Cruise Day - 28th December 2010

Today is the day! Our cruise will leave this afternoon!

We went out into the city browsing the shops and looking for something that I'd ordered from eBay which had failed to arrive in time for the trip - to no avail. We did a fair bit of walking up and down Pitt and George streets and between then back to our hotel in The Rocks to get our luggage. We picked up a few last minute things from the supermarket and it was go time!

Now, when the hotel was booked we discovered that it was a mere 500m from the wharf that we had to leave from. Awesome!

So we headed out in the direction of the wharf. Up one hill (with luggage ughhhhh) and then left onto the road where the wharves were. Easy enough yeah? Neh. We went up that one hill, then left and it turns out we were on a road ABOVE the road we needed to be on. So, hot and sweaty, we looked longingly over the edge of the wall wondering how on earth to get down there. An old lady walking her dogs told us to follow this street up to the end and there are some stairs there. Sigh. Okay then.

Turns out THIS street is an even steeper hill than the first and I was struggling. (Note to self - get fit.) When we got to the end of the street we found the stairs. All 87,239 of them*! (*May be a slight exaggeration) After violently lugging our suitcases down these uneven concrete stairs and then across the road, we painstakingly dragged ourselves into the passenger terminal. After dropping off our luggage and checking in we headed towards the ship! Just before boarding, there was a photographer taking embarkation photographs in front of a backdrop, so we posed and smiled as well as we could given our physical state. It turns out, when I saw the photo later, that I was incredibly red-faced and flushed from the walk so we won't be purchasing that one!

AND WE'RE ON BOARD! Here we are! We made it. The day has finally come.

… now what?

We went straight to our room to familiarise ourselves and settle in and drop off the backpacks that we didn't want to lug around, met our sweet cabin steward Alex and then to the buffet dining room for some lunch.

Then was the emergency drill presentation that everyone had to go to, to teach us what to do in the "highly unlikely" event of an emergency and how to wear and use our life jackets.

After that it was the Sail Away party on the top deck! We waved goodbye to Sydney with drinks, music, laughter and performances. Hurrahhh!