After the Ovation of the Seas cruise, the list of upcoming holidays reduced to three - the Tasmania cruise in December, New Zealand in February, and then the Southampton to Dubai cruise in October.
But, soon afterwards, I was talking to Paul about the disappointments with our previous Mediterranean cruise, and the fact that the October cruise won't solve two of the big ones - we missed out on going to Turkey, and because of that change the cruise also didn't go to Malta. And, I said to him that if I ever came across a reasonably priced cruise that went to both places, I'd jump at it. But, most cruise lines haven't yet started going to Turkey again, and even when they were going to Turkey it wasn't all that common to go to both Malta and Turkey on the same cruise.
Basically, I was just joking, thinking it would never happen.
So of course, within a week, I came across a Princess cruise in October 2020 that goes to both Turkey and Malta, and as well as this, also goes to Santorini (which I'd love to see again) and a number of other interesting places. I was just astounded - and so, it's booked! No idea what else we'll do; hopefully we'll still be up for a bit of extra travel in the UK and Europe as well as the cruise!
Thursday 15 November 2018
Saturday 3 November 2018
Ovation of the Seas Cruise Day 15: Friday 2 November - kicked off the ship in Sydney
Woke up around 6am and we were already "parked" at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.
We finished our packing, had some breakfast, then went to wait to be allowed off the ship. We were called about 15 minutes before the planned time, so that's all good.
Picked up our bags, dropped off our arrival cards with Immigration (or Border Control or whatever they're called these days) and strolled up to Circular Quay station. Well, we didn't exactly stroll - at the start it was more like "fighting our way through the crowds". Lots of people were still getting off the ship of course, and a lot of them were waiting in the shade of a tree - reasonable, except that they were almost totally blocking off the only way out. And to add to this, a stack of people who were going to board had already arrived, hours early, and were also creating havoc by being in the way. However, we eventually got onto a train to Central.
And, when we got there, the luggage check-in was available, so we dropped off our bags and walked back to the World Centre for a decent coffee and then up to Westfield so Paul could buy a new case for his Samsung tablet. We decided to get a train back to Central, but just after the station before Central it stopped. The driver eventually told us that we were being delayed by trains ahead of us; we still had more than half an hour before I'd be starting to worry about missing our train, but an unfortunate man in our carriage wasn't so lucky - he missed his train to Nowra and it was 2 hours until the next one....
Anyway, we got onto our train and were horrified to discover that the seats in front were occupied by 2 little children who spent the first 5 minutes jumping up and down on their seats - which of course meant that our tray tables were useless as anything on them would be flung off every time they jumped. Fortunately though, their parents managed to calm them down so the trip wasn't too bad.
Every time we get the train to and from Canberra, by about hour three I'm completely regretting it and swearing that I'll get a plane next time. Then, I remember that the planes are outrageously expensive; that they don't necessarily run when we want them (lots of planes between Sydney and Canberra but most are small with luggage restrictions) and that the trains have far more generous luggage allowances anyway.
We got back to Canberra just as a really nasty storm was about to hit. Fortunately there was a taxi available immediately (almost everyone on the train gets a friend to pick them up!) and we were in the taxi when the storm hit. The wind was strong enough to blow a roadworks sign into the street, and we heard later that trees were blown down. By the time we got home it was only just raining though, so we managed to get inside without getting too wet.
So, now it's all over - 44 days until the next one!
We finished our packing, had some breakfast, then went to wait to be allowed off the ship. We were called about 15 minutes before the planned time, so that's all good.
Picked up our bags, dropped off our arrival cards with Immigration (or Border Control or whatever they're called these days) and strolled up to Circular Quay station. Well, we didn't exactly stroll - at the start it was more like "fighting our way through the crowds". Lots of people were still getting off the ship of course, and a lot of them were waiting in the shade of a tree - reasonable, except that they were almost totally blocking off the only way out. And to add to this, a stack of people who were going to board had already arrived, hours early, and were also creating havoc by being in the way. However, we eventually got onto a train to Central.
And, when we got there, the luggage check-in was available, so we dropped off our bags and walked back to the World Centre for a decent coffee and then up to Westfield so Paul could buy a new case for his Samsung tablet. We decided to get a train back to Central, but just after the station before Central it stopped. The driver eventually told us that we were being delayed by trains ahead of us; we still had more than half an hour before I'd be starting to worry about missing our train, but an unfortunate man in our carriage wasn't so lucky - he missed his train to Nowra and it was 2 hours until the next one....
Anyway, we got onto our train and were horrified to discover that the seats in front were occupied by 2 little children who spent the first 5 minutes jumping up and down on their seats - which of course meant that our tray tables were useless as anything on them would be flung off every time they jumped. Fortunately though, their parents managed to calm them down so the trip wasn't too bad.
Every time we get the train to and from Canberra, by about hour three I'm completely regretting it and swearing that I'll get a plane next time. Then, I remember that the planes are outrageously expensive; that they don't necessarily run when we want them (lots of planes between Sydney and Canberra but most are small with luggage restrictions) and that the trains have far more generous luggage allowances anyway.
We got back to Canberra just as a really nasty storm was about to hit. Fortunately there was a taxi available immediately (almost everyone on the train gets a friend to pick them up!) and we were in the taxi when the storm hit. The wind was strong enough to blow a roadworks sign into the street, and we heard later that trees were blown down. By the time we got home it was only just raining though, so we managed to get inside without getting too wet.
So, now it's all over - 44 days until the next one!
Ovation of the Seas Cruise Day 14: Thursday 1 November
Last day of the cruise. Got back from breakfast to discover our departure information had been delivered. Good news; we're in one of the later groups to leave so we get to avoid tomorrow's heat for just a bit longer - I'm definitely not looking forward to 30+ temperatures in Sydney while we wait for the train. However, we will be off the ship at 9am. The idea will be to get a train up to Central Station and then see if we can check our bags in for the trip to Canberra - their website says that you can check in bags any time on the day you're travelling. That's not our previous experience; we've found that we've had to wait until around an hour before the train leaves. However, maybe things have changed; we can only hope.
Rest of the day we gambled away the last of our USD in the casino - which didn't take long!! - then started the depressing job of packing.
Rest of the day we gambled away the last of our USD in the casino - which didn't take long!! - then started the depressing job of packing.
Thursday 1 November 2018
Ovation of the Seas Cruise Day 13: Wednesday 31 October - Hobart
Huge rolling waves yesterday afternoon and last night as we sailed down the western side of Tasmania. But, at this stage of the cruise that's no problem for me - in fact, it's totally relaxing to be rocked around.
We've just reached that stage of the cruise where it comes as a horrible shock to realise that tomorrow is the last full day on board! However, this is slightly offset by the fact that the blog tells me that it's only 46 days until our next cruise, 98 days until the one after that, and exactly 365 days until the next one!
No real plans for Hobart - as I said in my comments about Adelaide, on this cruise we're not staying very long in any port. Today, we're docking at around 10am, hopefully people will start being allowed off the ship by around 10:30am, and we all have to be back on board by 5:30pm. And, in the case of Hobart, we'll be back here 7 weeks from today on another cruise (!!) and that one arrives in Hobart at 8am and doesn't leave until 2am the next morning, so there's much more time to get around. On that cruise, I might do a shore excursion to a wildlife park, or Paul and I might brave hiring a car and driving again. This time though, we're just going to walk into Hobart and look around. Of course, we have already been here a few times, so we know what we're likely to find.
Later: as I said, we walked around the city, had a proper coffee, then came back to the ship. We made a last minute change to our evening dining plans and went to Jamie's Italian restaurant. All I can say is - delicious!
Got back to our room expecting to see all the departure information, but no, apparently it won't arrive until tomorrow.
We've just reached that stage of the cruise where it comes as a horrible shock to realise that tomorrow is the last full day on board! However, this is slightly offset by the fact that the blog tells me that it's only 46 days until our next cruise, 98 days until the one after that, and exactly 365 days until the next one!
No real plans for Hobart - as I said in my comments about Adelaide, on this cruise we're not staying very long in any port. Today, we're docking at around 10am, hopefully people will start being allowed off the ship by around 10:30am, and we all have to be back on board by 5:30pm. And, in the case of Hobart, we'll be back here 7 weeks from today on another cruise (!!) and that one arrives in Hobart at 8am and doesn't leave until 2am the next morning, so there's much more time to get around. On that cruise, I might do a shore excursion to a wildlife park, or Paul and I might brave hiring a car and driving again. This time though, we're just going to walk into Hobart and look around. Of course, we have already been here a few times, so we know what we're likely to find.
Later: as I said, we walked around the city, had a proper coffee, then came back to the ship. We made a last minute change to our evening dining plans and went to Jamie's Italian restaurant. All I can say is - delicious!
Got back to our room expecting to see all the departure information, but no, apparently it won't arrive until tomorrow.
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