chrisb74

14 nights on the Legend, billed in AUD. Price per day obviously.

Aussie Aussie Aussie! :)

Wow. I really can't believe the cruise critic "community" has done nothing but attack the OP in the replies so far.

The complaint seems entirely valid and seems entirely typical of a corporate culture of ignoring the problem until it goes away.

As for those saying the poster wasn't 'entitled' to the free packages - WHY NOT? As they said, they had plenty of time to cancel and rebook to get it so logically it would have been easier to just get royal to amend their booking.

Have some sympathy and stop blaming the poster. We are a CUSTOMER and a GUEST - is it too much to expect Royal to give timely and accurate answers instead of tossing the problem back to the customer?

It's in Asia.

http://www.cleancruising.com.au/ship.asp?ship=RCILEG

Question, though: I didn't know you could buy OBC in advance and have ever particularly had any desire to do so... is this just a budgeting strategy for you, or is there some other benefit of doing it that I'm unaware of?

80% Budget, 20% Exchange Rates. (I'm not US based)

I prefer unlimited over per minute. It makes it easier to stay connected with low use things like email and messaging. The pricing is still excessive, but its just something I allow for. I've already "purchased" OBC to pay for the Internet on our next cruise.

While it sounds simple to keep the old plans the newer ships may not have the software to handle the billing of per minute usage. They may have decided it wasn't worth implementing because the majority of people now want to be connected 24/7. Whether it's good or bad that's the way the world is now. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

If you only want occasional connectivity, you could use port Wifi or mobile roaming texting to check in.

Starting a Facebook group with a fairly clear and obvious name is probably a better way to find people in your demographic. I think Royal have official Facebook 'events' for each cruise too.

You're probably more likely to find the parents who are cruising with their kids your age on the Meet & Mingle so point out what you're looking for so the parents take the hint.

Last cruise we ignored the annoying smoker even though it forced us to close our balcony door or come inside on a few occasions.

Thanks for reinforcing that we should have called guest services every time we smelt smoke.

Keep in mind, if you're removed from the cruise then the insurance company now has to pickup the costs of your cancelled holiday and getting you home, so it's in their interests to keep you on the ship if that is the cheaper option.

For anything that would cause you to want to cancel the rest of your cruise then it's not going to make much difference.

For smaller things (say you sustain a cut that requires doctors attention) then what's going to be better for the insurance company - Paying the ships doctor or you getting off, finding a doctor and missing the cruise requiring them to pickup accommodation & travel expenses?

The other option is to go to medical and delay treatment until after the ship unties ;)

If in doubt, call your insurance IMMEDIATELY and ask. You should probably do this as soon as medical expenses start to get beyond a cost that you would be willing or capable of paying yourself if you had to.

I think all this clause is doing is telling you that you will have to use Medicare (or your private health insurance) for these expenses rather than checking yourself into a Private Hospital and expecting them to pickup the tab.

I wish they'd let you pre-pay it. I prefer to pre-pay major expenses and on a 14 night cruise this is a huge expense.

Your cruise line will do tours exactly like that cens.

Room service breakfast on port days is our thing. Breakfast on the balcony with a new and exciting view. Plus it makes sure we get up when we should. :)

Will RCCL ships cruising in Australia be able to break US notes into small denominations for tipping? I assume guest relations can do this?

I did the pacific jewel twice out of freo in April and May and both time we headed north towards Geraldton and it was very smooth. Obviously weather plays a huge part in that, especially with cyclones passing by at certain times of year.

The only other possible difference is Jewel is being refurbed from its buffet to "The Pantry" around June I believe (if it's on time).

The Pacific Jewel should be in Dry Dock from May 24th to June 5th.

Hope the cruise is fantastic! Have you found out who the Captain is?

Sorry, cruise is over and I never found the Captain's name.

We sort of agree. It does exist but it sucks but maybe they want a 2 hour scenic trip of Perth suburbs for about $5. :) I wouldn't do it but I see why some would, especially if you arrive in the morning and have a couple of hours to fill before cruise checkin.

You can bus and train from the airport to the cruise terminal! It'll take a while though. Transperth.wa.gov.au will show you both buses and trains but in the searches I did a few times connecting buses were better than the train. There's also a Transperth app and google maps supports Transperth too.

Note. If the international terminal doesn't return any results use the domestic and there is a free inter terminal transfer bus. There was talk of a Transperth bus to international but I don't know if that's happening.

Transperth has single tickets for connections so tell the first bus driver your final destination and you can use one ticket all the way.

I will admit that public transport to the airport is not ideal in Perth but it does exist.

Pacific jewel. Off to Ball.

Fremantle bound. :)

So I've done three of these now so I thought I'd report where they went -

Athena. New Year's Eve. Cruised down to geographe bay, dropped anchor and spun around for 3 days. You could not get off. (Except for the poor person who had a medical emergency)

Pacific jewel - Easter. Headed north slowly but consistently. Turned around when we hit Geraldton and came back south again. Resulted in really nice weather.

Pacific Jewel - May. This was actually a cruise to "Margaret River" aka Busselton. First night and day we headed north and got as far north as GreenHead (north of Jurien bay) before turning around and heading south to arrive and anchor just off Busselton on the final day. Tenders ran to Busselton all day.

Written while enjoying my balcony on the final night. :)

Here's my experience.

I called P&O and they confirmed we could ignore the checkin time on the eticket and show up whenever. So we arrived about 90mins before the time listed. No problems. On arrival embarkation cards are handed out. I had to educate the person doing it that mini suite gets priority and we got a preferred boarding card.

Checkin had a dedicated priority queue with no waiting.

On boarding the preferred cards were called first and aside from a wedding group we were first onboard.

After muster 2 glasses of champagne were waiting in our stateroom for us.

On formal night room service delivered a plate of canapés at 4.30. It wasn't anything special but we still enjoyed it.

At a tender port there didn't appear to be any preference for mini suites but we didn't actually bother using the tenders.

Having a mini suite didn't seem to impact our restaurant booking availability. We had the same blue seapass as everyone else.

Bathrobes and slippers were free for use in the room. The bath was actually quite nice!

For disembarkation we were given red tags that say we can disembark anytime after 7.25 from any public area. This is the very first group.

I just found this on a another post. So for those on J522 or later things will be different!

Just adding to my last posting - here is a list of things that will apparently be done to P&O Pacific Jewel in Singapore - June 2015

* No Buffet - food bar instead called The Pantry with new food venues.

* Dragon Lady Restaurant (Asian fusion food)

* Angelo's (Italian)

* Open Kitchen

* Salt Grill Bar for cocktails at Salt Grill Restaurant.

* Improved pool deck

* New Floorshows.

Also a blue stripe will be added to the outside of the ship.

the cafe.

Thanks very much for very comprehensive list of on-board prices for alcohol and internet. Any other info on what P & O calls "optional extras"at cost?

Other than what I've posted there is the Spa treatments which are the most expensive optional thing. There are a few activities that cost $10-$20 like wine tasting or martini making. Laundry is also charged but there is an onboard laundrette including irons. Washing and drying costs, irons are free.