Day 3 - Seaworld

 

 

 

 

As expected, Seaworld was also busy!  Once again, as we had been before, we didn’t really have to worry too much about the queues but we did head straight to the dolphin show.  It must be about the fourth time we have seen it, but it never fails to be worth watching.

We did wander around a wee bit and noted the changes, one being that that the cable car wasn’t operating and the cars were stacked off line so to speak.

The kids water area looks to be pretty good, but this is an additional charge.  We did manage to use the water cannons from the fence and those riding the galleons fired back - so Dave and I also got wet!

The lake show at 1pm was nothing more than a jet ski display this time and wasn’t a patch on the earlier shows we have seen.  So a little disappointing. The sea lion show was the same as it has always been – another opportunity to sit and relax in the shade.

Dave and I went on the ‘jet rescue’ high speed roller coaster (you sit astride jet ski shaped cars) and we became adopted grandads, so that a couple of under-height kids in a school holiday group could ride, as they had to be accompanied by an adult – but Dave’s charge decided that when the seat bar was  strapped down, she really didn’t want to ride after all!

The old roller coaster with an upside down twist has gone and the new coaster incorporates another ride that has now gone, now called ‘Storm’.  We only had to queue for 30 minutes and as usual, for a two minute ride!  Pretty good though - meanwhile, Paula & Marilyn went to the ‘Sponge Bob’ 3D movie on ecology.  They rated it really good – for three year olds.

We left about 4pm and as we passed the trawlers that sell proper sea prawns (as opposed to grown in a puddle in Vietnam/China) we knew that we were way too late, so we called at the fish shop on site.  Very disappointing. The prawns looked terrible and were expensive, but they also sold a fair bit of NZ fish.  Interesting that we pay about $12.95NZD a kg for our monkfish, in the shop, it was $29AUD a kilo and $44 a kilo cooked!  No wonder Macca’s do a roaring trade.

So once again, to Woolworths at Pacific Fair instead.  Now we often have a bit of a laugh driving around and today was no different.  At the traffic lights on Broadbeach Rd, we turned left for Pac Fair, alongside the petrol station.  There is another set of traffic lights to turn left again into the car parks. However, we swung left on the green filter - and straight into a Road Closed sign!  Needless to say, three occupants of our Mitsubishi AFX were convulsed with hysterical laughter, as I had to double back through the petrol station, as doing a U turn wasn’t really on as traffic was heading out OK!

After a very nice (but small…) coffee, we bought our cooked giant prawns in Woolworths, cheaper and fresher than at the fish shop, and an avocado, some cole slaw, rolls and a 1.3kg ready to heat lasagne.  Four prawns for Dave, Marilyn and myself and 2 for Paula proved to be enough, and we didn’t manage to finish off the lasagne, washed down with Magners cider and later, a quarter mango each.

Another not very late night…

Robina Mall tomorrow morning, then a lunch time catch up with cruise buddies, Ros and Arnold.  

Day 2 - Movieworld

We’d already decided that we’d do Movieworld and Seaworld (again) on this trip, but it was not long before we left NZ that we found out that it was school holiday time in Australia as well as in NZ, though with Marilyn being a teacher, getting time off is limited to school holidays anyway.

I suppose the fact that the car park was about 75% full before 11am (and  no markings again…) shouldn’t have been too much of  a surprise, but apparently, it was even busier than normal.  Once again, we brandished Gold Cards, Entertainment Cards, grovelled and ended up with a three day pass for $5 more than a 1 day pass.  The timing was perfect as we headed straight for the Stunt Show (version 2) which was due to start at 11am and we got there with 5 minutes to spare.

As usual, we enjoyed the show, but we thought that maybe the first show we saw, Police Academy, was a better show overall, with a better story and a lot more humour, especially when they picked someone out of the audience and he became the butt of a fair bit of slapstick humour.

Dave and I were keen to go to the ‘Scooby Do’ indoor, in the dark, roller coaster, but the queue time was upped from 60 minutes to 75 minutes.  Not for the first time we later found out that the notice was misleading as it was positioned on the front steps.

We wandered around for a while then grabbed a burger and chips, before Dave and I opted to go for the coaster ride anyway.  We stood on the front steps  which was (only) the Fast Pass entrance – but we didn’t know that!  It was only when we saw the wristbands on the few in front of us, that we twigged that we were in the wrong queue.    The general entrance was to the side and the 75 minutes was presumably after you reached the same front door from the side queue.  We passed that point quite quickly and once inside the building, joined the real queue and although it was 50m past the front door, it was still 75 minutes!   Watching the Fast Pass people go through is always a pain, but up to that point, we hadn’t even seen where they were on sale.  Subsequently, we found out they were $20 - but only valid for 4 rides and 90 minutes, or $60 all day.

Anyway, we cracked that one, had another wander around then headed for the "Wild West Falls" log ride.  Note the notice (pic) where it says the queue time from this point is….   Nothing.

We got a bit damp of course.  Dave and Marilyn managed another rollercoaster.

The kiddy driving area looked to be quite good, but a very short ride – and several adults were with their kids and there were other adults, mainly Asian I might add, on their own.

We left about 4:45pm, but not before we all piled onto a Gotham City laser shooting ride and Paula found another Joker near the scary roller coaster.
Good fun!

Back to the Meriton OK and Paula’s choice was Valentino’s Italian restaurant for food.  We have eaten at this family run establishment several times before.  Service was impeccable, inasmuch as we were seated with a menu,  glass of water and the order taken very promptly – and the water glasses topped up again.  Although the place was very busy – with a load of families, the staff rush around, always with a smile and the food comes out continuously.  A reasonable wait but excellent food – and cider with a glass of ice this time.

Another stroll around and Marilyn was magnetically attracted to the Chocolate shop and bought some drinking chocolate.

The time difference was still having its effect, so it was another theoretically early night.

Seaworld to look forward to tomorrow with theme Park number 2 – Paula’s favourite.

   

     

A Gold Coast break - day 1.

A 5:30am start isn’t so bad for a 9:30am flight to Brisbane, especially when we are now used to a 3am start for the 7am Sydney flight, but the 3 hour time difference (Brisbane doesn’t move the clocks forward for summer) does catch up later in the day.

Dave and Marilyn picked us up about 6am and yet the traffic was already quite busy.  We parked at the pre-booked short stay car park at the airport and not for the first time, found that bay or lane markings could have been a bit better.

Electronic check in was straightforward and the only queue was for the baggage drop, but that was nothing compared to the days of old with the inevitable long, slow shuffle to the counter.

We went straight through Immigration without hiccups or much of a queue and headed for the “Shaky Isles” café for breakfast, (eggs Benedict for me – on spinach of course, with a generous side of bacon (+$5) as we hadn’t booked a meal on the aircraft.  We had booked our seats however and although there was a delay (late arrival from LA), I hadn’t realised it was a 777-300 and our seats were in Premium Economy, but with economy service.  That meant the pods and heaps of leg room.  No complaints from me.

Arrival in Brisbane was straightforward and although this is my last trip on an old non-chip non-smart passport, through very quickly and we headed for the Thrifty car rental desk.  Between us, we had Gold Cards and an AA card and that managed to get us our second driver for no extra charge.  It was the AA card that worked…  We did get an upgrade though, to a 1,000km electric blue Mitsubishi ASX SUV.

As is usual, Dave and I do a day each driving, so I kicked off with the run to Broadbeach, but our Meriton apartment wasn’t quite ready, so we crossed over to the Pacific Fair shopping mall, which is having a major revamp and extension.

We opted for a very nice Turkish pide in the old foodcourt, then the basic shopping – including pickled onions, cheese and Lurpak butter of course, before heading to the Meriton.

As usual, great front desk staff and our two bedroomed corner apartment was in the north tower, 13^th floor.  Ocean view out from the lounge and balcony, up the Pacific Coast highway back to Surfers and the Jupiter’s casino from the bedrooms.

We opted for a stroll to suss out the local eateries.  What we like about this restaurant strip is that here is a vast choice and most offer a deal of some sort, such as 2 for the price of 1, or 40% off before 6pm or 6:30pm.

Back to the apartment – briefly, before returning to Dave’s preference, Aura – 50% off.

We both ordered a cider and it came promptly – but no glasses!  Not unusual in a pub maybe, but a bit odd in a restaurant.  We had to wait almost an hour for the food which was almost excellent, spoiled for me by a cold plate and lukewarm food.  A nice piece of fillet steak on creamed potatoes, kale (the in thing at the moment it seems) and baby carrots.  Quite why they can’t manage to heat the plates for hot food in a restaurant, I can never quite fathom out.

A  pleasant stroll around the area and Marilyn was very attracted to the Max Brenner Chocolate shop/emporium/café…  No surprises there.

Needless to say, bed-time wasn’t late.

Theme park number 1 tomorrow! 

 

 

Just a few days away this time - no ships!

Off to Broadbeach (just south of Surfers) for a few days with Dave and Marilyn, Tuesday, so there may be a little bit of blogging – not that anyone will be following it now.  Our clocks have just moved forward an hour for ‘Daylight Saving’, so it looks as though we are on summer time again already, having only been back in NZ and ‘winter’ since the 11^th of August.  I put winter in quote marks, because apart from a bit of rain, we don’t really get a winter here.  No snow – ever.  A little bit of frost on next door’s roof for a couple of mornings was about it.

Once we are back home again, time to apply for new 10 year (UK) passports.  Paula renewed hers not too long ago and it is almost full too, though our travels have been identical.

Most immigration/border security officers just slap the stamp on any page and Paula is left with no ‘clean’ page.  As she’ll need a China visa next year, her passport will need replacing several years early, which is waste.

A trick I use is to use a temporary glue on some facing pages, to keep them clear of stamps.  Simple to peel back when required for a whole page visa, but under normal circumstances, it forces the officers to find a space – which they have managed to do, so I still have two clear pages after 9 years and 6 months – just.

Maybe we’ll pay the extra for the extra pages this time, though I’m not sure we’ll be doing quite as much travel over the next 5 years that we have done over the last 5.  But who really knows?

We have our cruise for 2016 planned, but as yet, no firm plans for 2017.  So, like Murray, time to start and set up the 2016 blog shortly.  I’ll put the link on here of course, for those masochists and insomniacs who normally follow my dribble.

 

More pics - The Med to UK

Dubrovnik - from the wall.

Civitaveccia - OK, the port for Rome then

Scallops being cooked at the buffet

Cruise ship or Ferrari in Cannes?

Barcelona

Lisbon - still a favourite stop.

.. no wonder some people put on weight

Just one of many Honfleur market stalls.

 

 

 

 

Just a few more pics for those who like such things…  From Dubrovnik to Honfleur.  No excuses for pictures of yet more food.

Random pics - in sequence...

Sunbathing  - Sea Princess style...

One for the birds

Cakes, cakes and yet more cakes.  Such artists.

Love the winter wonderland in Dubai.

Muscat - we made it this time

On the way through the Suez canal - 1

Suez canal - 2

With our lovely head waiter

Lauren & Daniel - great singing

Ephesus

Istanbul

The dock at Santorini

Venice

  

Venice
 

Venice

Apologies if any have been posted before, but just a few pics taken on the way through, as I know many like pics rather than words!  This takes us as far as Venice.

Just a summary

An opportune time to simply summarise our impressions to date.  As mentioned many times before in many different forums, we have come to the conclusion that the single most important aspect of cruising for us is not the newness or grandeur of the ship; not the quality of the entertainment; not the quality of the staff, whether service staff or entertainment staff; not the itinerary; not the weather, not even the food.  It is the people, specifically, the travelling companions – and the dynamics.  The dynamics of a short cruise are totally different from the long cruises on several levels.  Over the period of a long cruise, it is inevitable that friendships are made or at worst, acquaintances, through the various activities.   Even trivia is not just about your own team(s) but also the teams who generally sit nearby, as most are creatures of habit. 

Our first Princess Cruise was in 2011 and was 5/6^th of a World Cruise.  Through Cruise Critic, we’d met several people before we set off and were fortunate enough to meet Ros & Arnold when we were staying at Broadbeach.  We hit it off and Ros invited us to join their table for the cruise, which included Jo & Garry, Col & Jude also from Australia plus Anthea and Dennis from NZ. That table cemented not only enduring friendships, but was central to having a lot of fun at the evening meal, not to mention Trivia and a few private tours during the days.

We were also blessed with fantastic evenings with Alan & Alana in the Atrium, with dancing and silly trivia quizzes and an entertainment cruise staff that were a lot of fun and who made an effort to communicate with the passengers.

Fast forward to 2015 and another half World Cruise on a similar ship to 2011 and then 2 weeks on the new Royal Princess and comparisons are inevitable.

Firstly, the Royal Princess 12 day tour around the UK.  As you may have gathered, we weren’t exactly blown away with the experience.  It isn’t too difficult from the above, to work out what was missing. The dynamics as above, of a short cruise are such that unless you board knowing a few people, making enduring friendships is highly unlikely.  Although we’d hooked into the Cruise Critic group, we failed to make their meets and the weather was such that sailaways weren’t on our agenda.  One meet clashed with the Captain’s lunch for most travelled passengers and we certainly weren’t going to miss out on that!

In a nutshell, we found the ship a bit too big.  A bit too impersonal.  Had we been fortunate enough to have been allocated a table with several others, it might have been very different.  We never really bonded with other passengers or even the staff, as there weren’t the opportunities.  Catching the noro-virus on the last night certainly coloured Paula’s trip but we did enjoy the ports.

Going back to several weeks on the Sea Princess, thankfully we did enjoy the trivia with morning and afternoon teams and in some respects, they were the highlights – people again.

Sadly, neither the dancing nor the entertainment staff were in the same league as 2011.  The staff lacked the people skills and the sense of fun of 2011 and 2013.  This time, more than half of them weren’t  really very likeable either.  It left quite a hole.  When the singers and dancers who were only on theatre door duty as they were bored with nothing to do, had a stronger tie to the passengers than the staff, it reflects badly on the entertainment staff. 

The fact that the (agency) singers and dancers also seemed to have so little support in terms of scenery and backdrops (especially compared to the flash, modern, colourful Royal Princess) just emphasises the somewhat cheapskate attitude towards the Australian based ships.  Thankfully, most of the actual entertainers were very good, even though one or two need to totally refresh their acts.  With over 700 Elite passengers, most would have been aware of these repeat performers with tired acts.

Pity our table wasn’t a particularly joyous one so all we can really do is emphasise the value of the Cruise Critic roll call as a means of trying to establish friendships before sailaway.  Sure, there will be people you don’t click with, but the ones you do click with in advance, will be the ones who will enhance the cruise by a massive amount.  The pre-cruise meal at the Pyrmont Hotel in Sydney is now an established part of the cruise experience and for my money, just as important, if not more so, than the first meet and greet on board.  Travelling to Sydney the day before is now a stressless start to the adventure.

With that in mind, we are really looking forward to 2016, as we KNOW there are people we really like, who have a sense of humour and who will make the trip memorable!

If this summary reads as a bit negative, that is unfortunate, as that wasn’t the intention, but the poor weather and choppy seas for the first week negated the attraction of Melbourne and Busselton a wee bit but once we hit Fremantle and turned north, we felt that we were at last on holiday.

Next year, it will be back to Darwin as a first port of call which does mean improving warmth almost from day one.

We now have a month at home before a few days at Broadbeach, so I’ll keep this blog ticking over until the end of that break then I’ll need to start planning for 2016!  The Grand Circle or Circle Pacific, from Sydney, via Asia to Alaska and back to Auckland via Hawaii.

I hope that some of you got some value out of this scribble and others at least just kept up with our whereabouts.

The Royal Princess - food!

A subject close to my heart of course, as most of you will know, but whereas our trips on the Dawn and Sea Princess particularly, have often been long, although the food options are still varied, the majority are free.

The Royal being so much larger, still has free eating options, but it also has far more ‘pay a surcharge’ options – and on a 12 day cruise, we didn’t really have any desire to explore them anyway.

That means my observations are at best very limited and cannot be seen as comprehensive, but we do know that we are not alone in shunning pay options for anything other than a special occasion.

Some pay options are ‘pop ups’ in the Horizon Court.  One of these was ‘Crab Shack’ at $20USD.  I had a look but didn’t see anything that would tempt me to indulge.  The pot with an Alaskan crab claw, mussels, squid, prawns and sweet corn was what it looked like and although it looked nice enough, not enough to tempt us to indulge.  Paula is not a seafood fan anyway.

On another night, it was a fondue, but I missed seeing that one!  Yet another night, it looked like an oriental noodle soup.  You placed your order and the wait staff delivered it to your table.

We started off with the intention of eating in the dining room for the evening meal but as stated earlier, with a later dining time than we were comfortable with, shows where early seating was essential, and just two ancients on our table, although we changed to anytime dining, we never ate in the dining room again.

That of course meant we were focussed totally on the buffet and also the International Food area on deck 5 for lunch.  Even now, I remember that shrimp and fennel salad  as one of the real highlights.

 

Breakfast fare was really no different to the other ships other than they did seem to totally overcook the scrambled eggs and often, the sausages felt as though they'd been out there for a bit too long!  Several times, I ate virtually nothing anyway, other than a banana.

 

Lunch, I don’t think we managed very often, but what we did eat was excellent with plenty of variety.  The Atrium/Plaza lunch suited us very well, and as stated earlier, the shrimp (prawn!) salad and also the chicken salad were almost daily staples, with either an individual quiche or a meat pie.

On the Dawn & Sea Princess, there is almost a daily international speciality lunch, but on the Royal, possibly because we were in port most days, it was the evening meal that boasted the international food.  This was usually very impressive as it was in addition to the standard fare and every day, there were two main roasts, rather than the usual one.   When you think about it, due to the sheer volume of meals served, doing two roasts even on the smaller ships is no big deal. 

One of the 'in things' in the UK and in one or two other places at the moment, is 'pulled pork'.  This appeared two or three times in the buffet and I even added it to my soup on one occasion. 

From memory (no pics) there was a Brazilian night, German, Oriental, Italian and American and possibly more.  Whatever they had, there were many dishes to choose from.

We never had a problem finding seating and in fact, sections of the Horizon Court were almost deserted.  Had the weather been warmer, I’m sure we would have eaten outside and I would imagine that in the Med or the Carribbean, the ship would really have come into its own.

As we didn’t eat in the dining room, we can’t really comment but traditionally, there are grumbles about slow breakfast service, which may well be justified.  We generally prefer to grab a little bit of whatever looks attractive at any meal and choose our portion sizes.  As a grazer, the buffet suits me very well indeed and it was never a problem with crowding or queuing.

As stated earlier, hardly a comprehensive coverage but certainly, we had no complaints about the food.    

Royal Princess - Part 2 The interior

First of all, it is important to accept that this ship is huge, with twice as many passengers as our beloved Sun class ships and is almost 20 years newer.  That obviously means that the comparisons are in some respects unfair, but have to be made anyway.

First of all, the cabin – as that is where we inevitably spend the most time.  We are familiar with the cabin layout of the Sun class ships (of course) and also the Emerald and Diamond Princess.  On the latter, the upper cabins are somewhat stepped, meaning a larger balcony on three decks.  It was surprising therefore to find that the cabin layout on the Royal was identical to the Emerald and the balcony the same size as the Sun class – meaning, small.  The only difference is that the view out is better as the railing tops an all glass panel, rather than a mess of ironwork.

Inside, the layout will be familiar to the Emerald cruisers, with the walk in wardrobe.  As mentioned previously, the power socket arrangement was less than satisfactory.  There was one fewer socket on the desk and no power point at all on the opposite side of the cabin and no UK socket.  That can be frustrating.

The large flat screen TV is located on the wall opposite the foot of the bed – which is ideal.  However, the TV system itself has been updated and there are pluses and minuses.  (We gather that the system has been updated on the Sun Princess - and the Sea Princess is due for a refit shortly.)

Disappointingly, there was no Channel 24 – the sports channel – so there was no chance of watching live F1 GPs.  The half dozen live channels were a mish-mash of news channels.  Considering it was round GB, no local BBC news channel, just the world news, so no weather updates - except the Carribbean!

The remote was as simple as it is possible to be, but no sleep timer – something we find invaluable, as many programmes send you to sleep anyway…

There was no ‘ship’s information’ channel, just the bridge cam.  Regular travellers will know that some announcements are made directly to all speakers on the ship – such as the warning about noro-virus – from the Captain.  Other announcements (usually from the front desk/customer services) are given out in the corridors but finding the bridge cam channel to hear them in the cabin is so slow, that by the time you have found it, the announcement is over.  The alternative is of course to open the cabin door, but that is not always a good idea!

Those who have been travelling a while will also know that many of the TV offerings have been around for years.  The film “How to Steal a Million” has been on every single cruise we have done and most of the ‘Discovery Channel’ items have also been around for years, but at least you can choose what you want to watch and more importantly, when.

The new system gives access to everything on the ship’s hard drive.  The occasional live shows are also written to the hard drive such as the Folkloric ones, but not the entertainment acts/shows.  The traditional ‘Wake Show’ is also available and the port lectures and port information. 
 

Walking out of our cabin and into the corridor, there are a couple of doglegs, so you have no idea just how long this ship is.  Now this is interesting – and frustrating - as anyone situated in the centre section of the ship naturally heads to the nearest set of stairs/lifts, but this is where the Royal starts to fall down.

Forward and aft lifts/staircases, all OK, but the centre has lifts only.  No staircase.  This inevitably means very long waits, as being on deck 10, it was 3 to 5 floors down and 5 or 6 floors up on most expeditions.

The interior design of the ship is very frustrating as passenger flow at times is dreadful, with loads of people trying to squeeze down fairly narrow thoroughfares.  This was particularly so after shows in the Vista lounge or in the theatre.

Exiting the theatre on floor 6 funnels you straight into the casino and on floor 7 straight through the shop.  A cynic would accuse Princess of trying to squeeze more dollars out of the passengers.  

Theatre

This is magnificent, but, if you have 4,000 passengers, and about 700 or 800 seats (I’m guessing here as I don’t seem to be able to find out the  exact number) then a popular act such as the Beatles Tribute, scheduled for just 2 shows inevitably means a lot of people would miss out.  Other less attractive acts or shows may have been scheduled with 3 performances.  There may be a reason for this of course, but I have no idea what that might be.

The theatre being modern emphasises the huge gap between the older ships and the new ones.  The backdrops, lights, moving scenery, lifts etc., are incredible.  On entering, the theatre colours may well change from night to night.  As in any theatre though, sitting to the sides may mean missing out on some of the action.   I’m surprised they don’t use the overhead cameras and the screens, to show the actual keyboards for example.  They used it for David Cats illusionist shows, so it can be done.

With a 12 day cruise, they certainly crammed in the shows as I think we had 4 production shows.  With the Sea Princess, that is all we had in 50 days – with virtually no scenery or flashy lighting at all…

Deck 7

The Vista lounge at the rear of the ship seemed to be half way between the entertainment lounge of the Emerald, which only has two levels and the Sun Vista lounge, which is properly tiered.  As with the theatre, the stage setting can include scenery/props which we saw on the Olde English Pub Night.  Despite that, viewing is not as good as on the smaller ships as the height difference from back to front is such that the view is obscured of any performer where it is crucial to see the lower body.

Between the Vista and the centre of the ship, there is the Wheelhouse bar area which again, has music, but the ‘Club 6’ so called nightclub seemed somewhat squashed.  The live Studio was interesting as it has sophisticated cameras including a ‘fly by wire’ overhead camera.  Both Club 6 and also the studio venues could be used for trivia – but with only 2 sea days and no team organised, we gave it a miss.

Plaza/Atrium

Much is made of this central area and it is much larger and flows much better than the smaller ships.  Because it is a marble floor and is so large, then it rightly serves as a focal point with passengers able to sit and relax, enjoy a drink and/or a snack or a gelato.  That comes at a cost.  $3.60 for a three scoop serving or one clip off your coffee card. 

The band that played here were extremely good and dancing was encouraged, but no sign of any New Vogue dancing on this cruise!  Occasionally, they used it for dance class and even a taster for a production show and a lecture.

The front desk is opposite the tour desk and close to the Spa and also Sabatinis (surcharge) restaurant.

On deck 6, if the band isn’t playing downstairs, there is a pianist and that seemed quite popular, but like the band, it was often for a relatively short time.

The Seafood bar didn’t seem to be doing much trade (another extra cost dining option) and we never did get to Alfredo’s pizza eatery.

For full details of the layout, your best bet is the Princess Cruises website, ship deck plans, so the pics I have posted are only samples and are in no way comprehensive.

Sure, it is all spankingly modern, but with just 12 days on board and just 2 sea days, we never really settled in too well.  I have to say that we did come across one or two staff in the Atrium who weren’t as open, warm and friendly as on the Sea/Dawn, but that may well be that they do not consider it a priority to forge a relationship on such a short cruise.

Next post will inevitably be about the food…