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.
