March 22 - 24
Final Days at Sea / Arriving In Sydney /
Land Tour: Day 1: Cairns
The final two days at sea found the weather cooperating.....for the most part. It was foggy for the first half of the first day and very windy the second day. But we got two last days to enjoy our wonderful cruise experience. The things I will miss most are pictured here...... first, waking up and looking out on the open seas over our balcony; we love cruising! Second, I will miss our "dinner family" - them specifically, but generally all the great service and pampering of the staff, and the many friendly people we shared conversations with each and every day. Kim is pictured with reminders of the dinner/cruise ..... the "monkey" towel hanging on the curtain representing the best care in our room by our attendant; the "boot" made out of a napkin - our table was the ONLY one where the waiters did this....the last two nights everyone's napkin was in a different shape :) And finally, the oatmeal cookies from our three lady friends, the sisters.
One of the coolest experiences on board came on the last day.......On Wednesday the 21st after dinner we got a phone message from Guest Services that they had received a "wonderful email" from a "Kimberly, apparently a former student of yours Mr. Love." That would be Kimmy Westmoreland, one of my all-time favorite students. Well, the Chief Engineer knows Kimmy very well and Kimmy had asked that he give us a tour of the engine room. I know, from having gone to the "Captain's Corner" that tours are not given in those areas for security purposes any longer. But because Kimmy had asked for us, we got to go below deck into the engine room and see behind the scenes. It was really awesome - and we were dealing with 113 mph winds and a listing of the ship at the time, but still he made time to show us around. Interesting also that he is from Croatia, where our daughter-in-law is from! I had to sign a "Guest Log" for documentation.....only five names on the ledger with the last being in August of 2011! We felt pretty special to say the least!
March 24: Arrival in Sydney - Cairns / Rainforest
We pulled into Sidney Harbor about 6:45 am and as I opened the door to our balcony there was the iconic Sydney Oprea House with the sun rising in the background! How cool is that? We got ready and moved to our meeting point and were the first group off the bus. Our bags were right there - so organized - and went out onto the sidewalk to meet our Tour Guide for the land tour. This was the only "snag" in the entire day - our Tour Guide was no where to be found! We all wandered around for about fifteen minutes until "Leslie" arrived. We quickly dropped off our bag to be stored at the Sydney hotel with one driver and boarded a bus with our other bag. A sidenote.....we had been told that at the airports we would have to handle our own luggage, but we were immediately informed that would not be the case - they had a "system."
We took about a half hour trip to the airport, got off and waited for ten minutes. Then our boarding passes were passed out - we had assigned seats and I'd swear they knew what kind of seats we preferred as some got aisle seats and we got the window and middle seat. Like all Quantas flights we were served a hot lunch with ice cream afterwards by flight attendants dressed in nice dresses and suites. Quality! When we arrived at Cairns Airport we waited while three guys pulled all our bags and loaded them on two carts. We were asked if we saw our luggage and then went to the bus - bags handled for us :) Interestingly, our driver only had one arm. But he quickly made light of this and told us he was the ONLY disabled person to climb Mt. Everest! WOW.....He's ok to drive the bus then I guess!
We soon arrived at the Rainforest Station Nature Park. We took a tour of the rainforest in an "Army Duck" - a World War II amphibious vehicle that could go on land or water. Saw all kinds of plants and creatures; then we walked through the nature park and saw many varieties of animals, including crocodiles, koalas, and kangaroos. We were there about two hours then reboarded the bus for the trip to Port Douglas. We knew we had a hotel, but on the bus one of the ladies on the tour was telling us it was a N-I-C-E resort. And truly, it was first class - be sure to see the video!
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