Wanderung 22

Return to the Land of Oz

November - December 2009

Saturday, November 14th, Sailing out of Sidney

Bob:

After breakfast Monika and I headed over to the Westfield shopping center just across the railroad tracks from Neville and Lyn's place, where we picked up a map for the Sydney to Melbourne drive that we had planned after our cruise. We find that strategic planning is difficult with the small field-of-view of our GPS unit but much easier with a good old-fashioned paper map. We had our usual problem with impulse purchases: I picked up a 2 liter bottle of cola and a couple books. Thus weighed down, we returned to repack our bags for the cruise segment of our journey.

Monika:

Bob and I made a last dash over to Westfield to find a good street map of the part of Australia we planned to drive after the cruise. As we wandered around trying to find the bookstore, we suddenly heard Christmas songs played by a brass band. We looked around and there was a little parade: a herald at the front, the brass band, Mr. & Mrs Santa Claus and a group of kids in Christmas clothes. Santa was coming to Westfield! It was so cute and it had a small "hometown" type feeling to it that we both enjoyed. We did finally find the bookstore and a good map of roads between Sydney and Melbourne, so we were all set.

Bob:

We figured we didn't have to leave until noon to get down to the ship by one o'clock, so we took advantage of a few spare minutes to watch a video on Itzak Perlman made in the 1970s. Besides being a brilliant violinists, Perlman seemed like a regular guy and a good parent to his children, which does not always or even usually go together with being a great artiste, so it was an enjoyable program. Afterwards, Neville and Lyn drove us directly down to the ship where we sadly bid them adieu and started processing on board. Taking only my backpack with the computer and other electronic gear in it (plus the 2 liters of cola!), we checked our other luggage and wandered up the gangplank to the Sun Princess.

Monika:

We packed everything (my backpack was remarkably heavy with the 4 liter wine box) and checked our email one more time leaving a "Happy Birthday" message for Judson. Neville and Lyn then drove us down to the ship in Darling Harbor, Wharf 8. Getting to and across the harbor bridge this morning was half the time of what it had been during rush hour the previous evening. We had beautiful sunshine and the glass-faced skycrapers downtown reflected off each other, a curious effect. Getting to the wharf proved a little more difficult than we had anticipated. The Google map had led us a little too far north along the harbor. From that position we could see the ship, but not get to it! To finally get to it we had to retrace our route a couple of blocks and then angle over to the harbor a little farther south. Once we arrived, however, it was Princess Cruise Lines' usual efficient (and friendly!) boarding operation. We dropped our bags off, said good bye to Lyn and Neville, and went to the embarkation desk. Everything went smoothly and soon we were in our cabin, which unfortunately had a rather totally obstructed view. But at least we could tell whether it was day or night, but that was about all.

Bob:

Once on board we headed straight for the lunch buffet and had a leisurely meal before inspecting our stateroom and wandering about the ship a bit. The Sun Princess was built in 1995 and has the teak promenade deck and wood interior accents that seem to typify ships of that era. It gave the ship a warm, cozy ambiance that I liked very much.

Conversely, the older cruise ships also tend to have smaller cabins and that was true of our stateroom. We ended up having adequate storage for our things but didn't even have the spare floor space for a real chair much less the chair and couch that we have enjoyed on some of the newer ships. Originally our cabin had two single beds shoved to each side of the room, but Roger, our room steward, obligingly shifted them together in the center and made them up as a queen sized bed. Once settled in we had the obligatory lifeboat drill before our ship steamed slowly out of Sydney harbor.

Monika:

After lunch in the horizon buffet I went to see the Maitr' de to see whether we could change our dinner seating to first seating. We had been waitlisted but were assigned to second seating which is at 8 PM, way too late for us. There were at least 15 couples ahead of me, so I had to wait, but then he did put me on another waiting list and told me that we would find out by tomorrow whether they could change our seating. Coming back to our cabin, I was just in time for the obligatory life boat drill and after that I unpacked my suitcase that had arrived. I was delighted to see that the wine had made it, so we had a welcome drink.

Bob:

First the Sun Princess eased away from the dock using her side thrusters. Then she rounded the end of the wharf and headed directly under the graceful steel latticework of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The rotating radar antenna at the top of the ship just barely cleared the underside of the bridge by a couple of feet from what I could see.

Monika:

And then it was time to raise anchor. We hurried up to the Lido deck forward to watch us sail out of Sydney. Being berthed in Darling Harbor, meant that the ship had to sail under the harbor bridge and past the Sydney Opera House before heading out to sea. This was an amazing sight. As we came closer to the bridge we saw the Opera House appear. And then we were under the bridge; looking back I was not sure whether the antenna on top would clear the bridge; but of course it did, after all the ship had sailed into the harbor in the morning. The people that had climbed to the top of the bridge waved and cheered. For them it also must have been a spectacular sight.

Bob:

Then we passed the point where the opera house is located, which gave us a very nice view of that intriguing structure from the seaside, and continued past Fort Denison that sits smack in the middle of the main harbor area. From the fort we continued out into the broad reaches of the harbor before turning East and steaming out through the rocky headlands that define the outer limits of Sydney harbor.

After we were well and truly out to sea, I turned off the cell phone and we went back to the buffet for a relaxed evening meal. Too tired to attend the evening show, we just curled up in our stateroom for another hour or so and then turned in early.

Monika:

Slowly we passed the Sydney Opera House, Fort Denison in the middle of the harbor and forged on until we turned and steamed out of the harbor between the headlands. Sailing out of Sydney is a grand sight. We stayed up on deck until we were well out at sea. The wind had been rather strong, but I thought my short hair would not suffer. But it turned out that was again very tangled, so I decided to put it up in an itsy, bitsy ponytail whenever we are out on deck. [Note to self: when planning a cruise, either cut the hair really short, or leave it at a length that can be easily put into a ponytail. This in between length is for the birds.]

After dinner at the buffet, we just headed for a stateroom and gratefully sank into our bed. It seemed there still was some jet lag with us.


 

Copyright 2010 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Index
Prolog Map of Cruise around New Zealand Map of Drive through Victoria Epilog

November 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
December 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30

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