cheznandy

Crown and Royal have bookings in Sydney, and can' work out what the Grand is doing as Melbourne has random Princess ship bookings......and since this is a "Royal" thread, wish the Brilliance/Radiance were coming back. Been on Ovation and have a Quantum booking for Xmas as we got it really cheap and have compulsory leave.....but they are just too big for us, but I do love the Solarium area🥰

Been looking through the ports bookings for Princess 2024/2025.

Looks like Diamond will come from Asia, last cruise ends in Tokyo on Sept 4th 2024,  Tokyo to Australia via Darwin (18th Sept).

Brisbane 24th Sept

Sydney 26th Sep

Melbourne 28th Sept. 

Will then do a couple of 14 nighters and 7 nighters, looks to be South Australia ports and Prob NZ.

Departs Melbourne 7th Dec 

Sydney 9th Dec

Brisbane 11 Dec where there are bookings until 17th Feb 2025.

A booking in Sydney on 21st Feb then possibly a trans pacific as there are no Darwin/Brisbane bookings going north, or maybe heading around the bottom of OZ but can't find anything from there.

Looks like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane all get some departures. 

I know, too much time on my hands.....it's raining here today😛 and we have a couple of special birthday/anniversary's in October 2024, so get those itineraries out!!

11 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

Yes I felt it was a bit rich a credit card requiring you to bill the whole trip to your card.

It was bad enough when some of them required significant amounts, but total cost is really over the top.

That and lack of covid cover was the main reasons I gave bad recommendations to most of the banks free insurance evaluation.

John I can't open your files, usually don't have any probs.

That's so good to hear from someone that has had a successful claim.

I noticed while looking at another CC also with Alliance global travel insurance, to be eligible both the cardholder and the spouse/dependent have to spend $500 each on travel. So if doing a short cruise under $500 each without air or accommodation it would not cover......so read the fine print everyone!

Thankfully our ANZ Black is only $250 for all travellers combined.

4 hours ago, woodscruise said:

Do you think that Princess will offer a 2025 world cruise ex Australia?

Not Geoff, but I noticed Crown has bookings in Sydney May and June 2025, and Perth and Melbourne in May. Perhaps a round OZ then World cruise in June? The last date for Sydney is June 10th 2025.

Have we ever had a grand class do a World cruise from here? I know there have been the Sun classes and Coral but can't recall a Grand.....not that I have ever done one🤣

50 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Coral's forward bookings for 2024/25 have now disappeared from the Brisbane schedule. Diamond Princess has multiple bookings in Brisbane, so it looks as though she will be based in Brisbane for the summer of 2024/25

 

Coral has cruises out of Fremantle in Sept/Oct 2024 which also includes a Singapore drydock, then apart from a few stray bookings in Melbourne, she is no longer visible on the schedules - unless the Sydney page isn't accurate.

Geoff perhaps we need a Princess thread for 2024/2025 speculation, although I am interested in what Royal brings too.

Don't care which Grand class they bring, Diamond/Crown both? will have to jump on a 2/3 nighter and grab a couple of FCD me thinks😅

We havent done it but I guess it would depend what sort of cruise you are on, if there are a few tender ports, that may be an advantage, but the only one we would use.

having luggage earlier or being able to drop it to your room doesnt bother us.

Boarding in Brisbane last week, we had 11.30am checkin, got there at 10.30am, at 11 am they called priority, suites and Faster to the fun......5 minutes later they called anyone waiting!

Re disembarkation everyone has to be out of cabins at 8.30am, we have a leisurely breakfast and get off when we want.......before last call of course haha!!

10 minutes ago, Suzcruz75 said:

Looks like Discovery Princess has been replaced by Crown Princess, kind of disappointing as was hoping for Discovery coming here 

And I can also see some unknown vessel bookings for Carnival Cruise line and it's not Splendor.

12th,16th,23rd,30th Oct and 7th Nov 2024. Could be Luminosa before she goes to Brisbane, first cruise there is 10th Nov 2024.

Sorry this is not royal related🙃

1 hour ago, icat2000 said:

Im on the Grand Princess now. Next stop is Fiordland for us. We are heading that way now. So looks like we good to go.

Have a great cruise Sarah🥰

14 minutes ago, geoff2802 said:

Hey springaussie, 

Several of the Crown Princess bookings in Sydney are 2 days before or 2 days after Coral Princess bookings in Brisbane.  Perhaps a change of ship for Brisbane?  Don’t know why they woudn’t have just put the Sydney bookings in the name of Coral though.   

They like to tease us......Diamond, Crown, thought I saw Discovery Princess there too.

2 hours ago, korky1 said:

Have you sailed on Princess recently?  I sailed on Majestic in December and again in February.   They have 3 MDRS all serving the same food with the menu changed every night. For each cruise I prebooked through the app and rotated my bookings through each of the 3 restaurants just for fun.  Dining time choices were between 5.30 and 9.00 from memory, with choices in 20 minute increments.   I chose 7.20 each night and everything ran like clock work.  I guess what makes P&O more complicated is the choice of 3 different restaurants which I love.  I sail on all the cruise lines, P&O, Royal Caribbean,  Celebrity,  Carnival and Princess.  Love all my cruises.  Sailed on Carnival in November,  Princess in December and February and will be on  P&O in March and on Carnival again in May.  

 

We gotta make up for all those lost cruises LOL

Sailed on them all too, not Princess recently.

I guess they all have good and bad!

33 minutes ago, korky1 said:

Sounds like a right nightmare,  My husband and I have chosen 7,30 -8.30 option, as has our friend who is travelling alone.  I phoned P&0 today to try to link our dinner bookings but as she has used a travel agent all they would do is give me a 3 letter link code to give to her to pass on to her travel agent as they will have to request P&O to link her booking to ours.  No idea why he wouldn't do it as I gave him her booking number and all details but he was quite firm that because she had used a ta she would have to make any requests via them.  

 

She rang her ta now (a very well known online booking site) and all she got was a recorded message saying that due to covid they were no longer taking calls and will only communicate via email.   Maybe they think you can catch covid over the phone LOL????  Really????  That excuse has surely become outdated by now.

 

Seems like we are going to be in the same boat as you  (pun intended) and will have to sort it all out once on board as we don't want our friend having to dine alone every night.

 

Wish us luck!

Korky1, the 3 digit code is a TWID code ( Travelling with Identification) and is used to link bookings.

If you had both booked direct with P&O the agent would have been able to do, but as your friends have and TA, P&O cannot alter the booking, so yes, the TA has to do it their end.

Get your friends to send an email with your booking number so they can link the bookings.

When you board, as stated above, go straight to the dining room that is handling dinner reservations, on Adventure it was in Dragon Lady restaurant. Don't stress, they will accommodate your requests.

The paperwork in our room had one night in each restaurant, we changed that two in one and one in the other.

TBH, I have yet to find a cruiseline with  perfect dining system, it's either too late or too early, you can't select table sizes online, you get put in restaurants you don't want to eat in, Anytime/My Time/your Time has long waits, people on set dining eat Anytime etc

5 minutes ago, possum52 said:

 

One of mine was a smuggler (transported for life) and his two sons for petty thieving. Another father and son were transported for stealing a hat (he was a hatter) and his son for stealing two sacks of potatoes. All five transported to Tasmania. One of my husband's female ancestors was transported for stealing a handkerchief.

Hey Leigh, you get less for murder these days.

One G Grandfather came over on the Tortoise in 1852 to Hobart, the other G Grandfather was free settler to NZ, died on the ship and was buried at sea near Wellington, Grandmother and daughters got off in Picton alone, so I am half OZ half NZ haha!

Always wondered why I had a love of the sea, bittersweet🥲

Oh well, not quite off topic, OP named the thread Australia hates me🤣

2 minutes ago, bazzaw said:

Please dont insult my GGGGrandfather - it was only a small sheep that he stole in Ireland 😞  BTW - It is no longer compulsory to have a criminal record to come to Australia 🙂 

and mine only stole some money from the Parson for food, 10 years hard labour in Tassie🥰

To the OP, we also have restrictions entering your country with a criminal record.

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Does Andy have wrinkles in his dresses, or are they crimplene?

Crimplene bahaha

There is a photo of him somewhere when he was on the Pacific Sky in about 2000, their change of sex night, nice dress and lippy. 

He used to be fun😜

15 minutes ago, cruisecrazyaussie said:

Hi Cheznandy. What ANZ phone number do you call? With so many companies I get on endless wait times to find I'm referred to someone else with more wait time which usually ends with nothing solved!

I called this one, 

You can obtain written confirmation of your eligibility for cover for your overseas journey by calling Allianz Global Assistance on 1300135271, 9am to 5pm AEST, Monday to Friday, except public holidays.

3 minutes ago, cruisecrazyaussie said:

That's great! Thanks Cheznandy  for your information and advice.

No worries, I have been using my ANZ Insurance for years....well less the lost 3 years😉thankfully never had to claim, but whenever I have called I get someone local that I can understand and they have always been helpful. Just call if you are unsure and need it stated that New Caledonia is included, I am sure they will email you something you can print out.

We lose our free ANZ Qantas Black card around August as ANZ have changed all their investment packages etc. It will cost us over $400 yearly and I have been researching for months for a card that gives us 1 for 1 points, Lounge passes and good travel insurance and it is the best.

When I weigh up what travel insurance will cost, a couple of trips pays for it. 

We are off to Cairns for a week soon and will have some domestic cover and car excess etc, so I think it is worth hanging on to it.

17 minutes ago, cruisecrazyaussie said:

Cheznandy - Thank you so much for the information and link.  I completed the form filling and note that page 3 clearly states that we are eligible while cruising for Covid. I printed out the Letter of Eligibility for both of us. The only concern for me is that cover in the Pacific only included Vanuatu by name with no option to include New Caledonia. Did you have the same issue?

Yes, I called to ask what I should put in for a cruise to no where, she said just put in Pacific, but you can't as you have to drop down the list so I put Fiji🤣

If you were going to them all you would have to put in only one anyway. 

I am sure you will be fine as most of the other Travel Insurance cover letters will only have Pacific on them.

Are you using this?

https://travel.agaassistance.com.au/anz/travel-insurance

You can check what you are covered for and print from there.

4 minutes ago, cruisecrazyaussie said:

Thanks Hahaer, cruise_critical, and CDaze71 for your responses.  The last time I had Medibank Private Cruise and Covid Cover and I wonder if my ANZ platinum credit card (CC) may cover me.  I noticed in a previous post that Cheznandy had used their ANZ CC cover (page 3 of the PDS I presume) but I am unsure if it will be enough as this does not have the names of the cruisers and the cover on the one page.  Has anyone else tried to use their ANZ credit card, what did they provide as evidence of cover and what it enough if inspected before boarding?

Although we didn't need to prove any cover on our last 3 nights to nowhere, I had printed it all out.

On the 3rd page (not of the PDS, but the printed letter after you fill in your details) titled "Eligibility for cover while cruising and for epidemic/Pandemic (such as Covid) Cover", it does have our names, relationship, DOB, Ref No, dates etc.

and also says unlimited $$ for everything except Cancellation which states $20,000.

I am not sure they would require anything more than that.

14 hours ago, NSWP said:

How was the tucker and entertainment, Chez? 

Really good Les, we ate in the dining room first two nights, then we found out  that the buffet serves the same food as the dining room menu mains, so the last night we dined there. We had a couple of bottles of unfinished red wine, nabbed a table on the sunset side and enjoyed a nice dinner.

As there were 2 seadays Brunch was served in the dining room, enough choices.

Love the Hamburger Grill, no problem burgers without the bun, Pizza was always busy and the BBQ meats at the back of the buffet area OMG yum......best off all, all free!!

Re entertainment, we enjoyed a couple of comedy shows, better than the Comedy advertised cruise on P&O. The 2 shows in the Show lounge were good, great vocals, loads of trivia.

There was such a diverse mix of people, oldies, kids, groups, families, couples all having a great time.

Only problem I could see was there is only one family pool and it was packed when ever we walked out there, but then so was the Adult area outback. We took a coffee out there about 7am one morning and all the pods were toweled and taken!

52 minutes ago, B'Elanna said:

I hardly get emails from Carnival. I have to check my offers every now and then. Right now I have those 2, as well as "Funtastic VIFP Sale"

I don't get emails either, just check the Offers. Haven't got the Funtastic one. I guess my $20 in the Casino didn't activate anything🤣

55 minutes ago, Flash harriet said:

I guess you might not know the answer to this as your cruise was short, but is there anywhere on board where I can press my clothes? I am on a 22 night pacific crossing, and am wondering what to do, other than pack polyester wrinkle free stuff…ugh.

Clothes still crease up for a short cruise!

We use Eagle creek packing cubes and their clothes folder on all our trips and I mostly never iron.

The clothes folder is like an envelope and has a hard card which you fold your clothes with then slip it out. All our shirts, tshirts, dresses ( not hubby's!) go in it. It velcroses up like an envelope. We have fit 3 week holidays in it.

Pants, shorts, jeans etc get rolled and put into a packing cubes.

We only took a small carryon wheelie each and the clothes folder fit nicely in one side with a large and small packing cube the other.

I have always assumed that Royal was one bottle per person (two per cabin) if two sharing.

ATM for Carnival Andy are I are both showing " Pack and Go" and "Smiles for Miles". Think anyone can book them, the lettered coded ones have gone🥲