Aus Traveller

We have booked both ways - either direct with the cruise line or through an agent. Usually an agent will give us a few sweeteners in the way of extra on-board credit and/or specialty dinners. The agent we use is very good at getting us good cabins. We aren't permitted to mention travel agents' names. Before you book with an agent, I suggest you check what their T&Cs are on cancellation. You can't avoid the cruiselines mandated cancellation policy, but some TAs charge on top of that. Although when you book you wouldn't be planning to cancel, life can get in the way and you might have to cancel for a reason not covered by your travel insurance.

You can use what we call a 'maxi taxi'. They are vans that seat eight people so could easily take three adults and luggage. After our last couple of cruises there were four or five maxi taxis lined up waiting for customers along with 20 or so normal taxis. The taxi marshall was simply asking people who walked up to the 'line' if anyone needed a maxi taxi. Last Monday two maxis sat at the start of the line waiting for someone who needed one. We only needed a normal cab so we took the next one.

Reef Sprinter takes passengers either to the Low Isles or to the Outer Reef. They are located in the marina at Port Douglas. I have done a couple of trips with them and find them excellent.

When we disembarked from our last few cruises into the BICT there have been at least two dozen taxis lined up waiting for customers.

It wasn't a wedding, it was a planned marriage proposal. 🙂The young couple had left their passports (and the ring) in a backpack that they checked in before heading out to sightsee in Sydney ahead of boarding.

Every time I have tried on the Princess email, the relevant person must have been on holidays! I am glad it worked for you. Have a great trip. 🙂

I have never ever had success emailing the benefits@princess.com.au address. I have always ended up emailing shareholderbenefit@carnivalaustralia.com and got an almost immediate response. I have used that latter address for Princess cruises and also P&O.

I loved this bit - The respondents were also apparently prepared to cancel the cruise if one of only nine PCR tests from the immediately preceding cruise had returned a positive result. Those matters suggest that to cancel the cruise would not have been unduly burdensome. Because Princess was prepared to cancel the cruise if COVID was detected on the previous cruise, it wasn't 'unduly burdensome' and therefore they should have cancelled the cruise. I think that it amazing reasoning.

It is very unlikely that Mr Karpik boarded with the virus. He would have caught it on board. I have read that genomic testing of the virus that circulated on the Ruby Princess showed that the strain was NOT present in Australia before the ship returned from the ill-fated cruise. By the way, this was known fairly early on, even well before there were claims that COVID was on board the Ruby during the previous cruise. If it was, it would have been spread in the Australian community from those passengers. It has been stated many times that there was no COVID on the previous cruise, but there was a respiratory infection.

Get Your Guide is a 'consolidator' who then books with a local tour company. Maybe research tours available in Burnie and book direct. The company then doesn't have to pay a percentage (often 25%) to the tour consolidator. However, using a company like Get Your Guide or Trip Advisor often has the benefit of allowing you to cancel up to 48 hours in advance to receive a full refund.

We also thought a NZ cruise was safe. Our cruise was on the Sea Princess just before the Ruby Princess went to NZ. A couple of family members who haven't travelled overseas were concerned about COVID, but we assured them that it wasn't running wild in Australia and it wasn't an issue in NZ. We were very lucky that the European and American passengers on our cruise didn't bring COVID on board, unlike with the Ruby Princess. BTW, genomic testing of the strain of COVID on the Ruby showed that it was not present in Australia before the ship returned to Australia on 13th March (I think it was the 13th). It was brought onto the ship by someone who boarded the day it left Sydney. They might not have felt ill so wouldn't have been picked up by temperature testing.

We did so to take advantage of the free credit card travel insurance. However there was one time in the past when we booked 20 months ahead of a cruise from Fort Lauderdale, around Cape Horn and ending in San Francisco. The other cruises that have to be booked well ahead are the World Cruise.

We have gone on a couple of cruises after my husband's 81st birthday, and fortunately haven't had to claim on insurance. Actually we only have claimed once and that was in 1999. We have two more cruises booked and we will be relying on the wording printed in the PDS for the insurance, namely trips booked before the person's 81st birthday. If ANZ or Allianz decide to change it, I am sure they will notify us in writing.

Thank you for your helpful information.🙂

The ANZ Platinum Visa insurance covers people for trips they BOOK before their 81st birthday. This could vary with other bank credit card insurances.

We haven't bothered to do the vow renewal when it has been offered on a ship. There didn't seem much point.

I look forward to hearing you report in due course.🙂

Thanks for the info. 🙂I am sure there will be more discussion on this topic before our cruise in January.

I was surprised at your answer, but now you mention that you haven't cruised on Princess. 🙂I have done close to 50 Princess cruises but not since the latest charges have been introduced and that is the reason for my question.. Looking on the internet, the only Room Service items that are charged are pizza (always has been), cheese plate (don't know if it always was charged), Hummus & dip, Maki rolls, 8oz filet & fries. Specialty meals also have a charge.

I agree. Although I don't think the CityCat would work for practical reasons, it would only interest passengers who come into Brisbane as a port call. This would not be often enough to warrant the cost. Maybe a few B2B passengers could be interested but there would be even fewer people, certainly not enough to have a ferry travel all the way down the river, then back to the CBD.

Do the Room Service items have a per-item cost?

For a marriage performed in Victoria to be legal, it has to be performed by a licensed celebrant or a minister of religion. Traditionally ship's captains could perform marriages, but currently, this is only so when the country where the ship is registered allows it. The marriage would be as legal as yours that you mention was overseas. Not all countries give ship's captains the right to perform marriages. Princess Cruises announced several years ago that they were changing the port of registry for their ships from London to Hamilton Bermuda so the captain could conduct marriages. A marriage on a ship is quite different from the vow renewal ceremony that has no legal standing whatsoever and does not require the celebrant to be registered anywhere.

We don't use Room Service, but I am going on a cruise in January on the Coral Princess with my daughter and her family including three young children. I am sure she will want to use Room Service. We have two balcony cabins booked on the standard fare in January 2023. I have read that there is a one-off charge of $24.99 to be able to order Room Service. Is this correct? Is it correct that only one person in the cabin has to pay this as they can order whatever the people in their want? There has been mention of $25 OBC being applied for cruises booked before the $24.99 cost was introduced. As we booked in January but on a standard fare, do we get this $25 OBC? I have also read that there is a charge if Room Service is ordered via the phone. Is this correct? Is there a charge if it is ordered via the app? I appreciate any assistance to answer the above questions.

Maybe some or all of your OBC will be refundable. When we have had refundable OBC left over it has been paid into our bank account a few weeks after the cruise.

I agree - I don't expect that the Judge would have considered the Costa Concordia event to grant any legal precedence. I used this as an extreme example of a cruise where the passengers didn't have a safe, relaxing and pleasurable holiday. I am sure there are many cruises where passengers don't get the experience that they booked for. We didn't on our last cruise that was supposed to go to Vanuatu but ended up going to Cairns. Another issue for us was air-conditioning in our cabin that operated at an estimated 5% capacity. We were given a fan in the first day and we slept with the balcony door open to get some air. Yes - I know - this does not equate with people becoming ill and with the number who died as result of contracting COVID on the Ruby. The only people who won out of this Court case would be Shine Lawyers. A proportion of the amount awarded to the Plaintiffs (including Mrs Karpik) goes to the Litigation Funders, but I don't expect that this will be enough to cover their costs. They were obviously gambling on a big pay-out by Carnival, possibly a settlement of millions of dollars of which they get a fair bit.