Oct 23-25 - At Sea

 Oct 23 -  At sea 

A day of rest!  After a few consecutive port days we are happy to sleep in, attend a couple of lectures, and relax for the afternoon.  

This morning Hutch presented his talk on Aqaba, Wadi Rum and Petra.  These have been places that we have considered for future cruises in conjunction with the Suez Canal, but after seeing the physical demands of such a trip, and given the situation in the Middle East,  I think I will have to cross them off my lists!!  Lots of walking in desert heat is not within the realm of possibility now!

Following Hutch, we stayed in the theatre for Duncan O’Brien’s White Ships presentation.  He focussed on the Matson Line’s contribution to the golden age of luxury ships in the South Pacific and how it helped shape today’s cruise industry.

We had a leisurely afternoon basically doing nothing - a little TV, some iPad time, a little sun on the balcony, enjoying our life of leisure!  

We’ll soon need to prepare to change cabins (when we added this cruise to our previously booked Around Australia one, the same cabin was not available) Thanks to Teresa (our great travel agent) she found and booked the cabin right next door!  Sumeth, our cabin attendant will help with this on Saturday.  We’ve never done this before, so hopefully it will all be easy!

Tonight is ‘formal night’ again!   After dinner the show is something different - Yuri & Nato, an aerial act. A different type of entertainment than we have had so far.

 Come back to this page tomorrow for any exciting updates we may have!🤣😂

Oct 24 -  Still crossing the Tasman Sea

Another day at sea - but a bit cooler, foggy and a few showers! We set our clocks back another hour last night so we had an extra hour to get going this morning.  

Our first ‘activity’ was a meeting for In Transit passengers; there are about 250 -300 people staying on the ship in Sydney.  We were given information about changing cabins, getting off the ship in Sydney so they can show that the passenger count is ‘0’ before starting the new embarkation process and were instructed to carry an ‘In Transit’ card, a Customs and Immigration form, our passport, and our Princess Medallion (our room key etc) when we disembark. 

This cruise is different from any we have been on before!  There are passengers embarking and disembarking in several ports - Honolulu, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin and Brisbane!  It must be a logistical nightmare for Princess to figure out which cabins are free to accommodate new passengers along the route!  We knew we would have to change rooms because we booked this cruise and the next one months apart. But our Aussie dinner mates booked the first leg and at the same time, the extension to Perth where they live, and they could not get the same cabin from Sydney to Perth.  So they have to move for their last 10 days?!  Musical cabins!!  LOL 

We have had a couple of ‘offers’ from Princess!!!  Offers to receive a 50% refund of the cruise fare we paid to relocate from a balcony to an ‘obstructed oceanview’ ( this has a window not a balcony)!, and yesterday an offer of 100% refund of the fare we paid if we would change our cruise to a different Aus / NZ sailing within two years!  This also included the cost of rebooking air arrangements!  We said, ‘No, thank you’!!  We waited too long for this trip to give it  up!

We went to the last White Ships talk where Duncan tied all his presentations together.  He talked about the circumstances that led the Matson Line to abandon luxury passenger travel and change their business focus back to shipping, their original business venture.

They were the last  American flagged ships to sail from the USA to Hawaii and the South Pacific.  The Jones Act required ships to go to a foreign port unless they were manned by a US crew.  Unions made this cost prohibitive.  They had been receiving US subsidies on their sailings between the mainland and Hawaii and when these were removed it became too expensive. Increased fuel costs and the cost of continuing to provide the luxury experience passengers had come to expect were too expensive to maintain.  The advent of airline travel began about the same time in the 1950’s.

All in all this was an excellent series of 13 talks - and given by a Canadian who had actually sailed on the Matson Line as a young child!

We had another relaxing afternoon and it will soon be time for dinner! Hopefully the show tonight will be as good as last night’s performance by Yuri & NATO!  It was very captivating and different from all the other entertainment so far. 

Tonight’s show is called Magic to Do and is described as a ‘spectacular musical revue paired with mesmerizing on stage illusions!’

We’ll post our last at sea update here tomorrow as we get closer to Sydney, Australia!  Stay tuned!

The Travellers

😊 🛳️ 😊

Oct 25 -  Almost there!

Last sea day!  

It’s been wonderful!  And we still have so much more to see in the weeks to come!

Today the captain announced that we will be taking on the pilot this afternoon and arriving in Sydney about 2 PM to avoid high swells later on!!!  Maybe tonight I will crack open the Gravol / Ginger!!!  We will stay at sea close to shore overnight and hopefully be able to enter the harbour and dock by 7:00 AM.  I think there is to be some special welcome for the ship as this is her ‘maiden voyage’ to Australia and New Zealand!  Guess we have to get up early and watch?

That should be easy as we set the clocks back another hour tonight to be on Aussie time!  So when get up at 7:00 AM it will be Saturday, October 26 here…. And 15 hours ahead of Toronto ET… I think!  It’s hard to keep track with all the time changes - so we just pay attention to ship time so we never miss a meal!!! 🐷🐷

Today we started to get our belongings together for the move.  Sumeth will bring in one of those moveable clothes racks and take everything from our closet to the cabin next door.  We’ll just dump everything else in our suitcases and then empty them tomorrow in our new digs!  We have to be out of our room by 8:45, so we aren’t sure if the new cabin will be ready yet…we’ll talk to him in the morning.

We plan to get off the ship and hang out near the ship in Sydney. We hope to walk to a pharmacy that is less than 1/2 km from our berth.   We’ll be docked right across from the Opera House!!  It’s so amazing to look across and see that iconic landmark!  We’ll get back on about noon to start our next voyage!!

See you in Sydney!!

Two Very Happy Travellers

😃😃