New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 1 Wednesday 6 February - embarking

As usual, our taxi arrived on time so my built-in 'contingency for delays' wasn't needed and we arrived at the station quite early.  There was another group of passengers already there waiting for the train and they told us they were also heading off for the cruise.
Train trip was the usual 'slow and boring but far more comfortable than the bus' trip.
Arrived in Sydney and went down to Circular Quay to drop off our luggage - it was too early for our allocated boarding time - before heading off for food and then to try to find a back-rest for Paul to use on the ship.  Turns out we really needed to think of this earlier, as none of the obvious places in Sydney actually stock them in their city stores.
We got back to the ship for check-in at our allocated time - 2pm - and it was the quickest boarding ever.  Looks like most people completely ignored the boarding schedule sent out by Princess and were already onboard, so there were basically no queues anywhere.
Got up to our cabin and the suitcases were already there so we had time to unpack and have a quick shower - it was hot and sticky in Sydney - before being called to the muster drill.
We actually got to see the sail-away today - we always seem to be leaving at dinner time but this time we left not long after 4pm. 

We said farewell to the Opera House

and Kirribilli:

but then we both fell asleep; next thing I knew we had already sailed out through the heads and I just saw the cliffs behind us as we sailed away:

We were awake in time for dinner which is at the outrageously early 5:15pm.  At least this cruise we appear to have two table-mates, a couple of similar ages to us who come from Adelaide. 

Dinner was nice although the menu is a bit predictable since it's not that long ago that we cruised with Princess.  After dinner, we just went and lost some money on the pokies and then crashed - it's a long day when you start at 4:30am (and you're old like us!!)