We Have Booked Our First Cruise Since Covid

[By The Bay]

I went to the bank in Alotau and had no problem exchanging $AUD for Kina. Lots of security.

[arxcards]

For restaurant bookings, there is the app and there is the line-up at Dragon Lady after boarding. Especially for the 1st night, I have found it easiest to drop our bags at our cabin then pick-up the cabin phone to make our dinner reservation(s). On shorter cruises, we will book every night with the one phone call, and can adjust later if we spot something special on one of the menus.

[possum52]

1 hour ago, By The Bay said:

I went to the bank in Alotau and had no problem exchanging $AUD for Kina. Lots of security.

Thank you. I think I'll try to get kina before we leave. But at least the bank is a good backup.

[possum52]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

For restaurant bookings, there is the app and there is the line-up at Dragon Lady after boarding. Especially for the 1st night, I have found it easiest to drop our bags at our cabin then pick-up the cabin phone to make our dinner reservation(s). On shorter cruises, we will book every night with the one phone call, and can adjust later if we spot something special on one of the menus.

Thanks Geoff, I do usually phone for bookings if required, once on board. Do you remember the prices for the pay restaurants please? We will definitely try to get a booking at Luke's.

[cruiser3775]

I made the mistake of saving some kina to spend at our last port, Conflict Islands. When we got there, I found that they do not accept cash anywhere. You have to pay by credit card.  So now I have some kina I didn't spend, back at home. I lost a lot on the poor exchange rate buying them in Melbourne, and I would take another hit exchanging them back to AUD.  I'll just have to go on another PNG cruise.

[arxcards]

55 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Thanks Geoff, I do usually phone for bookings if required, once on board. Do you remember the prices for the pay restaurants please? We will definitely try to get a booking at Luke's.

Hi Leigh,

Yes, still worth the money.

@ceeceeDee  posted here yesterday that it was $58pp recently, which seems about the same price as we had last year.

 

On the menu now (at least on Explorer) all dishes are prices ala carte which initially freaked a few people out, but it is also listed with 2 and 3 course meal options. The only real difference to the previous Salt Grills is that if you want extra sides or extra desserts, you pay extra. The $58 three course meal is choice of starter, choice of main, 1 shareable side pp (at least I think it was 1 each) and a dessert. Plenty of good food.

 

PS, no idea of prices for 400 Gradi though. It is ala carte. I think I have a menu here somewhere that might have some prices.

Edited July 8, 2023 by arxcards

[possum52]

2 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Hi Leigh,

Yes, still worth the money.

@ceeceeDee  posted here yesterday that it was $58pp recently, which seems about the same price as we had last year.

 

On the menu now (at least on Explorer) all dishes are prices ala carte which initially freaked a few people out, but it is also listed with 2 and 3 course meal options. The only real difference to the previous Salt Grills is that if you want extra sides or extra desserts, you pay extra. The $58 three course meal is choice of starter, choice of main, 1 shareable side pp (at least I think it was 1 each) and a dessert. Plenty of good food.

That's great thanks Geoff. Not too badly priced. I must have missed that in ceeceeDee's post. 

[arxcards]

12 minutes ago, possum52 said:

That's great thanks Geoff. Not too badly priced. I must have missed that in ceeceeDee's post. 

I didn't save a 400 Gradi menu, but this a Pacific Explorer "Luke's" menu from last year, hopefully visible. Prices were a little bit cheaper last year. The bread/oil/dukkah was also included in the 3 course meal, but I don't know about the other tapas items.

[possum52]

That’s great Geoff! Thanks so much. 

[possum52]

Double post

Edited July 8, 2023 by possum52

[lyndarra]

5 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

I made the mistake of saving some kina to spend at our last port, Conflict Islands. When we got there, I found that they do not accept cash anywhere. You have to pay by credit card.  So now I have some kina I didn't spend, back at home. I lost a lot on the poor exchange rate buying them in Melbourne, and I would take another hit exchanging them back to AUD.  I'll just have to go on another PNG cruise.

On a HAL PNG cruise 2019 we had the owner of Conflict Islands giving a couple of talks after leaving Alotau during which he mentioned not using Kina on Conflict.

[cruiser3775]

5 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

On a HAL PNG cruise 2019 we had the owner of Conflict Islands giving a couple of talks after leaving Alotau during which he mentioned not using Kina on Conflict.

I was on a Princess cruise, and they did not mention it to passengers at all. They also didn't tell us that there would be a money exchange on the ship when it berthed at Alotau. If I had know about that with more than an hour's warning, I might have been able to get some kina then, but I was going on a shore excursion and didn't have time.

[OzKiwiJJ]

7 hours ago, possum52 said:

Thank you. I think I'll try to get kina before we leave. But at least the bank is a good backup.

As long as it's open! Our cruise arrived in Alotau on a Sunday so very little was open. 

 

We loved the Volcano tour in Rabaul which first went to the observatory, then close to the most recent (at the time) volcano where there was a boiling stream running down to the beach. Then we stopped at a couple of other interesting places. It was excellent value for money and we had a great tour guide but it was luck of the draw like most Princess excursions.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

I was on a Princess cruise, and they did not mention it to passengers at all. They also didn't tell us that there would be a money exchange on the ship when it berthed at Alotau. If I had know about that with more than an hour's warning, I might have been able to get some kina then, but I was going on a shore excursion and didn't have time.

Perhaps it's a bit random. It may depend on what day of the week it is and whether the bank can supply soneone to do the currency exchange 

[possum52]

10 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

As long as it's open! Our cruise arrived in Alotau on a Sunday so very little was open. 

 

We loved the Volcano tour in Rabaul which first went to the observatory, then close to the most recent (at the time) volcano where there was a boiling stream running down to the beach. Then we stopped at a couple of other interesting places. It was excellent value for money and we had a great tour guide but it was luck of the draw like most Princess excursions.

Thanks Julie. We will look at all the excursions, both P&O and local which there are a few recommendations and contacts on the FB Cruise PNG page. 

[possum52]

13 hours ago, rkmw said:

If you do Facebook if you put cruise PNG into the search bar and join the group they have a wealth of information there and where to get Kina 

Thank you for the info, there sure is a wealth of info on that page. I spent some time today reading through it.

[rkmw]

12 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Thank you for the info, there sure is a wealth of info on that page. I spent some time today reading through it.

Did you click on the files at the top of the page about the info and I copied this information where to order Kina and they bring to the cruise terminal 

 

Crown currency Aspley has a very limited supply of Kina ready for your cruise on xxxxx. We are offering pre paid orders to be collected at the Brisbane International cruise terminal on the day of departure. 
First in best dressed  so call or email us today to secure your kina. 
(07) 3263 3088  or email aspley@crowncurrency.com.au

 

i believe they do a buy back of Kina that’s over when you get back to Brisbane but confirm with them if you buy off them 

 

Bob

Edited July 8, 2023 by rkmw

[possum52]

5 minutes ago, rkmw said:

Did you click on the files at the top of the page about the info and I copied this information where to order Kina and they bring to the cruise terminal 

 

Crown currency Aspley has a very limited supply of Kina ready for your cruise on xxxxx. We are offering pre paid orders to be collected at the Brisbane International cruise terminal on the day of departure. 
First in best dressed  so call or email us today to secure your kina. 
(07) 3263 3088  or email aspley@crowncurrency.com.au

 

i believe they do a buy back of Kina that’s over when you get back to Brisbane but confirm with them if you buy off them 

 

Bob

Thanks Bob, I did read the post about obtaining kina.

[joejoe 59]

On 7/8/2023 at 9:57 AM, By The Bay said:

I went to the bank in Alotau and had no problem exchanging $AUD for Kina. Lots of security.

That sounds like a good idea. Is the bank far from the port & easy to find? We cruise png in August. 

[sewgood]

On 7/7/2023 at 12:24 PM, possum52 said:

do you have the opportunity to book your dining pre boarding or is it done for you or do you do it once you board?

We were on the Adventure in early June and we were able to book the included restaurants on the cruise control a little before the cruise sailed.

 There were time slots to chose from and once we boarded there was a sheet of paper in our cabin with the same time for each night, the date and name of the restaurant. They they rotated us around the three dining rooms for the duration of the cruise.

I think they said if we did it this way we couldn't change for the first three nights but afterwards we could swap restaurants.

Our time slot was held for us for 15 minutes in the dining room each night. So if you had a time of 6pm you had to arrive between 6 to 6:15 pm.

 

 

[possum52]

11 minutes ago, sewgood said:

We were on the Adventure in early June and we were able to book the included restaurants on the cruise control a little before the cruise sailed.

 There were time slots to chose from and once we boarded there was a sheet of paper in our cabin with the same time for each night, the date and name of the restaurant. They they rotated us around the three dining rooms for the duration of the cruise.

I think they said if we did it this way we couldn't change for the first three nights but afterwards we could swap restaurants.

Our time slot was held for us for 15 minutes in the dining room each night. So if you had a time of 6pm you had to arrive between 6 to 6:15 pm.

 

 

Thank you so much for that information. I’ll have to remember to check the cruise control. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, joejoe 59 said:

That sounds like a good idea. Is the bank far from the port & easy to find? We cruise png in August. 

From memory it is on the main road, across from the markets. You can't miss it - Alotau village is very small.

[joejoe 59]

On 7/10/2023 at 4:30 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

From memory it is on the main road, across from the markets. You can't miss it - Alotau village is very small.

Thanks for that info.

[gogo65]

I’m happy following along here, as I’ve just booked the same cruise for 2025.

It’s been about 20 years since I was last on P&O (pacific sky!) so not sure how we will like it.

However it’s a great price for a PNG cruise, and princess don’t seem to be offering it in 2025.

We booked two adjoining aft suites, so should be nice.