Paul's birthday Cruise Day 5 - Saturday 3 October 2015 - Wellington

Beautiful day in Wellington today - cool enough in the morning to need a jacket but by lunchtime it was lovely and sunny.

The ship was docked at the cruise terminal which is right beside Westpac stadium and only a kilometre or so from the city.  We didn't have any plans for Wellington - obviously since we weren't expecting to be here! - so we decided to carry out our planned activities for Dunedin which consisted of recharging our NZ mobile internet widget so that we can have decent internet access when we're in port.  We did that, then had a coffee, and decided to keep walking around.  While doing this we saw a sign pointing towards the NZ War Memorial so we decided to walk there.  The memorial itself

was dedicated in 1932, however earlier this year they dedicated an expanded National War Memorial Park which includes a memorial donated by Australia in memory of all soldiers and wars where Australian and New Zealand troops served together.  It looks a little sparse now but once the trees grow it will be a quite impressive monument (although of course totally overshadowed by the main memorial)

Behind the war memorial is the Dominion Museum which currently houses a Great War Exhibition created by Sir Peter Jackson.  We didn't get to see it today, the queues were really long (I suspect something to do with 2800 tourists and a bunch of cruise ship crew unexpectedly arriving in town).  I definitely want to come back to NZ again to do some land based travel, and this exhibit is now definitely on my list.  It will be there until 2018, so I have a bit of time....


On the way, we also got to see where Basin Reserve is - one of those sports grounds I regularly hear mentioned but I had no idea it was in the middle of Wellington.

Final note - while at dinner the captain announced that the weather has turned bad again and that we now won't be able to go to Akaroa tomorrow.  Instead, another day in Wellington.  We might now try to get into the Great War Exhibition.

Paul's birthday Cruise Day 4 - Friday 2 October 2015 - at sea.

This is the day we should have been cruising through Fiordland but instead we're almost at Wellington.

The clocks have now moved forward an hour on each of the last three nights and it's really making the days a little difficult.  The last two days Paul hasn't woken up until after 9am, which is fine except that by the time we've had breakfast and had our walk around the deck it's getting close to lunch time.  And, we could delay lunch too, except that our dinner seating starts at 5:45pm and that can't really be delayed (not unless we eat somewhere else).

This should be all ok after tomorrow; I think now they won't change the clocks until we're on our way back to Oz.

Problem was solved today by doing even less than yesterday.  The only effort I made was to do 2 miles around the deck today (Paul was only up for one).  Apart from that the biggest energy expense involved using the remote control on the TV (we watched Ice Age: Continental Drift) and pressing buttons on the poker machines.

High point of the evening was at dinner - one of the soups on offer was a cold soup - "Chilled Granny Smith and Cider Soup".  Apart from the apple and cider it also contained yoghurt and calvados (apple brandy) and it was just delicious.  Not that the rest of the meal was bad, far from it, but the soup was exceptional!

Paul's birthday Cruise Day 3 - Thursday 1 October 2015 - at sea.

Morning

Woke up to similar confusion about the time as with yesterday, but worse today because I hadn't advanced the time on all my electronic things.  The clocks were meant to go ahead another hour overnight, and I'm pretty sure that when I woke up it was around 7am based on this new time.  Paul was still sound asleep so I let him sleep on - I'm typing this about an hour and a half later; I've had breakfast and checked out the activities for the day ahead, and Paul is still asleep.

Afternoon

No real plans for today - we walked our 'mile and a bit' around the deck, lost a bit of money on the pokies, had some lunch, and are now lazing around reading - in the cabin / on the balcony.  It's a beautiful day today and really hard to believe that w're on the run from bad weather - up on the top deck quite a few people are in the swimming pools and more lazing around.  This is actually a pretty good ship for this sort of cruise - later in the season it will be really hot in the sun but there are quite a few places where you can laze around (and even swim) in the warmth but not in the direct sunlight.

A few more random comments about the ship so far

• I've got no idea where all the people are.  The ship is full, no question; they were boarding almost 2800 passengers in Sydney.  I was a bit concerned that we'd find ourselves desperately hunting for a seat particularly in the Horizon Court (the buffet) and the coffee shop downstairs, since these are regular trouble spots, but no such issues so far.
• Another 'Japanese' touch - like most Princess ships there's an icecream bar where you can get free soft serve icecream in a cone.  Often they only have two flavours - chocolate and vanilla.  Here there's a third flavour - green tea.  Yum.

Evening

Formal night tonight and we made the effort - Paul in suit and tie and me in (as I've talked about before) the sort of sparkly stuff that women agree to pretend is formal for the purposes of a cruise.
We finally went to our proper dining room and met our table companions - very nice people; no doubt I'll talk about them some more during the trip.
For now though, nothing much else to say, we're doing our best to do as little as possible, and succeeding!

Paul's birthday Cruise Day 2 - 30 September 2015 - at sea.

Morning

I currently have no idea what the time is.  We woke up when our watches still said around 6am, but according to the ship newsletter the clocks were supposed to go one hour ahead last night.  There aren't many clocks visible around the ship, but the ones I can see aren't helping me - about half of them have been set ahead and the rest haven't.

The time wouldn't normally worry me except for dinner - we have opted for Traditional dining, which means getting there at the right time.  As it happens, we have a meal booked in a specialty restaurant tonight, but we still need to be there on time.  Hopefully by then I'll know what time they really think it is!

We had breakfast at the buffet this morning, as usual when we're on a cruise.  Then, also as usual, downstairs to one of the only three places on the ship where they make actual coffee.  There's always coffee on offer in the dining rooms but it's that horrible American brewed concoction - Nestles instant would be better!!  Then, we went for a walk around the Panorama deck - 2.5 times around the deck is a mile, so we did just over a mile this morning.  Then, off to the Casino to ensure that the poker machines are working.  They are; but very much in favour of Princess :-)

Currently mid-morning and I'm sitting on the balcony, typing up my ramblings and looking back over where we've been.  Australia is way back that-a-way!!

The Diamond Princess has been coming to Australia for our summers for a long time now - the second cruise we ever took was back in 2008 for my 50th birthday (seems we've always got an excuse for a cruise!!) and it was Sydney to Auckland on this very ship.  It used to spend the northern summers doing Alaska cruises but it spent the most recent one in Japan.  They plan to continue doing this, so there have been a few alterations to the ship - for example a lot of the signs are in both English and Japanese, and I gather that some of the public toilets are of the really complex Japanese variety with multi functions and lots of electronic instructions - I'll have to see if I can track one down.  And of course, since this is the first cruise of the Australian season, there are still some Japanese stores on board - this is currently what you get if you ask for Diet Coke:

Afternoon

Yesterday I talked about the forecast high seas and said that I thought we might miss Fiordland.  Today the captain confirmed this, and it's a bit more dramatic than I thought.  We will be missing Fiordland and also Dunedin; instead we will be going to Wellington as our first stop.  They have since confirmed that the rest of the cruise is unchanged, so after Wellington we will then go south to Akaroa then turn around and come north to Picton then Tauranga, Auckland and Bay of Islands all as per the original itinerary.

The captain also said that we will still get some "strong winds and moderate seas" and this all started this afternoon with a storm sneaking up on us - full scale thunder, lightning and driving rain.

This was the view from our balcony this morning:

And here it is this afternoon (the shot of the lightning is Paul's work)

From a purely selfish perspective, this did show what I had suspected and hoped  - teeming down rain but our balcony was still dry and not too cold.  Nice!!

Evening

Tonight we had the 'complimentary dinner for two in a specialty restaurant' that was part of the special deal Princess was running when we booked.  There are three specialty restaurants on board, but you don't get to pick when or where the complimentary one happens.  Ours was in the sushi restaurant (Kai Sushi), which we would never have picked (nor would most of the Aussies on board it appears, it never has many customers).  However, apart from some communication issues - the waitress's command of English really isn't up to customer service levels, and we don't speak Japanese - we ended up with a surprisingly enjoyable meal.  I think the words Nigiri and Sashimi came into play; lots of different fish, some octopus and other bits and pieces; all really tasty and quite filling.  And, finished off with a desert of green tea icecream and red bean paste which sounds strange but was an excellent way to finish the meal.

I have to apologise to my son too.  Adam is an avid fan of sushi and as part of this has picked up a real liking for eel.  He has tried to persuade me to eat it a couple of times, but I couldn't bring myself to do so.   Turns out to be a big mistake on my part - one of the many things we had on our plate last night was eel and I ate both mine and Paul's.

In a social sense though, the meal was somewhat uncomfortable.  Like in so many restaurant locations on board cruise ships, tables for two tend to be far too close together for a really private dinner.  Last night they sat another couple at the next table almost immediately and we got a first-hand demonstration of the "well-cruised complainer".  They wanted some wine, and there wasn't any of that type available even though there had been some in the dining room the previous night.  They wanted the wine before the food, and snapped at the waitress when she tried to deliver some bean-type snacks to the table.  After a while they gave up on the wine and asked for a gin and tonic, and then spent a few minutes discussing which sort of gin it would be and whether it would be any good.  Then they complained to the restaurant manager about the wine again and made it clear that they had been on many cruises and that they often come across this issue and how unacceptable it is (as though this would somehow make the wine appear).  I was very uncomfortable with the whole performance, and the tables are simply too close together to avoid hearing the whole thing.  Fortunately you don't come across this sort of "we've cruised a lot so we're more important than everyone else" attitude, and usually you can escape by just walking away; not so here unfortunately.

Anyway, we finished off the night with some coffee downstairs - amazingly it wasn't too busy so we sat and drank it there and watched the world (and another storm) go by.

Before we went back to the cabin, I decided to check out the buffet upstairs to see if they had any cookies.  I managed to bring four cookies back to the cabin but only after getting myself completely turned around again and walking the length of the ship twice. Good exercise anyway!!

Paul's Birthday Cruise Day 1 - 29 September 2015 - travel to Sydney and board the Diamond Princess

Set the alarm clock for 5:30am and woke up earlier - possibly just a bit excited!
Taxi arrived on time, no hassles with the bus trip to Sydney although 3 1/2 hours is a long time to sit in one uncomfortable seat.  Got a train to Circular Quay and dropped our suitcases off a little after 11:30am.

As "Platinum" cruisers with Princess, in theory we can board any time we like after boarding starts.  However, they did set a time for each deck to board, and we decided to stick to that.  So we went back to a restaurant we ate at before our last cruise, and had another delicious lunch there - along with a lot of people waiting to board the ship, many of whom didn't know that you could drop your suitcases off long before boarding time.  Suitcases everywhere!

We also wandered around towards the Rocks to get a picture of the back of the ship - because this time we have an aft balcony cabin, so we'll be looking back at where we've been.  These are really popular cabins and I can already see why - the balcony is huge compared to most and the view is really cool.  If you click on this photo you should be able to see a red arrow pointing at our cabin.

The Platinum thing did give us really quick access to the ship though once we finally tried to board.  There were five separate queues - to get into the building, to get up to the check in area, to actually check in, to go through Customs and to go through security.  We got to bypass the first four queues - it took us about 20 minutes in total and by the look of the queues the normal time would have been more than an hour.

We found our cabin and then went for a walk around the ship, just trying to get our bearings again.  Lost cause really, even though we have been on this ship before we still took some time to find everything.  No real plans for this evening though; it's quite surprising that I'm even up for typing this because usually the Travacalm would have knocked me out by now.

Anyway, I'll post more about the ship over the next couple of days; sea days so we don't propose to do too much.  If you don't see anything from me it's probably because the forecast I saw was correct - they were suggesting that around the time we get to New Zealand we'll be sailing through 10 metre waves!!  Let's hope the forecast is mistaken (not just because of the potential for me to be drugged out with Travacalm) - waves that big would probably stop us from going into the Fiords and even though we've seen them before I'd be disappointed if we missed them.

50 days until we're cruising again!

When I started writing this post it was "All of a sudden, today it's only 75 days until Paul's birthday cruise starts."  Now it's 50 days to go, and I'm finally finishing it.....

Anyway, pretty much everything is sorted for Paul's birthday cruise.  As I said before, the advantage of cruising from Sydney is the way you can avoid having to fly, with all the dramas of luggage weight limits and flight delays and everything else that goes along with flying.  (Please don't get me started on the absolute mess Qantas has made of my trip to Auckland in December - all I can say is it's a good thing I decided to blow some money on renewing my Qantas Club membership, because I'm going to be spending more time than I want to in the Sydney one!)

The retirement I mentioned in the last post is looking more and more unlikely - mine that is; Paul is still pretty certain to be retiring some time next year.  And unfortunately the lovely long cruise home is also looking unlikely - I still won't have enough leave, and the money is going to defeat us unless I can keep working.

So, the new plan is still to go to England again and spend a week or two there first.  My main aim is not to break a bone while I'm there; I'd really like to not keep up my current 100% record!!   Paul has some ideas of places to see while we're there, and I'm cool with wherever we go as long as I get to spend a little more time in London - there are a number of places I missed first and second time around.

Then, we'll still be hopping onto the same cruise ship at Southampton - the Emerald Princess, still leaving on 28 September 2016.  However, instead of 49 days to Sydney, we'll be leaving the ship in Singapore, after 30 days, and flying home from there.  Princess has a sale on at the moment, and even though it's only for new bookings, they allowed me to take advantage of the sale because they have the cruise to Singapore set up as a completely different cruise from the full trip to Sydney - hence, a "new booking". The new price was a surprisingly good deal, and it reduces the whole holiday to a (hopefully) manageable budget - as long as I go back to work afterwards - while still getting us to some of the most interesting places on the itinerary.

Not much more to say now, and based on my recent performance with updating the blog, I expect my next post to be from the balcony of the Diamond Princess on 29 September this year, waiting to leave for New Zealand!

Retirement beckons..... maybe

Paul has no problem with the idea of retiring, but recently I have realised that I'm unlikely to ever do anything about it unless I force myself to take some action.

So this week, I have done two things - I've signed up for a pre-retirement seminar, and I've booked us on a cruise next year.

The cruise mightn't sound much like an encouragement to retire, but the thing is, I won't have enough leave to cover it. Sort of forcing a decision :-)

The plan is pretty simple this time - fly to London or Manchester, spend about a week in England, visit a couple of places, if your name is Sandra then don't break any bones!, finish up in Southampton. 

Then, cruise home.

The cruise is called the "Four Continents Grand Adventure" and it leaves from Southampton on 29 September 2016. The ship is the Emerald Princess - it's normally based in the Mediterranean half the year and Caribbean for the rest, but this cruise breaks that cycle - instead it's spending the (southern) summer of 2016-17 based in Oz.

The cruise takes 48 days with lots of lovely sea days - and the ports of call are pretty interesting too. We sail into the Mediterranean and stop in Rome, Naples, and Messina in Italy, then through the Suez Canal. Next stop is Aqaba in Jordan so we can get to see Petra, followed by an overnight stay in Dubai - I can finally go to the Burj Khalifa and no doubt some other outrageously huge and over the top buildings! Then it's on to a few places I've never really considered visiting - Cochin in India; then Phuket, Singapore, Ko Samui, Bangkok, and Bali. After that, it's back on home territory with stops in Fremantle, Margaret River and Melbourne before arriving back in Sydney on 15 November 2016.

So, if anyone else feels like a long slow cruise, this one looks like an excellent plan!