Brisbane

Above, me and my little sister -- below, Izzy, Shirley and Alex

No information on tours in Brisbane as our principal aim today was to spend some time with family.
The captain had announced last night that we would be late arriving in Brisbane as the ship was fighting a surface current flowing South at 4 knots. As it happened we were able to make up some time overnight and we actually docked about 08.45am. I called Shirley (my sister) from the ship, as my cell phone was getting a good signal from a shore side provider, to let her know we’d meet in town at 10.00am. Shirley and Alex met us as arranged and we spent a great day in town catching up on family news and reminiscing about old times, had an excellent lunch, sampled the local beer and lost some money in the casino. Princess provided a $10 return shuttle from Fishermans’ Island (our docking location) so around 04.00pm we said our sad goodbyes and took the trip back to the ship. We omitted dinner as we had such a big lunch and after going to the evening cabaret we retired for the evening.

Below the port area at Fishermans Island

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Sea Day after Sidney

Thursday 26th February - Mild morning (24 deg C) and calm seas on our way to Brisbane. We’re due to dock at 07.00 and I’ve finally found out where we will be docking ‘Grain Terminal, Fisherman’s Island’, about 45 minutes from downtown Brisbane. By afternoon, it was hot and sunny so I spent some time reading my new book on the top deck, dinner was good and after dinner we had a quiet night watching tv.

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Sidney

Wednesday 25th February - Lots of changes today, we got a new captain, Captain Lubrano left to return home for the pending birth of his second child. Our new captain is William Kent, from Lincolnshire in England. We also might have a new assistant cruise director, though there’s some confusion about this, and we have a whole bunch of new incentives to encourage people to use the casino, since last segment it was frequently all but deserted. In addition, somewhat strangely I thought, we have 6 tradesmen flown in special from UK, who will be converting some large cabins into smaller ones, adding toilets etc. Why they had to come all the way from UK, I don’t know, maybe to do with union contracts, anyway they’re on board ‘til Guam. We also lost 267 passengers and got 200 plus new ones.
We were up at 05.00am to see the sail into harbour as I wanted to get some pictures of the bridge and opera house. Disappointingly we didn’t pass under the bridge (above) to dock at Darling Harbour instead we docked at Circular Quay on the seaward side of the bridge. Anyway the sun didn’t come up until we were actually docked, so all the pictures were night shots, but still worthwhile.

Around 09,00am, we walked off to the information centre and booked the hop-on/off bus, normally A$30 for the day pass, but if you say you’re a senior, it’s only A$20. There are two bus circuits included in your ticket, Sydney explorer and Bondi explorer, so after changing buses, we arrived at Bondi beach (above), nice little bay, pretty standard seaside town. Fortunately it was a beautiful day, high 70’s and sunny, and we spent a couple of hours admiring the scenery and dipping a foot in the ocean.

Back on the bus, we decided to get off, next, at the Maritime Museum, check out the shopping then walk over the foot/monorail bridge (left) to Darling Harbour. Next we were off to the Opera house, beautiful spot, Sydney downtown and harbour front sparkles like a diamond, lots of money here, I could spend a week easily, there’s lots to do.

We spent the early evening enjoying a few local beers in a harbour front café, before taking an hour and a half to walk the fifteen minutes back to the ship. Lots of local colour on the walk back including these aboriginals? (above). Two things about the hop on/off bus: it’s great value at the equivilent of US$15 for a full days use, but you get what you pay for. The Sydney explorer advertises buses every twenty minutes, at one time we waited over 30 minutes past its’ due time. The Bondi explorer is supposed to be every 90 minutes, when we waited at Bondi beach, the bus arrived on schedule but wouldn’t take any passengers. To quote the driver ‘Get off my bus, I’m going for lunch’, another bus arrived 35 minutes later. So expect to be standing around on some occasions, although it’s an inexpensive way to get around, I wouldn’t use it again, too much time wasted standing around. Back on board, we had a quick dinner on deck and watched the sail away at 10.00pm. Below, Izzy and me at the Opera house and me sitting on the top step of the Opera house, then the opera house as we left in the evening.

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Sea Day before Sidney

Tuesday 24th February - Quiet day at sea today, weather is getting a bit warmer and many people were preparing to depart in Sydney. We had a ‘get together’ at 05.00pm and again at 09.00pm for our group of passengers who regularly sat out at the pool deck tables. Derek & Marilyn will be spending 5 weeks touring in Australia before heading back to Alberta, Carol will be flying back to Georgia, Janet will be flying back to Alabama & Anina will be flying back to Switzerland, all be leaving tomorrow, we’re sorry to see them go. Dinner was set to an American theme with the dining room decorated in red, white and blue, the turkey was pretty good.

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Burnie Part 2

Well since last post, we’ve had a nap, woke up at 03.00pm and decided, spur of the moment, to go back into town to buy a hat. On the shuttle to town, we met Libby, volunteer guide, there are 40 volunteers who do rotating shifts, I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the world with so many volunteers, they make any visit worthwhile. In town we bought the hat and then walked up to Kmart, keeping an eye on the time as the last bus back was at 04.30pm. In Kmart we replenished some of our supplies and got back to the bus stop in time to catch Libby’s bus on its’ next round. Back at the port, we were greeted by the sounds of the bagpipes, playing on the dock. I spoke to the bandleader, they were Burnie Highland Pipe Band, established 1941 and played for every ship visiting the port. The bandleader had been to Scotland and had actually been to Cambridge, when I mentioned where we came from he immediately said he’d been to the highland games there, small world.

Back on board, we decide to skip dinner since I wanted to see the sail-away at 06.00pm. It was a great decision, as we sailed out the pipe band marched down the pier following the ship, playing all the way, it would have brought a tear to a glass een. It was such a special send off and the crowds on board cheered and clapped as everyone dockside waved in time to the pipes, it was quite a moment. I’m going to download some pics now, then we’ll be off to the Bistro for some Italian food.

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Burnie, Tasmania

Monday February 23rd - We arrived at Burnie around 07.00am and since we had pre-cleared Australian immigration, we didn’t have to wait long to disembark. It’s the 4th largest port in Australia and very industrial but the little downtown area was quite pleasant and the people couldn’t have been nicer.
At the bottom of the gangway, when we left the ship at 08.30am on a cool and overcast day, the mayor in his mayoral regalia along with his wife (see above), welcomed us personally and the town had exceded all expectations providing a nice lapel pin to every passenger.

A free shuttle to downtown(Mount St shown left) ran every 15 minutes and at each stop there were plenty of volunteers in their distinctive blue vests. That’s the positive side, on the other hand, there’s not much to see in Burnie other than shopping, though if you’re there in the evening you can watch the penguin parade at the Burnie Little Penguin observation centre.


It was quite a nice walk along the ocean front boardwalk (shown above - 20 minutes each way) to the observation centre, though I’d have liked the weather to have been a little warmer. We headed back to the ship at lunch time and relaxed for the afternoon. There were tours and taxis offered at the tourist centre (first stop on the shuttle) along with lots of information, the second stop was for shopping downtown and the last shuttle stop was for internet access at A$6 per hour. As warm as the welcome was, I’m not sure why Princess chooses to stop here, I guess the main reason is to sell their tours to the surrounding areas, ‘Cradle Mountain national Park’, ‘Devonport & Don River railway’ and ‘Launceston & the Tamar valley’.

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Auckland to Tasmania - Sea Days part 2

This morning, Saturday, we were required to report to the Cabaret Lounge between 07.00am and 09.30am for Australian immigration inspection. I guess they came on in Auckland and will leave us in Tasmania, what a job, 5 days cruising for 2½ hours work. We had our usual relaxed breakfast and made our way to deck 5 around 09.00am to find that about 200 other people had the same idea, leave it ‘til later and we won‘t have to stand in a line up. The weather was still cool and windy, all the open decks were taped off to prevent any access to outside as it was considered too windy to allow people outside. I spent the morning reading my book and we decided to skip lunch as neither of us were hungry, then as we hadn’t slept too well the night before, we had a couple of hours sleep. After dinner we went to a musical concert starring Nicola Loud, virtuoso violinist. Tonight we will put our clocks back one more hour meaning we will be 16 hours ahead of Ontario time tomorrow.


Sunday, time to put in our Oscar ballots, the show will be telecast live, but it will be Monday at noon here and we’re likely to be ashore in Burnie, Tasmania. This morning I went to a lecture by Les Evans, former pilot of the Concorde. The subject was the Air France crash of 2000. The highlight of the afternoon was the passenger talent show, 20 entrants yesterday was now down to 7 as 13 had withdrawn, the show was uninspiring.

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Auckland to Tasmania - Sea Days part 1

First day out and we rounded the top of New Zealand around noon, entering the Tasman sea on our way to Tasmania. The Tasman sea, as everyone will remember from geography classes, was named after Abel Janszoon Tasman, early eighteenth century Dutch explorer. The weather was mild but overcast with choppy seas as I watched the last vestiges of land disappear over the horizon, I turned my thoughts to our next stop, a thousand miles West of us.

I returned my library (pictured left) book and took out another one, ‘Miracles of Life‘, the autobiography of J.G.Ballard, the guy who wrote ‘Empire of the Sun’ among many other novels. The Tasman sea is renowned for rough weather and by 09.00pm it was living up to its’ reputation, we were up on the top deck having a coffee, watching the sun loungers being blown into the swimming pool. The ship was rolling and the wind was howling so we had an early night and retired to the cabin.


The next morning the seas were still rough but, after breakfast, I went up to the track for some exercise.

It was a strange experience, walking the pitching deck, sixty feet above a rolling ocean, fighting what felt like a 50 mph wind, I gave up after 5 laps. Later since we were near the gym (pictured left), we stopped in to weigh ourselves, I’ve gained about 5 pounds as far as I can guess so I’ll have to increase the morning exercise or cut out the doughnuts and danish for breakfast. Passenger talent show sign-up was at noon today so we’re looking forward to the actual show in a few days, I didn’t sign up.

I managed to squeeze in a trip to the casino (pictured left), between lunch and an afternoon presentation, by renowned director Arthur Hiller, on the behind the scenes procedures and memorable moments of the Academy Awards. This is in preparation for the Oscar ceremonies, which will be telecast live to the ship this weekend. I had been doing well at 3 card poker, 3 times played, 3 times winning, until today when the cards were unkind and I lost all my money, fortunately Izzy was around to re-finance me and I moved to the slots, recouping some of my losses. The weather didn’t improve as the day went on, but it didn’t stop me having a big lunch so at dinner I didn’t have a main course and ‘made do’ with 3 appetizers. After dinner we went to the ‘magic and merriment’ of Leo Ward, magician extraordinaire, his show was very good. Around 09.30pm we retired for the evening and watched Ironman in our cabin, three thumbs up for the movie.

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Auckland

What a great city, with people to match, we had an excellent day. We arranged with eight other passengers to meet in the ship’s atrium, making a group of ten allowing us to take advantage of the group discount price for the ‘hop on - hop off’ bus. Normal price is NZ$35 per person, discount price is NZ$24 (about US$14) for the all day ticket so it is fairly good value and they have 2 interlinking circuits covering most, if not all, of the interesting locations. In the atrium our numbers had swelled to 14 and around 08.30am we all left together with Izzy out front acting as guide. It was about a ten minute walk to the travel centre to buy our tickets and by the time we got there, our numbers had swelled to 18. There’s a currency exchange in the travel centre (reasonable rates) and there’s also an ATM about fifty yards past the centre. Money was exchanged, our group ticket was purchased and we were on our way. The group ticket comes as one receipt, so all members have to stay together initially until the bus driver issues individual tickets. There was a nice double decker bus ready and waiting for us and we all piled on, upstairs of course, until after sitting 15 minutes on the unmoving bus, the driver announced that the bus couldn’t be started so we all piled off and crowded onto the bus in front (pictured above). Anyway, we were soon underway and enjoyed all the sites of Auckland, I wont go into details, if you’re interested in where the bus goes, here’s their web address www.explorerbus.co.nz .
First picture below shows the Skytower with body falling toward the ground. Second picture shows Izzy and me at Mount Eden in Auckland. Third picture shows group walking around the outside of the Skytower.





By 11.30am we were standing at the bottom of the Sky Tower watching some hapless soul plunge toward the ground from 600 feet above, fortunately he was attached to a wire. The tower www.skycityauckland.co.nz is well worth a visit, NZ$28 (approximately US$15) gets you to the 3 main observation levels for spectacular views around the city and close up views of terrified victims plummeting past the floor to ceiling windows. One of my aims in Auckland was to get a haircut, since it was so expensive on the ship, so I’d pre checked on the internet for a barber close to the harbour area and we headed there next (see post below). It was a beautiful day, about 24 degrees C (about 75 deg.F) and we had a leisurely stroll down Queen Street, enjoying the sights and sounds of the city, I really liked the place, very civilised, helpful, pleasant people and just a general good feeling being there. I looked at property values and rentals ‘one bedroom ocean front apartment US$750 (approximately) per month’, prices all looked very reasonable and I bought a nice golf shirt and bb cap before reaching our next target, Foodtown, supermarket.



Picture left shows ship docked, on right hand side of pier.
We picked up enough supplies (pop, beer, wine etc) to use up our remaining NZ dollars and started back toward the ship lugging our supplies. We walked past a guy with a 2 passenger tricycle, doubled back, negotiated a price in US dollars and travelled back in style, waving at anyone we passed in a queenly manner. It was 05.00pm when we got back on board and after a shower we made it to a quiet main dining room for a quick dinner and on to the Cabaret Lounge to watch a folkloric show presented by a local Maori group. The ship sailed at 10.00pm and we were up on deck for the fabulous deck party with music by Accent, I even got up to dance a couple of times and Jason the assistant cruise director kept everybody hopping with his antics. The city lights were beautiful and we were sorry to be saying goodbye, two days in Auckland would have been preferable. Ahead of us 4 days crossing the Tasman Sea and its’ reported rough weather, I took a seasickness pill.


Additional note for Lorraine: We found and spoke to the Swansons, Greg and Jan, from Texas. Nice couple, they were late back to the ship in Tahiti, because a local bus did not turn up. They had allowed an hour and a half to make the half hour trip back to the ship and after waiting an hour with no bus, they approached a young guy in a gas station offering him money to drive them back to the ship. He refused the money, but bundled them into the car and raced back to the ship, getting them there with 5 minutes to spare. They said they had been prepared to have to fly to the next port if they missed the ship so they insisted that he accept the money. Good thing they made it on time, as we didn’t get ashore at the next port. Rarotonga. Just shows that there are helpful people all over the world.

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The best deal in Auckland

My Free Haircut

Since it was expensive on the ship, I’d planned in advance to get my haircut in Auckland and had pre selected from an internet search, Mr Barber at 360 Queen St, mostly because I knew the ship docked close to Queen St. It wasn’t difficult to find, but when we got there, we were surprised to to see it was actually a training centre for barbers. We went in anyway and asked how much for a haircut, “No charge” said Vinnie (pictured above), the young guy behind the desk, “We cut for free, you leave a tip if you’re happy”. Free, being one of my favourite words, was all I needed to hear, “I’ll have a haircut” I said. Two minutes later I was in the chair, Mark (pictured below), a likeable guy, was my cutter.

He travelled 2 hours each day to get to the training centre and had been cutting for 3 weeks. After a few words from the supervisor and some discussion on what I’d like done, he grabbed the clippers. I liked him and he did a good job with help from the supervising cutter, I knew that if he screwed anything up, like lopping an ear off, the expert was standing by to fix it up. They were a great bunch and after I was finished Izzy asked Liegh Topham (cutting the hair in pictures below), the lead tutor if they could do her hair. They are only a men’s haircutting service but after some begging and wheedling, Izzy managed to convince him to allow Ferora (2nd left in the right hand picture below), one of the female trainee barbers, to cut her hair. Ferora was originally from Zimbabwe and had been in New Zealand for 6 years, she had her own small salon and was training in men’s haircuts to extend the business to unisex. While waiting, I sat outside having a coffee until I was summoned inside to take some pictures. Liegh had taken over Izzy’s cut and hair was flying all over as he expertly finished off her hair.


We really enjoyed our time at Mr Barber’s, they were a great bunch of guys/gals and we both got an excellent haircut, students take a 12 week course and get a certificate after successful conclusion. I’d recommend their service to anyone, you can view their website at www.mrbarber.co.nz

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More Sea days

Valentines day, February 14th, on board was a big occasion with heart shaped decorations in all the public spaces. Most of the activities were Valentines day related and, no surprise, we didn’t do too well in Valentines trivia. Captain Lubrano hosted a FREE ‘Renewal of Wedding Vows’ ceremony in the Cabaret Lounge, each of the 27 participating couples (of 654 passengers on board) received a certificate. In the afternoon we watched the ships’ version of the ‘Newly Wed and Nearly Dead’ game, we’ve seen this game on many ships and it’s always very funny as participants try to match their partners answer. June and Jim from our table were the most recently wed at 3 years married compared to longest wed couple at 54 years.


We lost February 16th, we go from today, Sunday February 15th to Tuesday February 17th since we crossed the international dateline today. The seas were quite rough last night and this morning barf bags were sprinkled about the public areas. We went to the weekly Sunday brunch with Harry and Bob, it was nice and was about a 2 hour affair as we sat talking for a while, I tried my first eggs benedict and my first Canolli, very nice. We spoke to the Captains Circle representative about our status for this cruise. We’d been told by Princess head office that we would not qualify for the top level status ‘til the end of the cruise, but since boarding we’ve been told that we’ll be billed at the end of each segment. After raising this with the CC rep, she agreed that we would be moved to the higher level for the last segment of the cruise, Izzy just missed the required numbers to qualify for the 3rd segment by one day. Reaching the top level status means free laundry, free in cabin mini bar and a variety of other perks. The longer we’re on this ship, the more impressed we are by the staff, they are really very helpful and always seem happy, being on for a long time we’ve got to know a few of them quite well.


There was a special laundry promotion today, February 17th, everything you can fit into the laundry bag for $20, it saves us the bother of doing the laundry at the onboard self service machines. There is only one laundry centre with 4 machines and we constantly hear of arguments and harsh words between passengers when someone decides they will remove someone else’s laundry in order to put in their own laundry. This morning, there was an interesting lecture “My day in the office at 60,000 feet” following a typical British Airways Concorde flight as seen through the eyes of Captain Les Evans, former Concorde pilot. This evening we watched ‘Duo Yalba’ in their second show since coming on board, they play over 40 different musical instruments (not at the same time) and were quite entertaining. Tomorrow we are scheduled to arrive in Auckland at 07.00am, so it’s early to bed tonight for an early morning rise.

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Sea day after Rarotonga

First of four days at sea on our way to New Zealand, Auckland is currently 1000 miles south west of us and we’re doing about 18 knots. Hot and sunny with a high of 30 degrees, we lay in the sun for a while and took our first dip in the pool, the water was positively warm, the pool is quite small about 20 feet by 12 feet, I’d guess. Dinner was excellent as usual, though my crispy skin chicken had limp skin, but we all have our cross to bear.

Matt, our waiter, is excellent at his job and his assistant, Uluo, is also very efficient, they’re both from Thailand and both are looking forward to going home when their contracts finish in August (they’re pictured left, Matt, Uluo and table captain, Andrea). Tonight we met Lorraine Arzt in the casino, she is quite a character. She lives permanently on board the ship and as godmother of the ship, she has her picture at the entry to the main dining lounge and receives the royal treatment wherever she goes. Her parents were both from Glasgow and she lived in Pollokshields, Glasgow, for 4 years on Herriot Road, at the time her parents had a sweety shop on Eglinton Street, so we had lots to talk about.

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Rarotonga-NOT

The sky was overcast and grey as we approached Rarotonga, we had been prepared by the weather forecast for a rainy day. As we went up to the top deck, we passed all the excited participants in the Princess organised shore excursions, waiting in line for the first tender ashore. Our plan was to relax with a coffee until the early morning rush had diminished, then head ashore for a wander around and maybe rent a car. Before renting you must first a visit the local police station to be photographed and apply for a Cook Islands driving licence, approximately $10, I was looking forward to the unique souvenir and process. As we enjoyed our coffee, I could see the rain approaching from off shore and shortly it was pouring down and the sea got very choppy. There were already two tenders in the water and they were bouncing about like corks when the announcement from the captain started. “Due to rough seas and expected increased wind and rain, all shore visits have been cancelled and we will be raising the anchor for an early departure to New Zealand” The next half hour was spent watching the lifeboat crews hook up and raise the tenders back on board, a perilous process as the seas heaved the smaller vessels around.

Fortunately I had taken some pictures of the island before the worst of the weather moved in so at least we got to see Rarotonga, if not set foot on it. It was a bit disappointing but as the captain said, safety is first priority, apparently it‘s not unusual for weather to prevent tenders going ashore. We were soon on our way with 5 days at sea ahead before we reach New Zealand as the entertainment staff made hurried announcements scheduling new events on board. The evening show featured the multi talented instrumentalists Duo Yalba, they were very entertaining, that’s 7 shows we’ve seen, a record for us.

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Day at sea before Rarotonga

Like most recent sea days, today was warm and balmy, it’s surprising that when you talk to people, most love the sea days. I used the time to get into my third book since we boarded, a murder mystery set in Maine, they have an excellent library on board (see left) and most of the morning was spent laying out on deck, reading while alternating between sun and shade. The afternoon followed our usual pattern, shooting the breeze with many of the nice people we’ve met. We lost both morning and afternoon trivia by one point, so I’m still waiting for that next coupon that will allow us a key chain in addition to a baseball cap, the excitement is under whelming. After dinner we had a quick minorly profitable visit to the casino, met Lucy & Jim and were happy to hear that Lucy had won the $250 blackjack tournament. We sat out under the stars and discussed how they should spend this vast amount of money, needless to say some unusual suggestions were ventured, much to our amusement.

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Tahiti

It was 86 degrees and humid as we sat on the upper deck having a coffee. It was 9am and the Saga Rose was just pulling into the next berth, this would be the last time we see her as she heads in a different direction from here. We went ashore soon after, before it got any hotter and walked the 2 or 3 minutes to the main shopping street. The ship was docked very conveniently within 200 yards of downtown Papeete (pronounced ‘Pappy ate eh‘) and we wandered up a few side streets making our way to the market we remembered from our previous visit. Once there we checked out both levels then decided most items were overpriced and the only thing we were interested in was the flowers which were more reasonably priced. On the subject of pricing we heard a few second hand stories, a hamburger for $9 from a street vendor and $24 for a beer and an orange juice in one of the cafes, can‘t comment on how accurate they were as our only purchase was the flowers.

The heat was unbearable and we were both drenched, so after some negotiations we settled on a nice arrangement (pictured left) for $17 and walked back to the air conditioning of the ship.

After lunch we relaxed on the promenade deck and I watched the crew going through their usual maintenance work, painting the ships’ hull, then since we’d just come through 5 days at sea I decided to have another half hour on land strolling around town.

By 3.30pm I was back and we were sitting in the ships’ main lounge watching a local Polynesian folkloric show which was very good. Capital of Tahiti, the town of Papeete is not altogether unattractive with a beautiful long ocean front main street, Boulevard Pomare, with nicely laid out public gardens, innumerable shops and street side cafes. There were some taxis available pierside and I’m told they accept US dollars, there were also a few banks within easy walking distance. We were back out on deck to watch the 5.00pm sail away, around 4.35pm they announced (this is for Lorraine) “Would Mr & Mrs Swanson kindly contact the pursers desk”. Apparently there were two passengers unaccounted for, the minutes ticked by then with only a few minutes to go, first Mr Swanson came running down the pier, followed by Mrs Swanson a hundred yards behind. The crowds on deck alternately cheered and boo’d them as they boarded, it must have been embarrassing, as soon as they were on, the gangway was withdrawn and we were underway.

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Two days at sea after Pitcairn

Mutiny on the Princess

Two hot days at sea, 30 degrees, sunny and humid and two lazy days doing nothing. I caught up on some reading and went up to the Royal Lounge for our afternoon trivia game. Our Sunday game was going well until she asked ‘where is Transylvania?’ and when she insisted it was in France, there was almost a mutiny. Some people take their trivia seriously. As the crowd cried out with calls like ‘keel haul her’ and ‘make her kiss the gunners daughter’ she remained firm and said it was her game and the correct answer was France. We didn’t win. We bypassed the main restaurant that night and had dinner in the Italian Bistro, it was delicious, lasagna for starters and then an excellent Margherita pizza, it was all excellent and I managed to finish the 18”pizza myself, Izzy had Chicken Kiev. After dinner we went to the production show (singers and dancers) with Rikki Jay the comedian.

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Pitcairn island answer

Hi Lorraine, hope you’re not getting too much snow, it feels like about 30 degrees here and it’s sunny and humid. The island is less than 2 miles by 1 mile and projects from the sea with cliffs or steep slopes all around, highest point is about 1100 feet. Their early history was full of violent deaths and murders after being settled by the Bounty mutineers. There were a couple of places where it was possible to go ashore, though viewed from the ship, they looked pretty rough. The islanders came on board via a large open boat which looked like it could have come from the Bounty except it was metal hulled. Current population is 54, (11 seniors, 33 adults and 9 children, youngest being about 6 months). About 15 came on board including one Pitcairn policeman, they were a mixed bunch age wise and some of them a bit short tempered, though I can’t blame them they were all but mobbed by our 600 passengers even before they got a chance to lay out their wares. I heard a rumour today that one of the passengers had walked off with a $120 model of the Bounty, without paying for it, don’t know how true it is. They have fresh water (though they depend on rain to keep it topped up), have regular telephone system, internet access, tv (CNN and a movie channel), generate their own electricity and have a school, church, museum and medical centre, though serious medical cases are shipped and flown to Tahiti and even New Zealand. Their main supplies are delivered every 3 to 4 months plus whatever they can buy from/trade with passing ships like ours. Adamstown, named after the last surviving mutineer John Adams, is the only community and sits on one of the less steep slopes facing the sea, they grow a variety of vegetables, tropical fruits, produce their own honey from bees and fish from the rocks and from their boat.

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Pitcairn island

Saturday February 7th. When we awoke Pitcairn island was in sight and the accursed Saga Rose once again lay anchored ahead of us. Pitcairn is about midway between Australia and South America, no more than a large rock projecting from the ocean, it was settled in 1790 by mutineers from the British ship Bounty. One of the most remote islands in the world, it was annexed as a British colony in 1838 and descendents of the Bounty’s first mate, Fletcher Christian, and eight other mutineers still inhabit the island. There were no planned shore visits for any of our passengers but as scheduled, around 10.00am the islanders arrived by boat to come on board and sell their wares. About 15 people came on board and set up tables in the Royal Lounge for the sale, as they came on board our Princess crew aided by a few islanders were loading supplies onto the small boat. Potatoes, onions, powdered milk, coffee, pasta noodles and toilet paper were some of the supplies I saw being boarded. We spoke to the daughter-in-law of Steven Christian a descendant of Fletcher but didn’t buy anything as I considered them expensive and unfortunately the items I was interested in were marked ‘made in China’. There were some nice carved wood items at reasonable prices, most were marked as made by one or other of the Christian descendants. Around 11.00am a presentation on the islands history was given by Tom Christian and our ship made a complete circumnavigation of the island before disembarking the islanders. The weather has turned nice again and we had a mostly sunny day with a high of 24 degrees and calm seas. Tahiti is our next stop, 1170 miles to the West.

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Easter Island to Pitcairn island

Today, Thursday Feb 5th, was our first sea day after Easter Island and we didn’t do much of anything, sat by the pool talking to friends ’til it rained and we went up to the Royal Lounge for a game of trivia. The sea days are very relaxing and we find most of the time is spent talking with friends, attending a lecture or demonstration, eating, eating and eating . I actually did some exercise this morning, walking around the upper deck for 10 minutes, they have a full gym set up on board with all the usual machines but it’s generally busy at the popular times. Dinner was good as usual, though one of our tablemates, Jim, was not present due to illness. After dinner we went to the evening show, starring an English comedian, Rikki Jay, he was quite funny. Later we went up on deck for a presentation under the stars by an onboard astronomer, Dr Norman Caisse, unfortunately the stars didn’t co-operate and the sky was too cloudy for the presentation, it was delayed ‘til a clearer night. Clocks went back an hour last night and again tonight, first time changes since we left home.


Half way through the first segment, 17 days gone already and it was raining heavily this morning, Friday Feb 6th, the forecast is for the same all day. We’ve been having breakfast delivered to our cabin most mornings, it means we can relax and not have to get dressed before breakfast.


It was delivered by our usual guy, Michael (picture left), from Philippines, always happy and upbeat, maybe because his contract is complete when we reach Sydney and he gets to go home and see his girlfriend, they’re working on buying a house before getting married. Izzy wasn’t feeling too good so stayed in bed all morning, trying to get over her head cold. Princess had told us that all shore excursions for the entire 107 days would be charged to our credit card at the end of the first segment, Feb 25th, an announcement that wasn’t universally popular, so I, among many others made our way to the shore excursions desk to request that the excursions be charged at the end of each segment. The sky cleared around noon and it got hot and sunny, we planned to spend some time by the pool but got stuck in the casino as we both had good wins. Must have been our lucky day, we won trivia in the morning and again in the afternoon, each win gives you a coupon which can be used to acquire items like baggage tags or baseball hats. Tonight was formal night, lobster was on the menu along with a load of other stuff, lobster was on for lunch too and the buffet was the scene of mob mentality as the starving passengers pushed and shoved their way in to grab as much as possible, you’d think they hadn’t eaten for weeks. We watched Kaitlin Carr again in a new show tonight and when we got back to the cabin our dinner waiter had sent us a tray of delicious marzipan and truffle treats in case we got hungry during the night.

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Easter Island

Sheree see the fifth comment, previous post


I was up just before sunrise and the island was visible off our port side. I could see the lights of another ship already anchored in the bay at Hanga roa, the largest town. Easter Island gets about 15 ships per year and as luck would have it, we happened to be there at the same time as the Saga Rose, the ship that passed through the Panama canal with us. Because the other ship had acted first, all the islands tour buses were fully booked for the morning and Princess passengers had all their tours in the afternoon, the hottest time of day, fortunately we had booked a private excursion. We caught the first tender over to the dock and Josephina of Haumaka Tours was waiting, as arranged, holding a sign with our name on it.
After introductions, we were quickly on our way in a comfortable 4x4 Suzuki to our first stop the volcano of Rano Raraku. The drive across the island reminded us of Scotland, narrow roads surrounded by mostly rough grass terrain, rocks and occasional trees. One difference from Scotland was the number of wild horses who seemed to prefer the roadway to the grass, they frequently looked underfed, many with ribs clearly visible and later we did see the bones of one of the poor creatures close to the roadway.

From the volcanic rock of Rano Raraku 95 percent of all the statues on the island were carved and it must have been quite an undertaking, many times they were removed from the sheer face of the mountain, requiring a long descent down the slope of a stone weighing several tons. The area is beautifully maintained and we were fortunate to have near perfect weather, clear blue skies and a warm breeze. I could have stayed for a while just enjoying the view out over the ocean, contemplating the many giant heads staring out to sea along side me, but we had limited time and a lot to see. Next stop was Ahu Tongariki, a platform holding 15 of the largest statues on the island then on to Anakena beach and Ahu Nau Nau, another 7 statues. The white sand beach was beautiful, but we were soon on our way to visit the Ahu Tahai complex, ceremonial site with village, canoe ramp and cave dwellings and all too soon we were back at the boat dock and our visit was over. Our time with Josephina was most enjoyable, she has an easy going personality and was very knowledgeable of the history and culture of the island.

We arrived back on board the ship just in time for a late lunch and an afternoon crash before the rigours of the evening ahead.

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Life at sea before Easter Island

We miss our kids as well as all the dogs and cat

Third day at sea after Callao and 600 miles to Easter Island, it’s 24 degrees and sunny again. We spent some time in the sun today and went to a lecture by Lynne Truss, an English writer on manners, or the lack of them in today’s society, she was quite funny.

Today I also spoke to the pursers desk about our overland trip from Vietnam. Our conversation started by me providing an itinerary of our trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, to which he commented “We will need to know where you’re going” I pointed to the itinerary. “Ho Chi Minh City is in China” he said “Where will you be staying in Hanoi” “Ho Chi minh City is in South Vietnam, Hanoi’s in North Vietnam” I said. The lady next to him confirmed my statement and I said “it used to be called Saigon”. “Oh we’re going to Saigon ok” he said. I continued requesting that we not be charged for Vietnamese and Cambodian visas, since we had to purchase our own for the overland. His immediate response was that they couldn’t do anything about that, I should have arranged that with Princess head office. I produced my email from Princess head office saying they couldn’t do anything for me, I would have to arrange it with the purser on board the ship. He disappeared through to the back office and returned to tell me I would not be charged for the visas. Unfortunately they could not tell me exactly where we would be docking in Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok as they did not know yet, they would get that info some time before docking. They seemed to make it as difficult as possible to make independent arrangements, I’m not impressed by their organizational skills.

Before going for dinner we squeezed in a game of trivia and were rewarded with a first place win, the fabulous prize was a coupon (3 coupons get you a baseball hat). Dinner was good as usual and of interest to anyone planning a world cruise, each segment of this cruise has 4 ‘formal’ nights and the rest are ’smart casual’ . I’d guess that on formal nights, about 10 to 15 percent of men wear tuxedos, another 50 to 60 percent suits or sport coats, the rest ‘shirt and tie‘s. On smart casual nights, dress varies from mostly golf shirts to a few ‘suit and tie’s. After dinner we went to the evening show which starred Kaitlyn Carr, Scotland’s premier singing sensation. She was very good and after the show we spoke to her for a while, she grew up in Shawlands, Glasgow, an area I knew well. She’ll be on board ‘til Tahiti, so will have another show between then and now.



Fourth day and when we awoke the sea was mirror calm, like the cling wrap covering my room-service delivered morning muessli. They cover everything with cling-wrap and we’ve wondered how often some short sighted old person adds milk to their cereal without realising there’s a transparent film between them and their breakfast. No wind and as the relentless sun continues to beat down we found a nice shady spot by the pool and I caught up on reading my newly acquired book ‘The Second Plane’. It’s not about any new age religion, rather it’s about 9/11. Tomorrow we arrive at Easter Island, 2000 miles from the coast of South America. It’s hard to believe, Easter Island, one of the remoter places on earth and we’ll be there tomorrow, it’s one of those iconic places I thought I’d never see.

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Life at sea after Lima

Thanks for all the comments, it’s good to know others are enjoying following along.

First day at sea after Callao (Lima) and it’s 24 degrees and sunny with a 10mph wind from the South. We had a special lunch prepared for us by Master Chef Commendatore Alfredo Marzi in Sabatini’s restaurant. Pasta Florentini and wild mushrooms in a mouth watering wine sauce, followed by the fish Orange Roughy, baby potato spearlets and sautéed vegetables all done in a delicious sauce of unknown origin, followed by an outstanding cream cake with strawberry sauce, icecream and white chocolate dipped strawberries rounded out with a selection of petit fours and coffee (got to watch I don‘t drool on the laptop). The lunch was arranged superbly by two of our ‘cruise critic’ friends, Judy and Sue, for about 30 of us in the cruise critic group and it was undoubtedly the tastiest meal I’ve had since coming on board. I was completely surprised by the level of service provided by Princess, they went all out and gave us a lunch to remember, all complimentary including wine. If our lunch was typical of Sabatini’s standards, it may well be worth the normal premium charged. In the afternoon I listened to part 3 of John Maxtone-Graham’s lecture on North Atlantic Liners, dozing off occasionally as I digested his words and my lunch.



Second day out from Callao and it’s 24 degrees again, overcast and the sea is angry today my friends, like an old man….… well never mind …. we’re about half way to Easter Island. Didn’t do much of anything today, finished reading my book, went to an informative lecture on astronomy, laid in the sun watching the world go by, it’s tiring doing nothing. We’ve met so many nice people and everyone is generally good natured and tolerant except the anti-smoking nazis who are occasionally heard telling a poor innocent smoker that they should not be smoking in a smoking area.

Our room steward, Chonpat (shown left), from Thailand has been teaching me some Thai phrases. He has 2 children, 8 and 11, he came on board the same day as us in Fort Lauderdale and will see his family briefly when we dock in Bangkok, March 27th, then not for about another 6 months when his contract ends. Must be hard for him when I think how much I miss my little Spammy, hope he’s eating well (Spammy not the room steward). Tonight is Superbowl and it’s on in the main lounge, they’ve got it all decorated in team colors and it looks like it will be well attended as long as the satellite connection holds out. We had a late night tonight after losing everything in the casino we took in a late night trivia quiz, placing second equal of a total of three teams, but we laughed from start to finish, who knew that Edith Piaffs nickname was Little Sparrow.

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