7 Welcome to the Wetsunday's - Airlie Beach

We weren’t in any rush to head out today seeing our tour was cancelled due to “Operational Reasons”.  But whilst sitting out the back eating breakfast and watching the rain pour down we decided there was absolutely no rush at all... Eventually the weather settled enough for us to head down to board a tender and start our day....  Unfortunately, just as we arrived at the marina so did the heavier rain... We decided to not take the boardwalk around to the town so we wouldn’t get so wet, instead we caught the shuttle bus ($5 return)... little did we know that the drop off point was at the other end of town so we were still faced with the task of getting into town with no cover.   I think we did well with the elements against us and in the end we decided would get wet no matter if we walked the boardwalk or walked back to the bus... so we decided walk back to the marina.... and we weren’t disappointed...  to reward ourselves we stopped at Sorrento Restaurant and Bar and sat on the balcony for a glass of wine and bowl of hot chips... Back on the tender which for today was one of the local catamarans, and back on the ship for a well deserved hot shower and bowl of soup...

Oh and as a side note..... now I hate admit this but we were back on board in time for afternoon trivia..... and I would never of mentioned this .... except “WE WON” .....

 

Travelling with my Personal Jeweller

I haven’t mentioned... whilst being on board we have been desperately searching a crew member that we recognised from a previous cruise... it always makes it feel more personal when we do that...

Well in last place we would ever imagine but we found him in the jewellery store....  Yes Zoran from Serbia was there .... my own personal jeweller from last year were I am sure I helped him along with commission from sales for various friends and family.... After lots of hugs and kisses and reminiscing I am sure he has guaranteed himself a little more commission.... I mean I have a birthday on this cruise.... hmm not sure he gets much on the costume stuff though!!!!  LOL

 

6 Sea Day 2

Today was a fairly lazy day, we went to breakfast a little late, had a chat with lovely couple from USA, then caught up on emails ..... and then oh my goodness is that the 12 o’clock bell..... must be time for lunch.... so from our breakfast table we went straight to our lunch table... we decided to try out the English Pub Lunch up in the Sterling Steakhouse.... Pie, ploughmans and bread & butter pudding was the order of the day...

Tonight was the Oceans version of the Production Show Stardust... We have some wonderfully talented Singers and Dancers on this particular cruise which make up for the fact that there are no stage props,  seeing we are not in a proper theatre.

 

5 Brisbane

We have been to Brisbane port a couple of times before, but this trip was dedicated to spending time with family and friends.  We were so excited to meet up with Ros and Arnold again especially as we had missed them so much whilst we were on board!!! Omg and it has only been one day!!

We started with coffee at port side with a group of cruisers from on and off ship, you would not have imagine that it has been six months since most of us had all sat together.

Later we moved on and met up with Doug and Beth (Garry’s Brother and his wife) and all had a lovely lunch together.

We had a very laid back and relaxing sail away on our friends Bob and Boz’s balcony, sipping wine and munching on nibbles watching planes land and take off from the airport as we sailed down the Brisbane River.

 

4. A day at Sea

Our first day at sea meant that we were having our first Meet and Greet for our Cruise Critic group on board....

There was a slight hiccup as we were scheduled to meet in the Tahitian Lounge at around the same time as trivia.  We were then transferred to meet in Sabatini’s restaurant.  It was great to put so many faces to names and we were even lucky enough to be visited by the Captain.

He only visited for a short time as he had to race off and probably get the formal jacket ready as tonight was the Captains Welcome party and first formal night.

We were very impressed with the Captains party as Captain Rickard stood at the entrance, shook hands and gave everyone a very personal welcome.  He then went on to make an informative and humorous speech which I would say put him up there with our favourite Captain Toddy!!

After that we headed to the dining room to meet our new table mates... well we waited and waited and waited.... and then we realised that we had become “THAT COUPLE” .... you know the ones you all point at and feel sorry for because they are sitting there at a table with friends...  It was not long until the Maitre D came over and moved us to a new table for the following night.

 

3 Where's our boat gone!!

Up early on Monday morning we couldn’t help ourselves but to walk down to the OPT to check out where our ship should have been... We decided to take a walk up to observatory hill, a good vantage point where we could see our ship berthed at White Bay.

At 11am we checked out and taxied it over which was really quite painless; the only thing that stung was the extra $30 we had to pay to get there.  Once checked in we didn’t have to wait long at all until we were called to embark...

How can you go on a cruise without testing the system.... so yes we turn up with a case of wine... and yes just as our boarding pass says we are more than happy to pay the corkage for our excess bottles...  When the security scanning the box asked us if we had ginger ale would have said yes but stupidly we said “No, Wine” .... even after the second time she said it we still didn’t get the hint.. dah!!  Over comes head of security for Sydney ports, looks at me and says “what are you doing here“ .... Yay working at the OPT can work in your favour... told him we were going on holidays and said “yeah as long as we pay corkage we can take them on” ... he said “well you know better than me” and waved us through.....

Your first impression when you walk on the ship and you see the lift lobby you say “OMG she is tiny”  it is not long after that you then realise that all the places that count have the extra space.... and yes that is our cabin.... “yippee is she huge” .. well to our standard..  2,  yes 2 people can stand at the same time ....... actually there is that much space that I swear you can have a game of twister on the floor.  Each of us can walk around the side of the bed and yes you can walk into the bathroom without having to climb over someone if they are sitting at the desk... We have to cooee just to find each other....  Now the shower is another kettle of fish.... you have to stand side on just to fit and not to have the shower curtain cling to your whole body......hey who cares I can do cart wheels in the bedroom.

The whole ship is just quaint and charming and just can’t help but fall in love with her... There are lots of nooks and crannies where you can sit and relax, have coffee or a drink... I especially like the back deck that leads out from the buffet with tables and chairs where you can enjoy the view while you eat your meal.

Sail away was a little quiet as we didn’t leave till 8 pm and it was quite breezy up on deck... The night lights of Sydney are just stunning, made even more so with the Opera House sails glowing green to celebrate St Patricks day..

 

2 And So it begins...

We decided to book a night in the city before our cruise, being a Sunday we could get one of the girls to drive us in as on the Monday everyone is working.  We booked into the Harbour Rocks Hotel which meant that we only had to roll our bags down the hill to get to the Passenger terminal where we were boarding the Ocean Princess...  But like all well laid plans a spanner was thrown in the works when Cyclone Lusi decided to head down towards the coastline of New Zealand.  The Ocean Princess’ captain decided that rather than visiting Tauranga they would hightail it out of Auckland and head straight to Sydney while the weather was still good..

For them it meant they could have 2 days in Sydney, for us it meant that we now had to board at White Bay.... I like White Bay as an embarkation port as it is so much more user friendly than the OPT.... but not if you are staying in the city within walking distance to the original port.

The Harbour Rocks is a nice little boutique hotel.  The rooms are cosy and if you are fortunate enough to be on the third floor you get to use their stairs for no extra cost... Only our luggage had the luxury of being taken up in an oversize dumb waiter. On saying that it was good exercise in using the stairs which we should be doing once we are on board.

That night we had a lovely get-together with some other passengers staying in Sydney from our hotel... We enjoyed drinks and dinner at the Hart pub meeting people who will become new friends over the next 51, or at least 20 days...