Yellow Fish cruises: Day 39: Sydney

I love these Sydney turnaround days. They are like a mini vacation sandwiched between two vacations. There aren’t many turnaround cities where the ship is berthed right smack dab in the middle of the action, but Sydney is certainly the very best among them.

In case you can’t tell, it was a good day. ;-)

When the alarm went off at 5am, G turned the TV to the ship’s webcam. I was really hoping to hit the snooze button at least a couple of times, but when I saw buoy lights right in the front of the ship, I knew I had to move fast. I had laid out my clothes last night, and flew into them. I had decided, based on the weather forecast, that shorts would be warm enough even early this morning, but threw my jacket on before I left the cabin.

My first choice for watching sail in was from the outside deck over top of the bridge, but I got all the way there and was stopped by a roped off door to the outside. Darn. Instead I went to Deck 16 as far forward as I could go (the front of the ship was closed off there, too). I arrived there just as the Ruby Princess was passing the Sydney Opera House, nearly at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. My first thought was that the day was going to be cloudy, but, as it turned out, Sydney today was actually pretty smokey from bush fires near Port Macquarie, about 250 miles to the north.

Passing the Opera House just as I got outside

Overlooking the Neptune Pool

The Calypso Pool at sunrise

Views from an outer deck on the back of the Ruby Princess are hard to find, but I went out to one of the wings on the back of Deck 16 to wait for a sunrise that never happened. Instead, the sky just grew increasingly lighter, but while I was there, the P&O cruise ship Pacific Explorer, formerly the Dawn Princess, made its way past the Opera House and under the Harbour Bridge to the White Bay Cruise Terminal near Darling Harbour. That ship carries about 1900 passengers, and is small enough to fit under the bridge, but ships the size of the Golden Princess and Ruby Princess must dock before the bridge in Circular Quay (a much better location for nearby sightseeing).

The P&O Pacific Explorer (formerly the Dawn Princess) sails past the Opera House...

...and passes under the Harbour Bridge to its berth at the White Bay Terminal

We ate a quick breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet (packed on disembarkation morning), and gathered up our passports (which we didn’t even need) and our landing cards and set off to meet up with Marlene and Paul...but then received a message that they were already off the ship. We had intended to help them move their luggage to the Holiday Inn Old Sydney, but by the time we got out of the terminal, they were already at the hotel. So we missed out on the work. They checked their bags with the bellhop and we set out to do some exploring.

Our first stop was the market at The Rocks, a weekend market selling all sorts of things, most of them made in Australia. There are also food vendors in the market, but it wasn’t even 10am, and there was no one at them yet.

Dining tables at The Rocks Market...

but cable spools and stools work, too.

The Rocks Market

Without a definite plan in mind, we simply walked toward Circular Quay and the ferry terminals. I had one thought, to take a ferry to Darling Harbour to see where the Pacific Explorer was berthed. We hadn’t been in Darling Harbour since 2006, when we walked through there on the way back from the Sydney Fish Market.

Jacaranda trees at Circular Quay

There are several ibises near Circular Quay

We were approached by a tourist info volunteer and I asked where we could buy Opal cards to ride the various Sydney transit options (ferry, rail and bus), and, get this, she was an American from Richmond, Virginia. When I commented she didn’t have a southern accent either, she said she had been raised in Dayton, Ohio. So there we were, five people in Sydney, Australia who had all lived in Ohio. Harious. She directed us to a transit shop under the rail station and there we found out we could just use a credit card to tap on and off mass transit. G and I chose to do that, since it meant we wouldn’t have two Opal cards with a balance left on them at the end of our cruise season. The maximum daily charge for mass transit is AU $15.80 (about US $11), and only AU $2.80 on Sundays. After that level of charges are incurred in one day, all further use of the transit system that day is free.

A ferry to Darling Harbour- Barangaroo was leaving in about 22 minutes from Wharf 5. The next ferry’s arrival time and destinations is digitally displayed on the wharf. We boarded the ferry and it backed out of Circular Quay and sailed under the Harbour Bridge, the first time we’d done that since 2006. .

Circular Quay ferry wharfs with the Railway Station behind them and a bus station behind that.

The Ruby Princess is berthed in an excellent location for sightseeing.

Sydney Bridge Climbers make their way to the top of the bridge.

They are harnessed to the bridge and could throw themselves of it and not go anywhere.

We did this in 2006 for a fraction of the current price (AU $200+).

The Sydney Opera House, Ruby Princess and Sydney Harbour Bridge, all in one photo

The first stop was amusement park Luna Park, almost directly under the Harbour Bridge, but we could soon see the Pacific Explorer at her berth at the White Bay Cruise Terminal. The Barangaroo stop was the end of the line, and we had to exit the ferry, but we waited just a few minutes until the next one arrived. This one was going to Watsons Bay, on the eastern end of Sydney Harbour, and we thought, “Why not get on it?” So we did, and rode back to Circular Quay first, but then continued on through the harbor.

The Pacific Explorer at White Bay Terminal

The outside dining on the water near the Opera House

The harbor was busy with Saturday leisure boats (mostly sail boats), ferries and even a kayak or two (don’t fall off...there are sharks in that water!). We passed several bays with beaches (with shark nets) and beautiful homes and condos. After an hour or so we reached Watsons Bay. On the way, Marlene remembered that someone she had talked with on the ship told her she had to go to Doyles st Watsons Bay for the best fish and chips in Sydney. Well, it was hard to miss Doyles, being on the end of the wharf. We seated ourselves at an empty table and had lunch. An hour later we caught a ferry back to Circular Quay and arrived there about 3pm. It had been an entirely impromptu way to spend the day, and we had a great time.

Watsons Bay ferry terminal

Doyle’s seafood restaurant right on the water

Back at Circuksr Quay, we walked Marlene and Paul back to the Holiday Inn Old Sydney, where they will spend four nights in an Opera House view room before flying home. Goodbyes were hard to say We sure miss them! Let’s hope it’s not another three years before we see them again. We got more local currency at the ATM we used several times two years ago, and returned to the ship. Though we desperately needed a nap, we used the muster drill time to shower (and play the safety video on TV with the sound muted, and play the welcome message left on the answering service with the sound turned down low) and get ourselves to the DaVinci Dining Room before the post-drill masses filled the elevators.

The view from our dining table.

Life is amazing.

We did not go to lunch in the DaVinci Dining Room today, but here is the embarkation day menu:

Day 1 lunch menu, page 1

Day 1 lunch menu, page 2

Day 1 dinner menu, page 1

Day 1 dinner menu, page 2

Day 1 dessert menu

After fish and chips at 1pm (G and I split a huge order), I wasn’t particularly hungry at 5:30pm but had salmon and a lot of broccoli and was very happy. We went to the Princess Theater performance of production show Once Upon a Dream at 8pm and called it a day. G has already been asleep for the nearly two hours it took to type this post, but I will be joining him as soon as it’s published.