Sea Day 4

Today we rounded the top end..... past Albany rock, past cape york , past two Tuesdays, Wednesday and  Thursday island  and now on our way to Darwin... We passed lots of Light houses all dotted along the Coast.

Just out of Thursday Island, a speed boat came out to meet us.... the Pilot announced that the electrician had come out to wave to the parents that were on the ship.... What a buzz that would have been for both family’s

There was another rendezvous between a Cargo Ship and ourselves as the pilots on both ships often pass each other.... so there was the mandatory greeting with the blasting of 3 horns each....we passed so close you felt you could just reach out and touch it.

We both absolutely loved this part of the trip as it was just so exciting sailing so close to the coastline.... You are lucky to even see another island on the Pacific cruises we have been on.

Zumba is still popular with 300 people attending in the Vista Lounge...  Some want to do water Zumba but it would have to be done in shifts as there is no way everyone will fit in the pool..... the only Zumba move that you could achieve would be that of keeping your head above water without having someone elbow you in the eyeball...... not sure who’s brilliant idea that was!!

For lunch today they had a BBQ up on deck.......the prawns were yummo, there was chicken, sausages, pork, lamb etc..... we hope that will be a Sunday special from now on....

We have started receiving the Australia Today Newsletter , which is keeping us up with current events...  I hope that they only let us know the good stuff.... like the Parramatta and Swans winning....

I decided to also add a picture of friend the Bridge Cam!!

Garry’s world cruise Bread Roll Count so far – 17

More Pics from Sailaway Day

Here are some pictures that Melanie’s boyfriend David Bourne took for us...

Sea Day 3

First of all I need to make an amendment..... Garry must of been asleep when I asked him how many bread rolls he had eaten because in fact it was 3 not 1 so

Garry’s world cruise Bread Roll Count so far – 10

Not a lot to report after 3 days at sea as you start to do same thing.... After breakfast this morning we spent a bit of time up on deck as we were sailing past Cairns. Bit of excitement though as we got to see some other movement on the sea . A cargo ship, sail boats and a game jet skier that came out tearing past the boat.....  the most excitement came when we realised that our mobile phones had connectivity......everyone was up on deck calling love ones, messaging and face booking J

Other than that not much else.... not sure what possessed us to attend the Rum tasting.... we sat through 20 minutes of not understanding what the presenter was saying only to taste rum which I don’t even like lol .... we had lovely lady next to us that went up to the bar and ordered a Pina Colada mocktail  then proceeded to pour her shots into it to give it some oomph!!

This of course had us running late for Trivia, which we didn’t win but we did score 1 point more than before.

Last night was the last performance from the “The Lions Den” our 3 young Philippino boy band.  Once again they played to a full house and they were enjoyed by all...

Garry’s world cruise Bread Roll Count so far – 14

Sea Day 2

Things are starting to settle as we are all winding down... we are all becoming more and more relaxed about the things that we are doing...  The Patters have been action packed to the point where you have to choose the things that you prefer to do....

Zumba was on the menu today, and I have it on good authority that it was a great success... the vista was packed... We attended the Port Talk on Darwin in the Princess Theatre.  Our Port Lecturer is Deborah Shields and I would have to say I was impressed ... she seems very knowledgeable and very helpful for both Princess and independent visitors.... she can tell you which bus takes you where and how much you can expect to pay by all means of transport.

The skies are getting bluer and seas are becoming calmer as we sail up the coast. Tomorrow we will be  cruising the Cassowary Coast .... so hopefully there will be things to see and photograph up on deck.

We have a little corner in the Vista that we commandeered for afternoon trivia ..... we have been averaging 3 teams of Crazy Cruisers .... but not even numbers is bring us any luck.

I decided to do the promenade shuffle this morning ... only to be put to shame by the hundreds of others walkers that were overtaking me at alarming rates......  I was puffing while the others would pick up pace to run past me so they would not get stuck behind me at any point.... I did pass one person  but I nearly tripped over her walker!!

Tonight was Formal Night along the with Captains welcome party and champagne waterfall..... it is getting to the stage now that when you have seen one you have seen them all ... We noticed that princess had put up more portrait stations making it difficult to navigate your way around the Atrium.  During dinner we had the first of many birthdays on this trip.... “Happy Birthday Judy”

There was also a new production Show called “Rock this Town” which was good as we didn’t think we could sit through another Shimmy or Save the Last Dance...

Garry’s world cruise Bread Roll Count so far – 8 ( ooh we are slowing down )

Sea Day 1

Inside cabins are small and cosy, but once you have put everything away hung a few things up using our hooks, Magnets and blue tac, it actually feels quite homely.

Lots of different activities to do in the Patter, but one thing that caught our eye last night was the scheduling of the late comers muster in the same venue as our Crazy Cruisers Meet and Greet.... Garry mentioned some concerned but I assured him that with Anne in charge we had nothing to worry about.  Well lo and behold there we are sitting have a nice breakfast we some new friends we had just made,  when the First Purser Angus came onto the loud speaker System and announced that the Crazy Cruisers Meet and Greet was being  held in Jammers at 9am.... I turned to Garry and said .... yep see Anne would fix it...

It was a great turnout..... not just by Crazy Cruisers but we had the Captain, Hotel General Manager, First Officer, the Food and Beverage Manager and Cruise Director turn up..... How exciting was that...

A few people were recognised for performance and awarded Bloody Legend Award. 

Firstly Anne was presented for her great efforts as our Meet and Greeter Extraordinaire, Ray for being the Dymo  - Labeller  Extraordinaire for our fantastic name tags he made up.... and Moi for being the Honorary Crazy Cruising Director.

The consensus was that it was the best Meet and Greet that many of us had been to....

The rest of the day has just been spent eating , drinking and a sad attempt at trivia LOL...

Tonight we went to the show in the Princess Theatre where we saw the group called “Lions Den”, a group of 3 guys who could anything from Opera to rock and roll and a bit of Jersy Boys thrown in...

After that we had a couple of dances in the Wheelhouse Bar  ( especially as we had spent an hour of our day in dance class) and then retired to be refreshed for another big day

Until Tomorrow

Garry’s world cruise Bread Roll Count so far - 7

FW: World Cruise 2011 Sailaway - 25th May 2011

wow I made it online finally!!

The day has finally arrived, of course with all the excitement we were awake at 3am, the first time....  after a bit of on and off dosing it was finally a decent hour to get up....

The final packing was done, the whole time I am shaking my head thinking “god I hope these bags don’t split...”

Luckily our Melanie and Dave had the day off. We were able to bribe them into driving our luggage down to the wharf. This gave us more room in the Limo that we had organised to pick us up. 

Now this is how to travel to join a world cruise .... in the back of stretch limo drinking champagne and acting like little kids in a lolly shop...

Sydney decided to put on a dark miserable day for us so once we arrived at the wharf it was a scramble to get the luggage undercover so it wouldn’t get too wet..

Princess put on a Jazz band just out front of the big white tent were Garry, myself, Ray and Paula decided that we should have the first dance of the cruise.....

For those who were priority or embarkation no 1 – 4 boarding was quick ..... thanks to the prevailing winds ( I was actually hoping we would get on the ship before the tent blew away ) immigrations wifi was becoming more and more flaky, hence the processing was becoming slower and slower....  but  no 5 was finally called and we made it on the boat..

Due to the weather and the excessive amount of luggage that had to be scanned on this particular cruise, sail away ended up a couple of hours later.  Thanks to the weather there was no Champagne sail away party.... so it was a quiet drink for us all in Wheelhouse bar...  the sad bit was that Princess had also organised a High School Orchestra to entertain us up on deck which ended up being poorly attended as it was just too wet and windy.

They had also decided to make it open dining for dinner which suited everyone well,  as luggage wasn’t turning up till late and there were certainly alot of tired travellers wandering around ... We also had our first taste of Rough seas as we sailed out of the heads.... even Captain McBain annouced it was time to take the Ginger tablets LOL...

One of the highlights of our day was going back to cabin and finding Pressies.... we got a world cruise Lanyard, a really nice world cruise backpack complete with cooler bag on the bottom and a couple of WC11 fridge magnets.

Woo Hoo ... we are off!!

Garry’s world cruise Bread Roll Count so far – 4

Oh what a night!

What a great night was had by all at our little pre cruise dinner. 20 cruise critic diehards gathered at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel and it was great start to making this cruise really enjoyable... There were lots of laughs especially when we supplied Ray with most items off a shopping list he sent me on April Fools Day... that should give you a hint to the content...

You can tell a lot about a person by looking in their shopping trolley, and we sure learned a lot about Ray from his list.

He is obviously keen to explore the world and improve his knowledge of other cultures

• solar powered night vision goggles,

• Hieroglyphics interpreters handbook,

• Green & Gold Union jack.

Ray is also hoping for some rest and rejuvenation
• Instant Auburn hair restorer – A wig

• heavy duty wrinkle remover – An Iron, again for instant results.

His need for self improvement will be met

• gluten free socks - a healthy alternative when he opens his mouth to change feet.

• Magnifying Glass – with his poor eyesight we don’t want his face being slapped too many times when he tries to read the ladies name tags…

• Mushy green pea soap – hmm must be an english thing
• Old fart liquidator – Which we tested on him to see if it works…

His new hobbies will include

• construction of a perfect scale model of the Taj Mahal
• to operate the technical alcohol transference mechanism – funnel and tube

A long cruise confined in a small cabin can be testing on marriages and obviously, Ray is keen to improve his relationship with Paula

• jelly bean flavoured massage oil
• Blue fluffy handcuffs.
• solar powered night vision goggles, will come in handy again

To make sure your efforts are successful, we have included five months supply of little blue pills to help you along - enjoy - watch out Paula

2 days to Go

With 2 days to go it is all systems go here.... The packing is well under way and anything that is not in the suitcase in lying around on our bedroom floor...

Our holiday officially started yesterday..... Well that is what we say... with the arrival of Ros and Arnold as our house guests until Wednesday morning.... I will not tell you what I was welcomed with at the front door when they arrived as it might ruin a couple of future surprises...

On Saturday we had family over for both lunch and dinner and a birthday cake for those birthdays that will be missed while we will be away... Young Carly will have to wait as her birthday is on the 7th September ... sound familiar... yes the day we get back....

Last night was officially the last night for 106 days that I will have to cook dinner yippee.... this was celebrated with a champagne or three!!

Lunch today was last night’s leftovers shared with my Mum, Dad and my sister.... they were sad when we left which now makes me sad every time I think of it.

First Bag is Packed and Tagged

It may only be a box of Coke but it is all packed and tagged ready to put into the boot of the car.

With only 7 days to go we are now finally starting to gather clothes for packing... well I am anyway.... Garry keeps saying that we have plenty of time..... HA! .... You know what is going to happen!!

Well yet another milestone has passed to get us closer to the start of our cruise.....

My beautiful Goddaughter Elena was married last Sunday and my baby girl was one of her bridesmaids..... We all scrubbed up nicely even if I do say so myself LOL.....

Next time it is Us

 

Went down to the Wharf today to pick up Ros and Lesley after their Hawaii Cruise.... It was great to listen to them talk about being on our boat...   So the next time she sails into Sydney it will be to collect us..

17 Days and Counting...

I remember thinking once, time was going so slow.... now it is just flying by. It only seems like last week we dropped Ross and Lesley down at the wharf for them to start their 35 Day Hawaii Cruise, and here we are, next week we will be heading down to pick them up... I think we have been to Wharf 5 that many times lately that they actually have a special parking spot reserved for us...

Our calendar is filling up quickly with family do’s and catching up with friends before we leave... Of course there is the shopping ... all over the house you will find bits and pieces of “I think we will need that for the cruise”....

We have our little portable Pharmacy with medical supplies for all illnesses ... and we have been jabbed with Flu, Typhoid, Tetanus and Hepatitis injections... better to be safe than sorry....

I have been finalizing all the private tours we have planned and have my envelopes at the ready with all the information printed off and placed inside... and that is not to mention the various spread sheets spelling out what we are going to do and where..

It is really starting to hit home that we will be leaving the Girls behind to fend for themselves, the grown up ones will cope but when I look into my littlest one’s eyes it makes me a little teary.... My little baby is going to miss her daily cuddles from mum .. Though the grown up ones like it as she pays them more attention...