buchhalm

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Cruise Critic family! A lovely Sydney night...

I just found a documentary on "Binge ". Christmas on the world's most expensive cruise ship, the Seven Seas Explorer. Drooooooollll!

I hope they are doing something more "Christmasy" for Xmas day. Nevertheless, a quite nice menu. A bit random, but something for everyone. * but I can't recall duck breast for Christmas eve (when Christmas is celebrated in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and other Roman Catholic countries), when I grew up in Austria... ....my Christmas spread at home last year.... No leftovers!

There was some mention of trivia / progressive trivia earlier in this thread. It reminded me of a "lady" nearly getting in a physical fight with the trivia host about what questions should have been asked. Apparently on day X on a certain itinerary specific quiz questions should have bèen asked. The host can't just make up his/her own quiz. ...According to the angry woman, who came armed with as folder of all Q&A for that cruise and a few others.... Some people would do anything for a key chain (or a bottle if house wine) 🙈🙉🙊

02 January. Not long to go... 🙂

A question for those who have recently cruised or are at the moment on Eclipse's Sydney to New Zealand cruise. When, on this 13-night run do they have the "formal" (or whatever they call it now) nights? I would like to arrange some specialty dining around it. 🍷🍴🍸

They are in mourning because Dan is still in power.

My wife prefers primary school. Everything is exciting for the little ones. If she needs peace, they play dinosaurs. Walk around, and when the music stops lie down. We are all extinct. First one to move, loses. Or play them Arvo Pärt's "Spiegel I'm Spiegel ". After 4 minutes, they are all asleep. But if the kids are good, they get my homemade cookies. So the munchkins call me The cookie man.....

I recommend a tour to the Great Ocean Road. It is really lovely. Do this ONLY via the ship. It is s LONG day. Organised day tours from Melbourne take 10 to 12 hours (or more). These tours pack many sights into the day (with enough time at every stop). They tend to cost around AUD 120 p.p., as a comparison against ship prices. And I say ship's tour, because of the distance travelled and the knowledge that the ship will wait for its own tours.

The penguin march is AT NIGHT, so you probably have to forget about that one. Google Phillip island penguin tours.

Stellaaaaaaaa!!!!! 🙂

Yeah, whatever. Let's just say the ones that are worried and go all hoity-toity stay at home, and the ones that can handle the situation and get on with life, go on a cruise. My wife and I for one will be on THAT ship in two weeks. Here is the Eclipse leaving Sydney 15 minutes ago.

Splendour arriving and departing Sydney on 19.12.2022

Oh I see it was YOU who spouted that nonsense originally! 😏

That last paragraph sums it up nicely. In the case of Australian cruise prices, the "voluntary" gratuity is built into the fare. So we have no say in it, and can't remove it. Nothing "voluntary " about it then. I highly doubt that anybody would even TRY to get this taken off the price....

But you get chocolates, mugs, scented candles, bath bombs and handmade cards instead. 🙂

This exact quotation was regurgitated at lengths 2 weeks ago. Search 9/10 December. Load of baloney.

Sounds like those booze cruises they used to (do?) run between Scandinavia and Germany / the Baltic states. Leave Scandi on Friday afternoon and come back early Monday morning. As soon as they were out of local waters, the bars were open and tax free. Monday morning they basically had to hose down the ship....

Definately not so. My upcoming celebrity cruise, booked and paid for in Australia, include tips, drinks, Wi-Fi

I have to roll my eyes about comments that tipping (entirely damn VOLUNTARY!!!) is "evil" and not right for the reason that some people who work in certain industries should get a bit of "untaxed" money. That seems sour grapes to me.... That sort of people probably ask if the garage sale down the road is paying tax. (Cue the haters....)

If it makes you feel better, the TERRY WHITE chemist (pharmacy) chain seems to do supervised RAT. I give you the link below. I searched for "The Rocks" as location, as this is the closest general area to the opera house. https://bookings.terrywhitechemmart.com.au/corporate/Terry White Group/search?specialty=COVID-19 Testing

I can only speak for Celebrity Cruises. They will accept a supervised RAT (by a chemist or medical professional) OR a regular self test RAT. Of the latter you take a time stamped photo and show at check in or even bring the test along to show.

You mean Hubby is paying a finders fee?

As far as snorkelling goes, I love the GBR around Cairns and Port Douglas. I have snorkelled and some mild SCUBA at a number of places around the world, but the GBR was the nicest. As for operators, Quicksilver is running BIG boats (usually full of Asian tourists), but are very well run and organised. One never feels as "just a number", and the staff seems to be genuinely enjoy their jobs. Their BIG advantage is the pontoon setup. People who want to "experience " the reef don't even have to get wet if they don't want to. We have even seen a few wheelchairs on these tours. That said, we much prefer the smaller boats. There is a absolutely gorgeous catamaran operator from Cairns/Port D. that does the reef and low isles. Small (er) groups and more relaxed. On the sail back in the afternoon you relax on deck and somebody of the staff often plays the guitar and/or starts a sing along. Nice. No option is exactly inexpensive, but not to do it would be a real miss. We have done it several times and definately do it again if we are up that way.

Move up bid for a not quite 2 week cruise on Eclipse from Concierge to lowest suite STARTS at over AUD 2000 p.p. No thanks!