sama10

We have just got back from a cruise on the Sea Princess too (on Wednesday). My husband bought a coffee card and the barman wrote both the ship'name and the date of the voyage. So who knows.

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The Sterling Steakhouse is on Deck 14 and is part of the Horizon Court, converted into a steakhouse in the evening. We had a very nice meal there (twice) on the Sun in November.

Anne

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We live about 30 minutes drive from Australia Zoo. Even with 2 hours at the zoo you should see lots. There is a train type thing that takes you round free and I think you can book private tours. The show in the Crocoseum is not to be missed.

Montville is a lovely place with beautiful scenery on the way. I would definitely take a ship tour as the Bruce Highway down to Brisbane is very busy and at least if there is a hold up the ship will wait.

Anne

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When we were on holiday in Cairns a few years ago we had a trip out to GBR on the Quiksilver catamaran from Port Douglas. We were picked up at our hotel in Cairns by bus and taken to Port Douglas(I assume it was quicker to be bussed to PD first than sail from Cairns?). Quiksilver docked at her own large pontoon on Agincourt reef. We were there for a few hours. There was a glass bottom boat, fish feeding, buffet lunch, talks I think, just relaxing and enjoying the views and of course snorkeling and diving. My husband doesn't swim but was quite happy with his time on the pontoon.

We recently cruised up the Qld coast and saw the Quiksilver catamarans in PD harbour. There were also GBR boats in the port at Cairns but I have no idea how far out thry went. I am sure you will enjoy whatever you choose.

Anne

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The Sun has a self service launderette on most decks, each with 2 washers, dryers and an iron. You use your cruise card to obtain tokens from a machine in the launderette. Tokens are also available from the passenger services desk as often the token machines aren't working. I usually take some pods from home and get tokens before I need them to save time.

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We always try to book the last cabin at the back on Aloha on the Sun (A738) as we enjoy the proximity to the outside and there is nobody on one side of us. Haven't had any problems with the door banging either. Don't know what ship you are on but being near the back deck is a big plus for us. We also had the last cabin on Riveria (R745) on the Emerald beside the door to the aft pool.

Anne

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We went to Share twice on our recent cruise on the Sun Princess instead of doing formal nights. My husband had tried a couple of Curtis Stone dishes when they were on the MDR menu on a previous cruise and was not impressed but thought we would give it a go.

After all the negative reviews we were very pleasantly surprised (although we agree about the beef cheek pie). There was not a shortage of food either. I thought it was a shame that there were very few others there.

The second time it was much busier and this time we had the A La Carte menu as we had struggled with the amount of food the first time. Maybe Princess should consider offering this on other ships. We preferred ordering less and it worked out a lot cheaper than the $39 each cover charge.

I think the name Share doesn't help as people still think that food is shared amongst the diners but it doesn't really work like that. Some of the dishes we shared between the two of us and some not and the table sizes seemed to be mainly twos and fours.

We would certainly go back to Share again. We didn't try it on the Emerald, mainly because of the negative feedback, but wish we had.

Anne

On the Sun now. No problems since we sailed on Sunday. Buffet not self service until yesterday. Enjoying the cruise. Came armed with wipes and Hands First sanitiser.

Anne

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On the Emerald in Dec 16 and on the Sun in 2010 there were free shuttles from the port to Brandon St, very close to David Jones and only a few minutes walk to the cable car.

Anne

On our recent cruise to New Zealand over Xmas and New Year on the Emerald Princess we had a phone call a few days before we left asking if we would be willing to move cabins to a lesser position. As I had particularly picked our cabin (inside R745 right beside the pool on the back deck) I refused. We were only offered I think 200A$ each to move,no other incentives. The position of our cabin was well worth it and it would have taken a lot more of an incentive to move.

Anne

Thanks for all the replies. We will go ahead and book now.

Anne

We are thinking about doing the Xmas cruise out of Sydney on the Emerald Princess. I know it is a US ship but does the A$ price quoted include the gratuities and will all prices on board be in US$ or A$. I assume there will only be US 110v sockets as well. Hopefully someone can answer this for me.

Anne

Loved the Mudslide!

Anne

On our 2 cruises on the Sun we had as Captain Graham Goodway in December and Andrew Froude in March.

Anne