Turnaround days are always a blur for us (I can’t imagine what they feel like for the crew) but today will always stand out in my memory. An election in Australia today showed that 61% of the voters (with 80% turnout!) chose in favor of marriage equality and the Golden Princess, during its arrival in Sydney, was going to display Carnival Corporation’s support of that cause.
The alarm went off at 5am and dutiful me leaped out of bed (well, I did the 57-year old equivalent of leaping). I had set all my clothes for the morning out last night, so I could easily find them in the dark cabin (in case G wasn’t into leaping his morning). I was up on Deck 16 before the Golden Princess even passed by the North and South Heads at the entrance to Sydney Harbour, but then I realized the ship was kind of stopped there. Though the sky was lightening in the east, it was still fairly dark out, and I made my way forward across the open decks of the ship.
The Terrace Pool at dawnPer Cruise Director Fernando, the plan was to meet at Tradewinds Bar to pick up rainbow flags and halos (I passed on a halo due to the wind). We were told that the deck over the bridge on Deck 14 was open this morning (it hasn’t been for our other arrivals), and as I walked out to the front of the ship, a large rainbow flag was being raised with the other flags at the front of the ship. Walking out over the bridge, I could see that a large rainbow tarp had been stretched over the crew pool area on Deck 8 at the ship’s bow. Very cool!
Raising the rainbow flag
The crew recreation area covered by a rainbow The Golden Princess slowly made its way through Sydney Harbour as the morning light increased. I knew that they were waiting for a helicopter to appear that was supposed to record our arrival. Sure enough, a helicopter started circling overhead and we all held our rainbow flags in the air. It disappeared for awhile, but then reappeared just as we got to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was amazing to be part of that! I don’t know if I’ll ever see photos or videos of this, but, if anyone does, please send them my way. I suspect if they are published anywhere it would be in Australia.
A helicopter circling and taking photos I had prepared for the wind and cold this morning by wearing my Goretex jacket and wool headband but it really wasn’t too bad, even before sunrise. It was obvious that today was going to be a beautiful spring day in Sydney. After our arrival, I immediately made a phone call to Mom using Vonage (For 1 cent a minute! Get the app!!). I feel like we’ve been on the dark side for two weeks, and it was wonderful to have cellular data and texting again. However, the download speed was not enough to do some app updates we simply had to complete, and I knew finding high speed WiFi was our highest priority of the day.
We had breakfast with Leonie and Michael in the Horizon Court Buffet before they disembarked the ship. They live in Sydney and estimated that they’d be unpacked by 11am. I can’t even imagine being able to do that after a cruise (but lucky are those who live that close to an embarkation port!). After they left, we got realistic about our plans for the day. We wanted to do the Bondi Beach to Coogee walk, but getting there and back by train and bus, and completing the walk would have left us little time for anything else. We needed to find WiFi and we needed to get to a Cole’s supermarket. We Googled the location of the Sydney Apple store, packed up our iDevices and left the ship, turning in our Australian Entry forms on the way out of the Overseas Passenger Terminal.
The Apple Store was on George St. further south of the Wynard Station Cole’s supermarket we went to during our first turnaround. Because George St. south of Circular Quay is so torn up for that light rail construction, we walked down Pitt St. and then cut over a block, avoiding the jackhammers and the closed off sidewalks. It wasn’t hard to find the Apple Store on that busy city street, what with that huge white Apple decal on the glass front. I don’t know what it is about Apple Stores (probably all the hard surfaces) but they are always crowded and always noisy (especially with the construction noise just outside), but they also always have air conditioned, fast, free and shaded WiFi (four of the five qualities of the Holy Grail of Cruising WiFi, along with quiet) and that was the best we could have hoped for. Actually, they offer power ports too, which offset the noise by a long shot.
We stayed there for nearly four hours, first updating several financial apps that we could longer use until we did (I wish that app developers wouldn’t do that) so we could pay our credit card bills. Once that crisis du jour was resolved, we updated all the other apps (over 70 for me, thanks to the release of the iPhone X) and then I got busy replacing the Netflix videos and Amazon Prime music that had expired since we arrived in Australia. Yes, Netflix allows downloads in Australia on US accounts, but certain videos (the TV show Blue Bloods, for example) are not downloadable. Still, I was able to find plenty of content to download, and did the same with music and library books and Audible books and Texture Magazines (People! I’ve got the four most recent issues of People Magazine to read!). If I had been an unselfish blogger, I would have uploaded photos to this blog, but instead you get bupkus (except for these few I uploaded once I got back on the ship).
I think that, once a month while traveling, we need to just spend a day getting things caught up. I know our collective blood pressure dropped when we were able to once again take care of financial things. We’ll have to plan to do it again before we leave Australia.
At 2pm we packed things up and were going to walk back to the Wynard Station Cole’s when G spotted. Cole’s sign catercorner from the Apple Store. Of course, we couldn’t see the store; it was underground. Are all big city supermarkets like that? We had several items we needed, among them gum, toothbrushes (after my slight cold), nasal decongestant (ditto), and hair color. They had only four colors of the hair color I use, but, happily, one of them was Dark Golden Blonde. That’s a sea day project for this cruise. After completing that task, we walked back up to The Rocks historic area and returned to the same ATM by the Holiday Inn Old Sydney that we used when we first arrived. We needed some more cash, though we’ll still need to use an ATM in New Zealand on Saturday for some of their currency.
Walking through a narrow alleyway in The Rocks
We walked back on the ship not long before the on board time of 3:30pm, and once again used showers and and hair dryer to cover up the noise of muster drill (and also the playback of the welcome aboard message from the Hotel General Manager that causes our message light to blink on every embarkation day). We were up in Skywalkers for what will be our final Sydney sail away of the season (that happened too fast, didn’t it?), which was way more bitter than sweet. It felt a lot like our last sail away from Bora Bora.
One last view (weep!)We met our new waiters when we went to the Bernini Dining Room for dinner (Albert from the Philippines and Gedde from Indonesia) and a new headwaiter (Dian from South Africa), but dear Rodrigo “traveled a long way” (his words, from the Canaletto Dining Room in the back of the ship) to come see us and bring me a piece of tamarind chili candy. What a sweetheart he is! We are quite spoiled.
I was already starting to fade a little, but we sat in the Piazza to listen to the Golden Princess show band play jazz (and saw drummer Giovanni from Italy who had just arrived today. We know him from the Pacific Princess.), and then listened to pianist Olga in the Promenade Bar but that was the end of my day. G is out watching the Welcome Aboard show with a comedian we’ve already seen this season; I will publish this post and enjoy reading my People Magazines. Or watching The Good Place on Netflix. Or listening to an audiobook. Or Amazon Prime music. The opportunities tonight are endless.
Life is good. :-)