An early arrival in Brisbane and we didn’t feel the need to get up to witness it, so it was just a case of wake up, get up, eat. The Horizon court was very busy, with 250 people getting off after their two day cruise, others doing ship’s tours but many just heading out to stock up with goodies and supplies they’d either forgotten or didn’t have space for in Sydney.
We have been to Brisbane several times since 1988 and it is always a pleasant place to visit. We walked off the ship to warnings from the security company that we’d only be allowed one bottle of wine per person when we returned and the excess would be confiscated and returned at the end of the cruise. We had a giggle here as we knew that others had planned to bring on several bottles of wine and were happy to pay the $15 corkage.
First stop however was a small local store where we managed to get two bottles of lime juice and a bottle of Lift lemonade plus a couple of other small items.
As we didn’t want to lug them around all day, it seemed prudent to take them straight back to the ship. The usual “divest yourself of anything metallic” scan which this time included wristwatch and belt, and the bag with the bottles went straight through without a hitch. There were plenty of people returning to the ship early, many with rather smug looks on their faces, carrying bags that seemed to have a fair bit of glassware and/or metal cans inside, so we can safely assume that lemonade and lime juice weren’t exactly top of their priority shopping lists.
Back out again at 10:19, just as the full 10:20 shuttle coach left for the city!
The $10 return each seemed good value and we were dropped off on Elizabeth St, parallel with the Mall. Apart from a coffee in the Myer’s Centre, (Gloria Jeans of course) and a light snack, we didn’t do much other than buy ginger beer at Coles. Then we found the Bottle O store, so we added 8 bottles of cider and a bottle of port.
There was music in the mall from a school concert band and once again, we were impressed that music teachers these days seem to be streaks ahead of the rather the staid teachers we had 50 years ago, as these youngsters play so many different instruments so well, instead of being turned off music by a forced diet of dry classical-only music, restricted to playing screeching violins and cellos.
Back to the ship and again, straight through without problems, so even more people around with silly grins on their faces.
After an easy sort of day and a pleasant sail-away we headed for the 6:30pm pre-dinner show, by New York based, Greek/Australian comedian (sic), Jim Dailakis. Sorry Jim, the general consensus from our crowd was that maybe you should have stayed there. It wasn’t worth marking out of 10, as this ranked as one of the two worst comedy acts I think we have ever been subjected to on a Princess cruise. Thank goodness it was only 45 minutes otherwise we would have been just two out of many who would probably have walked out.
Dinner was another excellent meal, with a large pork chop as my preferred choice.
On then to the Princess theatre for the full length late show by Trevor Knight. A very good show and this time he added piano to his repertoire. Very polished and a 9/10 from me.
Bed was a respectable 23:40 with six sea days now to Lombok in Indonesia. It will be getting warmer by the day now, as we leave the Australasian winter, such as it is, for good.
No comments:
Post a Comment