Oz Cruising Questions & Answers

Hi Lawrie,
Can only guess that they hold onto our money in their account as security. as one of the other reviewers said "The banks who provide credit card merchant facilities to travel agents require them to hold large amounts of cash as security"

That is a pretty weak excuse for a company that wants to carry on trading after the pandemic. Promising 90 days refund and changing it to 2 years credit is not the action of an honest company desiring to continue in business. I ask ‘why’ because this company’s inaction and lack of response is quite baffling to me.
I was hoping for a convincing explanation direct from OzCruising. The whole fiasco only makes sense to me if OzCruising is colluding with P&O to avoid paying out refunds. P&O refuse to get involved, even although the actions of OzCruising as one of their agents is reprehensible.

This is a part of OZ automatic email reply....obviously a blatant lie as RC has confirmed that OZCRUSING have received our refund money (less than 45 days after requesting a refund not a FCC).

The pandemic reason is getting a little thin.. especially when you consider that this is an online travel agent ...who can work from any remote computer.

Q: When will my refund come through?

We have been informed by most of the Cruise lines that refund processing times have increased substantially, this has had an impact on our ability to process refunds for some time.

Unfortunately, due to the Cruise Lines taking longer to refund money it will take at least 6 9 months before the funds are received by our office, once received we will prioritise these in cruise date order. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we process a high volume of refunds due to the global pandemic and reduced staffing levels.

wrong format this is a product review page. Oz cruising is not likely to respond on this page or any other. They seem to have gone into hibination.

Thanks lencox49 new at this so I will just review Ozcruising......Not impressed.

I don't think I would be sending any money to this lot. They seemed to go into Hybination at the first sign of trouble and are very hard to contact at any time.

Very slow at giving a refund when Cunard has cancelled

They are still sending emails out with future cruise deals..

Only to change into american currency.But better changing currency on shore.You get more for your buck.Best place to change money is the post office as,they dont charge any commission.But you cant take any left over money back there.They will not take it>dont know why.

Hi Julie

I have been on Princess, P&O and Royal Caribbean. I have not yet been on Carnival Cruises so unfortunately my response will exclude this for this reason.

My overall recommendation would be Royal Caribbean, particularly Voyager and Explorer. There are so many activities for kids to do, ice skating, rock climbing, mini golf, games arcade, flow rider just to name a few. Royal Caribbean has many disadvantages over the other two such as needing to use US dollars, mandatory tipping and I didn't find some of the food that great, but for a 13 year old boy, they will absolutely love it.

Princess is my favourite cruise line and I particularly like the Golden Princess which has more to do for children than some of the other Princess ships, however they are known as floating retirement homes for a reason! This can be a benefit as there is often less other kids to have to share the facilities in the kids club with. I guess it depends what your 13 year old boys is like, my kids are the kind who get excited over learning how to fold napkins into all kinds of various things. The food and service is much better on a princess ship than a Royal Caribbean and P&O. Movies under the stars is always popular with my kids. Princess ships are not likely to have rock climbing walls or ice skating rinks though.

P&O will likely be the cheapest option, the best way I describe P&O compared to Princess is it's like comparing Jetstar and Qantas. More is included and you get better service on Princess, however if your aim is to get somewhere (in this case ports) and you'd rather have more spending money, than P&O is a good option. I've never had a problem with P&O and my kids have a ball on their ships. They have the edge program which often has a zipline, rock climbing, segways etc, but you pay extra for them. There are often a lot of families on board and it can be pretty busy in the kids clubs.

If looking a P&O I'd probably look at a cruise itinerary that had a lot of ports and probably no more than 2 sea days in a row.
Royal Caribbean I'd want something that had at least 1 block of 3 sea days in a row, if you are going to spend extra for the facilities, then you want the chance to use them.
Princess it wouldn't matter.

Hope that helps and god luck deciding :)

thankyou

Thank you I have booked our first cruise on the Golden Princess

No, they only book Aus residents (/those able to provide a aus postal address)- all payments are made in aud dollars

I had to cancel my parents trip booked for Dec and was told their policy is no refund but they could do a credit hold for you for 6 months but they will keep 100 of whatever you have paid thou for pushing a few button on their keyboard to cancel.

Suggest you ring ozcruising. They would need to know the exact age of your children and from memory the various cruise lines dont have the same age rules. So it may depend on which ship you are looking to book as to the applicable rules.

Most cruise lines only accept a credit card - you have an account while on board which you can check every day to keep an eye on your spend. At the end of the cruise they put a print out in your cabin mail and you can check everything is right. Your credit card will be charged once you leave the ship.

No, I ended up using cash as the exchange rate on board was outrageous. I don't recommend using CC on board. Change your money over before you get on the ship and after you get off. You need USD, and you can not get out of tipping AT ALL.

You can use your credit card but make sure your bank does the conversion. You ate offered the option fir the ship or your bank to convert. Get yourself a 28 degrees credit card. Best conversion rate by far. With regards to tipping as long as you dont opt for anytime dining you can opt out of auto tipping and then make your own decisions on woi and how much to tip.

To answer your question- yes it's normal, it goes by the cruise line and their standard terms and conditions are. Our cruise is in April 2016 Howeever we have to be finalised by October 2015. And our cruise line Is royal Caribbean which is sister company of celebrity cruises.
So it's normal.

Hi Sweetlittle
I don't have a site! You need to contact OzCruising they will be able to help you, I only gave a review! But from what I know I think the codes and prices relate to different decks. When we cruise we only like to be at the aft of the ship (back) love to be further back, have never been in an interior room but! Our first cruise was booked interior and we were given an upgrade to an outside room which was great, we always do a balcony now. If you email Oz they are very helpful and answer very quickly.

I agree.Ozcruising is the best and cheapest site of them all.John {jack} haley.

Please contact OZCRUISING

Hi, there are quite a few ships and new ones to Australia, we are sailing in 2016 also. We cuised the South Pacific last year for ten nights on Royal Caribean Radiance of the Seas and this ship was lovely we would sail this ship again, Celebrity Solstice is a large ship and I know of people who have been on this ship and say it is lovely, we have done the
South Pacific on Voyager of the Seas but I did not like this ship at all, it is huge. PO have a couple of new ships into Australia, Aria and I can't think of hand of the second!! I wouldn't go back to PO after doing other cruise lines but I think we will try Aria it looks very nice and they have some South Pacific cruises for 2016. I hope I have been a little helpful.

Sandygirl
I have never cruised solo, I cruise with my husband, but we are quite private and enjoy each other's company therefore we don't mingle a lot but we enjoy other people's company especially at the dining room. Many people cruise solo and as you have travelled solo you would have no problem. It is entirely up to you each day what you participate in, my advice go for it you will love it.

I have only experienced one cruise and that was with P& O and my own personal opinion is that I would never use nor recommend them, however I have heard quite a few positive comments re the Royal Carribean. My partner and I are in the process of taking P& O to Fair Trading, please read all terms and conditions and the fine print, P&O seem to offer "cheaper" cruises but please be aware of all the extras on board that is quite easy to assume are all inclusive in the price. The extras on board are absolutely ridiculous, would you pay $175 for a 55 minute massage?

Princess is far superior to P & O - 5 star v 3 star. P & O is pitched at a younger clientelle that has different tastes to the older group that Princess cater for. The standard of the dining areas, food and entertainment is far better on Princess. We have cruised with P & O and Princess but with advancing age, find Princess is more to our liking. We will be doing our next cruise on Princess (our 7th). Terry

I've cruised with P&O & Celebrity, I would definitely cruise with P&O again....not so sure about Celebrity.....I've got friends who've cruised with Princess & my wife & I are currently checking out the 2015 Princess cruises.....I think it depends on what you're looking for in a cruise, so don't let others put you off.....for the most part, a cruise is what you make it as I'm sure you already know. My wife & I are in our 50s, I was told that we would love Celebrity, as it is aimed at our age group......I personally think they missed the mark, should have been aimed at the 80s.....I've been told that Princess is so much better than P&O, but then was told the same thing about Celebrity....I would suggest you try one and decide for yourself.