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Hello all! Just starting up a roll call for this itinerary. It will be my first Transpacific and very excited to go the distance on to Alaska! Looking forward to hearing any port tips etc. and from anyone doing back to backs.

Hi Cruisers, I am really troubled by some decisions that Royal takes on the cruising dates for Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. This cruise is called 11 Night Great Barrier Reef Cruise https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/itinerary/11-night-great-barrier-reef-from-sydney-on-brilliance/BR11SYD-75258771?country=USA but takes place on Stinger Season - Wet Season, when water activities are not so enjoyable or even not recommended. Even if the best time to visit the Great Barrier Reef is from May to October, there are no cruises for that dates. Does that make sense to anyone? Or even more important, has anyone cruised to Queensland with Royal in these dates? Also, let me know if you engaged in water activities (snorkel-scuba being our most important ones). Many thanks to everyone! Dieter

Ovation of the Seas, 11 Nights departing from Sydney Australia to New Zealand For many years I avoided Alaska cruises on the premise that bikinis are better than parkas. Then I finally did an Alaskan cruise. Just wow! Why did I wait so long? That experience got me looking even farther from home and I realized the same could be said for Australia and New Zealand. Learning from Alaska I decided to just do it. YOLO! I've always wanted to visit both Australia and New Zealand so hopefully this will be a rehearsal for more cruising down under. Practice makes perfect. This is me doing my single digit dance. It's a long flight to Australia, I take off early one day and land two days later. Somehow it ended up being 2 days and a few hours to get there with a connection. Fortunately it takes less than 6 hours to fly home. Strong tailwinds I guess. With the time change it's already well into tomorrow there. I can never keep that straight. All I know is that this cruise is costing me two days of my life just to get there so I have high expectations. This is an 11 night cruise but weather permitting we'll have one day sailing through Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sounds. With the three sounds all on day 9 the itinerary looks longer than it is. Here's hoping for good weather. Just one tender port so that's a plus. I tendered on Ovation in Hawaii so that doesn't concern me. With the time change it seems that Sydney always celebrates New Years Eve before North America so on that basis I'll get to watch the Super Bowl a day before you folks in North America. I'll post the outcome here, get ready to place your bets. Super Bowl Monday here we come. The game starts mid-morning so there may be some day drinking involved. At least it's on a sea day. Flying into Sydney two days prior and staying downtown my plan is to take the train into the city and sleep for the rest of the day. Other plans include the Sydney Bridge Climb and a tour of the Sydney Opera House after which I'll either crash hard or have some gas left in the tank to explore a little bit more. If I have time I may try to find Alice. Maybe I'll get up early (or be up already) to watch Ovation come into port. My bags are packed, I'm ready to go... 'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

So what is going on with Royal Caribbean drinks package pricing?I took ever-ones advise and added the drinks package to my cart at their price of AUD$85 per day and was happy to see the price reduced to AUD$73.14 per day. So I cancelled my original package and then added it again at the new price of $73.14. Then 3 days later the price went up, this time to AUD$77.28 per day and my cheaper package that was in my cart was cancelled automatically. How is that fair if I am being proactive and organised?

Hi Everyone! Taking Matts advice I've been trying to find a travel agent located in Australia. So far, they either don't reply to emails or don't actually read the email before replying. I really want to book Ovation through an agent but I'm running out of time. I live in Melbourne but I'm happy to use email and phone so any recommendations around Australia would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Luke.