Our original plan was to disembark in Sydney and fly home, but as no one had invited us for Christmas dinner and we hadn’t invited anyone to feast with us either, (plus Paula’s plan to purchase a large dolphin carving...) we made a very late decision to stay on the ship all the way to Auckland. We managed a good deal cost-wise and the extra 12 days with Princess just puts us so much nearer Elite status (with free laundry!) and an itinerary that included one of our favourite cities – Melbourne, plus a first time visit to Hobart Tasmania, made this an attractive proposition.
Sydney put on a fine day for us and although I had the usual uncomfortable night’s sleep and I was up 6:40am, but we had already docked at Circular Quay. This has to be one of the best ever ports as the bow of the ship is almost in the city. We managed a farewell to Ros and Arnold, Colin and Jude in the buffet before they disembarked, with a promise that we’d find out about the 2013 trip in NZ dollars, as today is supposed to be the day the prices are released. Well it was, but it has been delayed a day...
We missed saying Hi to Joanne who was going to pick up Ros & Arnold but parking is impossible, so she was apparently just going to slow down whilst Ros and Arnold leapt aboard!
We did our usual amble off the ship when we were ready and apart from purchasing two fantastic R2E2 mangoes (our favourites) for $5 from a street vendor, we didn’t exactly enhance the local economy by very much. A decent coffee, a ride on the Monorail to the famous Paddy’s Market and we headed back to cabin 706. An initial panic attack showed that one of the new residents shared the same named as Paula’s estranged sister but we soon met them and found that 704 & 706 were occupied by 3 sisters and a friend who are not related to Paula. They don’t smoke and the two suffering in 704 had to leave the cabin door open all day to try and get rid of the stench. The couple in 708 don’t smoke either and we are not sure about the cabins below, but initially, it is looking good! Hooray.
We caught up with our new American friends, Greg & Cathy and chatted away until quite late.
The sailaway was just brilliant (unlike the Dawn Princess in May, when it was cold and wet) as the weather was just about perfect and the city lights photographed well.
So, here we go, on to Melbourne after a day at sea, with a new travel chapter – though the blog continues until the end of the year, when I’ll start a new one...
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