Thanks for your input, 

Thanks to all for the pointers. I checked them all and found AllClear the best option so far since they cover our ages (80, 71) and our pre-existing ailments. I was expecting a premium of around $1000 and wasn't far off. Still, insurance is all about peace of mind in the end. 

Thanks a lot for the tips everyone. I'll check out the ANZ policies. Always used Insure and Go in the past, but since hubby turned 80 it's a battle. 

Just back into cruising after the covid drought. We are  now a few years older (80 and 71) so insurance premiums are much higher. I booked a 2 week cruise to NZ for January '24 and have started looking for reasonable cover. Can anyone help me choose a company that they have found easy to deal with? 

Cheers and thanks in advance.

On 10/23/2022 at 4:32 PM, arxcards said:

Hi Anna, 

Great to hear from you. The sun did have a bit of bite today, so we bought some hats in the markets.

 

As mentioned, boarding is chosen on the app when you tick down to 59 days. That all works fine and good, and on most days boarding has started early and it has been an open boarding flowing through the terminal.

 

This embarkation was was delayed, so that threw up some problems (as it always does). Some terminal staff were accepting the - "I have priority boarding" rule, while other terminal staff were applying the boarding group letter only. It led to a few frustrated people that we saw, and we were near the front of a long queue. I can't imagine how pi$$ed some way back in the queue were feeling about it.

 

We have the best of both worlds, both having priority on the old system, and being savvy enough with the new system. Still, after boarding on Thursday, I consider it to be grossly unfair to a large group of loyal cruisers, and suite passengers, to tell them they only have priority when they come back 3hrs after boarding has started - that is not priority boarding.

 

This is where having the app makes a difference. Those that just showed up with paper copies, even elites, were being turned away and told to come back at 4pm.

 

Personally, I think all elites and full suites should be the only ones to have access to group A, platinum and club-class to groupB, then the app savvy can fight over C & D.

Thanks for explaining the new system, Geoff. Not so app savvy myself, but I did load the Princess app onto my phone for the last cruise (2020), when it still had teething problems. It's good to be forewarned/prepared, but I feel for those who were turned away.

Covid is back...Coral Princess in Broome has cases as of this morning (Tuesday)...oh dear!

Stay safe and enjoy the sunshine .

Anna

On 9/4/2022 at 11:57 AM, Kinkacruiser said:

You could always book a tour. Dung Zoom will pick up from the ship and take you on a full day tour. We did this day tour with him several years ago and it was excellent value.

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/dung.saigon.944

.....or try dungzoom@gmail.com

Hi Geoff,

Just chiming in to say g'day. Happy to hear you're enjoying your cruise . It's sunny here in Yeppoon so you should return home with a nice tan as you head north 🙂! 

I've been following your thread (thanks so much) .I'm curious about the 'new' boarding style. I'm thinking that (Princess) boarding is now organised according to deck level & position on deck and not according to elite or preferred status. Is this how it's done?

Our last cruise was on the ill-fated Ruby (March 2000), so we're itching to get to sea again. Hopefully we'll take the plunge  next year.

Continue enjoying your cruise on the Majestic.

All the best,

Anna

You could always book a tour. Dung Zoom will pick up from the ship and take you on a full day tour. We did this day tour with him several years ago and it was excellent value.

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/dung.saigon.944

My question is about the internet cafe. It's been a freebie for Elites until now, so I was gobshacked at the $27 per day charge in the cafe. I also understand you have to purchase the package for the  entire cruise. The half price 'special' for Elites brings a 14 day cruise down to $189 .

Hence my query...if we take along a laptop, do we still have to pay this?

This would be the first cruise where we may need to take a laptop, so where/when is the best signal reception? Cabin?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Flutters of excitement here seeing the revamped 'Dawn Princess' (now Pacific Explorer') returned to Sydney. We last enjoyed her 10 years ago over to Hawaii & French Polynesia....those were magical days!  She certainly has seen a nice makeovers inside from what I've seen on the photos.

Being a loyal Princess cruiser, I'd be interested to know if P&O come close to favorite in terms of bang for one's buck?

We have been fortunate to have cruised almost non-stop between 2006 and 2020.

For our bucket list, we hope to see more of Japan (only visited Kagoshima) and the Eastern Mediterranean after that.

New Zealand ex. Brisbane on the Coral is hopefully a goer for January 2023. 

Wishing you all a most joyous festive season and a much brighter 2022.

P.S. Our next cruise is booked for January 2023. Hopefully it will go ahead .