Check, check and check. Mission accomplished. I think. It’s not yet midnight, but we’re both feeling great.
There is WiFi in the cruise terminal at Port Otago, we knew that, but we weren’t familiar with its speed...because we hadn’t needed it on the Ruby Princess with its MedallionNet. (One day I am going to count the number of times G mentions every day how much he misses it.) Well, the terminal WiFi is slow. Very slow. Even slower than the Majestic Princess WiFi, especially when there are 50 people trying to simultaneously use it.
Instead of frustrating ourselves, we went to the library directly across the street once it opened. Success! Two different WiFi networks, both with download speeds upwards of 80Mbps (compared to 500Kbps on the ship). I downloaded more videos for each of us, certainly enough to get us through the next three days until we get to Hobart, where we’ll have super fast but time-limited (30 minutes) WiFi in the terminal.
When I had said that MedallionNet had transformed cruising for us, I sincerely meant it. It was so nice to not have to spend a single minute in port searching out WiFi. The Majestic Princess will be getting it during its drydock in Singapore in March, which doesn’t do much for us, but future cruisers will certainly enjoy it.
We then went to the Four Square grocery store for gum (me), hair conditioner (G) and TimTams for our cabin steward and the only other steward on our side of our short corridor.
You readers are quite clever, and I’ve received some emails asking about (or guessing) our cabin location. We are in an inside cabin on Lido Deck very close to the front of the ship. We are actually under the Hollywood Conservatory, and our cabin is totally quiet. We love the location, and I love that we can be outside on the Lido Deck in just a minute or two. There are so few cabins where we are that, as I said, there are only two cabin stewards on our side. They both got TimTams for New Year’s Eve. :-)
We walked up and down George Street looking for the Pegasus Car Rental that we knew was there somewhere, but we never found them. We wanted to reserve a car for our next visit to Port Chalmers. I think I’m up for the challenge of driving on the left.
And that was our day. We were back on the Majestic Princess by 3:30pm, giving us plenty of time to get ready for the Elite Lounge in Vista-less Lounge, and then go to dinner at 5:15pm. It was lobster for me tonight, and G had veal (poor little baby cow). Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was production show Sweet Soul Music. Fantastic! We do love those soul, R&B and Motown classics.
We are currently sitting in the Crown Grill Lounge listening to acoustic guitarist Jay O’Sullivan. There are five New Year’s Eve parties on the ship tonight, all starting at either 10pm or 10:30pm. We think we’re going to make this lounge our base, as the Black and White party will take place here, with musical accompaniment by the Majestic Princess Orchestra, and the strings duo. If this is too tame, we’ll head to either the Piazza for the party with party band Evolution, or Crooners for the 18 and over DJ dance party.
I’m going to end this here and publish it. I’ll finish reporting on the evening in tomorrow’s post. Meanwhile, Happy New Year’s Eve everyone. Be safe!