Sometime around 3am, the Majestic Princess, which has to be one of the most stable ships on which we’ve ever cruised, bounced and shook like we were on the Ruby Princess trying to out run a storm from Antarctica in mid-October. There was no sleeping during that. The ship had probably changed heading and turned west to enter Sydney Harbour about that time. Still, it must have calmed; we eventually fell back asleep.
I haven’t been up out on deck to watch our arrivals into Sydney Harbour since the first couple this season. We arrive far too early this year, and are berthed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal while it is still pitch dark. But the increased activity and noise as people leave their cabins early to get breakfast, and the stewards start their turnaround day barrage of duties pretty much assure we don’t sleep in. We braved the World Fresh Marketplace this morning and were out on the Open Deck Behind the World Fresh Marketplace by 7am. The view from there- of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House- still provides a ‘pinch me’ rush of excitement every time I see it. We took our phones off Airplane Mode, and started to read all the emails we’d received since we left Lautoka four days ago. We can’t open a single one using the ship’s WiFi. :-(
It was only then we saw the Coronavirus Emergency Notification from Princess regarding boarding for this Tasmanian cruise being denied to anyone from (or who flew through) mainland China, though passengers from (or who flew from) Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were being permitted to board. We chatted with two people in Sydney today who were boarding a Royal Caribbean ship in the next couple of days and they said that their ship was denying boarding to those from (or who flew through) Hong Kong.
We also had access to news about the Coronavirus, and were surprised to see that the Diamond Princess was being quarantined for 24 hours (why not for the incubation period of 14 days...that made no sense to us) off Yokohama because a recent passenger had contracted the virus, but it was unknown where that happened. Oh boy. We had talked about how we felt so safe on the Majestic Princess, just coming off that 14-night cruise to the islands with no Coronavirus issues. Now a new passenger group was coming on board and things would become riskier. Just when things were heating up, we’re stuck on a ship with awful WiFi.
We didn’t spend too much time on that, though. I phoned Mom, and actually caught her in her apartment, getting ready for dinner after having played cards and served as the community welcome wagon this afternoon. We then gathered up iPads and walked off the ship and over to Circular Quay. It was fun to see the lanterns that had been constructed around the area for the Lunar New Year. They were huge, and apparently are lit up at night, though we didn’t stay in port late enough to see that happen.
G pointed out this artwork in the Piazza
to me last night.
It easily goes unnoticed, but it’s interactive artwork.
Turn the wheel at the bottom right and a ball is lifted to the top. It then rolls back to the bottom.
I had to do it twice, ‘cause it was fun. ;-)
Dragon lunar lantern in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in The Rocks
A view of the Skywalk from the Promenade Deck
I’m shocked by how much I enjoy using this.
The view of the Skywalk from the terminal
The lunar lanterns were huge
This dog’s tongue actually wags
Banners for the Sydney Lunar Festival
We knew exactly how to get to the Apple Store on Broadway, taking a train from the Circular Quay Station to the Museum Station, and a bus for just three stops beyond that. We were at the mall called Broadway Sydney well before the Apple Store opened at 10am, and had coffee at Starbucks while we waited. It didn’t take us long, around 45 minutes, working simultaneously on all four iDevices, to download about 20 hours of video, update apps and do iCloud backups. And we packed up, reversed the travel, and were back at Circular Quay well before noon. The day, though partly cloudy, was getting sunnier and the temp was about 74F. G ran our things back to the ship and I went to the shopping arcade next to the Holiday Inn Old Sydney to purchase some gifts to take home.
Carrying my purchases, I happened to walk by a store called Sticky where two men were making that candy called...I forget what, exactly. That hard candy with designs molded into it. This process stopped me in my tracks. They were at the end of the building process, pressing long strips of alternating candy colors along the outside of this huge roll. This particular candy was being made for a group in Sydney and their name was built into the candy using three dimensional strips of letters. Soon, the stretching part started. I’d seen YouTube videos about this, but had never seen it in person. From this one roll of candy, they get about 240 feet of rope which is sliced into tiny pieces. I stayed way too long and left with several bags of candy with Sydney icons like the Opera House and Harbour Bridge and koalas and words like Mate and G’day and Sydney imbedded in them. Very cool!
That made me late to join G for lunch, but I walked into the Concerto Dining Room and just had a roll and water while he was finishing up. We stored my purchases in the cabin and headed off again, this time to take a ferry to Manly Beach. We had gone to Manly on our first turnaround in Sydney on October 23 with Paul and Marlene, and thought it was a fine way to end our season, too.
We checked the balance on our Opal Cards- less than $10 between the two of them, which wouldn’t get us to Manly and back- and decided to take the Manly Fast Ferry, which is a couple of dollars more expensive but can be paid with cash. We wouldn’t have to add $20 to each Opal Card and then leave town with even more money remaining on them.
We bought AU $5 baseball caps at the cheapest (and lowest quality) souvenir shop in Manly because the 741 G already has are simply not enough, and I kinda liked a feminine looking one, and it will be a nice alternative to my Tilley hats for spring track meets. We then continued down Victoria Parade to the beach, and we walked along the boardwalk watching the surfers and reveling in the fact that we were there, and not at home facing the bad weather crossing the country. We had added this cruise after we had already left home, and it was a good choice. We are just not quite ready to return home (honestly, G will never be ready).
The ferry went from The Rocks in the lower left to Manly Beach in the upper right.
Our last Sydney beach day...weep!
We stopped in the Aldi’s store on the ferry wharf, and bought gum and nut bars for the trip home. It’s nice to have something on hand in case the munchies hit during the long hours between the dinner service and the breakfast service on that interminable flight to Los Angeles. We caught a 4:45pm ferry back to Circular Quay, both of us wondering if we’d get back here, to one of our favorite places in the world, ever again.
There are always sailboats in Sydney Harbour
Kirribilli House, the historical secondary home of Australian Prime Ministers. Their primary home had long been The Lodge in Canberra, but the current and previous prime ministers have made Kirribilli House their primary residence.
Coming home to the Majestic Princess in Circular Quay
Once at Circular Quay, we were drawn to a street performer doing ridiculous acts of balancing and juggling, all the while the trains to and from the Circular Quay Railway Station thundered just above his head. He was certainly as entertaining- more so, really- than some of what we call the ‘side show’ acts on the ships have been. But he entertained for a long while, and then there were some musical buskers to listen to along the water, and even one artist painting massive murals of Sydney Harbour on wall-sized canvases to watch as we walked back to the ship. At 5:55pm we were finally back on board, having squeezed as much into this last turnaround day of the season as we could. It had been a respectable 18000 step day, and I was starving.
Just above his head was the elevated track for the trains to and from Circular Quay
Not brightly sunny, but still a beautiful day in Sydney
I was also filthy from sunscreen and mass transit riding and sitting on a beach walk with sea gull poop on it and had to take a shower and send clothes to the laundry before I did anything else. We watched sail away from the Open Deck Behind the World Fresh Marketplace (shortly after 7pm) and went down to Alfredo’s pizzeria for dinner. We had already told Francesco we would not likely be in the Concerto Dining Room for dinner tonight. We knew we wanted a different kind of evening.
Bridge climbers waving goodbye as the Majestic Princess backed out of its berth
Because there’s always a need for just one more Opera House photo
With Fort Denison in the foreground
Passing by Shark Island in Sydney Harbour.
There’s a reason most of the harbor beaches have a shark fence :-o
But if we had gone to dinner:
Day 1 dinner menu, page 1
Day 1 dinner menu, page 2
Day 1 dessert menu
Violinist Chris Watkins did two shows in the Princess Theater tonight, but we instead had a leisurely pizza dinner while we listened to duo Acoustic Rush performing in the Piazza and were tucked into bed at 10pm. It had been a perfect day.
We’re starting the eleventh cruise of our season.
We’re (knock on wood) healthy.
Life is good. :-)
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 4