JacintaH

I love it when we can clean up our urban waterways so that sea life are happy to come in an play nearby. Nice work Wellington.

If you want good coffee cruise via Melbourne or Wellington. Both cities have been voted as having the best coffee in the world

 

 

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Ha correct! Although if we were booked on another AUS/NZ cruise I wouldn't be asking the question. This trip is an Asian tour and while I expect pretty ordinary coffee from the cruise line, I was interested to know just how ordinary Princess makes it vs the swill that that we are used to on Celebrity cruises.

Do you have D'Vita in Australia or New Zealand? It's a powdered Cappuccino that's really good. I also bring 4-6 quart size bags to put in our coffee. Or, you can just add it to hot water and make a Cappuccino drink (hot or cold). Princess charges $3.50 for a small cup of horrid Cappuccino. Here's their website:

 

https://www.caffedvita.com/

 

If something is good to drink on board, I will pay the price. But when it's horrid, I feel like I've been ripped off - and I have! You learn to do it yourself and be happy.

I don’t believe that D’vita is established here either.

I won't be packing beans and a grinder and a coffee maker. I'm flying from San Francisco to Sydney, the instant packets of Starbucks Colombian is 100 times better than coffee onboard. I'm strapped for luggage space.:halo:

Starbucks doesn’t have much of a footprint here in Australia. The brand is limited to our capital cities, often in tourist precincts. We certainly don’t have one in my city so picking up sachets from there could end up being a chore.

I’ll find a solution one way or another. :confused:

Flash end of financial year sale in the Swans Merchandise store. Some good bargains for supporters gear going.

I adore traveling to NZ. Beautiful country and lovely people.

Highlights of our prior cruises there include

* Milford Sound - yes be on the upper deck.

* Dunedin - we did a wildlife tour of the Otago Penninsula

* Akaroa - Tour to see Dusky Dolphins

* Wellington - stacks to see either by tour or on your own

* Bay of Islands - Russel (Hell Hole of the South Pacific) or Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Both significant historical sites.

It's a bummer if you have to fly to the port but definitely worth the effort.

When I was on the Golden Princess, I tried everything (espresso, americano filter etc). Honestly, if you closed your eyes you wouldn't know you were drinking coffee, so even if you brought some instant coffee like elliair suggested, it would be better.

 

 

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Yes we are flying into Singapore and home from Shanghai. I have tropical clothes and winter layers to pack. Never mind, that’s part of the fun.

It’s a bit of a shock to the system to learn that instant coffee from Starbucks is considered superior to the espresso on board. :o

We are really quite spoiled for choice here in Australia aren’t we?

I go one step further and bring whole beans, a battery operated coffee grinder and an aeropress :-)

 

 

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Yes I have an Aeropress too but my grinder is a hand wound one (keeps the exercise up ;p). Fortunately we have some awesome roasters here in Cairns so I won’t have to go too far to get some good beans.

Was hoping to avoid the extra luggage. :rolleyes:

I purchased the instant packets of Starbucks Columbian coffee and it's wonderful. We bring it along with us on cruises and enjoy it on our balcony in the morning. We order hot water from room service. I keep the carafes and go to Lido in the morning and get our own hot water and cups (they're larger than what you get from room service). Like food, coffee, etc., is subjective. But I know coffee and we're not a fan of Princess' coffee.

Bother. I was afraid of that. :confused: Looks like I’ll need to pack my own solution.

Makes the purchase of a beverage package less attractive if I have to pack my own beans.

Hello all

Nice to see so many familiar names active on this Board. I hope you are all happy and healthy.

After some years pursuing land based tours we are rejoining the cruise set and have booked a Xmas/New Year trip through Asia on Sapphire Princess. This will be our first Princess cruise and while our Celebrity experiences give us a reasonable idea of what to expect I’m keen to double check on the important matter of coffee quality on board.

I’m presuming that free stuff onboard will generally the syrupy brewed stuff masquerading as coffee? I’m hoping the coffee available at the cafes might approach the type of espresso experience I can get every day at home? Therefore my question is, how drinkable are the specialty coffees on Princess?

There is a current discussion on the Princess Boards talking about adding a shot of espresso (or multiple shots) to brewed coffees and I’m a bit horrified that so many think that it’s a good idea. :o

Break any bad news to me gently please. :')

Thank you so much for your replies. I really appreciate your ideas.

Hello all

I am seeing a lot of familiar names still posting here so I hope you are all happy and healthy with great plans for cruises coming up.

We have cruised with Celebrity in the past but have noticed that the local itineraries for Celebrity remain largely unchanged which is a bit of a bore. I stumbled across an interesting cruise on Sea Princess to PNG for Feb 2018 which is very tempting.

Can anyone provide insight on how the Sea Princess experience measures up. I've read the recent reviews and any negatives that have been highlighted appear to be a result of isolated issues.

I appreciate that Sea Princess is much smaller than the more prominent Celebrity ships and that is fine because our favourite was Celebrity Century.

Any tips or tricks for a newbie to the brand?

Thanks

Jacinta

I have promised myself a little shopping trip to Ponsonby next time I am in Auckland.

Yes, please do, Jacinta :). I'm waiting patiently for your review :D.

Ha, I knew you were hanging out. Sorry for the delay. I do have some useful insights for your cruise so I will get my act together.

Just off the Milli after a Singapore & Malysia Cruise in Aqua Class. Will do a full report soon. But this is my impression. The Ship does need some TLC but overall not in bad shape. Aqua Cabin Deck 11 rear, first impression was okay again needed some TLC but very quickly we noticed the lack of cleaning, stains everywhere stain on Sofa there all week. Pop Corn box on balcony ( dropped from Deck 12 above ) all day. Toiletries not replaced daily. Bedding not replaced. No Daily Water ( previously reported on the boards ) daily flavored tea, as advertised. Fruit in cabin remained there all week. Shower seal broken. On disembarkation during our own double check found two pairs of shoes under the bed ( previous occupants??). With the exception of Blu and Entertainment staff all other staff members looked down troden didn't / wouldn't engage even with a Hello. Ocean View Cafe total and utter disgrace and absolute shambles.

 

As you can see not a good experience. :mad::mad:

Wow, what a disappointment for you. So different from our experience in December/January just gone.

I haven't reviewed our trip so far but this is because I'm still a bit wound up about the experience of travelling with a family member that I'd rather left at home.

My only disappointment was the MDR with its old fashioned and very pedestrian menu selections that had me eating in the Oceanview Cafe in preference. As the menu is company wide my issue is not Millennium specific.

I probably need to untwist my knickers about the family issue and write a review of our trip to even up the negatives in the review list.

All of our cruises have been over the Xmas/New Year break as we like to escape the heat of the tropics and we dislike Xmas hype. Our line of choice is Celebrity as they don't make such a fuss of Xmas but do put on a great New Years Eve party. RCL may have the same philosophy.

I do know that people who really like to make a celebration of Xmas do express disappointment that there was no sense of occasion on the day.

My only issue with Xmas cruises is the hoards of unsupervised children. Tweens and Teenagers prefer to wander and end up being annoying brats packs as their behaviour and intelligence drops to the lowest common denominator.

I sail with my own ship's captain so I get to eat at a Captains Table every evening. Additionally since my recent promotion to Chief Deckhand and Rope Wrangler he gets to eat with an officer! :D:D:D:D:rolleyes:

We spent our end of year break on Millenium and I personally found the shampoo in our stateroom didn't suit my hair and I would have preferred to use a travel sized pack of my own brand. Soaps and moisturiser cream were fine however.

That being said, we prefer interior staterooms (I sleep better in the dark) and we don't get any of the posh stuff down in the bilge. :D

This is the one big reason to avoid the school holiday cruises.:D

However, things could be worse. I happen to know that the current passenger list of Explorer which left Sydney earlier today included over 100 ex-Royal Aust Navy personnel and their partners. :eek: Some of this crowd is known to me and quite frankly I would run the gauntlet with the teenagers any day. :D

Thank you everyone. I get it now and will store those tips away in the memory banks.

If your Princess excursion has a return time of 6:00pm and you are on the 5:45 pm sitting, can you still get into the MDR or are the doors closed after a certain time?

Can you make special arrangements with the Maitre'd on such occasions?

 

 

Thanks for your replies.

Cheers,

Anna

My only thought here is to ask will you really feel like rushing down to dinner immediately after returning from an excursion? Our recent Asian cruise involved long day excursions and the last thing any of us felt like doing was to rush to dinner.

On previous cruises I have noticed tables for two in the MDR which seemed to be frequented by the same couples. I presume either they are allocated via traditional dining or a permanent booking for select dining. Does anyone know how this works?

I don't particularly enjoy eating in the MDR and less so because to date we have shared larger tables with others. If there is a next time cruising for us I would like to try and get a table for two but not sure how to go about it? Does anyone have suggestions?

Ha, does all of that make it easier? :D

We have some excellent ships currently doing the rounds in the Aus/NZ season and I think the responses above have identified them all. I agree that once you have a short list of ships you can refine your choice by selecting the itinerary that suits you best.

I am biased towards Celebrity but I do know that a lot of people with similar lifestyles to us love Princess. Regardless your trip will be fantastic!

Not for the two sailings I have made. We were lucky with lovely weather.

DH is ex-RAN and prefers to sail east across the Tasman Sea as the ship travels with the weather and you are not punching into the waves.

On our most recent trip we attended the Captains Q&A session and it included a talk by the ships Environmental Officer. With a push towards using fewer resources on board I cannot see that a project to publish and print a Captain's Log for distribution would be seen as a value add. A Captain's Blog with the detail you are chasing however would be a nice reference.