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Finally had a little bit of a sleep in today as it was around 1am before we'd fallen into bed the night before. Checked out at 10ish , leaving our luggage with the concierge and went off to find some breakfast, we ended up at Kafe Kez where they had an extensive menu including fresh juices so I was happy! Rodd opted for a Bacon and Egg Roll with BBQ sauce, cos he doesn’t get stuff like that very much anymore and I had poached eggs with avocado, tomato and grilled haloumi…very yum. The only negative of the place was that the owner was quite rude to his staff…. The service was excellent however with everybody getting a cheery "good morning" as they walked in the door…my kind of place as those of you that have me on face book will remember!!
After breakfast we were both needing to walk for a bit, we were struggling a little after the bridge climb, both of us have really sore calf muscles! Anyway we wandered through several arcades, into MLC centre and Westfield which were like “OMG, who shops here? Where are the “real” people shops”?
Rodd needed a hair cut so of course we had to look for a mens barber, you know the old fashioned kind with the barbers pole outside? We were starting to think we’d never find one when voila… there one was, amazing how that happens! $35 later… what the??? Rodd with his lovely new coiffure emerged and we once again set off wandering. We got as far as Martin Place ( for those of you that know Sydney we started at Kent St near Liverpool St, the rest of you can look it up!! ) and as it was 11.30 and boarding was at 1pm we decided to walk back to the motel to pick up our bags and do a pub crawl back to the Wharf to board the ship.
We actually didn’t have much luck with that…. The first pub didn’t have VB…. Very unAustralian… the second pub was closed.. Also very unAustralian but as fate would have it we were third time lucky and finally managed to quench our ever growing thirst! One drink and half way there… we continued our journey and didn’t find another pub til we got down to Darling Harbour where we gratefully sat and rested our weary bodies… another drink and by this time it was about 12.30 so time to head down to the Terminal.
Another long walk along the waterfront with the mighty Pacific Jewel beckoning us ever closer we finally arrived at the luggage drop off point and made our way inside to check in, along with about 1000 other people!! We stood in line for about 2 minutes before Rodd said “b***** this, lets go find a pub”!! Bloody good idea, I replied and we checked with a staff member before leaving what time we should be back for “all aboard”… he said 2.30 so we had over an hour.
Outside and pausing at the bottom of a huge steep flight of stairs we asked a bloke walking down if there was a pub at the top, he gave us the thumbs up and directions and I replied “thanks so much, no way I’m walking up those stairs if there’s no reward at the top”!!
So we spent an hour at the Captain Cook Hotel in the Rocks… two drinks and a win of $150 on the pokies and it was time to head back to the ship.
Gosh we’re clever… walked into the terminal, straight up to check in, straight through customs and onboard all in the matter of about 10 mins!!! That’s my tip for boarding a cruise ship… boarding may be at a certain time and that’s when every man and his dog is lined up.
Okay so on board and found our cabin 5150 easily, I had checked it out on the computer before we left home so knew where to go. The cabin is pretty well sized, not enormous but certainly big enough for the time we’ll be in there. Plenty of hanging and drawer space, a fridge (not that we’ll use that probably ) and a lovely big window. Last cruise we were on we had a balcony which was lovely although realistically we didn’t use it much, just mainly for coming into port days. This window is big enough to see what’s going on outside and make you feel like you’re not in an enclosed space. We could have got a balcony but really decided it wasn’t worth the extra $600.
Didn’t stay in the cabin for very long and of course went to find a bar… VB for Rodd and a delicious choc/coffee cocktail for me, just can’t remember the name of it but there’s a photo. Of course at 3.30 we made our way with our life jackets to muster station A in the Marquee theatre for the evacuation drill after which there was the Sailaway party up on the pool deck.
Lots of singing and dancing by the crew and then they encouraged everyone to get up and do the Nutbush with them…. I’m ashamed to say that even though that was one of my all time favourite disco songs and back in the day I would always race out onto the dance floor for this song.. I DON’T KNOW THE MOVES!! I just do my own thing.. How bad is that??!!
Drinks in hand.. VB for Rodd and a Pina Colada for me… we wandered the deck looking for a chair. There were two ladies sitting at a large table so we asked if we could join them. Their names were Jenny and Lyn and they have done 20 odd cruises each, some as long as 90 days!! Wow, how great would that be. We chatted to them for a while and then realised we were underway… finally we are really on our way.
I have no idea how long it took for the ship to make it out of the Harbour, I’m guessing around an hour. Rodd had to run back to the cabin for sunnies and a hat and the he missed the bit we’d been waiting for.. Sailing under the Harbour Bridge!! He wasn’t impressed. It was pretty awesome, the ship scrapes under with 9 metres to spare!! I took heaps of photos, as usual, and also of sailing through the heads with the Pilot boat alongside.
Now what to do?? So many options… we thought we’d explore the ship a bit and found the casino so stopped there for a couple of hours to play some roulette… only $1 bets so lots of fun for only a little. Oh no hang on we actually found the Plantation buffet up on the 12th deck first and had some lunch. Cauliflower soup and salad, pretty good too.
So after the casino I think it was around 8 and we went back to the cabin for about an hours rest. I could quite easily have gone to sleep then but we hadn’t eaten since the light lunch at 5ish so we got up and found our way to the Waterfront Restaurant on the 7th deck where we had a (nother) lovely meal. Rodd chose rump steak and veg, which he said was cooked just how he likes it, and I got a grilled vegetable salad. VB for Rodd and red wine for me and we’re done for the day… we were in bed by just after 9.30pm…. 3 nights of getting to bed at or after midnight had finally caught up with us.
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Mum Enjoyed that Larne..looking forward to the rest of your trip. Sydney looked great.. and the ship of course..so big.t It all reminded me of OUR NZ cruise,,such a BIG ship and so much walking! How I wish we'd been YOUR age when we went. By the way..thanks for the great family photos. Love ,,,xx