Day 139: Hobart, Tasmania

I was up and off the ship early this morning. We didn’t sleep long, but sleep, when the ship is at a berth, is the best ship sleep there is. My objective in getting off early was not to start sightseeing, but to use the high speed WiFi in the Hobart Cruise Terminal. It’s extremely fast, especially so if few others are on it, but is limited to only 30 minutes per device per day. Still, 30 minutes is enough time if the speed is good. 

G stayed on the ship and just used cellular data, which must have been beefed up for the Royal Hobart Regatta, as it was pretty good today, too. But for downloading videos to watch on the flight home, I needed WiFi. I downloaded the maximum number of Netflix videos I could, spread between two iPads, and updated apps while I was doing that. We’re have plenty of entertainment on hand for the hours of travel home, and 40 minutes later I joined G in the World Fresh Marketplace. 

Despite our good sleep, neither one of us was a ball of energy today. After all, we’ve been in Hobart several times this season, and the only thing that really appealed to us today was a historical display on the Regatta grounds, but apparently it wasn’t appealing enough. Furthermore, Captain Tony Draper had made an unwelcome announcement yesterday evening as we were leaving Port Arthur. Due to a significant storm and the resulting rough seas that we are going to encounter en route to Sydney, and in order to arrive on time in Sydney (rather important to us with an 11:15am flight), he was moving our departure from Hobart up by three hours. Instead of leaving at 6pm, we would be leaving at 3pm, with a 2:30pm on board time. Several shore excursions were cancelled as a result. 

Instead of leaving the ship, we lingered over breakfast and then returned to the cabin where we began the task of sorting through paperwork, photos, menus, maps...all the flotsam and jetsam of nearly five months at sea. We hate dumping all that trash on our cabin steward on the last day. While we were at it, I packed away a few things I knew were no longer needed. 

By 2pm we were getting hungry, and, wanting to avoid what we knew would be a crush in the World Fresh Marketplace as everyone came back on board, we once again split a pizza at Alfredo’s. This left us not very hungry for dinner, and it was the 999th formal night of our season, too, but we dressed not too formally and went to dinner anyway.

We really don’t need to eat for at least a week after we get home, which is a good thing, because there is no food in the house anyway. 

Day 7 dinner menu, page 1

Day 7 dinner menu, page 2

Day 7 dessert menu

We sat in front row seats for tonight’s performance of Fantastic Journey, knowing this was not the show to view from there, but wanting to try it anyway. Fantastic Journey kind of wraps around the front of the Princess Theater, and utilizes the two side stages, and one misses all that extra activity if sitting too close. Still... we did it. We do enjoy seeing the singers and dancers up close (and hearing their voices without a mic, too). 

I know I’ve said it before, but we have really enjoyed the production shows and musical entertainment on the Majestic Princess. 

Those drones...I’m still impressed by the technology in this show. 

These costumes. Amazing!

We had some energy tonight (doing nothing all day has its benefits), and listened to some of the live music around the ship, finishing the evening with Acoustic Rush in the Crown Grill. They (and the Majestic Princess Orchestra) have been our favorite of all the fantastic musicians on the ship. 

And then it was bedtime, our second last on the ship. I really lucked out, and had great mattresses on both the Ruby Princess and the Majestic Princess this season. And my silk sleep sack has worked out perfectly. But these pillows...they were too puffy when they were first delivered on the Emerald Princess several years ago and haven’t calmed down over time. But I’m already bringing my own sheet...liquid soap, bar soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, Q-tips, etc, because what is offered on Princess doesn’t appeal. Do I really need to add pillows to that list?

Nah. I’ll just get into my chiropractor as soon as I get home. I’ve gotten by without being able to turn my head to the left for weeks now, but it might come in handy when I start to drive. 

Day 7 Princess Patter, page 1

Day 7 Princess Patter, page 2

Day 7 Princess Patter, page 3

Day 7 Princess Patter, page 4

Day 138: Port Arthur and Hobart

This was one of the best days of the entire season. One of the longest days of the entire season, too (until we face our travel day home, at least). There is much to tell you about a day that started in one port, moved to another port and finished with fireworks and drinks along the water in Hobart during the Royal Hobart Regatta. Very fun!

The day was rather overcast, and I know it was in the high 90Fs here just a few days ago, but where did that weather go? Instead we were faced with temps in the low 60s that felt even chillier along the water. And we spent our entire day along the water. 

We started with a quick breakfast in the World Fresh Marketplace, returned to the cabin to dress in jackets (and I had my wool headband around my neck, but it quickly moved up to my head once we were in the tender), and went to the Harmony Restaurant to collect Elite tender tickets to go ashore. Whether due to the wind or the ship size, the Majestic Princess was anchored quite a bit further from shore than the Ruby Princess had been. And despite the fact that there were five ship tenders being used to shuttle passengers ashore, it was a time-consuming process. Port Arthur conducts its own boat tours of the area, and their large catamaran took up one pier. It seemed like two Majestic Princess tenders could squeeze in along the other pier, but that wasn’t often done. Instead, we sat in the tender for at least 30 minutes waiting for dock space to become available. As I’ve said before, these Royal Class tenders are great... but there are a lot of people on these ships. 

Finally we were ashore, and we first went to the Port Arthur Visitors Center to book seats on the free boat tour over to the Isle of the Dead (the Port Arthur cemetery) and Point Puer, the site of a boys reformatory in the mid-1800s. There is a nice narrative that goes along with this, and we gained some additional good information from it. 

We next spent a bit of time on the lowest level of the imposing Penitentiary building, where the most hardened criminals were housed. The remains of the cells show how extremely small they were, with the only light coming in a narrow window at the back. No, thank you. 

These pics are just because I loved the flowers. 

Great hiking weather

Port Arthur Historic Site from the water


The lowest level of the Penitentiary housed the most hardened criminals 

The ruins of the building, which was gutted by fire, have been shored up with bracing and wire. 

Very small cells

Note the anchors for shackles in the walls

The guard tower

And then we set out to walk the opposite direction we had walked two years ago, to Carnarvon Beach on a path through the woods along the waterfront. This was such a fun walk. We encountered very few other people (a real plus at this point in the season), the path was wide and very obvious and fairly flat. We made it to Carnarvon Beach in the next bay south of Port Arthur, and continued on the Point Puer Road along the water to the Point Puer Trail. We looked long and hard for an echidna in the undergrowth, like we had seen two years ago, but weren’t so lucky this time. We were dressed appropriately, the day was never hot, and it was perfect afternoon of walking. 

We hiked right along the water

A beautiful walk

Carnarvon Beach

Does anyone know what this is?

As soon as we reached the end of the Point Puer Trail, we needed to turn around and start back. The last tender from shore to the ship was at 4pm, and we had been keeping track of how long we had walked so we wouldn’t get left behind. Not that that would have been a disaster; the Majestic Princess sailed to Hobart, arriving there at 8:30pm for an overnight stay. Hobart is less than two hours from Port Arthur by road, but if our tardiness had resulted in the ship arriving in Hobart late tonight, we wouldn’t have been very popular with anyone board, crew and passengers alike (there was a spectacle awaiting us in Hobart- read on- and the crew loves their overnights in port). 

Once back on board, I was going to get showered before dinner, but G pointed out that we’d most likely be going out again after dark in Hobart, so it didn’t make sense to get too cleaned up. Besides, we were more hungry than dirty after our 19000+ step day, and instead shared a pizza from Alfredo’s, leading me to offer that comment that gets said at least once a season: Hurry up and finish eating so we can go to dinner. ;-)

We limited dinner to just one course each, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery from our window-side table as the Majestic Princess cruised along the steep rock cliffs of Tasman National Park. I love overnights in Hobart for several reasons, the biggest one being the beautiful scenery between Hobart and Port Arthur that gets missed if the overnight isn’t scheduled. 

Day 6 dinner menu, page 1

Day 6 dinner menu, page 2

Day 6 dessert menu

We watched from the Hollywood Conservatory as the ship entered Hobart Harbour. It was finally cleared by the local authorities for passengers to proceed ashore about 8:30pn, but we didn’t leave the ship right away. Today was the middle day of the three-day Royal Hobart Regatta, and there was a large fireworks show scheduled for 9:30pm over the water next to the Regatta grounds, just beyond the port terminal. It was chilly, and we chose to watch from the Open Deck Behind the World Fresh Marketplace as it felt a little warmer there, despite the fact that the Harbour Control Tower blocked a tiny bit of the view. I love fireworks (and am missing the Friday night fireworks in Hawaii), and this was a great show. 

Royal Hobart Regatta fireworks with the Tasman Bridge in the background

After the show, we walked off the ship and along the waterfront to a pier where there are several restaurants and bars with outdoor seating. The area was packed; Regatta weekend is obviously a very big deal. We finally returned to the ship just after midnight. It had been a fantastic day, and there are lots of Regatta activities scheduled all day tomorrow. They will give us nice options for our fourth visit to Hobart this season...assuming we have the energy to even get off the ship, that is. I think if I was boarding a flight from Sydney to LAX right now, I’d sleep the whole 14 hours.🥱

Day 6 Princess Patter, page 1

Day 6 Princess Patter, page 2

Day 6 Princess Patter, page 3

Day 6 Princess Patter, page 4

Day 102: Hobart

Today I finally cried UNCLE, and posted on my blog that no further posts would be published until we return home. I don’t think I’ve ever had to do that before, stop posting due to internet speed. Even in French Polynesia, I was able to publish something, although photos had to wait until Chaplin’s Bar or we got home. 

But this Majestic Princess WiFi really shouldn’t even be considered internet access. I have yet to be able to load a single news app, Google searches go nowhere, websites time out before loading, and the Blogger app that I use to write and publish my posts frequently gives me the error message that I am not on the internet. I am, but it’s the Majestic Princess internet, so yeah, it’s kind of right about that. 

But I will continue to write a post every night, and furthermore, include photos, too. These posts will be saved on my iPhone and, as long as my iPhone survives the trip, using our home WiFi with its 160Mbps+ upload speed, I’ll have these posts published in no time at all. 

We received notification in our mailboxes yesterday (yes, we still have them on the Majestic Princess!) that we needed to go through Australian immigration this morning in Hobart, and until the ship was “zeroed out”, no one would be allowed to reboard the ship. The zeroing out thing was a very familiar concept, but needing to go through immigration in Hobart was not. But this was the first time this season we’ve boarded the ship in New Zealand, so I can understand the requirement. 

G was committed to being one of the first people off the ship. He wanted to use the here-to-fore speedy WiFi in the port terminal. It’s time limited (30 minutes per day per device), but it meets four of the five major WiFi criteria in ports: fast, free, cool, quiet and shaded. Once the terminal filled up, it was far from quiet. 

I had filled out our immigration cards for Australia last night, set G’s form, his passport, $100 in Australian dollars and our tiny bag of coins on the end of the vanity...and asked him to leave quietly this morning. I was sleeping in. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel, but wasn’t planning to leave the ship until closer to the 11:30am deadline. I could not see myself wanting to spend 3-4 hours in the terminal waiting for the ship to zero out if I wasn’t feeling great. 

I finally woke up, showered for the first time in two day and decided that this cold seemed to be just that- a cold and nothing worse. I headed down to the International Cafe for a coffee and (forgive me, it was easy, it was there) a slice of banana bread, took my phone off Airplane Mode and saw several days worth of texts and emails pop up. I am so thankful for T-Mobile and it’s International data roaming. It’s far from fast...but it’s better than Majestic Princess WiFi!

Among the texts were several from G updating me of his whereabouts this morning. He had exhausted his 30-minutes of free WiFi in the terminal and was at the Tasmanian Museum, about half a mile away, using their fast WiFi. I gathered up my iPhone and two iPads and walked off the ship and through immigration. Luckily, we’ve been in Hobart often enough that, especially with Maps.me, I knew exactly where to go. 

Once I found G, I set about getting some new videos downloaded on our iPads. I was able to download about three hours worth, and then the speed slowed considerably. Still, I was able to check credit cards and update apps and text Mom, the most basic of things that we have to wait for ports to accomplish. This is tough. 

By 2pm we were making our way back to the ship.  There was a very long and slowly moving line to re-board the ship. I think we had just hit at a bad time, because 30 minutes later it wasn’t nearly as bad (we could see from our table at lunch).  G had eaten at Alfredo’s pizzeria last night when I wasn’t with him, and wanted to return. I was able to have the vegetarian pizza made with no zucchini and no cheese. Is it still a pizza if there’s no cheese?  Regardless, it was delicious. It was at lunch, about 3pm, that we decided we’d be skipping dinner tonight altogether. There was no way we were going to be hungry again at 5:30pm. 

That gave us three hours to sleep (and we did sleep!) before we needed to get cleaned up and get seats in the Princess Theater for tonight’s production show, Fiera!  Like Fantastic Journey, we had heard great things about this show. It was amazing. The costumes, the sets, the songs... it was spectacular. But the theater did completely fill well before the start time of 7:15pm, and I’m glad we were there 45 minutes early.  The entertainment on the Majestic Princess alone made our move over from the Ruby worthwhile. 

But we still miss the Ruby Princess in many ways (apart from MedallionNet. We’re in absolute mourning over the loss of MedallionNet).  We returned to our cabin tonight to find some special treats, courtesy of Headwaiter Mehai on the Ruby Princess. Yep, there are some very special people on that ship. 

We have another day at sea tomorrow. I am already feeling better tonight, and hopefully by the time we arrive in Melbourne in two days will have shaken this cold altogether. The weather in Hobart today was summertime-warm; I don’t think I’ve ever before been able to get by with shorts in Tasmania. But Australia needs cooler temps and serious rain. We’ve not been in Sydney in almost four weeks, and the bushfire situation sounds even more dire, if that’s possible. 

Day 9 Princess Patter, page 1

Day 9 Princess Patter, page 2

Day 9 Princess Patter, page 3

Day 9 Princess Patter, page 4

Day 84: Hobart, Tasmania

We had the best day today in Hobart. Actually, we really didn’t spend much of the day in the city of Hobart, but the Ruby Princess was docked there. And, to be honest, it’s 9:30pm as I start this post, but we move clocks ahead an hour tonight, so it’s really 10:30pm, and I am sitting in the laundry room where I’ve just moved a huge load of laundry from a washer to a dryer, so this part of my evening isn’t anything too special, but the rest of the day more than made up for it.

I mentioned last night that we had booked an excursion for our port stop in Hobart just yesterday. We were keeping an eye on the weather because we know from personal experience that when it’s cold and wet in Hobart, it’s a miserable time. But today’s weather was shaping up to be spectacular, so we booked a 7-hour tour through a company called Cruise Ship Excursions Tours. We chose this particular tour because it did the one thing G most wanted to do (go to the summit of Mount Wellington), the one thing I most wanted to do (spend a couple of hours in historic Richmond), and the one thing we both wanted to do (Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary). All of our transportation and our entry to Bonorong was included for just under US $70pp. Sold!

We kept breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room to an hour and returned to the cabin to pack for the day (and we both took jackets, hats and gloves because we remember freezing on top of Mount Wellington two years ago). We met our group just outside the terminal at a sign post that said Meeting Place at 9am, and walked 5-7 minutes to the small bus that was being used for our tour. It was the kind that could seat around 18 people and we only had ten so we had plenty of room to spread out and the bus had huge windows which were great for viewing. Our driver, Keith, was also our guide, and he gave us a quick rundown of our day: Mount Wellington first, then Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, then some time in Richmond. 

The route to Mount Wellington starts out through the city of Hobart, before it begins to climb on a twisty road. There are still homes toward the base of the mountain, and lots of trees, but the landscape becoms increasingly rocky and shrubby closer to the summit. 

We could not have asked for a better weather day. On our only other visit to Mount Wellington, we faced winds upwards of 80mph and could only stay upright by holding onto the handrails along the viewing platforms and walkways. Today we didn’t even need a jacket, and the views were endless.  However, with two cruise ships in port today (Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth was with us), the summit of Mount Wellington was a popular place to be. 

Mount Wellington looms 4170 feet above Hobart.

kunanyi is the palawa kani (Aboriginal) name for the mountain. 

Panorama view from the summit looking toward the River Derwent

The Ruby Princess and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth at the Port of Hobart

Hobart’s deepwater harbor on the River Derwent is well protected from the Tasman Sea by Storm Bay

Observation center and walkways on top of Mount Wellington


Panorama view toward Storm Bay


I love the rock formations at the top as much as the expansive views

Storm Bay and the Tasman Sea

After about a half hour we left Mount Wellington and drove back down and through Hobart. Hobart is the capital of the state of Tasmania, one of six states (and two mainland territories) in Australia, and is home to just over 200,000 people, but it seems larger and more sprawling than that number would indicate. We drove for nearly 45 minutes to get to Bonorong. 

I love how a cake is called a Christmas “pudding”.

Taken from the bus. 

Bonorong was the third Wildlife Sanctuary we’ve visited in Australia. The first was Featherdale Wildlife Park outside of Sydney in 2006, and then Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. Bonorong was more rural and rustic. Uneven dirt paths criss-crossed a small park, and there was a fair bit of walking up and down hills. I mention this because I don’t think it’s a good option for anyone with mobility difficulties. 

There were plenty of free range kangaroos and even more free “roo food” to feed them, so G was in heaven. There were a few native Australian snakes that can kill you in a heartbeat (no pun intended), but I refuse to acknowledge their existence, so I have no photos of them. I loved the colorful native birds, especially the Rainbow Lorakeets and Eastern Rosellas. And there were a few koalas (we even heard the same loud mating sound from a male that we’d heard at Lone Pine) and wombats, but what we really wanted to see were the Tasmanian Devils in Tasmania. And we did.  

An Eastern Rosella


This joey was trying to climb back in mama’s pouch, and she was having none of it, gently pushing him away with her powerful hind legs. 

So sweet. Check out the single toe and nail common to all kangaroos. 

The reason we went to Bonorong Sanctuary:  to see a Tasmanian Devil in Tasmania.

This guy was pretty mellow, because he was in an enclosure by himself. We’ve seen them fight and hiss at other sanctuaries where they were kept together. There’s a reason they have the reputation they do!

Emus

That face...and talk about a bad hair day!

Talk about docile...a koala doing what they do best. 

I stayed much cleaner than when I actually held one!

An echidna

We had seen one in the wild on a hike by Port Arthur two years ago. 

An orphaned baby wombat 

We only had a little over an hour at Bonorong, but that really was a good amount of time. If there had only been one cruise ship in port today, and with possibly another 30 minutes there, we could have covered it completely, but as it was we did a pretty good job. Luckily, our final stop in Richmond was only a short distance from the Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Keith gave us the lay of the land once we arrived in Richmond, but G and I remembered it well from our visit two years ago. I loved browsing all the little shops that line the main street while G happily enjoyed a bag of potato chips he picked up in the same little grocery store we’d bought chips in before. The sun was hot by then, and he found a small park with lots of flowers and a waterfall and a bench in the shade. I eventually joined him there and happily ate an ice cream cone with a scoop of dairy free salted caramel ice cream. 

We next walked down the short distance to the Richmond Bridge, the oldest bridge in Australia and the number one photo opportunity in Richmond. It was finished in 1825, and was built using convict labor. In fact, when convicts were first brought to Tasmania, they were jailed in Richmond until the penitentiary at Port Arthur was completed. 

Beautiful steps built in along the Richmond Bridge

The Richmond Bridge, built by convict labor from 1823-1825.

It is the oldest bridge in Australia.

Marsh land along the Coal River, home to lots of wildlife

Mother and Father Goose (we think) and the family

The flowers are spectacular this time of year. 

Huge hydrangeas

We sat in the shade on this bench in a park next to a waterfall and enjoyed the solitude

About 3:30pm we met at the bus and were back at the ship at 4pm. That gave us just enough time to get cleaned up to go to the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers (the ship didn’t sail until 6pm, so we had great views from up there) and then to dinner. I had a special order tonight of coconut curry with veggies and garbanzo beans and it was delish. 

Day 5 dinner menu, page 1

Day 5 dinner menu, page 2

Day 5 dessert menu

We were tired, but looking forward to tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment, a Carpenters tribute by vocalist Sharon Calabro. I didn’t realize how ubiquitous the music of the Carpenters was in the 1970s until I realized I knew nearly every word of every lyric of every song she sang. Most of the audience was definitely in the age range this remember that music. 

It was still light when we left the Princess Theater. We’ve gotten into the habit of going up to Deck 15 for G to get ice cream on our way back to the cabin, and, although it was a little chilly outside by 8:30pm, we still had sunshine. Love this Southern Hemisphere cruising!  While I was waiting for G to get his ice cream, a small group of teenagers on an obvious scavenger hunt came bounding up looking for a photo with a cook (Mr. Pizza gladly cooperated), and a photo of them shaking someone’s hand (I helped out with that one). It was fun to see them enjoying themselves so much. 

Back at the cabin, I wasted no time gathering up all the clothes we had worn today when the kangaroos rubbed against us (and us them) and added a few of the tops I wear to dinner and filled a washer to the top. There were three of us still in the laundry room when I finished up at 11:15pm the new time. It’s now after midnight, and I’m ready to call it a (fantastic) day. 

Hobart Port Guide, page 1

Hobart Port Guide, page 2

Hobart Port Guide, page 3

Hobart Port Guide, page 4

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 1

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 2

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 3

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 4