I don't always pick cruises because of the ship, but it definitely has happened at least once in the past, and I've done again.
Part of the reason for picking the "Asia Repositioning" cruise next October is that it's on the Ovation of the Seas - built in 2016, equal 5th biggest cruise ship in the world (with its sisters Quantum and Anthem of the Seas) and by far the biggest cruise ship to ever come to Australia.
It has been on my list of "ships I want to cruise on" ever since I heard it was coming here, and this particular itinerary is a bonus because it goes to a few places that I have barely visited - Singapore, Perth and Adelaide. And, the fact that it leaves from Singapore also makes it an easy start since we can fly direct from Canberra to Singapore these days.
I'll definitely be trying out the North Star - a big viewing pod that swings out from the ship and gives you great views of the ship and the ocean. The Ripcord and Flowrider are out of my comfort zone, I think, but I'm pretty sure to give the Arcade a go!
Another opportunity from cancelling our plans for the 38 day Southampton to Singapore cruise is that it left a Princess 'Future Cruise Credit' (FCC) unused. Most cruise lines have something similar - for Princess you buy these onboard for $200, and then later you get to book a cruise with them using only the FCC for deposit. And, as a bonus, they give you a small onboard credit on the next cruise - in this case $200. So, effectively, $200 for free (although I don't kid myself here; they're not going to be making a loss on these things!) We originally used the FCC for the 38 day cruise but you don't lose it when you cancel the cruise, so this time I took the opportunity to use the FCC to book another cruise. And it's another ship that has been on my 'must do' list for a while - the Majestic Princess. Smaller than the Ovation of the Seas, but newer. And with enough mod cons that I really wanted to give it a try.
So, we're now also booked on a Sydney - New Zealand - Sydney cruise on the Majestic Princess in February 2019. Plenty of time to see if the new kitchen bankrupts us or not :-)
Wednesday, 1 November 2017
Sunday, 29 October 2017
Another change of plans
Our house was built in 1975. When we bought it in 1992, the kitchen was still the original and already in need of overhaul.
It's now 2017, of course it's still the same kitchen, and it really can't wait any longer. Talk about a horseshoe nail - the plumber can no longer replace the washer in the tap, as there's no metal left to seat it on. To replace the pipe, the wall needs to be knocked out. And to do that, almost all the cabinets in that part of the kitchen have to be removed. There's no way to remove them without destroying them, and once you remove them half the kitchen is gone. And, really, renovating half of a 42 year old kitchen???
So, we'll be renovating the entire kitchen, back to the bare walls and starting from scratch, because we can't replace the washer in the tap :-)
And, it hasn't take us much time to realise that next year's big holiday has now become an extravagance we probably can't afford on top of the big unknown that the kitchen renovation is already becoming.
So, that cruise will be cancelled - no money lost, we had only paid a small deposit and we'll transfer it to another cruise.
We'll still probably have a smaller holiday; in fact I've already paid a deposit on a cruise on a different ship I'm also really keen to see - so, we're already booked on a 14 day re-positioning cruise on the Ovation of the Seas, leaving Singapore on 19 October 2018 and coming back to Sydney via Perth, Adelaide and Hobart.
It's now 2017, of course it's still the same kitchen, and it really can't wait any longer. Talk about a horseshoe nail - the plumber can no longer replace the washer in the tap, as there's no metal left to seat it on. To replace the pipe, the wall needs to be knocked out. And to do that, almost all the cabinets in that part of the kitchen have to be removed. There's no way to remove them without destroying them, and once you remove them half the kitchen is gone. And, really, renovating half of a 42 year old kitchen???
So, we'll be renovating the entire kitchen, back to the bare walls and starting from scratch, because we can't replace the washer in the tap :-)
And, it hasn't take us much time to realise that next year's big holiday has now become an extravagance we probably can't afford on top of the big unknown that the kitchen renovation is already becoming.
So, that cruise will be cancelled - no money lost, we had only paid a small deposit and we'll transfer it to another cruise.
We'll still probably have a smaller holiday; in fact I've already paid a deposit on a cruise on a different ship I'm also really keen to see - so, we're already booked on a 14 day re-positioning cruise on the Ovation of the Seas, leaving Singapore on 19 October 2018 and coming back to Sydney via Perth, Adelaide and Hobart.
Saturday, 14 October 2017
Wellington and the Great War Exhibition
Back in October 2015 we were on a cruise and found ourselves in Wellington quite unexpectedly.
At the time we promised ourselves that we'd get back to Wellington to see the Great War Exhibition, and now we're going to do that.
I have the first week of January 2018 on leave - the original intention was to extend my enforced Christmas leave and go on a cruise (which would have taken us to Wellington). However, we decided against that in the end; cruises are just too expensive during the school holidays.
So, instead, I'll be doing my first non-cruise-related trip to New Zealand. Singapore Airlines flies direct from Canberra to Wellington which is really convenient; going to Sydney first is an expensive and slow way to get out of the country. We're going to fly there on New Years Day and back on the Friday.
The only serious plan we have is to visit the Great War exhibition, but there are certainly other things to see and do in Wellington, so it should hopefully be a nice (cool!) break before my last few, hectic months at work.
On another note, we're now getting to the point where it's possible to start planning for next year's big holiday and cruise. As is always the case, we're going to have to settle on a date fairly soon - this time the controlling factor is the flight out of Australia.
We're going to avoid the "Canberra-Sydney-huge flight to London in economy" approach this time. Instead, the plan is to fly direct from Canberra to Singapore in economy, then fly business class with Finnair to London. Their business fares are quite reasonable, particularly given that we're only flying one-way. But, we're going to have to book soon to get a seat. So, it looks like we'll leave here on 2 October 2018.
At the time we promised ourselves that we'd get back to Wellington to see the Great War Exhibition, and now we're going to do that.
I have the first week of January 2018 on leave - the original intention was to extend my enforced Christmas leave and go on a cruise (which would have taken us to Wellington). However, we decided against that in the end; cruises are just too expensive during the school holidays.
So, instead, I'll be doing my first non-cruise-related trip to New Zealand. Singapore Airlines flies direct from Canberra to Wellington which is really convenient; going to Sydney first is an expensive and slow way to get out of the country. We're going to fly there on New Years Day and back on the Friday.
The only serious plan we have is to visit the Great War exhibition, but there are certainly other things to see and do in Wellington, so it should hopefully be a nice (cool!) break before my last few, hectic months at work.
On another note, we're now getting to the point where it's possible to start planning for next year's big holiday and cruise. As is always the case, we're going to have to settle on a date fairly soon - this time the controlling factor is the flight out of Australia.
We're going to avoid the "Canberra-Sydney-huge flight to London in economy" approach this time. Instead, the plan is to fly direct from Canberra to Singapore in economy, then fly business class with Finnair to London. Their business fares are quite reasonable, particularly given that we're only flying one-way. But, we're going to have to book soon to get a seat. So, it looks like we'll leave here on 2 October 2018.
Saturday, 22 July 2017
Retirement update
Well, the "retirement cruise" truly is going to be a retirement cruise. I have told the boss that I'll be finishing up work sometime between January and September 2018. Most likely I'll work up to Easter (so, the end of March) then I'll use up all the leave I have available at the time, and retire once the leave runs out - so sometime in April.
As far as the holiday is concerned, this means we can now spend some more time in England before the cruise. Originally we had to keep it to only about a week, otherwise I would have rune out of leave before we got to Singapore. That's no longer an issue 😏.
As far as the holiday is concerned, this means we can now spend some more time in England before the cruise. Originally we had to keep it to only about a week, otherwise I would have rune out of leave before we got to Singapore. That's no longer an issue 😏.
Sunday, 28 May 2017
Well, I had a failure to post!
Last time I posted here was on 12 March, talking about our little upcoming cruise - but I didn't ever report back.
Well, we did actually go on the cruise. The suite was wonderful - the bathroom was bigger than the one in our house, the balcony was really nice (but the weather wasn't all that clement so we really mostly got to see rain falling on it) and the in-suite breakfast was just stunning.
We won't ever be able to afford to cruise in a suite again of course, but it was great to give it a try!
Well, we did actually go on the cruise. The suite was wonderful - the bathroom was bigger than the one in our house, the balcony was really nice (but the weather wasn't all that clement so we really mostly got to see rain falling on it) and the in-suite breakfast was just stunning.
We won't ever be able to afford to cruise in a suite again of course, but it was great to give it a try!
Sunday, 12 March 2017
4 days to go
All of a sudden it's March, and our little "Sydney to Brisbane" cruise is only 4 days away.
This one hasn't needed a lot of planning - we're getting the train to Sydney, cruise to Brisbane, and flying home. And, for the two days in Brisbane we only need a hire car and a place to stay on the Saturday night, both of which are organised.
I've been so busy at work I haven't had much of a chance to think about this little holiday, but it should be interesting - this is almost certainly the only time we'll ever cruise in a suite, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the other half live!
This one hasn't needed a lot of planning - we're getting the train to Sydney, cruise to Brisbane, and flying home. And, for the two days in Brisbane we only need a hire car and a place to stay on the Saturday night, both of which are organised.
I've been so busy at work I haven't had much of a chance to think about this little holiday, but it should be interesting - this is almost certainly the only time we'll ever cruise in a suite, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the other half live!
Sunday, 4 December 2016
Well, we booked it
As I said, I'm calling this my retirement cruise, although I still don't really have any definite plans about when I'll retire.
So, we'll make our way to London in mid-October 2018, and will spend a few days, maybe a week, in England. Not sure exactly where - that can be decided later - but we'll definitely find our way to Southampton by 20 October. Next day we hop aboard the Sapphire Princess for a 38 day cruise to Singapore, and from there we'll come home. We might stay a few days in Singapore too, although if I still haven't retired I might be pushing the limits of my available leave by the time we get there :-)
The cruise stops in only three places we have seen before, the rest are new to us. Also there are a lot of lovely relaxing sea days. It's actually quite similar to a cruise we were going to do this year on the Emerald Princess, although with more ports in Europe and less in Asia than the Emerald Princess one.
So, these are the ports we stop at:
Anyone who talks to me about travel knows that I enjoy the researching and planning almost as much as the trip, and this one will involve heaps of enjoyment for me!
So, we'll make our way to London in mid-October 2018, and will spend a few days, maybe a week, in England. Not sure exactly where - that can be decided later - but we'll definitely find our way to Southampton by 20 October. Next day we hop aboard the Sapphire Princess for a 38 day cruise to Singapore, and from there we'll come home. We might stay a few days in Singapore too, although if I still haven't retired I might be pushing the limits of my available leave by the time we get there :-)
The cruise stops in only three places we have seen before, the rest are new to us. Also there are a lot of lovely relaxing sea days. It's actually quite similar to a cruise we were going to do this year on the Emerald Princess, although with more ports in Europe and less in Asia than the Emerald Princess one.
So, these are the ports we stop at:
- Le Havre - from here you can go to Paris but I expect we might do a tour of the Normandy beaches
- Lisbon, Gibraltar, Barcelona and Toulon - no ideas yet about what we might do in these places, but no doubt there will be far more possibilities in every place than we could possibly get through in the one day we spend in each place!
- Livorno - I'll be going to Florence to see the Duomo, no idea what else we'll do though
- Rome - one of the few places we have seen before - we spent a few days in Rome earlier this year. Still thousands of sights we haven't seen, but a shore excursion isn't really the best way to see Rome.
- Naples - our cruise earlier this year stopped in Naples, but we went out of the city to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. Plenty of things to see in Naples itself, and of course there's also the Amalfi Coast and Capri
- Valletta in Malta - I already have our sightseeing in Valletta worked out - we were meant to go there on our cruise earlier this year, but they disappointingly dropped Valletta from the itinerary after the cruise started. Lots of things to see within walking distance of the port, and we'll almost certainly stick to those plans, just two years later!
- Athens - interesting one, we were underwhelmed with Athens and even though we know it was mostly the tour we took, it isn't a city that leaps out as somewhere we want to go back to.
- Rhodes - more research needed here too
- Aqaba - the only place to go from here, for me anyway, is Petra. Missing Petra was the real disappointment when we cancelled the Emerald Princess cruise, so I'm really pleased to get another chance so go there.
- Dubai - nothing particularly thrills me about Dubai except the chance to get to the top of the world's tallest building!
- Cochin, Colombo and Kuala Lumpur - three more places that I have no real idea about yet.
Anyone who talks to me about travel knows that I enjoy the researching and planning almost as much as the trip, and this one will involve heaps of enjoyment for me!
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