Today we hired a car and went to the Armour and Artillery Museum - seriously impressive!
Then we decided to drive to Kuranda - Paul of course hadn't seen it before and Adam was keen to see a bird sanctuary that we hadn't had time for on the first day.
Apart from having trouble finding a park, this was definitely better than being on a formal excursion - we could stay or leave whenever we wanted to. Paul found a really nice white shirt and Adam got to see the bird sanctuary. We also had lunch at Frogs again - although this time we were the only Brelsfords in sight!
Only two more full days on the cruise now :-(
Friday, 8 July 2016
Barrier Reef Discovery cruise on the Pacific Aria - Day 4 - 6 July 2016 - Cairns
Today Adam and I went on a shore excursion while Paul went ashore with his dad to try to find "proper" beer.
As Adam and I were getting onto the bus I heard someone say hello to me - turns out my cousin's wife Linda is on the cruise with some friends. Unexpectedly running into cousins on cruises is starting to become a habit!
First stop for Adam and I was the Skyrail up to Kuranda - we got some really nice views of the rainforest and also back towards Cairns.
The Skyrail ends in Kuranda and we had about an hour to spend there.
The excursion we were originally booked on went into the Butterfly Sanctuary but they cancelled it due to insufficient bookings. However, the drop-off and meeting place in Kuranda was right outside the sanctuary, so we went there anyway. We arrived just at the start of one of their guided tours - it was all very interesting.
Then we wandered through the Heritage Markets and decided to eat at a restaurant called Frogs and found ourselves at a table beside most of the rest of the family - they were doing a quite similar tour to ours but organised themselves rather than through the cruiseline.
After lunch - which was delicious - we all ended up on the Scenic Railway back to Cairns. Seats on the train are allocated and we ended up randomly sitting opposite Linda which was really nice. The train ride was interesting but really not all that scenic - in most places all you can see is rock face on one side and trees on the other. However they did stop at one look-out point:
and there was also occasional interesting commentary about the building of the railway line.
Once we got back to Cairns Adam went out for dinner to a restaurant at the night markets, but Paul and I stayed in.
As Adam and I were getting onto the bus I heard someone say hello to me - turns out my cousin's wife Linda is on the cruise with some friends. Unexpectedly running into cousins on cruises is starting to become a habit!
First stop for Adam and I was the Skyrail up to Kuranda - we got some really nice views of the rainforest and also back towards Cairns.
The Skyrail ends in Kuranda and we had about an hour to spend there.
The excursion we were originally booked on went into the Butterfly Sanctuary but they cancelled it due to insufficient bookings. However, the drop-off and meeting place in Kuranda was right outside the sanctuary, so we went there anyway. We arrived just at the start of one of their guided tours - it was all very interesting.
Then we wandered through the Heritage Markets and decided to eat at a restaurant called Frogs and found ourselves at a table beside most of the rest of the family - they were doing a quite similar tour to ours but organised themselves rather than through the cruiseline.
After lunch - which was delicious - we all ended up on the Scenic Railway back to Cairns. Seats on the train are allocated and we ended up randomly sitting opposite Linda which was really nice. The train ride was interesting but really not all that scenic - in most places all you can see is rock face on one side and trees on the other. However they did stop at one look-out point:
and there was also occasional interesting commentary about the building of the railway line.
Once we got back to Cairns Adam went out for dinner to a restaurant at the night markets, but Paul and I stayed in.
Barrier Reef Discovery cruise on the Pacific Aria - Day 3 - 5 July 2016 - Hamilton Island
Another quiet day today. Paul and I decided not to go ashore. It was very quiet onboard and we did very little. I'm really getting the rest I was after!
High point of the day was a win on the pokies - I got a $650 payout.
This isn't Hamilton Island - it's from our balcony as we sailed away. Gives you an idea of the beautiful weather and views!
High point of the day was a win on the pokies - I got a $650 payout.
This isn't Hamilton Island - it's from our balcony as we sailed away. Gives you an idea of the beautiful weather and views!
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
Barrier Reef Discovery cruise on the Pacific Aria - Day 2 - 4 July 2016 - at sea
An excellent nothing day, as planned!
- Sleep in
- Breakfast at the Pantry
- Coffee
- Nap
- Lunch at the Grill
- Longer nap
- Dinner at Angelo's restaurant - very nice.
- Casino - lost some money on the pokies
- Crash
Barrier Reef Discovery cruise on the Pacific Aria - Day 1 - 3 July 2016
Fairly standard 'first day of a cruise', although the usual excitement is tempered by the disappointment that the guest of honour can't join us.
We left our motel as planned (after having inadvertently woken everyone by trying to use the wrong button to open the car boot and setting the horn off!). Nice car - a Camry Hybrid - which has now made its way onto our list of potential solutions to the 'what to do about a car once Paul retires' question.
No trouble finding the ship and dropping off the suitcases.
Paul tried to leave his mobile phone with Avis when we dropped the car off, but failed due to the eagle eye of the man who was checking the car back in. I was worried that getting a taxi at the airport might be a problem - first day of school holidays and all - but it was really quiet.
Checked in without drama apart from some confusion about whether we were entitled to priority boarding or not (we were).
Muster drill was one of the nasty ones - out on the deck. And the recorded talk went on forever(!). However it was finally over and we made our way up to the Dome to meet the family and watch the view sailing down the river. All very nice, although the industrial silos, factories and mangroves of the Brisbane River don't quite compare with the sail out of Sydney Harbour of course.
The rest of the day went as planned - dinner at the Pantry (which was almost empty compared with the lunch time rush), lose a bit of money on the poker machines, crash.
Tomorrow is a sea day so the plan is for various combinations of eating and lazing around reading.
We left our motel as planned (after having inadvertently woken everyone by trying to use the wrong button to open the car boot and setting the horn off!). Nice car - a Camry Hybrid - which has now made its way onto our list of potential solutions to the 'what to do about a car once Paul retires' question.
No trouble finding the ship and dropping off the suitcases.
Paul tried to leave his mobile phone with Avis when we dropped the car off, but failed due to the eagle eye of the man who was checking the car back in. I was worried that getting a taxi at the airport might be a problem - first day of school holidays and all - but it was really quiet.
Checked in without drama apart from some confusion about whether we were entitled to priority boarding or not (we were).
Muster drill was one of the nasty ones - out on the deck. And the recorded talk went on forever(!). However it was finally over and we made our way up to the Dome to meet the family and watch the view sailing down the river. All very nice, although the industrial silos, factories and mangroves of the Brisbane River don't quite compare with the sail out of Sydney Harbour of course.
The rest of the day went as planned - dinner at the Pantry (which was almost empty compared with the lunch time rush), lose a bit of money on the poker machines, crash.
Tomorrow is a sea day so the plan is for various combinations of eating and lazing around reading.
Saturday, 13 February 2016
Holiday plans are taking shape
Plans for the next big holiday are now well under way, although given my current '6 days a week' work schedule they're not advancing as fast as I'd like. :-)
We have booked the flights and the cruise, so those dates are all confirmed. There's still a week or so where the only plans so far consist of 'somewhere in England, or maybe Wales' but apart from that we have a reasonable idea of where we'll be. So, it currently looks like this:
The cruise is actually one of the least definite things at least when it comes to the detail. Normally by now a cruise schedule would be quite definite, and this one appears to be. However, three of the scheduled stops are in Turkey, and some other cruise lines have already cancelled some or all of their stops in Turkey this year. Princess is a fairly conservative cruise line and I'd be surprised if they weren't at least thinking of changing their plans too. That would be really disappointing but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens - it's hard to imagine they'd cancel the whole cruise but you just can't tell. If they just cancel the calls in Turkey then I suspect that we'll see more Greek islands than we intended to - and I for one wouldn't object to seeing Santorini twice!
Anyway, ignoring the uncertainty around Turkey, the itinerary promises to be somewhat exhausting, even for a cruise - 14 days, only 2 of them are full sea days, and almost all of the ports are places I'm really keen to see.
The only one that doesn't really float my boat is Mykonos, but for the rest of them the problem is knowing how much we're going to miss by only being there for a day!
We have booked the flights and the cruise, so those dates are all confirmed. There's still a week or so where the only plans so far consist of 'somewhere in England, or maybe Wales' but apart from that we have a reasonable idea of where we'll be. So, it currently looks like this:
- 6 September 2016 we fly to Singapore, overnight in a transit hotel - I'm getting too old for this whole "24 hours in economy seats" thing! - and then on to London.
- 2 nights in London to catch our breath and to see a few more things we missed last time
- 9 September we fly to Rome and stay there overnight, including an evening tour of the Colosseum
- 10 September make our way to the port for the Mediterranean cruise.
- 24 September we arrive back in Rome and stay there for a few days
- 27 September we're back in England and the plan is for our first stop to be in Canterbury or thereabouts
- 30 September we're going to Derby for the weekend for Paul's war-game convention, and then all the way to Nottingham for a couple of days :-)
- The rest of the trip is yet to be decided - we want to go to Cardiff, and maybe somewhere in Cornwall.
- 11 October is definite though - that day, we have to be back at Heathrow for the flight home - again with a short rest in a transit hotel in Singapore on the way.
The cruise is actually one of the least definite things at least when it comes to the detail. Normally by now a cruise schedule would be quite definite, and this one appears to be. However, three of the scheduled stops are in Turkey, and some other cruise lines have already cancelled some or all of their stops in Turkey this year. Princess is a fairly conservative cruise line and I'd be surprised if they weren't at least thinking of changing their plans too. That would be really disappointing but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens - it's hard to imagine they'd cancel the whole cruise but you just can't tell. If they just cancel the calls in Turkey then I suspect that we'll see more Greek islands than we intended to - and I for one wouldn't object to seeing Santorini twice!
Anyway, ignoring the uncertainty around Turkey, the itinerary promises to be somewhat exhausting, even for a cruise - 14 days, only 2 of them are full sea days, and almost all of the ports are places I'm really keen to see.
Sunday, 10 January 2016
Sandy's New Year holiday - Day 6 - 3 January - kicked off the ship and on my way home
Unlike the 'Day 5' post, this one wasn't lost, I just didn't write it at all. So, here's a final catch-up, only a week late!
Disembarkation went off without a hitch.
I managed to get a table in the buffet for breakfast which is a bit of a surprise; usually it's really busy on disembarkation day.
After that I did one last check around my cabin and then wandered off to the lounge to wait until it was time to leave - even when you're doing "Express Walk-off" as I did, you're given a time when you'll be allowed to leave the ship.
So, I sat down ready to wait for half an hour or so, but then they announced that anyone with any Express Walk-off time could leave whenever they liked. So I did; I waited a little while after the next 'new departure' announcement so the crowd would have died down, then it was basically only four or five minutes until I was off the ship and wandering around Circular Quay. Always sad to end a cruise, but with two more cruises scheduled for this year it's less sad than usual :-)
Anyway, the rest of the trip home was okay. I liked the Greyhound bus; they allocate specific seats rather than the Murray's 'free for all' option, my seat was quite comfortable and they have powered USB ports at all the seats. What I didn't like so much was the way that the young lady in front of me reclined her seat right back into my face for almost the whole trip; I really didn't have much room to move. Overall it wasn't too bad although I was somewhat regretting not flying home. Paul and Adam came into the city to pick me up so no dramas waiting for a taxi or a bus.
Final thought - cruising by myself was different and I enjoyed myself but all in all I'd prefer to have Paul with me!
Disembarkation went off without a hitch.
I managed to get a table in the buffet for breakfast which is a bit of a surprise; usually it's really busy on disembarkation day.
After that I did one last check around my cabin and then wandered off to the lounge to wait until it was time to leave - even when you're doing "Express Walk-off" as I did, you're given a time when you'll be allowed to leave the ship.
So, I sat down ready to wait for half an hour or so, but then they announced that anyone with any Express Walk-off time could leave whenever they liked. So I did; I waited a little while after the next 'new departure' announcement so the crowd would have died down, then it was basically only four or five minutes until I was off the ship and wandering around Circular Quay. Always sad to end a cruise, but with two more cruises scheduled for this year it's less sad than usual :-)
Anyway, the rest of the trip home was okay. I liked the Greyhound bus; they allocate specific seats rather than the Murray's 'free for all' option, my seat was quite comfortable and they have powered USB ports at all the seats. What I didn't like so much was the way that the young lady in front of me reclined her seat right back into my face for almost the whole trip; I really didn't have much room to move. Overall it wasn't too bad although I was somewhat regretting not flying home. Paul and Adam came into the city to pick me up so no dramas waiting for a taxi or a bus.
Final thought - cruising by myself was different and I enjoyed myself but all in all I'd prefer to have Paul with me!
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