PJOZ

Haven't done a Christmas cruise with HAL but we did a mid January cruise out of Sydney to the South Pacific (a few years ago now) and there were quite a few kids on board.  My kids loved the kids club. They also did family disco night etc. There would definitely be less kids than on some other lines but that might not not be a bad thing, there were enough for the kids to have fun.

We did the transpacific from Honolulu via Tahiti and Fiji (no NZ stop on way back) with Carnival at that time of year a few years ago. Had very calm seas and great weather all the way. One of our favourite cruises.

We just went on a 7 night cruise on the Grand Princess with a 17 and 20 year old. There was plenty of trivia, on at least twice a day, but some of it was themed music trivia etc. That and all the other entertainment was definitely aimed at an older crowd. We watched a lot of karaoke as it was the most entertaining option! My kids went to the gym and had meals and watched the karaoke with us but other than that on sea days they spent a lot of time watching the on demand movies in the cabin (excellent selection) so they weren't bored but you wouldn't say they were involved. I just went with it as it was only a week cruise and was a good end of year relax for everyone but was glad it was only a 7 night cruise. 

We are booked to sail on the Sapphire a month before you. I was a lot more confident about it going ahead a month ago than I am now. I don't think governments here are going to be keen to give cruising the go-ahead until we have high rates of vaccination, and that is looking further away than it was. My guess is cruising will probably be happening in Australia by December, but whether or not Princess has changed their mind about sending Sapphire here before now and then I couldn't say. I hope not!

Just realised I said I'd report back - a bit late! Just in case anyone has searched this and wants to know the outcome - it ended up that half our party were down with a cold that day, so we had a more leisurely but lovely day wandering the waterfront, hired the crocodile bikes and the kids did the climbing wall. So can't report on the uphill walk sorry I will have to try that next time!

Having bad cruise planning withdrawal and saw a (relatively) good deal on The Ghan so have booked it! Very excited.

We have always talked about doing it so thought no time like the present (well next March anyway) we will do our bit to support the domestic tourism industry etc. The price certainly reinforces what good value cruising is but I am really looking forward to it, it does sound amazing. We have never been to central Australia.  Any tips re the off train excursions from anyone who has done it?

I do have a short cruise on the Pacific Princess booked for January (Sydney to Auckland) but I am not convinced that will go ahead. Is anyone else looking at alternatives while we can't cruise? 

Thanks toinoi and Bugalugsnz, We'll report back post visit. 

I know most people get the cable car to the top of the hill in Wellington and walk back down through the Botanic Gardens, but wondering if anyone has done it in reverse and walked uphill to get the cable car back down? We are travelling with our teenage children, all of us reasonably fit with no knee issues etc, and trying to figure out if it would be a good work out with a rewarding view at the top or  just plain crazy. Last time we were in Wellington we got the cable car both ways so missed the gardens. I don't really enjoy walking downhill, and welcome the chance to incorporate some exercise into our shore excursions, but don't want to attempt it if it is going to be really un-fun. Not sure if there is a cable-car station half way up we could get if it is too hard? Any local advice welcome. 

Thanks, Penny

Saw this and thought it was pretty good for a school holiday sailing:

Carnival Legend 8 nights south pacific Sydney to Melbourne. January 16 2019

Balcony pack and go fare is $949, but the #1 to the fun price is $1249 and includes $500 OBC. With this fare you can pick your cabin.

There are no quad share cabins left on this sailing, but when I looked there were lots of balconies available and quite a few that were next to each other. On the Legend the balcony dividers open up so even though cabins aren't adjoining you can get to the next door cabin using the balcony. We did this on the Sun Princess and it worked well if you have older kids. And with two cabins you get $1000 OBC! 

Finishes in Melbourne so might be a one way airfare for some. we fly (or train) out of Canberra so no different for us. 

It's tempting me; thought I'd post it for others who can only go in school holidays where deals are few and far between!

We enjoyed our MSC cruise it was an amazing itinerary for a great price - worked out about $50 a night for our family of four in one balcony cabin including wine and beer with lunch and dinner and I do consider this in my opinion of them as it is by far the least we have paid for a cruise so not really fair to compare to a ship where you are paying more than twice that. They are especially good value for families because they don't charge for kids in the same cabin as parents. We were on the Splendida it was very glitzy, nice pools and the cabins were very spacious.

That being said there were a few issues, mainly around getting on and off the ship there was not much organisation and a different approach to standing in line from many passengers you had to be very patient and not let it get to you but it was fairly chaotic. Also for 20 nights I did miss English entertainment a bit, would have liked there to be a few more movies etc, but if it was a shorter cruise it would not have mattered the shows were good just got a bit similar on a longer cruise. The announcements didn't bother us because on our cruise they had the announcements in English first, not sure why. Passengers were predominantly Brazilian and German, made for an interesting dynamic on board.

Happy to answer any questions but I do think the experience probably varies depending on if you are sailing in the Med, the Caribbean or on a "Grand Journey" as we were.

Is the Cinema Al Fresco on ships other than the Divina? I noticed in the Daily Program from Divina in the Med that there were movies there some nights. When we were on Splendida last year I don't remember having movies on the big screen at night. Does anyone who has been on Splendida recently know if they have this now? And if so what language are the movies in?

Thanks

That's good news. I will keep an eye out as we are usually restricted to school holidays too, and only doing short cruises at the moment.

Would it need to be in and out of Sydney or are flights possible?

Penny

Wow congratulations! Perfect way to spend the winnings that will be an awesome cruise.

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Didn't notice much too smoke on our cruise, my husband said he noticed it a bit but it didn't bother him. Certainly wasn't any smoking inside other than the casino I think. And our cruise would have had a lot of smokers as it left from Brazil and finished in Europe.

I would go with MSC again - IF - we got another amazing deal (the generosity of the drinks package and some other great offers on board were just bonuses on top of the great price we got booking where second person went free and kids paid only port fees) but it was definitely a different experience to other lines. Generally more chaotic, organisation poor, but beautiful ship, and their itineraries are great. We had fun but I understand how it's not for everyone.

Penny

Re MSC drinks packages, we also got the mealtime drinks package included when we booked (as well as three free shore excursions). What we didn't realise until we got on board was that the mealtime bit just meant when the buffet was serving lunch or dinner, not that you actually had to be eating there, so on our cruise that meant we could get a wine or beer any time from 12-3pm and 6-10pm, so it was so easy to go in to the bar at the buffet from the pool or to grab a drink before or after dinner, it was nearly like an all inclusive deal. Then we could also get wine or beer in the dining room with dinner. The range was pretty limited but we still thought it was a great deal especially considering what we paid for the cruise.

We tried to upgrade to the more expensive drinks package, which included cocktails, before we sailed but they would not let us pay the difference we had to buy the whole package so we stuck with the included one and just bought a book of 20 vouchers for cocktails for a daily poolside cocktail. Worked out really well.

I second NSWP's suggestion. Kiama is beautiful and not too long a drive. I would suggest going via the Grand Pacific Drive one way which follows the coast between Sydney and Wollongong. You could also go a little further south from Kiama to Kangaroo Valley and go back up through the southern highlands to make a loop. Not sure which direction it would be better to do it in, someone else here might have an opinion on whether the views are better going north or south on the Grand Pacific Drive or whether it makes no difference.

Penny

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In NSW it's Tuesdays at 9pm on Nine.

I have been watching it and am really looking forward to tonight's cruise episode. Will be very interested to hear your thoughts on it MadWoofter, there are certainly some interesting characters among the guides I'd love to hear how close they are to their real life personas!

Penny

We've cruised on both (though only a short one on Sea Princess) my thoughts would be:

Cabins, bathrooms and balconies: Century much better, MUCH smaller on Sea Princess than the Century.

Food: Century better but Sea Princess still very good, a few misses in the MDR but lots of hits as well and buffet and room service great, though limited for breakfast if you don't want to pay extra.

Movies: Sea Princess better, great free movies on your TV and loved Movies Under the Stars

Pools: Sea Princess better as more pools and really liked that they were not salty.

Princess@sea was great (you can send messages and check the daily planner and your account from your phone for free) they might have something similar on Celebrity now it is a while since we've cruised with them.

Overall I preferred the Century but still liked the Sea Princess. Think it would be worth it for the new itinerary.

In the end we decided to get a transfer. We got the train up for the cricket on Tuesday night, which was great, but made me realise that with all our luggage it was not going to be easy and I think it's worth the extra expense (which wasn't too bad - I got a family rate on the transfer) for the convenience of door to door, Hopefully we might be able to get on the ship a bit earlier.

Thanks all for your advice.

Penny

That all sounds great thanks so much everyone. Transfers booked - getting excited now!

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I asked a couple of days ago about getting to Brisbane for our cruise on the Sea Princess next Sunday, thanks to those who offered advice.

Based on that, and our trial run last night going up to Brisbane on the train for the cricket, I am tending towards getting a transfer, but the only ones I can find that are reasonably priced get to Brisbane at 11am. We have an allocated boarding time of 2-2:30.

Not sure whether it is worth having to be ready early and paying extra for the transfer to sit and wait in the terminal for three hours. Has anyone had any experience with being able to board earlier than their allocated time in Brisbane? It's the start of a long cruise (though not for us sadly) so thinking there will be lots of people with status also wanting to board early.

If it's unlikely that we would be able to board before 2 is there anything to do around the cruise terminal? Two kids with us so anything to occupy them would be good.

Thanks again, Penny

Thanks, that all helps. I hadn't thought of Uber might try to organise a pick up from the station, as we will need a big car.

Just after some advice if anyone can help: we are going on a short cruise from Brisbane to Sydney next week at the end of our holiday on the Gold Coast. It leaves from the cruise terminal at Hamilton. We'll get public transport from where we are staying at Broadbeach. We will have a lot of luggage (one of the advantages of cruising home after Christmas instead of flying!) so would it make sense to get off at Fortitude Valley station and get a cab from there? Any idea of roughly how much that would cost?

Thanks, Penny

Hi Tara Jane,

I would recommend switching to the balcony cabin. The cabins are the largest balcony cabins we've been in - very spacious (that was on the Splendida though so maybe double check size on your ship) so I don't think you'd be too squished, and also we really enjoyed some quiet time on our balcony as the ship was pretty hectic at times. We had fun but it was a very busy ship and it was nice to have the balcony to have some quiet private space. The only thing we really did not like about the cruise was that getting off the ship was a nightmare every time! But ours was a repositioning so maybe on an itinerary that is being repeated regularly it would get a bit more organised. Other than that for the price we paid we really could not complain!

Penny

We are going on our first Princess cruise Bris-Syd - Sea Princess in a few weeks. When I completed my online paperwork it asked for our passports. I thought it was normally just a drivers licence. So will we need the passports at check in even though its in Australian waters?

We're on the cruise too - our first time on princess also so we're really looking forward to it, even if it is only for three nights. We're travelling with kids so I'm using their passports as they don't really have any other photo ID.

I do find it amusing that Princess keep telling me to book shore excursions before they sell out! Not many shore excursion options for two sea days lol.

I assume there will be no duty free until the ship leaves Sydney for South America? At which point we will have disembarked - I am going to be so jealous of everyone staying on!

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