Sydney - Venice - Sydney - Overview

I suppose that having been just over two weeks, it is a good time to look back at the cruise and see what has stuck in the memory.  Time is a natural filter, (of the good and not so good), so what follows may just reinforce what has gone on before or put it into perspective.

 

Apart from friends and relatives, plus a couple of travel companions, I obviously have no idea who has been reading the blog – or why.  Hopefully, some future cruisers may have dipped in for a bit of info about the ship, though the ports are covered far better by other blogs – links on the right.

 

Deciding to do a long cruise is very daunting  the first time you commit, but when you have a few cruise sectors behind you, the focus changes.  For us, there was no anxiety at all regarding spending so long on the Dawn Princess again, because regardless of the more modern or larger options now available, it is like a second home to us now and we have a great fondness for the ship.  Compared to the Royal Princess, launched in 2013, the Dawn is a fair bit smaller and having been launched in 1997, obviously shows some signs of aging, that no amount of fresh paint can hide.

 

We know that a ship like this has a lifespan in front line service of some 25 years, so it is now two thirds of the way through its commercial life.  If you wanted to be picky, you could compare it adversely with any modern ship, but if you accept it for what it is, then it still stacks up pretty well.

 

The Staff

 

Regardless of the physical structure, it is the staff who make it, and there is no doubt that the Dawn’s reputation for topping the customer satisfaction tables is well deserved.  With a total staff of around 900, it is inevitable that one or two may not appeal to everyone, but that is often a matter of personal taste.  Nowhere is that more obvious than with the Entertainment Staff. Whilst we may really like a specific member of the team, others may not and vice versa.  We generally try and get on well with them as we see them around quite a bit, by virtue of attending morning and afternoon quizzes and the occasional other activities and shows they host.  Other cruisers may not see so much of them, but all bar maybe one, were great to deal with and we developed a good rapport.  If you have read the earlier posts you may have worked out who that was.

 

Next in line would be the bar/coffee staff. Again, overall, fantastic.  Most seemed quick to learn what we wanted and we found that it paid to use the same bar and therefore saw the same staff whenever possible.  The day we left, there was a major staff reshuffle so even though we usually went to the same bar, had we stayed on, I am not so sure that we would have continued to do so!

 

Food

 

As food is important, (as you may have gathered from the blog!), you make up your own mind as to where and when you eat and what you eat.  All I can say is that the buffet isn’t to everyone’s liking and I understand that, but we have no complaints and in fact, at times, we thought the options available were better than in the dining room.

 

Although the dining room food is generally pretty good, (portion sizes vary) there is a degree of luck with your allocated dinner waiter and assistant.  Many are just fantastic but when passengers talk, it is obvious that one or two were less than impressed with their service.  We had less fun with our guys this time than on previous cruises and they were not quite as efficient, but they weren’t exactly bad waiters.  We have been spoiled in the past.

 

People

 

Our cabin steward was just brilliant.  He usually spotted us going for a meal and it was almost as if he slid into the cabin as soon as we’d left as whenever we returned, the cabin had been refreshed.

However, the most important aspect of cruising is now the other passengers and with so many sea days, you either isolate yourself and sunbathe or you take part in some of the ship’s activities and meet other cruisers.  We opt for the latter as neither of us are sun bunnies.  Our group of acquaintances and friends just keeps growing!  A lot of that is due to the tireless work of the Cruise Critic group leaders, in this case, Ros, ably backed up by Jo, Edie and a team of deck angels delivering messages about forthcoming events.

The dynamics of longer cruises is substantially different from that of short cruises.   Simple things that just add to a sense of community.  The favourite examples are when a passenger in the fairly full theatre, tries to attract the attention of a partner across the far side who has entered later.  The usual is to wave and call, so when a lady calls out and waves, “Graham! Graham!”, almost as one, everyone else waves and calls out to Graham!  Silly, but fun.   The other was a growing sense of fun at trivia, where the answer was known, the rest of the team would “shush” whoever blurted it out, no matter how quietly.  It wasn’t long before all the adjacent teams, who generally sat in the same area each time,  were also “shushing”...  This did not escape Alex’s attention and very soon we were identified as shenanigans corner.

 

Generally, 99.9% of passengers are either fun or you just don’t see much of them, but that 0.1% can be a problem.  Fortunately, we didn’t witness any problems first hand, but one lady certainly ended up with a very poor reputation.  Some passengers were not at all happy when the Egyptian ports were dropped and there was some mumbling, but Princess had no influence on that, so not their fault.  We always work on the assumption of a 4% hiccup rate anyway so if you expect a 90 day or a 100 day cruise to go 100% to plan, then your expectations are probably unrealistic.

   

Entertainment 1 - Musicians

 

There are always going to be differences of opinion here and that includes the resident musicians and also the guest entertainers.  The resident entertainers start with the Dawn Princess Orchestra, led this time (as last year) by the amazing  Sarah Dyer.  This diminutive pianist and keyboard player has to cope with not only the Princess Orchestra, which is composed of session musicians, but also the scores of the Production Shows and the scores of individual entertainers.   Occasionally, they may only have 45 minutes to rehearse with a new performer, but you’d never know to see them in action.  At one stage, the bass guitarist was indisposed so Sarah played the bass part on the keyboard with her left hand, whilst still playing the melody on the piano with her right hand. Few people even noticed that the bass guitarist was absent.  On other numbers, she appears to be playing the melody on both instruments at once!  If that wasn’t talent enough, she was also involved in judging “Dancing With The Stripes” (very witty!) and played the part of a deranged fan in the “Danny Dangerous” murder mystery.

One of those under her command was lead guitarist Matt “Bleeding Gums” Smithies who wowed the enthusiasts with two Blues Shows.  In fact the back line was Matt on Guitar, Matt on drums, Matt on bass guitar, which led to Sarah saying it was Matt. Matt, Matt and Rugg...

The party band(s) swapped half way and both had a strong Caribbean leaning and certainly appealed to some.

The husband and wife “Crimson Duo” also had their fans.  From our perspective, the biggest disappointment was the night-time atrium music.   Ninety days of a pianist singing show numbers to an almost empty atrium (certainly after 10pm), was a sharp and sad contrast to the great evenings we had in the past with Alan and Alana, where we quizzed, socialised and danced until 11:30pm most nights.

 

Entertainment 2 – Guest Entertainers

     

Again, much of this is down to personal preference.   I am not too keen on straight singers or classical musicians, no matter how good they are.  I enjoy entertainers, so that means I am more interested in good comedians, impressionists, magicians, illusionists and ventriloquists.

There were some stand out acts as mentioned in the earlier blogs where I endeavoured to rate them.  One of the major problems for repeat cruisers is that some of the entertainers are not only repeats, but seem to think we have the memory of a gnat, by foisting on us identical shows every time they appear.  Whilst I can accept that it may cost $1,000 to get a new musical score written for the orchestra, there is no excuse for the same tired old jokes each time.  Sadly, one of my favourite entertainers the first time I saw him, now doesn’t rate at all, simply because of it.

My real favourites are those that get me laughing or are so off the wall, you often don’t see what is coming next.  David Copperfield is in a class of his own here, but even he needs to watch out and bring in new material.  Phil Cass, the illusionist still has us baffled (Dominic’s cut tie).  Danny MacMaster – impressionist was brilliant, but will he change his act if we see him again?  British ventriloquist Steve Hewlett had to try and manage with only half his props and did a fantastic job.

Stand-up comedian Ivor Richards was so quick-fire that you needed time to recover and as mentioned before, Pearson and Harvey were funny, but their act was a repeat of last year’s.  No matter how good, material has to be freshened up.

Several musicians impressed and top of the list was probably violinist Vov Dylan with a touch of the Andre Rieu about his music.   Jim Coston’s banjo playing is very much to my liking but the most popular act was probably “The Beatles Celebration” – again!  Read the earlier blogs for a greater coverage.

A couple of acts died the death and if there is any act that is going to really die, it is a poor comedian. One was dreadful and the other’ second show had passengers walking out.

 

So what is left?  Judging by the distinct lack of comments, no one has asked for extra info, so time to draw a line under the cruise.  It is a great ship but as I have said before, cruising is just as much about the people as anything Princess does.  Sure, they could improve their communications and get some consistency, but on board, they are top notch.

 

We now look forward to 2014’s Princess cruises and will keep in touch with our friends as to what happens after 2014!  Somehow, I can’t see us NOT travelling in 2015, we just have to see what the options are.

 

I may add a bit to this blog before the end of the year as we may well catch up with other cruisers, either here or in Australia.

 

 

   

    

Day 91 - Not a totally smooth day to end the adventure!

What?  It's raining?  Welcome to Sydney

 

High winds and rain take their toll.

The fleet leaves from the navy 100 year celebration

Needless to say, not a 100% solid night’s sleep but we did need the alarm at 5:50am, nicely timed to give us 20 minutes before cruising under the Sydney Harbour bridge – again.  As we were on the port side, it was easy to pop our heads out to check on the progress, before heading up to the Horizon Court for the last time.

Back to the cabin to throw the final items into our carry on/off luggage.  Peering out of the balcony for the last time, we saw the rain roll in and judging by a collapsed sign, Sydney may have had a bit of high wind.  A last wave to Ros and Arnold who are staying on and were being joined by son Robbie and new wife, Ruth, who spotted us and waved from the terminal entrance.  After a sad farewell to our wonderful cabin steward (he was happy enough, as he was flying home at 10pm), we headed to the Princess theatre along with others on Silver 3 departures.

A final farewell to Marcus and down the gangway, shielded from the rain and into the luggage collection hall.  The system is straightforward.  All cases are stacked according to the coloured tags and you merely locate your cases from the two back to back rows and walk away with your luggage – if it is there.  A hiccup in the system as 20 minute later we were still waiting, along with half a dozen others on the same coloured tag, for our last case. (There were only two…)

Great coach.  Great Greg. 

Eventually it turned up and we headed for the immigration or agriculture section.  If you had nothing to declare, you just walked through and away. As we are honest, we had to declare the pre-packed Amalfi lemon rice, (no problem) and the dried marrowfat (uncooked mushy) peas.  Oh dear.  It seems that you need an import permit to bring them into Australia.  Fair enough and I did expect a problem. (However, every referees’ whistle has the identical marrowfat pea inside it - and they are allowed into the country without a problem…)  Fortunately, the very nice Border Control lady accepted that we were in transit and got me to swear on my scouts honour, we would be taking them out of Australia that same day, but warned that we’d probably have them taken in NZ.   Hurdle one over.

Not too much heavier than 90 days ago...

Onto the coach somewhat delayed, as were several others of course, but what a great coach and driver/guide.  Greg welcomed us onto the coach and we set off 20 minutes later than scheduled and into the morning rush hour traffic, the rain having stopped and the temperature already creeping up to the day’s high of 23 degrees.  (Yesterday, 39 degrees in Sydney.)

Bondi Beach area

What a change, having a coach with comfortable seats, bags of leg room and best of all, a perfectly clear sound system.  Greg’s commentary was spot on too and after the city, we headed out to the world famous Bondi Beach for an hour.  We strolled past the beach front buildings and up to the main road.  Feeling a bit peckish, I peeked into a fish and chip chop.  “Two battered fish and chips - $21(AUD)”  That is about $24NZ so about  £12 for our English readers.  Bearing in mind last year’s superb fresh (and large) haddock chips (and superb peas) on the seafront at Skegness for £4.55, or, our local shop where 4 fish, $5 worth of chips, 2 hot dogs (battered sausage) and 4 potato fritters will set you back just $20, or £10, Bondi was expensive.  So we made do with a couple of coconut macaroons from the bakery instead.

$4? Really?????

On then to the International airport.  We are obviously spoiled in NZ as luggage trolleys are free.

Self check-in was a breeze, but our flight number had changed as they put on a larger aircraft, a 767, meaning our seats had also changed – from row 6 to row 20.  No matter.  After struggling with shuffling around with our hand luggage to keep it under 7kg and with pockets bulging, they didn’t weigh it anyway!

A very tasty and fresh 6" Subway and a coffee, then through to the departure lounge at the time stated on the ticket – 2:30 for a 3:30 flight.  Sadly, the aircraft was delayed at least half an hour due to high winds.  Once aboard, we were then told that during the pre-flight checks, the pilot noticed a small fuel leak from a valve and had the engineers checking it.  An hour later, they’d wired the valve shut and off we went.  Flying out, Paula noticed the Dawn Princess on its way to Brisbane, just leaving the Sydney Heads.   Ros and Arnold didn’t even wave.

Although I was tired, I did watch the first part of ‘The Lone Ranger’ movie, then when I’d caught up to what we had seen on the ship, I switched over to watch “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-bang’.  OK.  I know it is old and corny, but I like it… 

All was fine until we started our descent into Auckland.  Paula was not at all comfortable as we swayed around and the landing really freaked her out.  “I’m not flying again!” was the muffled squawk from the corner, as she finally released my wrist and let the circulation return.

Expecting the worst, as there were 100 people ahead of us and also, the later (5pm) NZ flight from Sydney had landed ahead of us, we were pleasantly surprised to only have a two minute wait at immigration.

The luggage was through OK and we presented ourselves to the NZ Agriculture/Border Control inspection.  Of course, we were diverted to an inspector, who like her Australian counterpart, was happy enough with packaged Amalfi rice, but as the peas were in an unmarked zip-lock bag, it had to be referred to the supervisor.  Thankfully, he accepted that there was no risk to the NZ environment and let them through.  Yippee!  (All for a couple of dollars’  worth of dried vegetables that Paula hates anyway...)

We headed for the exit with our FREE luggage trolley (Sydney, take note…) and pow!  We stepped out of the exit and into a freezing wind, just away from the driving rain and headed for the pre-booked shuttle van.  Thankfully, we set off just a minute later and headed for home, arriving at 11:30pm, rather than the anticipated 10pm.

Out again in the pouring rain to turn on the water mains and also the gas hot water boiler.

We didn’t have the supplies in for a hot drink so straight to bed.
 

So that is it, apart from an overview summary, which may get written in a day or two.  We hope you enjoyed it and weren’t too bored.  I’ll shortly have to think about starting the next blog, (cruising again 2014) but our next overseas trip is just 4 days in Sydney in December.  Probably no point in a new blog just for that, so I’ll tack it on to this one – if there is anything worth writing.  I'm sure there will be a catch up with some of our Sydney friends from this cruise and hopefully, Ken and Barb from a previous one.  

Day 91 - Last sea day - and lots of laughs

Oh dear.  Yet another bad night…  For our last but one breakfast, I reverted to beans and two types of sausage and ‘country fried potatoes’.  (We used to call them potato wedges or chips…)

We sat with Ross and Jenny again, a couple we have chatted with before and thoroughly enjoyed it.  You always have choices.  Sit on an empty table and maybe someone will join you, or you can select the victims yourselves!  The latter system works well for us and each cruise enlarges the circle.  Remembering everyone’s names may not be so easy though, as not many people wear a name tag.

After yesterday’s victory, we really weren’t too fussed about winning again, but the prizes of rather weak fridge magnets went once again to Anne & John Dormer, with Norm & Marion.  They couldn’t even give them away...

A last morning coffee and snack rolls in the atrium but they were running a table tennis competition down there, with the crew challenging the passengers.  Overall, I think the passengers won – just.  Very lively and typical of the day really.

Back to the cabin to try and complete the packing, ready to put out the cases for collection before dinner.  Long gone are the days when I could pack for a six week trip in a matter of minutes.  Now it takes an hour or two to try and squeeze everything inside and protect anything fragile.  We borrowed M & M’s fancy luggage scales and all seemed to be just about OK before heading down to the Vista for a crew ‘Murder Mystery – Dangerous Danny’.

This was a stage play murder mystery and was performed faultlessly by the entertainment staff with assistance from dance captain Stephanie and the brilliant music manager, Sarah.  She is  a real star away from her piano and keyboards and the part she played was probably written for her.  If not, it was perfect casting.  Very well done and a fair few laughs.

A soup and a roll was deemed enough to see us through to dinner time, where we had organised another curry.

Nando, Ashley, Tom, Tink, Marcus 

Once again, I couldn’t connect to the internet and there was no time for a nana nap either, then it was the final quiz.  Sadly, we didn’t finish on a win, but it was always interesting and occasionally, we learned something.  The quizzes were very well supported and the presentations were varied.  Sadly, there were far too many spelling mistakes in the PowerPoint presentations and some questions were a little ambiguous, some were years out of date, but I suppose that with a total of about 8,000 questions overall, including the other quizzes, it was to be expected.

We finalised the packing and attached the ‘Silver #3’ labels before leaving the 2 cases out.  Right across from us, they had put out no less than 9 – and apparently, that was not unusual.

The choice of curry fir the last night was good one and this time we’d asked for fish balls as well as the other stuff.  This time, we had a biryani chicken/rice type dish, a small spoonful of beef curry and the prawns again.  Very nice too and filling.

Ashley, Tom, Tink, Marcus, Kat, Mark

We headed off to the theatre whilst the waiters and assistants were gathering in piles of white envelopes (tips).

As usual, the crew show was very good, but without a doubt, the favourites were the two skits by the entertainment staff aided by a couple of dancers.  Their rendition of the cruise favourite ‘If I was not not at sea, a xxxxx I would be’, was excellent, but even that paled into insignificance when compared to their latest offering.

Back in Livorno, we were berthed near the newest Princess ship, the Royal.  The intro went along the lines of ‘the staff thought that as the Royal has a wonderful dancing waters display, that passengers on the Dawn shouldn’t miss out, so we have our own version'...

On came the toga wearers, carrying Princess drink bottles, from which they took mouthfuls of water.  How on earth any kept a straight face is beyond me as they sprayed the water around, but it was a wonderful end to the show and to all intents and purposes, the cruise.  So many thanks to the entertainment staff and dancers for their two skits.  Alex, Tom, Fernando and Marcus, (plus Mark) plus dancers Kat, Ashley and the delightful Tink.   Tink?  With three Stephanies in the dance line, the elfin one is Tinkabelle…

Lots of hugs and hand shaking afterwards so we only just made it for the final atrium coffee before they closed down and then bedtime was almost a normal one for us at home, at 12:25!

Up 5:50 tomorrow for the Sydney sail in, the flight home and another two hours on the clock…

      

 

Days 89, 90 - Still sea days:- Ghosts - and a trivia win...

The special cake complete with amazing animals.

A "Bloody Legend" - or two...

Ros and Dominic - now with a one piece new tie

The always happy Melldon

Who looks most like a chef?

Although I’ll probably do a wrap up post, this will be the last but one whilst on the ship – assuming I can get internet access, as it does tend to vary and the previous post was uploaded some time after writing it.

Most people seem to have started thinking about packing already and are busy dumping old clothes, old shoes, unwanted gifts, silly purchases and so on.  With our Air NZ weight limit of 23kg and hearing that other airlines are far more generous, it may be an opportune time to consider which airline to use next year.  We have been fiercely loyal to Air New Zealand over the last 25 years or so, particularly when British Airways stopped flying to Auckland, but it is a very competitive market and if they think a 23kg limit is OK, when others don’t, then they risk losing the customers, no matter how good the cabin staff.

Well the nights don’t get any better in terms of sleeping.  Waking at 1:10am and finding myself still awake at 3:30, I quietly dressed and tip-toed out of the cabin.  Thankfully, the buffet now closes at midnight, but the drinks are still available so I sat out on deck 14, overlooking the pools, revelling in the pleasant air and happily watching the cleaning staff going about their business, whilst sipping a drink of hot lemon and honey.

What I really felt like was just kicking a football around, so I wandered up to deck 15 and the sports court.  Thomas, the popular head buffet chef, was getting in a bit of exercise with a basketball, before his early morning shift and the last thing he expected was a ghostly white face appearing at 4am!  When he’d stopped shaking, we did indeed kick a ball around, but as stated before, a basketball is tough on the feet and ankles, so I didn’t last too long before I headed back for another drink!  On the way out again, I ended up chatting to Joe for an hour or so before sneaking back to bed as the sun rose at about 5:35, by which time the early brigade had already started heading to the buffet.  That opens at 5:30.



Paula with Marvin

By 8am, I was wide awake again and with a returned cough, I elected to skip the quiz. A late morning coffee was taken to the final Dawn Nomad’s lunch, preceded by a photo-shoot.  A nice chicken curry for me whilst some others had what was billed as fish, chips and mushy peas.  They were of course, mashed peas, again… The chef’s surprise this time was a stunning chocolate cake, decorated with marzipan animals.  My pic won’t do it justice.

Garry presented Ros with a well-deserved “Bloody Legend Award”.

On to the Vista at 2:30pm for a second Blues show by Matt “Bleeding Gums” Smithies, where once again he demonstrated his versatility, by playing the flute in addition to the guitars and sax.  For us, not quite as enjoyable as the first concert (the pace of music chosen needed to be a bit more varied).

The Three Stooges - Alex, Nando and Marcus

Back to the vista for the afternoon trivia run by Tom and I think our worst ever score – 6!  The winners got 8.

Formal night again and a special souvenir menu.  My favourite of 2011, Veal Prince Orloff, wasn’t quite as good as the earlier version though.

Shenanigans in a glass lift

On what was one of the busiest entertainment days of the cruise, it concluded with a massive balloon drop and dance party in the atrium and in a great touch, the accommodation staff (who do not normally have public deck privileges) were invited to join in.  We were happy to have a pic taken with our fantastic room steward, Marvin.  So good to see cabin stewards, cleaners and even the waiters and assistant waiters swelling the numbers.  They had a real ball.  Somehow or other, Marcus, Alex and Nando (let’s just call them the Three Stooges) had commandeered one of the glass lifts in the atrium and were happily riding between floors 5 and 8 and back again, dancing – or clowning around.  When they stopped at 6, we jammed the door open for a photo opportunity and then found ourselves dragged into the mayhem… Up and down we went until we were joined by a waiter (I think he was a waiter!) who also put on his own dance show.  Quite a mad evening and overall, a long, mad, enjoyable day, but my eyes were tired, very tired…  Bed at 11:45 and another 1hr forward for the clocks.  I think that now puts us on Sydney time.

Wednesday October 9^th

Despite yesterday’s odd day, we were both awake at 2am – again.  No football this time and eventually back to sleep until 9am. Talking to others, it appears that there are a lot more of us not sleeping too well on these long sea day runs so stories of people surfacing about noon, are not at all unusual.

We opted for the morning trivia rather than breakfast and made the tie-breaker along with several other teams. Somehow or other, our (winning!) entry was overlooked and the prizes awarded to another team!  Afterwards we sent Julia down to query it and the mistake was admitted, so she returned with our prizes – the favoured key-ring torches.  We are so glad they weren’t the usual lanyards or fridge magnets. 

Coffee and chatting to Ros (the other Ros, Dominic’s wife) told me she had some video of last night’s lift display.  I gather that Garry has a load too.  Whilst Paula opted for the theatre and a movie, I took up the day’s Lotus Spa $99 massage special, with tiny Maria, for the last time and our final ship board expense/extravagance.  Our overall on board bill after using up the on board credit was under $1,000, so a modest extra visa bill really.  One day, I’ll work out exactly what our costs are per day.  You might be surprised just how economical it all is, considering what is included in the cruise price.

As is often the case on sea days, I struggled to get an internet connection and after several attempts, gave up.

After the 4:15 quiz, we ambled the 50 metres to Jammers for our final Dawn Nomads get together.  Lots of hugs, hand shaking, address swapping and a well-deserved, framed, “Bloody Legend” award to Cynthia from customer services, who has been Ros’s Princess contact throughout.  It is sensible of Princess to recognise the Cruise Critic group in the way it does, as it is usually a win for both sides.

We opted for the buffet with M & M as others were originally heading for the steakhouse, but I am not sure that they did eventually.  A light meal with just soup, a roll and some cheese for me.  After a decent coffee down in the atrium, we headed back to the cabin for a blitz, not so much on packing, as on dumping unwanted paperwork and packaging, conscious of the rigid 7kg carry-on bag limit and the 23kg checked in limit for us.  

Princess kindly gifted us a back-pack each; a leather wallet and leather luggage tag each; a thick, bound, photograph of the ship and the passenger group photograph.   All very nice in theory, but in practice, the extra weight is a bit of a hindrance.   Easier if the ship docks at your home port of course.

So, with bed at 11:20pm, just one more sea day to go - and it looks to be an interesting one.  

 

PS: This post and anything after it was loaded after we returned home…

Days 87 & 88 - Guess what? At sea again...

Well, that is just about it as far as any useful information as to ports and any on land content goes, so for the next two or three episodes, it will be the usual drivel relating to (our) on board life and how we waste our time when some of you are working and others are pottering around in the garden or kitchen.

Nothing of interest for the morning other than I did a late submission into the photo contest, but as it was a cropped snapshot taken at night, I don’t expect to win, but at the final presentation tomorrow, it may raise a smile.  We are still wondering how they justify a $2.99 charge.  I suppose they have to raise the cash for the prize somehow.

Paula went to the Vista for a dance presentation and then DJ  James’ ‘Grease’ show.  Apparently very well done, with a few much needed Brownie points for James.  As I may have said before, James is dyslexic and often his trivia sessions are a real struggle because of it.

Meanwhile, I was in the cabin watching the Korean GP live on the TV (Channel 42), so I wasn’t at trivia.  No matter, the two questions our team got wrong I wouldn’t have got anyway.  My throat wasn’t the best (again), so hopefully the occasional Coldrex will keep things at bay until we are back in NZ.

As the Australians were watching footie finals, they would not be eating in the dining room, so we went to the buffet with M & M.  Probably not the best of buffet selections for a change, but the cauliflower and potato curry had a kick to it, so mixing the roast beef into it made a nice enough meal.

An early coffee in the atrium then we headed for the Vista again for another game show ‘Majority Rules’.  Not many contestants (just 13 teams) but a few laughs anyway. 

Monday October 7^th

A fair sleep.  Our usual routine (losing at trivia etc.) then to the vista lounge for the results of the photo competition, both by sector and overall.  The general opinion was that we disagreed with the judge’s choice.  My pic of Bernie raised a few laughs, though we overheard someone saying it was unfair to show her like that, even though she partially posed.  (I’ll post the pic later, with a good one for comparison, just to be fair.)

The early show was 76 year old Dave Burke, billed as a comedian, but it was more as a raconteur than out and out comedian, though there were some laughs - and he played a nice clarinet. He played Acker Bilk’s ‘Stranger on The Shore’ (he also mentioned Chris Barber) and obviously knows Acker, having played jazz in the UK, then later, as a support act in Australia to several stars.  An enjoyable show an a fair 8/10 I think, as we hadn’t seen him before.   Others expected more laughs and less of the history and background.

I managed two main dishes at dinner – the vegetable curry to which I added the satayed beef and chicken from the entrée, then sweet and sour pork.  I am no vegetarian.

Atrium deck 5 for coffee, a short walk around the deck and a small glass of port, hoping that they will assist the sleeping.

The cough and snuffles are back…    

 

Day 86 - Darwinian contrasts?

A strange day of contrasts.  On arrival at Darwin, instead of passengers being able to get off within a matter of minutes, we apparently had a unionised welcome to Australia, with securing the lines taking more people than usual, but instead of the Dawn dropping its own gang planks and fitting the side nets over the water within seconds in its own well drilled way, we had to wait for the dockers to assemble their Meccano set of ramps, using a crane and forklifts.  Not a speedy process and they weren't exactly rushing.  Is it penal rates on Saturdays?

About 40 minutes after arrival, from our cabin, we noted the Princess tour passengers walking down the ramps and we waited until they had gone before heading down to deck 7.  Suffice to say that the queue to disembark stretched two thirds the length of the ship as there was only one gangway operating and that meant just one security person scanning the cruise cards.  Even now, after 85 days, unbelievably, there are still a fair few passengers who are fumbling for their cards, then they stagger slowly down the ramps, totally oblivious to the queue behind.

Ah well.  Australian soil at last. The extremely pleasant park and small beach at the entrance to Darwin, already had its devoted sun worshippers.  It was noticeable that most were relatively slim, were young and one or two young ladies had the St Tropez style one piece beachwear.

Up the lift to the walkway to town.  This is a very well kept, attractive side of town with several attractive old  buildings and immaculate gardens.

We headed straight for the bus stop, just a few yards up the street and on the right and much to my surprise, there weren't many cruisers around, probably because we had just missed the bus!  When the number 10 bus arrived, the smiling driver hopped out and said he'd be back in a couple of minutes.

He was and said that as he'd kept us waiting, we'd have a free ride.  We then found out that the drivers were in fact on strike and refusing to accept the fares. That saved us about $3.

We had ridden this bus before and had an inkling as to what would happen next – and we were half right.  We sat right at the front, underneath the pine air freshener hanging from the rail.  At the first or second stop in town, there were about 4 Aboriginals swaying around and when they found out that it was free, they yelled out to their noisy drunken mates who piled onto the bus yelling at the tops of their voices "bombers, bombers" – which we took to be some form of local sports team.  (I must Google it...  see footnote added Nov 5th).  The chanting and yelling  didn't stop once on the move and increased in intensity at each bus stop, urging the driver to get a move on.  By this time the bus was full, with many passengers standing.  The stench of BO, dirty clothes, stale tobacco and alcohol was unbelievable.  One very pleasant youngish Chinese lady managed a discreet spray of perfume – thank goodness.  One young Aboriginal female who was not part of the rowdy group, bravely told the ring leader to shut up, but to no avail of course.  The driver, unheard by the mob, presumably fearing trouble, especially as a couple of smartly dressed black Africans seemed to be bearing the brunt of a lot of the noise, managed to radio for support.

Two stops later, two of the local transport police were waiting (wearing purple rubber gloves – so I suppose this wasn't exactly a rare occurrence) and the bus was suddenly rather quiet as they boarded.  After a quick conversation with the driver, they elected to leave the rowdy mob alone as they expected them to get off a couple of stops later, but followed anyway. 

Despite all this, the driver stopped at the next stop, got out of his seat and indicated to three lady cruisers that this was their stop for Spotlight.

The rowdy mob fell off at the next stop and peace reigned once more - and the air was suddenly cleaner.  Full marks to Peter, the driver of bus 117, route 10 about 11:30 from Darwin to Casuarina Mall, for a very professional approach to the day, even though supposedly on strike.

The shopping centre was a bit of an anti-climax after that but we were only killing time anyway, so no big deal.  The return ride was uneventful and we didn't bother walking into Smith Street to the shops, but we did stop at the Trampoline ice cream kiosk for a horrendously expensive ice cream each - $12+ for two small ice creams.  We thought €2.50 a scoop in Europe was pushing it a bit, but Darwin took the prize by a comfortable margin – the ice cream was OK, but no better than the European stuff we loved.

The queue to reboard was as slow as always in Darwin, with just one scanner dockside, but at 2:15, we were enjoying a coffee with Norm and Marion, watching the quay appear as the ship rose on the incoming tide.  I think it must have risen about 2 metres in the time we were chatting.

An afternoon blog writing, followed by the usual sailaway, where Ros and her team seemed to have been shopping for food, coming out with plates of dips and cheeses not available on board.

Early 6:15pm Vista show again – Adam Dean, illusionist and magician.  Paula rather reluctantly joined him on stage for one part of his act and acquitted herself well.  A pretty good act, but it seems that several illusionists have purchased the same tricks, so 7.5 out of 10.

After a welcome shower, we enjoyed a bite in the HC with my favourite eggplant parmigiana again, spicy prawns, rice and a nice chunk of stewed beef.  We were joined by Teri and Alex and also Colin and Judy. 

Up on deck, a noisy dance party with the streamers, dancers, and Epithani making the music.  Lots of fun, but a bit repetitive and noisy after a while, so we retreated to a very quiet atrium for a coffee and retired about 11:30 and once again, put the clocks on 30 minutes.  I think we are now three hours ahead of NZ and another hour forward before Sydney.

Well that is it then!  Our last port and now we really are heading for home, with most people trying to avoid the subject of coming to the end of their adventure.  Apparently, one or two husbands flew home from Darwin and one 77 year old Kiwi (who had a heart attack yesterday and had the ship team performing CPR on deck), also left the ship but by ambulance.

Occasionally, there is a mention of packing, flying, or home, but most are determined to make the most of the five sea days ahead.

Teri and Alex were thrilled to catch up with family and witness their grandson's contribution to a basketball competition win, by shooting three pointers at the end of the game.

In a strange twist of fate, I asked cruise director Mark, if our least favourite, listed comedian, was in fact joining us, as he was listed as being one of the acts still to come.  Apparently not.  He had an issue with the Indian Immigration.  Oh what a pity…         

 

Footnote - from Wikipedia:  The Tiwi Islands Football Club, nicknamed, Bombers, began as a representative club competing in the Northern Territory Football League 2006/07 season.
The club is notable as being the first all-Aboriginal team to play in a major competition.

 

Days 84 & 85 - Yup, still at sea...

A much better sleep (it had to happen sooner or later).  Just for a change, I had two small quiches for breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed them.

As our morning team seemed to have expanded beyond Teri and Alex, George and Dossie, but the others were a bit erratic, Paula wasn’t too happy at standing down now and again to keep our numbers down to 6, we joined an adjacent team, as they were two short for the mornings. Bev and Ed (call me Winston) do afternoons only.  This seemed to work pretty well – but we still didn’t win.

Down to the corner of the atrium bar for coffee and we found ourselves chatting to the captain’s wife, joined later by the bar manager, Sarah.  An extremely pleasant way to spend an hour or so and once again, one of the reasons we enjoy sea days.

After a cabin spell and internet catch up, a call at the buffet at 3:29 – one minute before lunch finished on one side and afternoon tea started on the other.  Perfect.  A handful of crumbed prawns from one and an excellent toasted focaccia from the other.

We didn’t win the afternoon trivia, but boy, we are amassing an amazing amount of trivial knowledge, that may well come in useful one day, even if only for another trivia quiz.

After dinner, we called at the Wheelhouse Bar for just one rumba, before picking up a coffee and heading for the cabin.  As we use the rearmost staircase, we popped into the Vista lounge to check out the movie and ended up staying to watch the last 90 minutes of what is a 150 minute movie, “The Lone Ranger”. It bore very little relation to the old B & W half hour TV shows but had a good few laughs in it.  Maybe when we get the chance, we’ll watch the whole thing.  An ideal movie for a long flight, but on second thoughts, as there are laugh out loud moments, maybe the other passengers might not appreciate it.

We finally made it to the cabin at 12:10 and straightaway, had to put the clocks on another 30 minutes.  No wonder my body clock is out of kilter.  At least when you fly, you get it all over and done with in one hit (maybe two), so the theory of gradual movements being easier, may need to be challenged.  The air conditioning doesn’t help either.

Friday October 4^th

Yup, another chunk of the night wide awake, then Paula was up and about whilst I was fast asleep…  Once again, two small quiches and a Timm’s coffee for breakfast then we sat outside for a while with Teri and Alex, until it was quiz time. 

In our ‘new’ team, we got 19/20 – it would have been a tie breaking 20/20 if I hadn’t been outvoted on Tom Cruise’s real name.  Ah well, that is the way it goes it a team environment.

As I’d had a coffee earlier, I just had iced water in the atrium, much to the waiter’s surprise.

After the usual cabin sojourn, we headed for the buffet about 3:15, past the deck games that included a pie eating contest.  It was a bit of a surprise to see one of the female dancers (Kat) taking part.  I couldn’t resist the cherry crumble and managed to top it with whipped cream normally destined for warm scones and the sour cream for the nachos.

Now as this was day 84 of the cruise and we have sat in the same seats since day one, it was a shock to find cuckoos in our nest when we went for the afternoon quiz.  The relocation didn’t lead to a win.

We had decided to eat at the HC and enjoyed the French onion soup, lobster pasta, pork cordon bleu etc.  We ate early so that we could catch the second Danny McMaster show at 8pm in the vista lounge.  The slide he showed of himself must be at least 20 years old (see pic).  Good job we were there at 7:25, as the lounge was already pretty full.  Usually, an artist’s second show isn’t quite as good as the first, but in this case, the second show was just as good.  Brilliant singing of a Tom Jones number (with new words) and a Willie Nelson/Ray Charles duet, plus Johnny Cash.  A great skit on the white man vs the Indians, particularly the Walter Brennan and John Wayne.   But the hit for us was the skit on the New Dehli Airport air traffic controller, with aircraft being flown by a Brit (Frank Spencer), an Italian, George W Bush with Airforce 1 and an Australian pilot with a Kiwi co-pilot. Clever and very funny.

After grabbing a coffee we returned to the Vista for a Princess standard, the Marriage game show.  Somehow or other we ended up with Jo & Garry as the newly-weds at 5 years, plus Sharon and David from the Dawn Nomads at 50 years, as contestants.

A bit naughty at times but very popular and a fair few laughs.

With Darwin tomorrow, it is a home port for the Australians of course and the last stop before the five sea days to Sydney.