KJ Aussie

Hi MAF101,

we have cruised about 5 times with our 6 granddaughter who has high functioning autism with noise and crowd issues and are amazed at how much she loves it.

Embarkation day is a bit fraught at check in time, but several times the check in staff have noticed and let us go straight through after check in into the security area to start boarding without waiting for our group number to be called. You could always ask for help at this point.

In regard to kids club, be aware that the Pacific aria and Pacific Eden only have tiny facilities which hold maximum 30 kids and it is hard to get a spot unless you queue early for the session. The Pacific Dawn has a great sized area, although I haven't seen it since the new fit out. I will be checking it out in 2 days time 😀 on our Airlie Beach cruise. 8 year olds would not be allowed to sign out themselves and the set up is very secure.

With dinner, the main restaurant does an early dining session at about 5.15 with a good kids menu, selections changed daily. We spoke to the head waiter after a not so good experience doing this and he offered to send my selection up to our cabin by room service. So I ordered every night at 5.15 and it appeared about 20 minutes later. This time we though we might take the delivered meals to somewhere quiet outside as in room dining does make the cabin smelly.

The pool area is quite enclosed for your railing concerns, but is far too noisy for our granddaughter with blaring recorded music constantly and yelling kids in the noisy pool. We avoid that area when possible although we hope the new splash deck water play area will be suitable for her as she loves running about under a hose at home.

I think you can only give it a go and a 3 day cruise is a great way to try. We always find our granddaughter sleeps so much better aboard being lulled by the ships rocking, it is worth going for that feature alone 😀

Good luck

Wow, I hope it is not Darling Harbour, or at the very least Darling a Harbour would be one of two drop off points. I agree with Newfarmers there will probably be a lot of people waiting for shuttles and now we have to work to a timetable to get down to Circular Quay in time for the harbour cruise. This relaxing Australia Day cruise sure has become a nail biter. :confused:

As long as they drop us off somewhere within walking distance to a train station e.g. Town Hall, St James etc, it will be easy to catch a city circle train to Circular Quay, just a few minutes away, and the train station entrance pops out right at the numbered Quays, we just need to find number 6 Quay. It will probably be very busy on the train, but they do run frequently.

I don't think we will hear anything about the drop off point until we board the ship, where they are apparently " going to have staff members to assist you ".

I am still waiting for any acknowledgement of an email I sent to P and O expressing our deep disappointment with their misrepresentation of our Australia Day activities. I did ring them initially, but the overseas operator, who I could hardly understand, couldn't quite grasp the problem with being shoved out at White Bay instead of anchored in the middle of the Harbour. He kept saying ,but you are going to be on the waterfront and you will have a wonderful day seeing everything! Then he palmed me off by saying about the staff assistance on board.

Anyway, we are moving on and I am getting quite excited as it is not long to go now, and I am so happy we will get the opportunity to get out on the water admits the Tall ships and Parade. :)

What a great idea to book a harbour cruise to see the sights we have been deprived of by P and O. I wouldn't have thought there would still be tickets available , but I booked and paid last night successfully. Then I noticed boarding passes were supposed to be picked up in Sydney 2 days prior to the harbour cruise. Uh oh.....sleepless night then followed .

But, happy news this morning with a follow up email from Captain Cook cruises saying they will accept a printed copy of my reservation record on the day. No printed copy...no travel ..most emphatically !

So thanks again for a great idea, I can now cheerfully pack my Australia Day flags and T shirt yay!

Have a great cruise, we will definitely be happy cruisers as well. :D

Well this is a big blow to our plans. We only booked this cruise so we could sit in the middle of Sydney harbour and enjoy the festivities without tens of thousands of people crowding around us.

Now we have been advised TODAY, that our ship the Pacific Aria is spending the day berthed at White Bay, where there is absolutely nothing to see. Yes I understand there will be free shuttle bus to the CBD, but then we will have to fight our way to get to the foreshore to maybe get a glimpse of something....

This seems to be false advertising on P and O 's part, and I doubt I would have paid premium rates if I had been told straight up that we would be docked at White Bay and have to shuttle into the crowded CBD.

We will make the best of the situation and will probably just stay on board for the day, but I feel that some sort of apology and compensation should be given for having the "main event" whipped away from us. It's extremely disappointing, especially only being informed at such a late date. Probably don't need to pack my little Australia flags now, might as well just have booked a cruise to nowhere. :(

Yes, I hope those HAL mattresses remain as well, when we were on the Ryndam last time at the end of an 8 week trip in the UK, those last 2 cruise weeks aboard gave us the best sleep of the whole trip, a good way to finish a hectic itinerary.

I will look keenly forward to your mini review too MicCanberra and hope you have a chance to check out the Pantry and tell us all about it. Although by then it will be too late to cancel our March cruise without penalty.

We did a 9 day cruise October 2014 from Yokohama. Apart from missing most of our ports due to 2 typhoons, we had a great time and were very handsomely compensated by Princess with generous OBC to make up for a 2 day delay starting our cruise and a free cruise to the same value as the one we thoroughly enjoyed anyway.

In regards to these cruises around Japan being aimed towards the Japanese market, if you are from an English speaking country ( or even other languages) it will be very much like your normal Princess cruise, both in food and entertainment and general atmosphere. Announcements and the muster however can be quite long as they are issued first in English, then Japanese, and in our case, then Russian as we had quite a large contingent of those aboard as well. The ship's crew and officers still are the same international mix and all speak excellent English and many are quickly picking up Japanese as well.

We really enjoyed the Japanese flavour added to the menus and buffet, but most of all it was a delight to share our journey with the gentle and very polite Japanese aboard.

So, don't hesitate about booking fearing any language difficulties and just enjoy the cultural enrichment you will experience.

Slightly off topic sorry, but still in regard to the Pacific Aria...

What do other people feel about the traditional buffet being dropped and replaced with the Pantry. This is a food court style eatery and I am unsure of whether this will be a case of fee paying selections at individual stands.

Does anyone have have any info to share on this idea?

Frankly I am considering cancelling our March 2016 cruise on the Aria, because my DH just loves a good buffet and I am concerned the food choices will be limited if there are just a few stands to choose from. E.g fish and chips at one stand, salad and wraps at another etc. There is nothing like a buffet that varies every day to give heaps of choices. I think a longer cruise with limited food court style options would be most unsatisfactory, particularly for breakfast and lunch, and imagine how busy and slow the main dining rooms will be for those 2 meals, it may be hard to grab a quick breakfast on a port day in that situation.

As they say, food for thought....

Sparky-elpaso,

Thanks for your help. It's a shame is not online based, guess I will just have to do it the old fashioned way. My daughter is my travel agent so she will be able to sort it out for me I am sure.

I have had a look at the link given below and it has an order form to fill out and fax to Princess, but is there a way to do this online within their site, that is what I usually do on other cruise lines.

Faxing or ringing from Australia is a not the most efficient way to handle transactions.

Thanks for any info

Thanks Pam in CA and disgirl, that's just the info I needed, so it really is not too different to HAL or RCI which I have used in the past. Thanks for the link, I have forwarded it onto to our travelling companions as they have never cruised before.

I have booked my first ever Princess cruise and I am accustomed to pre paying my gratuities by giving myself onboard credit. Is this possible on Princess? And also I see I can only reserve my excursions, so is it possible to pre pay those? I like to spread my costs out over the months preceding the cruise making it a lot less painful on disembarkation. Any advice would be great, thank you.

I am unable to find out how to get my name on Roll Call Oosterdam Sydney to

Vancouver. I am registered as Nettiem. Help, please!:confused:

In case you dont make your way to our roll call, I am organising our meet and mingle. It is at 11.00 am till noon in the Crows Nest on April 14 th. Please come and join us, don't worry about being on the list at this stage.