This may not be of much interest to non-travellers, but may just be of assistance to those either new to cruising or the electronic/digital age.
Although just about everyone these days seems to have an electronic device, be that lap top, tablet, notebook, i-pad, android, camera, video camera, smart-phone and so on, it never fails to surprise me how disorganised many are with either saving their images, or even the basics of email. (Packing all the associated cables and chargers is also critical.)
After our 2011 cruise, I decided to write up some notes and although they may have aged, some may find them useful. Taking a digital photograph is so easy, with no film to load, but the quality of many images leaves a lot to be desired. (I won’t comment about selfies, as hopefully, that fad hasn’t moved up the age scale.)
Although the website is dramatically in need of a total overhaul, the notes are probably still relevant.
The main index page is: http://www.tops.co.nz/tops/tops_index.htm
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- organising your emails and also the etiquette. This may stop you making some basic errors
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- taking digital photographs is easy, but this may help you take better photographs
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- looking after those pics and maybe preparing them for publishing to a blog
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- not much use in creating thousands of photographs digitally or even scanning older stuff into your computer, without applying some logic to filing them!
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- creating an 'on line diary' of your travels without having to send everyone an individual email - or heaven forbid, a postcard every time you get off the aircraft or the ship....
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As I said, the notes were written 2011, but I thought it might help some of you.
CRUISE CRITIC
Many of you may have come across this website already. Ever since we hooked into it, well before our 2011 cruise started, we have found the site invaluable.
The basic structure is very simple – especially for specific cruises. You simply go to
There you will usually find a link to Roll Calls for most cruises – by cruise line and by ship and then by date.
If you want to contribute, then it is fairly simple to register and the link to this particular cruise is:
We have found that this is THE place to find out what is going on; make or meet friends; find tips; find private tours; ask questions and so on. Before our first cruise we managed to hit it off with one couple who invited us to join their table – and we haven’t looked back since! A new group of fantastic friends, lots of laughs and so good, we have since done another long cruise with them, and in 2016, we join up again. That is the addiction to cruising – the people.
The tip here is that if there are others you’d like to be seated with at dinner, then get your respective travel agents to link the bookings.
Sometimes your allocated table mates are fantastic, sometimes they are not! We were very fortunate last year with our Baltic’s cruise, but we weren’t so lucky with the return cruise from Southampton. We were able to get our good friends we had prearranged the table with, plus two from the Baltic’s cruise, who were also less than happy, a table reallocation - and from then on, all was excellent.
The tip here is that it is always easier to get a reallocation on second sitting than first, as it is less crowded.
PRE CRUISE CATCH UPS
Through Cruise Critic, we have met several local couples plus some Australians and in the UK, a couple before our Baltic’s cruise. Not every meeting means an immediate chemistry of course, but you have a 50/50 chance of meeting people you click with.
With our cruises out of Sydney, again, through Cruise Critic, it has now become a tradition to meet the night before, at the Pyrmont Hotel on the edge of Darling Harbour. The first one gave Jo & Ros chance to exercise their organisational skills and also their very inventive brand of humour. That meant that by the time we assembled at check in, before boarding the ship, we already knew several other cruisers and the humour was already very evident. And so it will be this time! A new group of friends with few regulars maybe, but still a critical part of the cruise.
With each subsequent cruise out of Sydney, the greatest joy is often meeting past cruisers.
However, the day before that, a catch up with previous cruisers. Well worth going to Sydney a couple of days early and much less stressful than flying out of NZ and heading straight to the ship.
So, ten days to the cruise, but only 8 before we have to get the 3:30am shuttle to the airport. That means getting up at 2:45am – or in eastern Australian terms, 12:45am! It will be a long day… No jet lag, just a long day.
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