Welcome back!
Sunrise over the Sydney Opera House from our 2006 visit
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We are about to begin our 8th season of cruising, and I am both thrilled and slightly incredulous that 1.) there even IS an 8th season of cruising (remember, this was a 5-year plan); and 2.) that you are once again interested in following along. No, it's not to French Polynesia (except for the part that is), nor will it be on the Pacific Princess. Instead, our planned destination is an entirely new one, blog-wise, and, though we've visited a few places there in the past, it will be mostly new territory for us too, and that makes it doubly exciting.
In just two days we will be flying to Los Angeles and then boarding a plane for a 15 hour flight at night over 7500 miles of dark Pacific Ocean in coach class to Sydney, Australia! We'll be boarding the Golden Princess, docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday, October 15 and staying on the ship (kinda-sorta...after all, it's us!) until after the holidays, when we’ll fly directly to Honolulu and spend at least a month there.
Let me pause here for a moment, ‘cause it’s hard to type and happy dance and squeal in delight, all at the same time.
You might remember that last year we considered doing cruises similar to these on the Emerald Princess, but chose instead a different experience: extended late season cruising in the Mediterranean on the Pacific Princess. Despite cold and rain and even a shipwreck, we adored those cruises, and, in fact, have thought about them with no small amount of nostalgia in the months since we returned home. On Easter Sunday morning, we watched a CBS special about St. Peter's Basilica that prompted us to think long and hard about returning again this fall, and we might have done just that, particularly as we had no other firm cruising plans. However, I was perusing the Princess Cruise Atlas one day in May (it's the adult version of a Sears Christmas Wish Book, except what's being sold is a whole lot more expensive than the Baby Cheryl and Baby Pattaburp dolls I received from Santa) when I spotted these cruises on the Golden Princess.
I studied them for a week or so, looking at the ports in detail and determining on which date we might begin our season of cruising. It's always a bit of a calculation to do that. While we like to get to as many ports as possible, we also don't mind itinerary repeats. We prefer not leaving home before October 1, but we do like to be gone before the leaves (and snow) start to fall. Furthermore, we already had reservations in Hawaii beginning January 3; our original plan, regardless of where we went before then, was to be home for the holidays and then fly to Hawaii after the New Year.
I discovered that, if we stayed on the Golden Princess for the holidays (I'm publicly admitting here that it was my idea to be away from home for Christmas), we could return to Melbourne at the end of a cruise on January 3 and, providentially, fly directly from there to Honolulu, arriving on January 3. I love it when things fall into place like that! I put together a couple of spreadsheets of itineraries and costs and presented the plan to G. His response? "Book 'em, Danno!" (I think that, in the world of addiction, he would be known as my enabler.) And so I did, and was smug in the knowledge that it had all come together so easily and perfectly by early May.
Sunrise over the Sydney Opera House from our 2006 visit
View of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from George Street, in Sydney's historic Rocks area.
We’ll be staying at the Holiday Inn Old Sydney on George Street again this year.
Hard to believe this was over 11 years ago (and I was a redhead)!
We climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with a group we'd met on Cruise Critic.
A few hours later we boarded the Diamond Princess (in the right background)
for a 30-night Transpacific cruise back to San Francisco.
Little did I know that would be the high point of our summer, one that I've come to think of as our Summer of No Fun. It was bookended by travel-related bronchitis in May and smoke-related bronchitis in September and, in between, I was diagnosed with one of those diseases no one wants to get. Are you surprised that my first thought was not, "OMG does this mean I'm going to die?" but was instead "OMG does this mean we won't be able to go to Australia?" I didn't think so. ;-) Most amazingly (...thankfully...blessedly), it didn't mean either one, and this is my Public Service Announcement for early detection. I've said in the past that we know how fortunate we are to be able to cruise as we do, but this year I am adding about eleventy dozen exclamation points to that sentiment.
And maybe I should call it our Summer of Not Much Fun, because I don't mean to imply that there weren't any enjoyable moments since we returned home from Hawaii in March. I flew back to Ohio in May to visit Mom and...ok, not a great example. While there was lots of laughter (watching Carol Burnett skits together on YouTube on my iPhone while waiting for doctors), Mom had a run-in with a chair in a Greek restaurant and an ER visit on Mothers Day and then hospitalization and surgery and subsequent rehab. However, by mid June, Mom was once again settled in her apartment and is doing wonderfully (thanks to all who ask about her in their emails!). And G and I took a brief road trip in July, and it was fantastic. I mean, sure, there was the heat and wind and air heavy with smoke from wildfires near and far, but aside from that- and the holiday traffic, of course- it was good. Finally, I had two extended stays with the twins, and, as always, they really were the best. Well, except for that Algebra homework I struggled to help with. It's been 40 years since I last studied Algebra and those x and y variables are still in the midst of an identity crisis. But the rest of my visits with them were perfect, which I guess means that the highlights of my summer vacation were sitting with my mom in the hospital, a two day road trip in heavy smoke and traffic, and chauffeuring and cooking and doing laundry for teenagers. This year, I'll take it!
As for where we'll be going on our Golden Princess cruises...the itineraries are rather varied and, though we'll be repeating two of them- New Zealand and Tasmania- there is at least one new port on the repeated itineraries the second time around. We'll start out by cruising up to Queensland, Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, and, over time, will cruise to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and several ports in Fiji.
We’ll enjoy the stay in Hawaii on our return, breaking the long flight into segments.
Source: MapCreator.com
Turnaround days will be in Sydney through November 28, and then Melbourne after that.
We love that we'll be on the Golden Princess, a nice, mid-sized ship with about 2600 passengers. It's obviously not at all like the Pacific Princess, but is similar, though slightly smaller (and less crowded) than the Emerald Princess.
The Golden Princess in Sydney
Source: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2140
We took two cruises on the Golden ten years ago, and it features a few things we know we'll enjoy: a glass roofed pool and hot tub area, a necessity in the cooler weather we'll experience as we head toward Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand;
The glass covered Calypso Reef pool area
a wrap-around Promenade Deck perfect for shaded walking and those after dinner sunset strolls we love so much;
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mytravelphotos/5454176642/
Photo by Jasperdo
and MUTS, the big screen overlooking the Neptune’s Reef pool with nightly movies (though I'm not getting my hopes up about NFL games with a largely Australian passenger demographic).
Neptune’s Reef pool area with Movies Under the Stars (MUTS)
Oh, and the best part: that beautiful Terrace Pool with its aft views of the wake...
Photo by Larry D. Moore
...or of the Sydney Harbour Bridge when berthed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.
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Source: http://theoandrosa.blogspot.com/2016/04/6-april-sydney-on-golden-princess.html
We have so much to be thankful for. We have so much to look forward to. Even my singularly pragmatic husband is calling this season a miracle.
Life is good. :-)