Waynetor

Can someone on board please let me know about wheelchair access in the main theater. Diagram looks like you need to use stairs to get to the lower level in the theater so the only wheelchair spots are the top row upper level. Is this correct? Do they have chairs for companions next to the wheelchair empty spaces?

I'll add my thanks to everyone for taking their time to post - very imformative. We are doing 2 cruises on her next year and this helps get ready.

Wayne

I am booked on the same cruise - the excursion prices are on the high side but they do have packages such as if you book 12 or more you get 25% off. The PDF document of tours will keeping you busy reading for a few days. Lots of people on the role call plan on doing private tours in many port but it is early to book.

In the last week they have listed the segments that can be booked - I believe booking starts on Sep 17. The price list for the segments shows which of the bonus ammenities you get - the more segemnts you book B2B, the more of the full world benifits you get - that list also shows the full world price higher than the current price so if you have not booked you should do so now. Also booking now makes sense since once the segments start selling there may not be many cabins.

As far as on baord expense it will be mainly liquor and spa. Most other expenses are included. They allow you to bring on your own liquor for consumption in your cabin.

I understand what you are trying to get at but I think it is somewhat llike a case of comparing apples to oranges.

The cruise lines that offer all inc. have no or very few inside cabins, their standard cabins are larger and they have higher staff to guest ratios offering a higher level of service so comparing cabin type value is hard.

Basically if you take a cruise lines like Celebrity/Princess to get a comparison you would take the cost of a top suite and add the cost of a premium restaurant each night, cost of daily use of Sanctuary area to get premium lounge chairs, cost of special coffees etc. Spa and casino cost are extra for each so don't count. Add around $60 per day to Celebrity/Princess cost to offset the beverage cost in the all inc.

Only some luxury lines include tours but if you are comparing one that does then add around $150 per port day to the mainstream line cost to make the comparison.

If you go all inc to get the better service, food etc but don't use the free drinks and do your own tours, you are over paying. If you go mainstream and only buy some extras because that's all you want you come out ahead but with mainstream with all the premium items added come out near the same cost.

If you are tempted by things like bingo or art auctions these temptations will not be an issue on Regent.

Since you re looking at 2 specific cruises start with the cheaper one and then add what you think what you will spend on things that are include in the other include cost like air and transfers. Don't forget Dec is generally cheaper than Feb.

Kristine - the cruise for North Americans went on sale at 8 am on July 17th which means agents in Australia would not have access until the morning of the 18th unless working late in the evening of the 17th. All cabins were gone within a couple hours but many have since become available to those on wait list - it's easy to say you want a cabin but a little harder to put down a deposit with a $250 cancellation fee,

Not sure who you got your e-mail from about the cruise but it was only announced up here about a week before that

See you on the ship - the planning is already going on.

From the time of booking, deposits were required within 7 days. The deposit was 20% so that starts at $16,000 for a couple in the cheapest cabin. Once paid, the cancellation is $250 each admin fee.

Those that got their name on a cabin the first day had to pay the deposit 2 days ago. Some people that were originally waitlisted have now got a cabin.

I plan on doing a live from for this grand voyage. As I do research for the various ports I will save some notes to add o the log.

While may expenses are included in the cruise fare such as 1 night pre cruise hotel, air from 1 of 12 airports, internet, laundry, gratuities and the 16 visas needed, two big expenses will be insurance and excursions. The excursion guide is over 200 pages with not much under $200/person. There are some packages to help reduce the cost but they will add up quickly. Lots of people on the roll call planning to do private tours.

We had our booking in just after 8 Am this morning. Our agent checked again around 2:30 this afternoon and all categories were listed as either sold out or waitlisted.

We are not worried about repeating menus but more about repeating shows. If the ship is full or near full of full w/c passengers repeating any shows after each segment would result in an empty lounge before long.

The cruise from Sydney is normally around July. Current itineraries only go to around April/May 2015. Itineraries will not be available until around May 2104.

I'm a regular Princess cruiser and have never been on Ocenia but this cruise looks very interesting to me - about half the ports would be new. We currently have the Princess world cruise for Jan 2015 booked but could change.

A few questions - back on pg 1 here it was noted a PH3 would be $150,000. According to the brochure the full brochure price is $212,184 per person and the 70% off special early fare is $75,000 per person. So for 2 people it would be 150G as noted but the promo also says 2 for 1 cruise fares. If each person pays the sale price what does 2 for 1 mean?

Is there anywhere to get more information on the 'free onboard Medical Services' offer? Is this just for issues that come up while on board but what happens if something happens while in port?

When is booking for this going to be available?

If anyone here has been on either the Ocean or Pacific Princess some comparisions would be appricated.

Lots more questions but thats a good start.

Thanks

There is only 1 dinning room which has an early and a late dinning time - no anytime option. There are tables for 2, 4, 6 or 8. Your TA should be able to request what you want but there can be a waiting list for the most popular choices. When you check in your sailing card will have your table and time printed on it. You can go to the dinning room, the first afternoon and check your table. You can ask for a change which would be granted if possible.

Great review - very helpful for anyone planning to do a cruise like this in the future.

Our around the world set of voyages was done over 3 years doing late fall/early winter cruises and a spring time trans atlantic. Other than a few dyas in port pre cruise we were home the rest of the time ,

To try to paste something similar toghether using one or more cruise lines as one long vacation would be very difficult due to the fact that many exotic itineries are really repositioning and are only offered once or twice a year. Since repositioning cruises tend to be only certain times of the year it's hard too do a string of them to make up a custom world cruise.

I did look into seeing how far I could go on Princess last year and found you could start in New York mid summer (Ocean Princess) and sail to Southhampton via Greenland/Iceland and then on to Rome. Spend about 6 weeks doing Med cruises and then do Rome to Singapore, to Sydeny and then to Tahiti in January. You then fly to LA and do a Panama Canal cruise to Florida giving you a near world cruise. I am not aware of any 1 way Tahiti to LA or Florida up to NY needed to complete the trip

We did 144 days around the world over 4 Princess cruises -loved the great variety. This was done in a 35 month period. We did not set out to do it but once we had done 3 cruises I loooked for the last one to complete the route.

Ft Lauderdale to Rome (14 days). Rome to Sydney through the Suez (48 days). Sydney to LA and La to Rio de Janerio (60 days). Ft. Laderdale to Buenos Aires (22 days).

The only duplication was the stretch between Rio and BA.

The 48 day was on one of Princess small ships while the others were on the larger ships.

Thanks - a couple years ago the exchange rate used on pricing worked against us so its nice we have an advantage now - propably will not last long.

Nearenough -are the ads you are looking at ads in the Australian market? We did 2 cruises in De 2011 on the Sea Princes out of Sydney. We paid the gratuities on a daily charge while the Australian passengers did not have the charge added, My understanding is that Australian law requires all in pricing which would include service fees while Us and Canadain law is different

A clarification for cruises round trip out of Australia - If you are from Australia or New Zealand. then as noted above they do not do the daily charge while if you are from North America they do add the daily charge

Information I was given last week onboard was carpet was being changed, some furniture and matresses on some deck as well as being given an overall cleaning. As much of the work as possible is being done by the regular staff. The ship will be lifted out of the water and the hull inspected and repainted. There was no disrepution to passengers during the last crusie.

We will be on her for 20 days before the dry dock. I will try to find out details and post while on board.

TLCOhio - We were at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary last December - it's not very big but you should enjoy it. They had a baby, orphaned wombat when we were there. Also very interesting watching the very powerful jaws of the Devils at work at feeding time. The roos and wallabies are tame and you can hand feed them.

USTWORCREW - Not sure the name of the bird. We did B2B 14 day on Princess last fall. First saw a pair of them (slight difference so likley male and female) in Grenda, They stayed on board back up to Ft. Lauderdale and back down to Barbados 15 days.

I can remember vacationing in Barbados several times back in the 6's when I was quite young. I remember the main transportation then besides buses was donkey carts. They have long disappeared. I'm looking for any photos that can be shared from that period. I also remember ladies carrying large straw baskets on their heads selling items on the beach as well as large sugar cane fields. I remember going to Sam Lords castle and Harisons cave but I don't see much mention of them here - any other old pictures would be appreciated.

We used them for a Pisa/Florence tour in May. Our roll call had 16 participants so we had two vans but each went as separate tours so there was never any waiting for the others. We had rain in Pisa but the driver did his best to get us close to the highlights. He was quite knowledgeable. On the way to Florence we stopped in an agricultural area to enjoy the views. Besides the lower cost, the smaller vans were able to close to the sites for pick up and drop off while the ships tours used large buses that could not always get as close which meant longer walks and time waisted.

Wayne S