Cairns Cruise - the final story

 As expected, we visited Willis Island and then sailed back to Brisbane.  Weather was pretty poor for a lot of the trip, but was nice and sunny again by the time we got back to Brisbane - although still quite cool by Brisbane standards.  Overall, a very nice "first cruise" after such a long break.

Disembarkation went pretty well - we were among the last ones to leave as we had managed to book ourselves onto the second-last departure group, which ended up being the last one.

Had a LONG wait for a taxi, but it was quite well organised given the number of people who were looking to get one.  Taxi drivers are still learning the ropes of the new terminal of course - this was only the third cruise to finish at the cruise terminal, so for lots of drivers it was their first time there.  And, although the signage is really good all through Pinkenba to tell you how to get to the terminal, it's pretty clear that once you actually get there, it's more than a bit confusing about exactly where each sort of vehicle should go.  I'd imagine this will eventually sort itself out.

We ended up getting a taxi into the city, and then a train to Oxley where - after some confusion - Jay picked us up.  We were able to check into one of the rooms at our motel and leave our suitcases there, and then off to Natara's place which although isn't a quick drive is only a few minutes walk from the motel.

Had a good get-together with the family; a lovely farewell to Mother with lots of happy memories being shared.  

Afterwards, off to the motel.  Quite an old-fashioned place which really is only suitable if you have a car, there are no shops anywhere near.  They do have a "restaurant" which is just a few sad tables in a room, but they'll deliver the food to your room as well, which is what we opted for.  Paul didn't feel like eating, but my Chicken Schnitzel was perfectly acceptable.

Next day (Monday) the three of us went our separate ways.  First I got a taxi to the airport and headed home as I needed to get back to work.  Later, Al picked up Paul and Adam (after getting lost; it's definitely not an easy place to find!) then dropped Adam off at the station.  Adam stayed in the city until the Friday while Paul stayed at Al's until the Saturday.  Both of them had a good time, although Adam's return home was marred by a really significant flight delay - he was due to leave Brisbane around 5pm and be in Canberra by 7pm, but we walked back into the house only a few minutes before 11pm.

Great holiday, now looking forward to November and our next two cruises!

Cairns Cruise Day 4 & 5 - Cairns

 We were meant to have a day in Cairns on Wednesday followed by a day in Port Douglas on Thursday.  Paul and I have both been to both places, so we didn't book any shore excursions - the idea was just to wander around and look at the shops etc.  

High point was meant to be dinner at the Waterbar & Grill Steakhouse in Cairns.  And it really was a high point - good service and great food.  Got back to the ship to receive a message that we weren't going to Port Douglas due to the weather - this ship can't dock anywhere at Port Douglas and the wind was going to make it too dangerous to use the tenders.  So, we stayed in Cairns overnight.  The weather on Thursday was overcast and really humid, with occasional rain, so I just had another walk around town and then Paul and I went to the casino.  Came out a few dollars ahead too!

Leaving at about 6pm tonight - out to Willis Island to make it legal for the duty-free stores onboard to open, and then straight back to Brisbane.

Cairns Cruise Day 3 - Airlie Beach

 Arrived off Airlie Beach on time this morning.  Of course it's a tender port meaning that you have to use one of the ship's tenders (a.k.a. lifeboats) to get from the ship to the dock.  They're never particularly comfortable, but in the end they didn't use the tenders today - apparently it was too windy.  So instead they got a couple of local boats that are usually used for reef tours - far more comfortable.

Adam and I (Sandy) went on a shore excursion which was a sight-seeing flight over the reef.  I really should know better,  because even though I took my travel sickness medication I was feeling just a bit blah by the time the flight was over.  Got better fairly quickly though, although the next concern was that we couldn't find the dock to go back to the ship!  Eventually did though, so all good.  Paul didn't come with us, he did go ashore to look around and do some shopping.

It's about 9pm as I'm writing this, and we're now heading for Cairns.  The ship is getting a bit of a rock and roll going, and the waves forecast on the BOM website implies we could have anything up to 5 metre waves over the next few days, which could be just a bit nasty.

Anyway, off to get a load of laundry sorted and then I think I'll make an early night of it

First post-COVID cruise!

 Well, more than two years later, it has finally happened!

And I was so excited I completely forgot about doing updates until now - day 2 of the cruise.

So, this started last Saturday - 25 June - with an early morning departure from Canberra.  QANTAS is unfortunately getting a bad reputation at the moment for delayed / cancelled flights and for luggage going missing.  So, I bought a four-pack of Apple Air-Tags - one for each suitcase and an extra for my keys, just so we'd be able to check on things. Not that it would help them appear if they were left behind of course, just that we'd know for sure where they were if they did fail to appear. 

As it happened, the flight was on time, and I even saw my suitcase get loaded onto the plane.  And, I definitely saw Paul's and Adam's on the trailer waiting to be loaded up.  Imagine my unhappiness when we got to Brisbane and my phone told me that my suitcase was with us, but that Paul's and Adam's were back in Canberra.  But I then realised that it was also telling me that my Apple Watch was also back in Canberra, even though the watch was no longer in airplane mode, was fully connected up to my phone and sitting about 3 cm away from it!   Luggage was fine in the end, it had all made its way onto the plane and offloaded quite quickly.

We tried a new place to stay this time - in the Quest Apartment Hotel at Ascot.  Any time the three of us are traveling together an apartment is usually a cost-effective option for a bit of comfort.  This one was interesting  - they booked it for us as a two-bedroom apartment, but it's actually a one-bedroom apartment and a separate studio apartment that they can either book separately or as a two-bedroom apartment with a single front door. So, this meant that Adam had a completely separate room or could join us for food etc.  The people running the place were really helpful and friendly - for a start, they pointed us at a really good bistro for dinner.  Overall though, although the apartments are clean and functional, my overwhelming impression of the place was that the rooms are in desperate need of renovation - e.g. 70's colours.  Still, it was a convenient place to stay and a LOT cheaper than a two-bedroom apartment closer to the city.

Sunday morning I had to rectify an error on my part - realised that I had cleverly bought my toothpaste and the bottom half of my toothbrush, but not the actual brush!  Fortunately there's a Woolies about 600 metres away from the apartments so I was able to get a new one. Also picked up a few extra pairs of socks because although I was sure I had packed enough, I could only find one pair.  I now have many, many socks as of course they were all there, in my suitcase, where I had packed them!

Taxi arrived on time and drove us through the depths of Pinkenba out to the new terminal. Boarding went really well - we were supposed to be in the first boarding group at 11am, but we arrived early as we had to leave the apartment by 10am and it was only about 15km to the cruise terminal.  There were already heaps of people there to check in as we arrived, and they must have got the previous lot off the ship really quickly because we were all being allowed to board as soon as we got through check-in and security.  So, onboard and in our cabins by around 11am.

As for the ship itself, in a lot of ways it is just like we were never away.  The only real difference is the need to carry a mask because there are place on board where you can't socially distance and so mask wearing is mandatory.  Most people seem to be following that requirement in most places. 

Food is a little different - maybe not quite as many items in the main dining room menu or in the buffet.  But, the buffet is self-service which wasn't the case for a lot of places where cruising restarted last year.  They're quite insistent on mask-wearing and hand-washing to get into the buffet though, which is a good thing.  One good thing about food - clearly they have invested a lot of time and effort into upgrading the way you get food and drinks - they now have an App where you can order food or drinks to your room or wherever you happen to be sitting around the ship, and they bring it to you.  We've used it for room service twice now, with excellent results!  I guess that they're quite keen to avoid physical queues whenever they can.

A bit disappointed that although we said we would share a table at dinner, the fact that we have made bookings for each night seems to mean that we're going to be seated by ourselves.  Still, not the end of the world.  And it does mean that even though tonight is "formal night" we'll get away with just good casual clothes again.

And, the good news is that I only needed one sea-sickness tablet last night and this morning had totally found my sea-legs.  And, the same for Adam.  Paul of course hardly ever needs any medication and this time was no different.

That's all for now.  tomorrow is our first port of call - Airlie Beach.  Adam and I are going on a shore excursion while Paul might go ashore just to have a look around.  Hopefully I'll remember to report on this tomorrow night.

Hopefully the last COVID-19 update

Following on from the previous post - Princess did get in touch with us, and we have cabins on the 26 June cruise.  

Adam in particular got a fairly good deal from them. Cruising solo is never cheap - on Princess you basically pay the price for two people if you want a cabin to yourself (and most other cruise lines are the same).  But he got a balcony cabin next to ours for a price that's noticeably lower than the prices they're offering on their website.

As I'm writing this, it's 84 days until the cruise is due to leave.  And although it's looking far more promising than the 17 (!!) previous cruise bookings that I have had cancelled due to COVID-19, there are still issues to be sorted.

Main one is that the State governments need to come to an agreement with the cruise lines about onboard protocols.  I don't think this will be a huge issue - most of the mainstream cruise lines have been operating out of the USA for almost a year now under ever-evolving COVID-19 protocols, and I'd imagine that the State governments here aren't going to come up with anything more onerous than the USA CDC guidelines were when cruising restarted there.  I'd expect that they'll want all passengers and crew to be fully vaccinated (and actually the Australian Government announcement when they lifted the ban said that will be mandatory at the Federal level anyway), they might want us to take a test before boarding, they'll probably want us to wear masks when we board and leave the ship and maybe in crowded areas onboard.  I can live with all of this. 

COVID19 update number 18

 On 15 March 2022, the Federal Government finally announced that they will not be extending the ban on cruise ships when it expires on 17 April.

On that same day, two separate cruise lines contacted me to notify that due to COVID related redeployment needs, they were both cancelling a cruise we were booked on - P&O cancelled a short cruise we were booked on from Brisbane to Airlie Beach and return in July, while Princess cancelled a cruise to New Zealand in October.

It's not all bad though.  Our booking for the cancelled Princess cruise is hopefully being moved to a booking on an almost identical cruise a month or so later.  

And, we are hoping to replace the P&O cruise with a slightly longer Brisbane to Cairns and return cruise in June.  Bookings open on Thursday and no doubt their website will crash - just as it did last time they announced some new 'end of COVID cruises' (which of course never happened) - but I'm hoping that they carry out their promise to contact me before-hand to organise bookings.

COVID-19 update number 17

 Paul and I have been in isolation due to catching COVID-19 since 5 February, and just to sink the boot in, in those few days we have been notified of two cruise cancellations - our 15th and 16th cruise cancellations since 2020. 

There is still no real sign of the government(s) opening up the country for cruising.  The Australian Government is the main blocker here - they still have a complete ban on cruise ships entering the country.  But, they want to make sure that the State governments take the blame if anything goes wrong, so they're insisting that the State governments have to agree to lifting the cruise ship ban and trying to make it sound like it's all a State government responsibility.  And the State governments of course are equally blame averse and are insisting that they can't make any decisions until the Australian Government ban is lifted - which to be fair, they can't.  It's ridiculous to suggest that any State Government of any political leaning could announce that cruise ships are welcome and start making firm plans around this when cruise ships are in fact completely banned from the country.  

The first cancellation was for a cruise in June, from Sydney to Cairns and back, on the Carnival Splendor. Carnival has had one ship based here full-time for 5 or 6 years now, and have usually bought another one out for the summer each year. But, it seems they have given up on Australia - one of their ships will now not return until October 2023, and although the other one will supposedly return in September 2022, I don't really think it's that likely.

And the second one was a NZ cruise in October. This one is with Princess who is the cruise line we most often sail with.  Since COVID started, when they have cancelled a cruise they've most commonly offered you a replacement 12 months in the future (or a refund or Future Cruise Credit of course).  This time though, the replacement is only 20 days after the original cruise, so maybe they really do think that the Australian and NZ governments will have opened their borders to tourists and to cruise ships by then.

But - if anyone feels like joining us on a cruise, all the cruises listed above are with Princess, except for the 12 July 2022 cruise to Airlie Beach, and Adam's eclipse cruise in April 2023 - they are both with P&O Australia.