Review: V Australia: Sydney to Los Angeles

My partner is on a quick trip to Los Angeles and as we often have to take a flight to meet a ship here is a review of her experiences on this flight. She'll update it if she feels she has something to add after the return flight.

Flight: Sydney - LA - VA1 - 777D Boeing - Virgin Australia
Class: Economy
Seat configuration: 3-3-3
Seat pitch and depth: 18cm leg room, 15cm recline. You can choose to pay extra for extra legroom - how much depends on your destination.
Features: USB slot, video on demand - dozens of films, TV shows and games to choose from.
Service: Generally helpful, friendly and relaxed.
Food & Beverages: 3 choices including vegetarian for dinner, 2 for breakfast. Heaps of drink choices
Overall it was a comfortable, easy flight and the seats are definitely more comfortable than my last international flight with Qantas. I will be doing an international flight with Qantas in about 2 weeks, so will have something to compare this with.

Cruise ships... they just keep docking

This is the time of year when ships move in and out of Australian ports almost daily and as the industry grows more and more will come. Today the Queen Mary 2 leaves Sydney bound for Adelaide. In the last 10 days I have been on board the Arcadia and the Balmoral and my colleague has just come back from a short cruise on the Dawn Princess. More to come...
The Arcadia is a P&O vessel and was designed for the British market "trendy British" is how Berlitz describes her layout. The guide also describes it as "restrained and welcoming" which I agree with. This is one of a number of ships displaying works of art (around 3,000 in this case) - and all by contemporary British artists. It has an observation lounge at the top of the ship, 14 bars - including an English pub of course and a spa with a hydrotherapy pool (see pic). There are 5 types of accommodation - though descriptions can be confusing to the novice. The picture is of the Barcelona Suite. A strictly child-free ship, the four- star Arcadia is on her way back to Southampton via Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore.
The Balmoral is another British ship and she belongs to the Fred Olsen line. I felt like I was visiting a friendly British club. With a much smaller capacity than the Arcadia which can take 2,500 passengers, the Balmoral which can carry 1350 has a more intimate feel. Also on a World Voyage, the Balmoral is, at time of writing, in the Great Australian Bight.
This week (8th March) Sydney will see the Pacific Sun at Wharf 8, the Pacific Princess (13th March) at the Overseas Passenger Terminal and next day the Volendam with Crystal Symphony arriving on the 18th. Busy time... but a great chance to see these fabulous ships in our busy harbour.
Email me - martin@travelchoice.com.au if you would like any more information on any of these ships and their destinations.