We needed the alarm today to get us up at 5am. It would have been soooo easy to hit the snooze button, but we had busy morning plans and there was no time to dawdle. I left the cabin first, by 5:15am or so, and it was easy to believe, walking down a deserted corridor, that there was no one else awake on the ship. Which, actually, is laughable. At 5:15am on a turnaround day, half the crew had been up for hours.
By the time I arrived at our designated meeting place, on Deck 17 midship (by the radar golf balls) there were at least ten people there already. We had just sailed past the North and South Heads at the entrance to Sydney Harbour, and the first light of day could be seen behind them.
The first hint of sunrise as the Golden Princess entered Sydney HarbourG wasn’t long behind me, and the number of passengers at that vantage point grew. We walked almost in circles, taking photos first one direction, then another, to the front, then to the aft. The weather was perfection, not too cool, nor windy, and I doubt we’ll have a prettier arrival in Sydney Harbour while we’re here.
Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour
The Royal Botanic Gardens and the CBD with the Sydney Tower Eye on the left. 
Looking back towards the entrance to the harbor It took nearly 25 minutes from the time the Golden Princess entered the harbor to get the first glimpse of the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and another few minutes more to see the Opera House. I will never, ever, ever tire of that view.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge at dawn. 
This view alone was worth the price of admission. ;-)Credit to G for this one
As soon as the Golden Princess was at its berth at the Overseas Passenger Terminal (about 6am), we went directly to the Horizon Court Buffet for breakfast. It’s always busy on turnaround days, even that early. We ate quickly, and then returned to our cabin to get packed up. We carried most of our toiletries in our cloth beach cooler and my clothes were mostly on hangers so it really wasn’t a lot of work to pull everything together. G started wheeling the large suitcases up to our new cabin even before it was vacated by the prior passenger, because there was a storage area just down the hall from it. Our new cabin steward, Karin from the Philippines, had the new room ready shortly after 8:30am. Accommodations supervisor Angelo appeared with a cart and took all the hanging clothes as well as the over the door shoe rack to our new cabin. By the time I got there with our roll aboard suitcases, everything else was already there. We unpacked and by10am were settled and walking off the ship
We were not surprised that, for Sydney turnarounds, the Golden Princess must achieve a ‘zero count’, meaning every passenger and guest entertainer must be logged off the ship before anyone is allowed to board (or re-board). We are well familiar with this practice from our numerous turnarounds in Fort Lauderdale. But what caught us completely unaware is that in transit passengers (those doing back to back cruises) cannot leave the ship again after they re-board. This is extremely limiting, especially on days like today when we wanted to get to a store and bring our purchases back to the ship and then go exploring. Darn it.
Since we had already lost a few hours to our cabin move, we decided to just make today a shopping day and then return to the ship for lunch and stay there. We checked for the location of the nearest Cole’s and Woolworth’s supermarkets (luckily, they were right around the corner from each other about a mile from the ship in the CBD). Sydney’s CBD near Circular Quay is quite torn up with the construction of a new light rail system but we managed to pick our way around barriers and jackhammers and found the Coles in the basement of the Wynard train station. That’s not where we find our supermarkets at home! Several pounds heavier (shampoo, mouthwash, soda for G, laundry detergent) we backtracked to the Woolworths (in the basement of the Met Center) where we added a couple of items (like the South African Rooibas tea I love). We returned to the ship with our shopping bags, dropped them in our cabin and went to lunch in the Donatello Dining Room.
Our view at embarkation day lunch in the Donatello Dining Room. Life is good. :-)After lunch I went out on the shade of the Terrace Deck (which is now just up the back stairs from our cabin. We are so happy to be up on the back of Aloha Deck!) and uploaded the photos in this post. This was a painfully slow process, but at least it was free and, after all, we were kind of stuck on the ship. When the muster drill started at 3:15pm, that was my cue to shower and get cleaned up for sail away and the evening. We watched the first part of sail away from the Terrace Deck, and when it got too windy moved up to the PES Lounge in Skywalkers until we sailed past the Heads and into the open sea.
A cloudy but still spectacular sail away from SydneyWe went to the Bernini Dining Room on Deck 5 for our new table, which is right next to a window in a quiet corner of the dining room. It was still light for the first part of our dinner, and dining is a different sport when the view is as wonderful as that. I had a salad and then the pasta with tomato sauce but without the chicken and cheese on it, and had it served over broccoli. Head waiter Gabriel has been moved down to our section of the Bernini Dining Room and picked right up where he left off, making sure my meals comply with my restrictions.
The Welcome Aboard show was not scheduled until 9pm, so we went to the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to the Cool Quartet play light music, and that just about put me to sleep. G has gone to see the Welcome Aboard show in the Princess Theater, but I am tucked into bed watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 on TV. And typing a blog post. Because some things never change.
G said tonight he finally feels truly settled on board, and I feel the same way. We are in a cabin in our favorite location, there are no imminent moves in our future, we have a wonderful table by a window and we are finally over the jet lag. Now we’re REALLY cruising.
Life is good. :-)
