cadburyguinness

Love it! 
I was singing along

At the airport right now on our way to board Quantum in Singapore.

I'll update re Northstar etc

You can do early check-in at Changi tip to 24 hours before your flight, and then wander around, its a fantastic airport. I love the butterfly garden, there is also a cactus garden, orchid garden etc. I believe there is a 4-story slide but I haven't tried it.

The new retail park is called Jewel Changi , its like an architectural forest and looks great.

There is also a pool for a refreshing swim, with showers, etc, various lounges and an internal  hotel that does rooms for a few hours.

A good variety of restaurants & bars too.

Thanks Corinna!

Thanks for all your info Corrina

I’d be grateful if you could find out which restaurants are open for lunch on port days

We intend to stay on board on Christmas Day and would like a nice lunch

Photos look great, thanks Corrina

Have any of the public areas been redecorated?

ideally I’d like to see pics of coastal kitchen, concierge lounge and anything else that takes your fancy!

Dolphin girl/ Corrina is onboard right now and has updated on the other thread using her free Star Class wifi - all is well

Hooray for dolphin girl!

I’ve been hoping you’d post today to confirm that Royal Suite class is happening

Please post some photos when you can!

Check your junk mail Bertrande!

We are sailing 23rd Dec and got the email at the beginning of Nov.

It was just the  preliminary “questionnaire to find out all about you” rather than any confirmation about perks or bookings, but I don’t think you get that with the “China sailings Suite Class” as far as I have been able to determine

I have received the Genie questionnaire for our December cruise, so I reckon that’s a good sign

Great photos and description, thanks for this!

There won't be anyone on Quantum until you go onboard, because she's currently in Dry Dock until your cruise.

You'll be the first to know!

Enjoying your review so far, looking forward to the next installment.

We will be on Quantum this December

How are you all doing on Rhapsody Madman ?

I'm watching the footage on the news, it looks terrible

Great thread, really enjoying it thanks

:):)

For finishing up on Kangaroo Island, here are a few additional visuals, plus a little more info/background.

 

For getting to Kangaroo Island, there are two options (assuming you are going to swim). We did one of the several daily air flights from Adelaide's main airport. There is also a ferry service that operates out of Cape Jervis. Most guests choose to fly. They met our early-morning Regional Express (REX) flights from Adelaide. Regional Express operate Saab 340's (34-passenger, twin-engine turbo-prop). It was a short, easy flight of about 17-minutes in actual flying time.

 

What was our airport security for the flight back to Adelaide? No shoes off, no scanners, etc. Just look at a sheet of paper and say we don't have any of the "bad" stuff. Unusual?

 

Adelaide is a nice, interesting town. We had limited time there, but things worked well. Might post some pictures from there later. Nearby to Adelaide are some outstanding wine locations.

 

From the Daily Mail in London, they had an interesting article on Kangaroo Island earlier this month. You can find it at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2555266/Australia-holidays-Kangaroos-cuisine-South-Australia.html

Among the story highlights are: "There's nothing like running on a beach. And if that beach is on South Australia's Kangaroo Island, with its pristine sands and turquoise waters, then it's a truly wonderful sensation. KI is roughly the size of Kent, and a microcosm of different Australian landscapes. It's the place to see the best of Australia if you don't have time to see the whole country. Even on our short trip from the airport, we glimpsed bushland, eucalyptus woods, white sandy dunes and spectacular seascapes."

 

Here is more that this writer shared: "The guided tours in 4WD comfort with Exceptional Kangaroo Island were superb. A third of the island is a national park, with stunning natural features such as the wind-sculpted Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch in Flinders Chase. There, we watched seals being hurled against the rocks before swimming back to do it all again. Then we went to Seal Bay and found ourselves within touching distance of these wonderful mammals. It's one of the rare places on Earth where you can actually walk with sea lions on the sands. No wonder they call this area the Galapagos of Australia. Ogling animals in a zoo is simply not the same as viewing them in the wild. We saw koalas munching away in eucalyptus trees, dolphins frolicking and seal pups learning to swim."

 

Nice to know this UK writer used the same tour folks as we did, plus visited many of the same wonderful locations on this island.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

 

First is one of the birds we saw on Kangaroo Island where the name is not sure in my memory bank. Any ideas or suggestions? Second is a Raptor that we saw soaring high in the air. Got lucky to capture this image. There are 24 types of Raptors native to Australia. They use their powerful feet to catch and kill their prey.:

 

 

 

 

 

Below shows the narrow passage of rocks where we needed to squeeze through in order to reach the wonderful section of beach where Amy, Milt and my wife are pictured at this scenic location. Much better place to be than winter in Ohio. Was not sure that I was going to make it through this narrow passage, but fortunately I did. And, back out again, later.:

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, here is another cute bird example from Kangaroo Island, but a type where I cannot remember the exact name. Any help or suggestions?:

 

I believe the birds in the bottom picture are Rainbow Lorikeets

The large Black ones may be Yellow-tailed Black cockatoos

Thanks for the great Blog, Terry!

You can fly direct to Singapore from UK on BA or Singapore airlines

I'd recommend staying at the marina bay sands If you can get a deal

Best rooftop pool ever, and you can see the celebrity ship in dock from it

( too far to walk though)

I am on the same sailing and tried to book a speciality restaurant for Christmas Day

The website is not taking bookings that day, or Christmas Eve , NYE or NYD

Does anyone know what the procedure might be, eg book able on board?

Happy Anzac Day to all

Margo check out Sculpture by the Sea on Google images for some inspiration

Motorsport is also outside my area of expertise but

Wascc.com.au

may be useful

Thank you for your info. Will pass on the Sculpture by the sea to those on our cruise - sounds interesting.

 

Interests - we are both mad keen on motorsport (may be tempted to go back to NZ via Adelaide for the Clipsal 500) and car museums.

 

Accommodation - you have suggested avoiding the city centre, try the Riverbank with nice restaurants. That sounds appealing.

 

How is the public transport for wheelchair users?

 

 

 

Thanks for your info too, and the wheelchair details.

 

I will bookmark this thread so I don't miss any new information.

Public transport is mainly very accessible but there are a few exceptions such as old heritage train stations

I would recommend looking at the Transperth website

Transperth.wa.gov.au

for more specific details, they are very helpful

Unfutrunateley Car museums are not really my thing, I hear there is a good one out at York but I don't know if its worth a trip out there just for that

Would you be interested in the Maritime museums in Freo, their ships range from pirates/ mutineers/ shipwrecks from 17th century to warships, submarines & Americas cup winners from the 20 th

Hopefully someone else can be more helpful on that

Definitely enquire with Crown about their accessible rooms but rates may well fal nearer the time

I am interested too.

 

We will arrive in Perth 20 Feb 2014. The plan is to stay over the weekend and fly out late Sunday night, direct to Auckland.

 

Accommodation - we need wheelchair accessible, and room with walk-in shower.

 

Activities - we are open to ideas. Obviously being in a wheelchair, I won't be bungy jumping! ;)

Margo

You will be here for Sculpture by the sea at Cottesloe, I rccomend it highly

You will not be able to get close up to all the sculptures in your wheelchair as about half are set in the sand, but you will get good views of them from the pathways.

Kings park is also a must

After that it depends on your interests, let me know and I'm happy to help

Thank you for your offer of advice.

We will be arriving on Monday, March 3, 2013. We enjoy beautiful, natural scenery.

 

Although I enjoy shopping, I prefer to spend my time in Australia doing something I can't do here at home. That said, I love artwork and jewelry. If there is a good area to shop for reasonable pieces and it is near other points of interest, I would be interested in knowing that.

We have no qualms renting a car and driving.

I love the ocean/beaches (maybe because I am from landlocked Missouri)

 

We enjoy good food - I like seafood and all types of ethnic food. Husband especially likes lamb and steak.

 

We like museums and also like to walk in picturesque areas/neighborhoods.

 

As far as hotel, we are staying at a Marriott in Sydney - something of the sort would be great. We normally prefer a hotel in town rather than an airport location.

 

Many thanks for your (and everyone else's assistance)!

Thanks for the details

I would hire a car in Freo (?Avis?) and drive north along the beaches to Cottesloe Beach for a walk/paddle swim as preferred. Unfortunately you will just miss the annual Sculpture by the sea exhibition which starts Friday 7th March this year, but some of the larger sculptures might be setting up in preparation. Its still great without, and I would reccomend the Blue duck overlooking the beach in North Cottesloe for coffee or lunch.

Next I would drive to King's park, park near the War memorial and walk down to it for a great view over Perth & the Swan River. I would then turn right & walk through the Botanical gardens to the Millenium Bridge, over that then back through the Pioneeer women's graden's & Banksia Gradens

You'll learn a lot about the trees etc as well as aboriginal & western history

If you decide to stay overnight I would avoid the city centre (overpriced, no parking, full of Oil & Gas executives) and stay at the Crown Metropol (Formerly Intercontinental Burswood) or Crown Promenade (formerly Holiday Inn Burswood)

They lie on the Riverbank opposite the city centre with great views (nad a wonderful pool at the Metropol. The complex includes may of the best restaurants in Perth including Nobu and Rockpool (fro your husband the steak lover- pricy but worth it) It also has theatres, casino spa etc but also great riverside walks/cycles.

But you wont get full advantage if you leave early Tues am. Can you not get the 11.30pm flight Tues night so that you have 2 full days in Perth?

I forgot to add - that there is a storage place in the Perth Train Station Complex for luggage it is called: http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/web/Living/Community-Services-and-Facilities/Citiplace-Rest-Centre/ check the web site.

 

Also, if you were to stay in Fremantle - a previous posted mentioned that there was luggage storage at the Maritime Museum: http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/maritime

 

To catch the train into Perth - just look right as you cross over the bridge from the passenger terminal - you will see the train station about 500 metre's on your right - this takes you right into the Perth City Train Station Complex

To add to Dizzy's excellent suggestions, the train journey into Perth is quite scenic as it goes along the harbour and beaches, and takes 20-30 mins