Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Returning from Australia Cruise

Majestic Princess Disembarkation

We are just back from our shortened Australia - Asia cruise on Majestic Princess. Princess Cruises made the decision to cancel the Fremantle (Perth) to Singapore segment of our voyage based on uncertainty around port availability in Southeast Asia region due to the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Since we had booked our flights with Princess Air, they were automatically rebooked by the cruise line. We got our flight arrangements in our cabin on Feb. 19th.

click to enlarge images

Our new flights were booked on Air New Zealand. We had a 7 AM flight from Perth (PER) Sunday, Feb. 23rd, to Auckland, New Zealand (AUK). We had about a two hour layover in Auckland followed by a direct 14 hour 55 minute flight to Chicago (ORD).

We had the option to stay on board Majestic Princess an extra day (Saturday, Feb 22nd) and then take a taxi at 3:15 AM to the airport. Since it was about a 30 minute taxi ride, we didn't want to risk having anything go wrong and missing our flight, so we opted to stay overnight at Country Comfort Intercity (Perth) hotel. They had a free airport shuttle which operates 24 hours a day, so that was the main deciding factor for us.

On Saturday morning, we disembarked Majestic Princess, handling our own luggage, and then took the Princess shuttle (provided for free) to Perth airport. When we arrived at the airport, we called the hotel to find out where to meet the shuttle. They directed us to Bay N (as in November). We weren't quite sure where that was, so we asked a flight attendant who pointed us in the right direction. We didn't have long to wait for the shuttle.

When we arrived at the hotel, we arranged to be on the 4 AM shuttle to the airport, dropped off our luggage in our room, and headed to Perth city proper by taxi for some sightseeing, including a Swan River Cruise which we booked upon arrival at Barrack Street Jetty (Elizabeth Quay) Perth. We'll write about our river cruise in another article.

Sunday morning, we got to the front desk about 15 minutes early and checked out. There were a couple other couples already waiting for the shuttle with one more also booked. Once they arrived, we headed to the airport which was a short distance away. By 4:15 AM we were checking in at the Air New Zealand desk in Terminal 1 (which is the International Terminal at Perth Airport).

Note: It is important that you know which terminal you are leaving from as they are spread out quite a distance and not easy to get to if you were at the wrong terminal.

We went to checkin and were asked if we had a visa on our passports for New Zealand. Of course, we said "no" because we had never planned to be flying home from there. Our original plans would have been flying from Singapore to Japan to Dallas Fort Worth to Chicago. It never dawned on us that we'd need a visa, despite the fact that we'd had one last year when we visited there on our previous visit to the region. Princess Cruises had not made any mention of it on our flight change paperwork either. In fact, they simply listed the flight numbers and we needed to look up the itinerary online to even know the details.

The Electronic Travel Authority for New Zealand(eTA), is applicable to citizens from all countries that share a visa waiver agreement with NZ. Starting October 1st, 2019, visitors arriving from any of the 60 visa waiver countries are required to apply for an eTA to enter the island country.

Fortunately, there's an app for that. The Air New Zealand agent gave us an information sheet with step by step instructions to download the app and apply for the transit visa online. Here's the link to get a New Zealand Visa should your travels take you there (and you are staying in country). The cost for the NZeTA was $9 NZD. Within minutes we had applied and gotten the online visa issued and we were then able to checkin for our flights. We were really glad that we'd been close to the airport, so the we had plenty of time before our flight.

This was our first experience flying Air New Zealand. We really enjoyed the flights and service. The crew were extremely friendly. We had free WiFi on the flight to Auckland. The food was good and the economy seating was decent for the long haul flight. I'd highly recommend them for a trip to Australia / New Zealand.

Ironically, in one of my travel professional publications today, there was a link to an article about an experimental Lie-flat Beds for Economy that Air New Zealand is investigating. Here's a video that shows their plans. We'd definitely pay for that upgrade on a long-haul flight. Hats off to them for their innovation. I look forward to a future flight in one of these #Skynest sleeping pods.

This is the first in a series of blog posts about our shortened Australia - Asia trip. Despite the fact that we didn't get to Malaysia or Singapore, we will also share some of our past experiences, should your travel include Southeast Asia in the future. We are starting in reverse order, from our disembarkation from Majestic Princess. Hopefully, you've followed us live on our social media channels as well. Don't worry if you didn't, as our anchor post will tie everything together for you. Just click the image (left) to our diary post.

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Sunday, February 16, 2020

Diary South Australia to Asia Cruise

15 Day Australia - Asia Cruise

While onboard Majestic Princess in January 2019, we looked at cruises for 2020. Princess Cruises was still celebrating their 50th Anniversary with a sale which included onboard credits. We looked at several possible cruises, but hadn't made up our mind.

Our table mates were from Australia, which got us talking about traveling back to that part of the world. In addition, there was a respositioning cruise which included Southern Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore. We try to stay current with travel trends so that we can advise our clients based on personal experiences. Majestic Princess is Princess Cruises newest Royal-class ship, which entered service in 2017.

As usual, we arrived 2 days early so that we could get acclimated to the time change and avoid departure day anxiety should flights be delayed. Our pre-cruise stay was at Crowne Plaza Melbourne in the Central Business District. It was 15 minutes away from the airport and 15 minutes away from the cruise terminal.

Bookmark this page - we will be adding day by day reviews as well as links to our photo albums.

Be sure to follow us on our other social media accounts during the cruise for live posts.

Due to Coronavirus outbreak Princess Cruises modified our cruise itinerary.

Please see Princess Cruises Notices & Advisories for latest Information about all modifications.

February 15, 2020 at 5:20PM PT

Our team continues working to finalize itinerary changes and to communicate these changes to you as soon as the details are confirmed.

Due to current port restrictions and closures and lack of predictability regarding port availability in our Southeast Asia itineraries going forward, we have made the decision to cancel additional Asia voyages on Sapphire Princess and Majestic Princess. All booked guests will receive a full refund, back to the original form of payment, of their cruise fare, Princess Air, pre- and post-cruise hotel packages, prepaid shore excursions and other prepaid items, and taxes, fees, and port expenses. As these cruises have been cancelled so close to departure, each guest will also receive a Future Cruise Credit.

We will provide complete details to all guests booked on impacted voyages via email and Cruise Personalizer.

Please continue to consult this Itinerary Modifications page for changes that may impact your voyage. Please minimize calling our Princess call center for itinerary change information as we work through all the travel changes and subsequent impacts on itineraries. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Majestic Princess Voyage Cancellations

Voyage	Departure Date	Departure Port
8005F	February 22, 2020	Fremantle (Perth) to Singapore

Other voyages cancelled on Majestic Princess:

8007	March 12, 2020	Sinagpore to Hong Kong
8009	March 23, 2020	Roundtrip from Taipei (Keelung)
8009A	March 23, 2020	Roundtrip from Taipei (Keelung)
8010	March 28, 2020	Roundtrip from Taipei (Keelung)
8010A	March 28, 2020	Roundtrip from Taipei (Keelung)
8011N	April 2, 2020	Roundtrip from Taipei (Keelung)
8011B	April 2, 2020	Roundtrip from Taipei (Keelung)

Click Image for Photo Albums

	Port	Blog Posts	Photo Albums / Videos
Wed Feb 12	Travel to Melbourne ORD-LAX-MEL	Travel to Melbourne	Flights to MEL
Fri Feb 14	Melbourne Pre-Cruise Crowne Plaza Melbourne	Melbourne Arrival - Know Before You Go Melbourne 19 Hours Later Journey Through Sea Life Melbourne	Crowne Plaza Melbourne SEA Life Melbourne Aquarium Graceful Rays SEA Life Aquarium Melbourne (MP4) Ocean Kingdom SEA Life Aquarium Melbourne (MP4) Oceanarium - Tales of the Sea (MP4) Sea Horse Pier (MP4) Leafy Seadragon (MP4) Coral Atol - Moray Eel & Lionfish (MP4) Jellies SEA Life Aquarium (MP4) Penguin Playground SEA Life Aquarium (MP4)
Sat Feb 15	Melbourne Pre-Cruise Crowne Plaza Melbourne	Go West Phillip Island Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes Wombats Kangaroos and Wallabies Oh My Cape Woolamai Beach Cowes Phillip Island Gem Getting Close to Smallest Penguins Fairy Penguins On Parade	Go West Tours Brighton Beach Boxes Moonlit Sanctuary Drive to Phillip Island Woolamai Beach Cowes Nobbies & Seal Rock Phillip Island Penguin Parade Brighton Bath Boxes Melbourne (MP4) Feeding Two Wallabies (MP4) Wallaby Feeding Moonlit Sanctuary (MP4) Cape Woolamai Phillip Island (MP4)
Sun Feb 16	Melbourne, Australia View general port information Station Pier Cruise Terminal Station Pier Port Melbourne Victoria, Australia Check In 1:00pm-5:00pm	Melbourne Embarkation Greetings From Stanley Bear Welcome Aboard Dinner	Station Pier Cabin A241 Welcome Aboard Lunch Concerto Dining Room
Mon Feb 17	At Sea		Chopsticks Noodle Bar Princess Theater
Tue Feb 18	Adelaide, Australia Adelaide Cruise Terminal 7:00am – 4:00pm Check In 12:30pm-3:00pm Cleland Wildlife Park 11:30AM - 3:30PM \| ADL195A \| View Excursion Details for Cleland Wildlife Park	Best Peking Duck Salad at Sea	Cleland Wildlife Park Harmony (2019) Harmony (2020)
Wed Feb 19	At Sea		Hollywood Conservatory
Thu Feb 20	At Sea		Bars & Attrium Casino
Fri Feb 21	Margaret River(Busselton), Australia Water Shuttle Required wheelchair Access Limited 8:00am – 6:00pm Ngili Caves & Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse 9:00AM - 1:00PM \| BQB210A \| View ExcursionDetailsfor Ngili Caves & Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse		Busselton NgILGI Cave Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse International Cafe Bistro Sur La Mar
Sat Feb 22	Perth(Fremantle), Australia Fremantle (Perth) Check In 1:00pm-4:00pm Disembarked 8:45 AM	Dreaming of Malaysia	Country Comfort Perth Barrack Jetty Riverside Cafe Swan River Cruise
Sun Feb 23	Travel to Chicago Air New Zealand PER - AUK - ORD	Returning from Australia Cruise	Flights to ORD

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Thursday, February 6, 2020

Coronavirus Travel Advice

As the new decade kicks off, so does a world-wide health concern with Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Public Health Agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Decease Control and Prevention, have published extensive information on their websites to help educate the public.

(Updated: March 21, 2020)

Most travel is suspended at least through April. Below are resources to the various travel providers websites as cancellation polices vary. If you have trips scheduled for later this Spring / Summer, our advice is to wait until your carrier makes an announcement about your itinerary to make any decision. Most companies are allowing you to wait for as long as 48 hours before departure to cancel. That gives you time to understand the risks of travel (if it is even possible).
Our state is on lock down until April 7th, and many other states / countries have followed this precautionary measure. Links below are useful resources to keep informed.

We are getting calls from our guests, concerned about traveling. Speak to your personal doctors for their advice - they will be familiar with your circumstances. Also, take precautionary measures, which should be standard practice - washing hands, covering coughs and sneezes, staying away from those exhibiting symptoms. Monitor guidance from world health organizations such as the WHO and CDC.

If you are traveling, or even if you are staying local, it is important to know the facts as they are known at this time. Since this is an evolving story, not all information is known but be assured that top health care professionals are seeking the answers. Of course there are often myths (click for some myth busters) that are circulated, so this blog post will try to disseminate links to the official resources that you can use to expand your knowledge.

Cruise lines are monitoring the situation and have imposed precautionary measures including refusing boarding of individuals presenting with certain symptoms. The lines have implemented enhanced policies, which are in effect as of 27 February 2020, built upon those which were first implemented on 31 January 2020 and focus on conservative measures, as the situation evolves, to appropriately and effectively screen every guest and crew member on every ship prior to boarding.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely monitoring an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Chinese authorities identified the new coronavirus, which has resulted in thousands of confirmed cases in China, including cases outside Wuhan City.

Additional cases have been identified in a growing number of other international locations, including the United States. There are ongoing investigations to learn more.

The following video is very informative - worth watching.

Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) advice for the public

The World Health Organization has a website dedicated to Novel Coronavirus 2019. The advice for the public, including those traveling, is very simple - and it is advice that should be followed all the time.

Wash Your Hands Frequently

Practice Respiratory Hygiene

Maintain Social Distancing

Avoid Touching Eyes, Nose & Mouth

If you have Fever, Cough & Difficulty Breathing - Seek Medical Help

Practice General Hygiene when visiting Live Animal Markets, Wet Markets or Animal Product Markets

Avoid Consumption of Raw or Undercooked Animal Products

Protect Yourself & Others from Getting Sick

Click on Images Below To Enlarge

Additional Resources

Cruise Line Specific Resources