A decent night’s sleep with no external noise to disturb us and we enjoyed a pleasant buffet breakfast downstairs in the Ibis, chatting to David and Joan from Melbourne.
We checked out before 11am and fortunately, David checked his bill, to find that he’d been charged for a meal and drinks he hadn’t had the previous night!
We grabbed a station wagon cab from outside the hotel and shared it with Trevor who was on his own, straight to the new White Bay cruise terminal - a $20 ride for those who like to know these things… (Of no interest whatever to family in the UK, but we know that many future cruisers do follow these blogs and glean information as we did before our 2011 cruise.)
We dropped off our ONE bag each at the luggage drop off and as preferred check in had already started, we joined the queue before it got too long and whilst all 12 booths were being used, before the general check in opened and preferred was reduced to six. An easy trouble free check in and as expected, we were asked to sign waiver forms absolving Princess from any claims because we didn’t have visas for India. That was anticipated hurdle number one bowled.
We were allocated group B for boarding and we were expected to video the arrival of the limo, carrying Ros and Joanne (with Garry and Arnold of course…) but we hadn’t heard from them, so when our group was called for boarding, we joined it.
The queue was very quick through passport control, but then there were just two scanners for all hand luggage and personal screening. Pockets emptied and with one bottle of port and one of ginger beer (we’d drunk one) in the knapsack, we were straight through. No so one of our number, who had her hair drier confiscated. No names, no pack drill, but she lives not too far away from us and we have cruised with her before.
The usual warm welcome on board after popping your cruise card into the reader and security take your picture. Hotel General Manager Osvaldo, who has been on each of our Dawn Princess cruises and Marcus, from the entertainment staff, were two familiar faces.
Straight to our cabin and it is a mirror image of the previous cabins, so this time, my side of the bed is nearest the window.
Outside, I saw two limos arrive and one just happened to be the one we had been waiting for, so they were videoed from deck 11. By this time, we were feeling a bit peckish, so we headed up towards the buffet, only to bump into our assistant waiter Neil, from the 2011 World cruise and also the Grand Circle last year!
A very light snack then back to the cabin by which time our two cases had arrived.
Always satisfying to unpack, knowing you don’t have to do it again for three months.
A sunny spectacular sailaway from one of the world’s most attractive harbours, on time, so our real adventure started. As usual, several of our Dawn Nomads congregated around the ice cream parlour and talk was of Princess overbooking the first leg and frantically trying to entice (local) people to cancel, with a full refund and a free cruise in the future and a possible upgraded cabin if they negotiated hard enough! A couple of our group accepted the offer, but most had been looking forward to this particular cruise and no way would they cancel.
Our first dinner was a full complement of 10, but the others ensured Paula and I went in first, where we were stunned to find just 8 place settings set on table 8. Once again, they had wound us up as they had held on to the notification sheets advising us that our table had been changed to number 7. Methinks it might soon be time to start a counter attack.
As usual, the dinner was excellent and I thought I’d just post a picture of my prime rib roast. It looks a bit rare on the pic, but it was in fact beautifully cooked and extremely tender.
Our waiters are Alfredo with support from Vincent – who has been on our other cruises, though not at our table.
To the Princess theatre for an introductory show, with just one number by the dancers, backed by the Princess orchestra, led by the very talented Sarah. The show also had Trevor Knights, an experienced performer who played guitar and ukulele. He is also a songwriter, singer, story teller and horde whisperer..
A chat afterwards to dancers Darryl and Sue from Adelaide, but boy, are we all going to miss Alan and Alana in the evenings and Alana’s dance classes daytime.
A great start to the cruise and nice catching up with so many friends and familiar faces.
We look forward now to a day at sea before Brisbane, where 250 passengers get off after their two day intro and 250 get on. Out of the 1950 expected on board, 1200 will then be going all the way back to Sydney, with some hopping off at Rome and others in Venice.
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