daydreamer16

9 hours ago, yarramar said:

You may be better off to ask this question in the Auckland forum on Trip Advisor

I'll be in Melbourne for 4 days prior to flying to Auckland, maybe you can suggest some place there?

Denise 

Ok thanks!

We will be spending several days in Auckland prior to a South Pacific cruise. Prior to arriving in Auckland we will spend about 2 weeks in Australia & take a Celebrity NZ cruise. I'm figuring we'll have lots of souvenirs, so I'll be looking for a good size tote bag for my goodies to bring home. Can anyone recommend a  store in Auckland to purchase a good size tote bag. We are staying at the JW Marriott which is in the CBD, I think.

Thanks, Denise 

If you order a small bottle of water, can you get sparkling water too?  Thanks

We also have a nice selection of local Aussie and NZ wines available that never showed up on any menu but were included in PDP cap of $20 per glass. We just asked our sommelier in Luminae for the local wines at meals.

This info is making me very happy! We'll be on the Edge starting 3/13 in a SV so regular dining, will ask if any local wines are available with Premium.

14 minutes ago, bikerunner said:

No issue with this as it makes sense, tbh many of the so called adults during the day need to be banned from the solarium.  Snoring loudly, yelling across the pool etc.  Seen the people who say they are grownup act 100x worse than kids on board way to often in solarium.  

And the loud cell phone calls!

7 minutes ago, doghog said:

Cyprus is small on the Apex. 

2 minutes ago, Liao said:

Which is what makes having 4 MDR's so much more appealing than one very large dining room.

Thanks, super excited for our first E class! Love all the tips shared here!

I know that 2 of the restaurants are smaller, Tuscan &?

Silhouette is my favorite! Glad you had a good time!

On 2/5/2024 at 12:23 PM, StopTheWorld said:

The only one we did via Celebrity was Florence from Livorno (which you’re not stopping at).
At Villefranche you can visit the town itself (small but lovely for a stroll around); take the HOHO bus to Nice: local bus or train to Nice or Monaco.

Ajaccio has a couple of tourist buses which do a tour of the island and you can just turn up and pay on the day.

Haven’t been to Cagliari.

Valletta is a lovely city and you can walk around yourself.

Visited Messina previously and did a Godfather tour via a local provider.

In Naples you can take the train to Pompei or Herculaneum and get a guided tour at the sites, or take a ferry to Capri or Sorrento, or take the HOHO bus from the cruise terminal, or the metro to the main sites (I love Naples 😍).

 

Loved that Godfather tour!

Thanks me too!

Do you buy the Opal card online? We plan to go to the zoo one day & Manly beach another day So better to get the card?  Thanks

We were invited the last time we were on the Summit with Captain Kate. We were leaving Bermuda & there were many sailboats in the harbor since it was a week before the America's Cup. Sparkling wine was served, it was quite a festive departure!

21 hours ago, JLMcruise said:

In Moorea it is easy to take a taxi to the public beach. Its more like a grass park with a small beach and a restaurant. We were able just to get a taxi back to the ship without difficulty. We booked a restaurant with a  water taxi included to CoCo Beach. They give you a table with shade and you can go snorkel or swim. Saw lots of sharks and sting rays. Its not the best beach for laying on the sand but it is beautiful! The restaurant has drinks and good food. You should make a reservation to do this. When we where there they would only transport guests who had reservations.

We are planning to take a taxi to the Hilton in Moorea. We will be tendering in from the Grand Princess. Were there a lot of taxies available & did they only accept XFP currency?

Thank, Denise

Thanks so much for your review, the Silhouette is our favorite S class & we love Blu on this ship!

Denise 

7 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Kirkland is a designer jeans 😉

My designer is Levi Strauss!

I agree, a taxi is our best bet, thanks again!

Thanks for the info! We are arriving in Melbourne from a few days visiting Uluru. So I guess we'll be arriving at a domestic terminal. We are staying at the Melbourne Sheraton, on Little Collins St.

13 hours ago, possum52 said:

It would be metered. You would be unlikely to get a flat rate in a taxi to/from the airport unless you have a deal such as described above.

What about travel to & from the airport in Melbourne? We are going to be there for 4 days at the end of March. Thanks, Denise

Is that a flat rate or a metered fare?

44 minutes ago, Over from NZ said:

$60 to the CBD? That price hasn't changed for ages. That's a fair deal. 

22 hours ago, Mark_K said:

I think your time frame may be off. It wasn’t licensed for sale east of the Mississippi until the mid-80s. I remember going to a football game in Iowa in the early 80s and bringing back cases of it. 

Well, they had in New Jersey in 1976. It was a Pathmark supermarket, right off Rt.4. We would drive from NYC every 2 weeks for groceries & they had it in the refrigerated section!

4 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

At the time, Coors controlled distribution east of the Mississippi. So the concept was to bootleg a truckload of Coors from Texarkana and bring it to Georgia for a multimillionaire who wanted Coors. Of course then you throw in a crooked smalltown sheriff, Sally Fields running away from her wedding, a Trans Am running interference for the big rig, etc. But it all goes back to bootlegging Coors...

That's very cool, thanks for the back story!

Just now, markeb said:

 

The entire actual plot of Smokey and the Bandit...

Really? Never saw that, may have to now!

Not arguing -  especially since I am unable to drink Alcohol and haven't had  a beer since in College where we would pay a premium for Coors --  LOL -  I was on the East Coast. 

In the mid 70's we lived in Manhattan & would drive to New Jersey to buy Coors! At the time it was not sold in NYC & in New Jersey it was only sold refrigerated because it was so special. It was treated better than French champagne! 🤣

3 hours ago, KKB said:

I have a little pill container that contains my few prescription meds--blood pressure meds, estrogen & progesterone. (4 total)

When space is an issue, I put them in tiny baggies, labeled.

I have taken them to Europe, Caribbean & traveled domestically this way.

 

I see on the AUS government website it says they need to be in their original pill bottle.

Do you feel this is necessary? A couple bottles are large & a terrible waste of space.

Could I just clip a pic of each label to keep on my phone?

 

How about over the counter meds--are they OK in small labeled baggies?

Thanks for your help!

 

I've done the same thing, my DH takes a load of meds! Plus on our last Princess cruise in 2019 DH got a very bad case of the flu & we spent about $30 just on Tylenol since we were on a TA. Now we bring loads of OTC meds.