Cbtours

36 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Now that a week has passed, word has spread to the travel media.

It mostly reads as being extracts from the email. 

Crown Princess Cruises Cancelled Due to Maintenance Rescheduling - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News

When I was speaking to my PVP yesterday confirming b2b cruises next April in Europe (😁😁😁) she said everyone had been flat out re scheduling cruises re Crown Princess, and also said there had been a price hike re local cruises (ie Australia I presume).

so it’s given them quite a bit of work!

1 minute ago, ceeceeDee said:

Very magnanimous of Charlette! She must be part Labrador...... All is forgiven provided there is food involved. 🤣

Definitely agree with that !

21 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

Well, keep us informed. We're all waiting with worm on tongue!🤭

Nooooo I HATE worms after growing up with four brothers!!! They often threw “things” at me 😩😩😩🤪

3 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

Todays post is called the Gift🙄😒

 

I was sitting as I’m want to do, on the back deck for my 4sies, (In the summer their 5sies), with my glass of wine, and my mini charcuterie board, on the table next to me.

 

When I was visited by my feathered friends Charlie, Charlette, & Junior. (Butcher birds).

They like to freeload around then, each night, I feed them what ever I have with me, but they prefer raw meat, which from time to time I treat them too. But mostly just some broken biscuits, or some homemade muesli bar or similar.

 

However tonight Charlette decided to give me a little surprise.

 

She landed on the railing with something in her beak, flicked it into the air and caught it, then flew over and landed next to me, and dropped her object down on my little table.

 

My 1^st thought was,

oh no Charlette! Don’t drop that on there!

 

Then my second thought was…..

 

OOOH NOOOO CHARLETTE! DON’T DROP THAT THERE! YOU LITTLE BUGGER.

 

Now you are probably wondering why I got a little my excited on the 2^nd thought?

 

You see, my little friend I’m sure she was trying to be friendly, but her sense of sharing and mine, I can assure you, are on mega different levels.

 

The object, I’m not sure of its origin, it could have been part of a very large worm, or may have been a caterpillar, or something similar.

Suffice to say it had decayed to a large degree!

 

IT WAS NOT, a pleasant gift to behold!!!!

 

But, when she dropped it, it broke!

Which was unpleasant in itself.

But what exploded from it was HORRIFYING!!

 

Literally, thousands of ants, big black ones, spreading out in multiple waves.

 

It took me a few seconds to grasp exactly what was happening.

Then I exploded into frantic action!

 

Saving my 4esies & my wine, and scaring the living daylights out of Charlette.

When my prized goodies were safe, I flicked her gift of the table onto the deck, and then started to attack the ants. WITH MY HANDS, ugg, yuk, and gross, the little mongrels were running up my arms, I’m now even dancing around swatting myself.

 

When I look around there’s Charlette on the deck, picking up her prize, and giving me a reproachful look, as if to say, “You have no manners, and do not deserve gifts of delicacies”….

Then she took her little gift and departed.

 

Having got everything back in order, I’m now once again sitting back in my chair, thinking two things.

 

Firstly; Will Charlette ever for forgive me, and keep visiting, and singing me her delightful little song????

 

 

 

Secondly;   I’m itchy, and, I NEED A CRUISE!!!!!! 😭

 

We’re ALL itching now!!!!

Wow that’s some research! Thanks

So its changing from November to September? or just a typo.

We loved our 28 days circumnavigation after covid finished. but a two month change at this stage would be very difficult to adjust for some people.

3 minutes ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

Coral Princess arriving back in to Sydney, Australia this morning after been away for 111 days!

 

 

 

Thanks for all the great photos 🥰

1 hour ago, l2luv2cruise said:

Welcome home everyone 🥰🥰🥰

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We're on deck 9. As we left our cabin this morning a fellow passenger asked if we'd had water coming into our cabin like someone else on our corridor had. Nope, not us. We keep our balcony door closed. I guess those passengers learnt one of the reasons why cruise ships have notices saying to keep the balcony doors closed.

Quite a finale you could probably have done without 🥰

2 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Well! That was "interesting". A short while ago we had a wind gust of 70 knots (130kph) hit the starboard side of Coral. The ship listed to port for a tad longer than was comfortable. One of the cupboards in our MDR section sprang open and quite a few side plates crashed out and a few smashed. Luckily our dessert dishes had been cleared, one of our waiters had just removed our wine bottles to storage, and we grabbed our glasses so there was no damage on our table. It was a bit scary for a few moments as it seemed to take a long time for the ship to right itself. 

 

Good Spirits didn't fare so well - glasses smashed and some of the bottles in the top cupboards fell out and smashed.

 

All good now, the Captain has kept us informed of what was happening and there have been no injuries reported. However we haven't been back to our cabin yet ...

 

 

Wow

13 minutes ago, tashaaa said:

Hi,

 

My husband and I will be in Wellington at the end of March on Ovation of the Seas. This will be our first cruise on such a big ship with nearly 5000 passengers. One of the ports is Wellington.

We would like to ride the cable car. My concern is, how this normally work, if there are so many people on a ship. Are the waiting lines long?

Is there an option to go up the mountain with a bus/shuttle/uber and then only ride the cable car down?

 

I think Wllington is a nice city to visit on our own, so we would prefer this. But if the only way not to wait hours to get up the mountain with cable car is to book an excursion, we will consider this.

 

Any suggestion are welcome 🙂

 

Thank you 🙂 

 

 

 

 

We were in Princess cruise, took the shuttle into town, walked over road and caught the cable car up to top ($3.50 a few years ago) then had walk round top and then walked down through botanical gardens, nice walk through to city, lunch in one of the restaurants and then caught the shuttle back. One of our fave days in NZ

28 minutes ago, arxcards said:

It looks awesome, but we don't have that luxury. The prime part of our trip is connecting with some relatives in the UK, in some cases while they are still around. The plan is to enjoy the UK for a few weeks, then cruise home. If we drop the cruise home, we will do a midnight sun and maybe one around the UK, then fly home.

That’s the main reason we going back for only my second visit in 52 years!!! I’ve booked 2 cruises, sky princess 14 day Mediterranean adventure, followed by 11 day British Isles before flying home.

just a question, what were you cruising home with?? From and too? I had looked at doing that but were longer cruises than we wanted re insurance.

1 hour ago, ceeceeDee said:

Yeah, but I don't think Chris Hemsworth or Benedict Cumberbatch would be next to me in economy. ☹️

Come o. Guys! Don’t talk yourselves down! I’m sure you could hold a candle to any of these whippersnappers 😁😁

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think the whole Southern Hemisphere must be cold. This morning I went out on our balcony and it was decidedly chilly and we are still in the tropics! It was too cold to go to the Sanctuary this afternoon. 

 

Oh well! At least it will give my skin a chance to recover from being in full sun for all of the Panama Canal transit. I was using plenty of factor 50 sunscreen but obviously didn't reapply often enough. 

Oh, hope you’re not too uncomfortable 🥰

20 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Just at the moment, even SE Qld is too cold for me!🥶

Try Melbourne 😁

7 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We had a very enjoyable Panama Canal transit. We booked spots in the Sanctuary where they laid on a lovely breakfast - mimosas, fruits etc, pastries, tea/coffee. Then chilled gazpacho late morning, lunch from the regular Sanctuary menu, and the usual afternoon tea.

 

It was interesting to watch the transit from the aft rather than forward. We were able to appreciate the convoluted channel through the Gatun Lake from this vantage point, seeing the leading lights positions for each section.

 

It was very hot and humid but regular dips in the pool kept us cool. 

Had you done the transit previously or your first time? It looks fascinating. How long from start to finish?

8 minutes ago, l2luv2cruise said:

Coral Princess finally made it to Pedro Miguel Locks

Wow

Just now, Cbtours said:

Mammoth efforts. 👏👏👏👏

It must be amazing to actually make the journey 😊

6 hours ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

Good Night from New Zealand 🙂.

Its now 2:40 am NZST 😮, and I am off to bed.....

 

Hopefully a early bird might catch her going out of the Pacific side 🙂

 

Night!

zzzz ZZZ zzzz

Mammoth efforts. 👏👏👏👏

Just now, Sparky74 said:

I think my problem is that I’ve had too many birthdays! 
Although my mother-in-law reckons that it’s been proved "scientifically" that birthdays are good for you. 
Apparently, the more birthdays you have, the longer you live. 

Well there you go, learn something new everyday 🤣

5 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

I really struggle to sleep on aeroplanes. My friend, Caleb, must be similarly effected. He drew this diagram en route home to Australia from his holiday in Norway. 

Very funny 😁

in our later years if it’s long haul, we book premium economy and request upgrade to business for the biggest leg of the flight with points. Scored at least half the time.

otherwise frank has his own method, even in short haul, before the plane has left the runway, he’s in sleep mode!

2 minutes ago, Bubbeh said:

I am a firm believer that there is no inheritance until you're dead.  You're spending you own money be it retirement savings or remuneration.  How dare anyone anticipate a windfall from another's eventual death.  Not a whole lot makes me cranky but this mindset really gets my knickers in a twist.

 

Edited to say that I don't mean your mindset rather the mindset of younger generations.

I assure you it is said “tongue in cheek” as my kids are definitely the biggest encouragers of me spending anything.

i am incredibly proud that coming from a very working class background all my kids have done very well by working hard, putting themselves thru uni etc.

so ski tours has always been a joke 😁😁🥰

6 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

We're very lucky where our dog is concerned. Friends of ours are Labrador breeders (bred our girl) and they are happy to board our dog. So she effectively gets a holiday as well, hanging out with her rellies on an acreage property. We supply all her food and they just charge us a nominal fee to look after her.

No problem with the kids, they've all fled the nest.🤣

Best of both worlds 😁

8 minutes ago, Bubbeh said:

Woops, sorry.  🙁

lol ok Amazon will help!!! At least nothing can get in my ears mouth or more 🤣🤣🤣

14 minutes ago, Bubbeh said:

Now before I pose this question I must preface it with the information that it is not intended to be offensive or imply lack of hygiene to / by anyone.  I'm a bit of a clean, neat and bleach freak - in fact Grumpy has frequently been heard to remark, 'it's not called OCD for nothing Dee".  

 

Anyway, aren't you ever concerned that common use pillows (ship/hotel/motel etc) aren't properly sanitised?  I always imagine that they're crawling with bugs, skin cells and dandruff.  Have you ever removed the pillow slip and pillow protector and looked at the actual pillow?  In Bali recently (5 star hotel), when I removed the pillow slip to put on my own pillow, I found that someone at sometime had had a blood nose on the pillow.  It was beyond disgusting.

 

Further to the above, I have neck issues and suffer if I don't use a contour latex/memory foam pillow.  

I say “thanks” which should have a. Exclamation mark!!! I haven’t ever thought about anything crawling and what will I do now if I can’t think it 😣😣😣😣