chester32

Hi

Have never cruised Princess before and looking at doing one next year when Majestic comes to Australia and I was wondering if anyone could tell about the DZ balcony cabins which are at the front, I did read somewhere that you are only allowed to use the balcony's while in port does any one know if this is correct

Thanks

No Wheelhouse Bar!

No Crooners!

The only bars on deck 7 are the Crown Grill & Bar, and (presumably) one in the Vista Gaming Lounge.

 

They will definitely have to make changes. Can you imagine 3500+ thirsty Australians without enough bars? There would be a mutiny on the first Australian voyage. ;p[/quote

 

There are 2 bars on deck 16 2 on deck 7 one each on 6 and 5

Going to be in Noumea this year we plan to go to Lemon bay for lunch could anyone tell can you use $AU or credit card or do you need local currency and if so what would be the rough amount needed

Hi how long ago did you book the ultimate lackage? I thought you had to cancel in 48hrs?

How do i cancel mine do i just click cancel on booking oage and they refund back, then i just rebook it again?

Lol help please

Yep thats all you do take a couple of weeks to be credited for you first purchase

We were going to spend Christmas day on Lifou but now we get a trip to Wollongong :mad:

No this cant be right?? What are RCI thinking Wollongong instead of Lifou no offence to people of the gong but this is absurd

It probably to break up sea days i suppose but come on surely there is some where else ??

Building anything on Lifou would take a long time. There is no local concrete company you can phone and order a truck load of concrete to be delivered .:rolleyes:

I guess if a ship was calling every day , as they do in the Caribbean , it may be different.

You are probably right David about sourcing materials for the build , but wouldn't you think RCI would have not advertised this as a port of call months ago you don't have to be Einstein to see if a project wont be completed on time . Also why did RCI not make this call before final payment date which for a lot of cruises was only a couple of weeks ago?

For some people it is not a big deal for us it is as family members were going to join us on our cruise but because of the change they cant as there is now 3 consecutive sea days so no infants under 12 months

Sorry vent over

I hope this doesn't affect me on Emerald in January....I have all my ports researched and Lifou was a snorkelling trip at Jinek Bay, so I will be disappointed to miss that.

Think you will be fine Lifou is still on Princess itinerary's its only RCIs Voyager and Explorer at this stage

Post from RCI's FB page:

 

Dear guests, while the tender port at Lifou was intended to be ready to receive Voyager Class ships this summer cruise season, unfortunately it will not be ready to receive Explorer of the Seas or Voyager of the Seas until next season. Lifou will be replaced with alternative ports (including Mare, Isle of Pines and Noumea) or an additional day at sea. We are in the process of advising our affected guests - or their travel agent - as soon as possible so they can plan their holidays with certainty.

Please be aware that if you booked via a travel agent, we cannot contact you directly and ask you to please get in touch with your travel agent.

We are truly sorry to have disrupted your holiday plans and apologise for the inconvenience we have caused.

Same excuse given last season by RCI not go to Lifou must be a bit slow building new jetty?? Don't know why they have it on the itinerary for Voyager/Explorer

Have a look at the Grand Pullman Quay its directly opposite the OPT ,they do have 2 bedroom options also and the Harbour view rooms have their own balcony

Radiance would have to be the most over rated and over priced ship that RCI send to Aus

I would highly recommend Litchfield National park when you are in Darwin some good private tour companies do this or your ship might offer it but definitely worth it

Of course there are a few, especially around the shoulder seasons, but from my observations many of the cruise lines focus more on NZ and South Pacific cruises in the peak Nov-Mar period. NZ because that is a limited cruising season and is very popular. The South Pacific because that is popular with families.

 

Cruises out of Fremantle tend to go more up to Asia in that period, but not as many out of Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane. Which makes sense - from the east coast it's a long trek up and around to Darwin and beyond. We love it - lots of sea days, but those that prefer more port stops may not enjoy those cruises as much.

If you look at the Feb/March cruises around 60% are NZ or South Pacific the other 40% head north and majority of those leave from East coast ,so all i am saying is cruise ships do go North in our summer and quite a lot of them, definitely with you on sea days

Same difference, the sea water temperature is relative to the air temperatures. Sea water is used for cooling via heat exchange so if the sea temperature is too warm then other measures need to be taken to keep the passengers cool, at much higher operating cost to the cruise line. Essentially that's why you don't find many Top End cruises over our summer.

Not sure why you say not many cruises up north in our summer there are quite a few from Aus to eg PNG, Singapore , Indonesia and North Queensland You have more chance of encountering cyclones on south pacific cruises . The problem with the sea temp for that Solstice trip is not a regular occurrence but don't believe everything you see on Tv

Agreed! Way too hot and humid, plus risk of cyclones. It was bad enough in April this year on our Golden Princess cruise.

 

Some of the US-based cruise lines (RCI, Celebrity) sometimes do one though. Interestingly there was a TV show featuring Celebrity Solstice in one episode, showing her doing the Top End over our summer. Apparently she had all sorts of problems keeping the ship cool. She normally uses two of the four engines but had to fire up a third just for cooling.

We were on that cruise and have to say the weather was perfect not overly hot expect Port Headland , the problems the ship had were due to ocean temps not external temps but passengers were not affected at all, but we were lucky as in 2 days after we left QLD a cyclone formed so just good timing for us i guess

There is one on the 20th feb on Pacific Jewel from Sydney to Qld return 7 nights $4949 for 4 in mini suite with balcony with $200 obc

Seems like a lot of effort to avoid doing the Tasman crossing which is not that bad even in rough weather

You will still have to pay for the 4 days you miss on the cruise and the flight to NZ can be just as bumpy

If you cant cruise across the Tasman maybe look into an Asian or Alaskan cruise

Just do what ever you are comfortable with

Regardless of where the extra cruise may be at the end of the day RCI cancelled a cruise stating overwhelming demand/interest , I would call it overwhelming greed , At the end of the day a decision was made to inconvenience thousand of passengers so more cruises could be achieved and at the prices for Ovation in Aus compared to Asia there is a lot more money to be made here . Passengers will be compensated but for a lot timing of there holidays cant be changed so bad luck???? So maybe RCI should include in there promos of Ovation, no guarantees we wont cancel if we can make more money elsewhere?

If you have a choice of these two places which one would you choose? We are going on a cruise and will be staying a few days before in Sydney and then at Great Barrier Reef. Can't decide between these other two. Would really like your opinions. Thanks

We have just returned from a trip to Uluru and would highly recommend it we were there for 5 nights but spoke to lots of international tourists who stayed a couple of days then fly out to Cairns to do the GBR. It will be hot in February and will need a fly net but this is a totally different experience not to be missed

The Grand Pullman Quay harbour view 1 bedroom and balcony directly opposite the Opt is well worth the money

Radiance returned to Aus today for a medivac by helicopter of Port Macquarie hope person is ok

Had same experience booked cruise made payment of deposit, the payment page showed C&A discount and the $300 obc included when I payed they removed the $300 obc after I had payed and said I cant have both . I do have a screen shot of the payment summary page which shows it all ,so as far as I am concerned Royal are just thieves

We were looking at 2 cruises both in November we ended up taking the early November one when we found out schoolies week starts on the 19th November same date as the 2nd cruise

I think it is for selected cruises of 7 days or more. P&O have not[/u] increased prices; in fact they have decreased prices by several hundred dollars on some 9-10 day cruises for 2016. Not for all cruises I gather. I read in another place that passengers who had booked prior to the offer of the drinks package AND the fall in price have successfully cancelled their earlier booking and rebooked at the new fare saving $s. It was not worth it for me; I already had the PB Package, OBC and other perks plus one of the few modified accessible cabin for my aunt at a good price for the package. My information on rebooking applies to Aria and may not apply to other ships.

 

I wonder what the bar and coffee queues will be like with all those passengers with PB Packages???

P&O Have increased the prices for the so called Free Drinks Package , a cruise I looked at on the Pearl had the Free drinks package included or if you don't want the Free Drinks package the price drops $700, so more false advertising we all know nothing is Free

Sorry didn't realize we wanted sensible answers around here:p;)

Hmm???

Without that type of answer CC would get about 10 posts a day.

That is true but at least it would be 10 sensible answers