packercruising

Terrific idea!

We never seem to get waiters that keep my coffee cup from getting empty. We do MDR for breakfast occasionally, though.

We used to do Specialty Dining a lot, but not much anymore. The MDR depends on several factors. One is the menu. I am not a gourmet food type person. Sometimes time is a factor and Windjammer always has something good and pretty quick. Otherwise, we like MTD.

I always figured the Schooner Bar was an escape room. 🙂

All I know is, somebody screwed up. This wasn't Melbourne. This was a much smaller town north of there. And yes, shops really were closed. They were scheduled to open later than our tour was going to be there. We never did get to actually see Melbourne, so it is no knock on your city. We started out in Perth for 2 days and it was 104 degrees. The day before we left for the cruise, we had 19" of snow. One constant on this cruise was that the people at every port were really friendly. Except maybe for a barista in Sydney that didn't want to give me a cup of black coffee. 🙂

They don't already have yours on file? 🙂

For us, flight home is usually determined by the airlines. We fly Delta out of Green Bay, WI and it is not often we get good flight times.

You have "best month" in the header. We have been twice in May and once in August. We much preferred May. We saw much more wildlife both times. Have not been on Ovation Or Rhapsody, but we have been on Vision, which is the same class as Rhapsody. We loved that one.

Neat, thanks!

Did you find your cap?

For my wife, it is worth it, but I am a beer drinker. I probably do not break even, but the question was about convenience and I love the convenience of it.

We watch some runners from our balcony once. They were allowed on the ship, but it delayed departure. Hard to feel sorry for someone like that. It might help if the ship time was the same as port time. Last Feb. Ship time was 1 hr different from port time in Belize. Made it confusing for catching our excursion. But what the heck, they have Belikan Beer! If you get to Belize there is an awesome woodcarver there. The best shopping is behind pier 4 where the locals are.

Welcome to cruising and to the forum! Usually I would say that flying in the day of departure is a bad idea, but this is obviously an exception. Considering the distance, it is probably a direct flight? Lots of good ideas here. The carryon only idea is really good, if you pack right. Also, have all your documentation. Someone mentioned a private car. That would be more expensive, but might be worth it for you.

We were on an excursion that included that included a forest and then shopping in a small town. The forest was terrific, but we only got 1/2 hour there. We got to the town and most of the shops were closed. Probably those little towns can't afford to have shops open every day. The ship was supposed to let them know we were coming, but someone dropped the ball. We had a good time, though.

It's their July, so think hot! We were there in March Our favorite port (Other than Sydney), was Adelaide. Beautiful city. They even had a band great us as we came in to port. I became a Adelaide Crows fan during that cruise. 🙂 Melboure was a disappointment as we were there on a Tuesday and apparently shops like to close on Tuesdays. Poor planning on the ships part.