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.
