tangogulf

Setsail passes for our upcoming Explorer cruise (out of Australia and yes we are Aussies) is the same as that described by the OP. My setsail pass has my name, then both mine and DW on the card payment section. My DW setsail pass has her name and the cash account section. The same happened last year for our Radiance cruise. I just cross out the cash section on DW setsail pass, sign mine, she signs her's then at Check In we just confirm all is connected to the one CC and we're good to go.

March last year on Radiance it was $95 and we booked online. They had a lot of difficulty getting people to go. The date of our Dinner was never confirmed until they finally brought the price down to $70, got more takers and it went ahead.

Checked Chefs Table on our upcoming Explorer cruise. $119 !!!!. Not going to go for that one. I would expect to this discounted after the first few days of the cruise.

First time we ever did Chefs table we got great quality wines, a cook book signed by the executive chef and an apron. Last time, poorer quality wines, no book and no apron. Food quality was still great though.

A good news insurance story. Refreshing.

Glad to hear things turned out ok for you.

Thx for your frankness. We'll also be on Explorer toward the end of Feb. probably few if any kids but the ship will still be pretty full.

Begs the question. Why do they bother coloring the luggage tags according to your C&A status anyway?

Paid my deposit for our Ovation cruise back in June and there was no credit card fee charged then.

I guess these days since in my day to day work I always wear a lanyard with my security I'd everyday when I'm in the office, wearing a lanyard with my Seapass card on the ship just doesn't worry me. I'm sure lots of other people are in the same situation.

Use "wet ones". They have benzalkonium chloride in them that kills noro. Plain alcohol wipes and/or the sanitizer on the ship does not. Helps with most other nasties but not noro.

The tip about wiping luggage handles, zips etc is a good one.. Hadn't thought of that before.. We do wipe down all the other things on first entering our cabin. Takes a bit of time but it's worth it..

I often wonder if the cabin stewards don't unwittingly also contribute to the issue. Unless they are cleaning their hands and cleaning tools between cabins aren't they just a mode of transmission? Though how you sanitize a vacuum cleaner is beyond me.

Thanks for all the input. Quite a range of thoughts in the discussion.

On our last Radiance cruise DW and I did get a couple of questions from other cruisers at dinner why we had Gold cards when we handed one over at dinner to pay for wine etc. But once we explained they were all fine with it..

We usually use a lanyard for our cards because it's convenient and easier than fishing in your pocket all the time to find them or risk losing them. When they're 'round your neck you always know where they are. We also find that most cruisers (at least on the voyages we have taken) do the same.

Celebrity have many more card colors depending on cat of cabin chosen than RCI do and it doesn't seem to cause fractious discussions with other cruisers.

Yep always at a cost. A year or so ago it was $15pp round trip and they drop you in the esplanade in Cairns near the waterfront which is pretty central to everything in the centre of town for shopping etc.

Do people think that having either a Gold Seapass card or having their C&A status tier printed on their Seapass card makes any difference to the service received onboard RCI ships.

From personal experience it hasn't made a whole lot of difference. Although on a 16 night 'round the top of of Australia cruise this year traveling in a GS on Radiance we found that with My Time Dinning if we showed up at our reserved time and wanted a table for two we were quickly escorted to either a proper table for two or ended up with just the two of us on a table for 4. Some nights we just wanted to be by ourselves though most nights we didn't really care and enjoyed the company of others at tables for 6 or 8. Other than that it didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference compared to our previous experience two years earlier when we were first time cruisers on RCI with no status and the normal silver card.

Interested in people's experiences.

TV show, even the news, faking a backdrop :eek:

Unusual 'cause 9 usually shows the live view each night.

Anyway an interesting observation to end a lovely Sydney weekend..

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At least the actual story was honest compared to the preview.. They had a reporter on Anthem.. Currently based out of New York and they were doing an honest comparison. Unusual as Channel 7 usually do the Royal Caribbean stories.

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Now nine news is claiming they are on what looks like a quantum class ship coming to oz.. Can only be Ovation of the seas. Not even launched yet[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

What on earth.......

Interesting to see that tonight's 6pm 9 news sydney circular quay backdrop shows Rhapsody of the Seas at the OPT. Interesting that the ship is thousands of Kim's away and no ship is scheduled for OPT today..

Normally 9 news takes the live circular quay transmission..

Can't understand why they would need to do this.. [emoji16][emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]

RCCL should ban 'em.

From the telegraph article:

"The brand-new Explorer is 138,194 tonnes, 311m long, 38m wide, and has a capacity of 10,400 people — twice the size of the population of Byron Bay"

Don't think so.

Quite a huge investment in new ships and few older ships going to the breakers or being sold.. So the company has to fund this somehow.. New ships have higher pricing so that's one way.. Reduce quality of service is another so expenditure is less. One would think there will be w tipping point at some stage where older and smaller ships will become unpopular and there will be a rather larger shake up across the industry.. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money - volume will eventually become the key.. Shorter cruises with higher fares to increase turnover with predictable itineraries and schedules will be the norm..

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Staff with period uniforms..

Shore excursions of the period..

Menus and drink prices of the period..

Cabin decor and amenities of the period..

Want that make people u comfortable..

Though if dinning was done as it was 50 years ago tuxedo and elegant designer dress merchants would have a field day[emoji51][emoji51][emoji51]

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Can't wait to see how this thread pans out.. Very subjective issue.. Why do you think there are such a variety of mattresses in most of the relevant stores! Some people like soft. Some people like firm.. Some people like hard.. When you are trying to cater for 2000+ different bodies there are bound to be some unhappy campers..

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Very much doubt that there are any TA charters for this very brief inaugural Sydney home port season given the full on push to both C&A as well as general public for these cruises.. If it's not appearing or it's showing no availability I would imagine it's currently sold out.. Cabins went quickly when they opened these itineraries..

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The train from Circular Quay will take approx 25mins to get to the international airport. No need to change trains either. So if you can get a train by 7:30 or 8:00 you should be fine.

I also wouldn't fret too much about 3 hrs v 2 hrs checkin time. If you have your boarding pass in your hands by 09:30 or so you'll be fine.

Of course there is the option of staying overnight in Sydney and getting a flight the next day assuming Delta won't penalise you somehow for changing flights. Would be far less stressful.

Fantastic info. Thanks!

 

 

 

Would our family 2 (not small) adults + 6 year old child be able to go on the same elephant or is it one person per elephant for the ride.

Two people per elephant. Though it may be possible for two adults and a small child. It's not terribly steady up there on the back of an elephant when it's walking.. We found you need at least one hand to steady yourself at all times.. There is a kind of lap belt as well. But hey, ask the handlers when it's your turn to ride and I'm sure they can sort something out.

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When Voyager and Explorer(New to Oz and NZ) are in the Australia and New Zealand waters our regulations are such that there is no smoking inside full stop. Don't know what they do with the Cigar Bar during the seasons they are "down under".

Watched this. Some of the scenarios depicted were a little contrived (i.e. difficulties berthing the ship in "windy" weather as Royal Caribbean regularly sails their largest ships to that area you'd think they would have it pretty much nailed by now). Not much of the staterooms to see but lots of behind the scenes stuff which was good.

What I found interesting was that they took on extra provisions during the cruise. I thought most cruises fully provisioned for the entire cruise at the point of departure. Saw this also happen on the Celebrity Solstice episode a couple of weeks back too.