This was one of the best days of the entire season. One of the longest days of the entire season, too (until we face our travel day home, at least). There is much to tell you about a day that started in one port, moved to another port and finished with fireworks and drinks along the water in Hobart during the Royal Hobart Regatta. Very fun!
The day was rather overcast, and I know it was in the high 90Fs here just a few days ago, but where did that weather go? Instead we were faced with temps in the low 60s that felt even chillier along the water. And we spent our entire day along the water.
We started with a quick breakfast in the World Fresh Marketplace, returned to the cabin to dress in jackets (and I had my wool headband around my neck, but it quickly moved up to my head once we were in the tender), and went to the Harmony Restaurant to collect Elite tender tickets to go ashore. Whether due to the wind or the ship size, the Majestic Princess was anchored quite a bit further from shore than the Ruby Princess had been. And despite the fact that there were five ship tenders being used to shuttle passengers ashore, it was a time-consuming process. Port Arthur conducts its own boat tours of the area, and their large catamaran took up one pier. It seemed like two Majestic Princess tenders could squeeze in along the other pier, but that wasn’t often done. Instead, we sat in the tender for at least 30 minutes waiting for dock space to become available. As I’ve said before, these Royal Class tenders are great... but there are a lot of people on these ships.
Finally we were ashore, and we first went to the Port Arthur Visitors Center to book seats on the free boat tour over to the Isle of the Dead (the Port Arthur cemetery) and Point Puer, the site of a boys reformatory in the mid-1800s. There is a nice narrative that goes along with this, and we gained some additional good information from it.
We next spent a bit of time on the lowest level of the imposing Penitentiary building, where the most hardened criminals were housed. The remains of the cells show how extremely small they were, with the only light coming in a narrow window at the back. No, thank you.
These pics are just because I loved the flowers.
Great hiking weather
Port Arthur Historic Site from the water
The lowest level of the Penitentiary housed the most hardened criminals
The ruins of the building, which was gutted by fire, have been shored up with bracing and wire.
Very small cells
Note the anchors for shackles in the walls
The guard tower
And then we set out to walk the opposite direction we had walked two years ago, to Carnarvon Beach on a path through the woods along the waterfront. This was such a fun walk. We encountered very few other people (a real plus at this point in the season), the path was wide and very obvious and fairly flat. We made it to Carnarvon Beach in the next bay south of Port Arthur, and continued on the Point Puer Road along the water to the Point Puer Trail. We looked long and hard for an echidna in the undergrowth, like we had seen two years ago, but weren’t so lucky this time. We were dressed appropriately, the day was never hot, and it was perfect afternoon of walking.
We hiked right along the water
A beautiful walk
Carnarvon Beach
Does anyone know what this is?
As soon as we reached the end of the Point Puer Trail, we needed to turn around and start back. The last tender from shore to the ship was at 4pm, and we had been keeping track of how long we had walked so we wouldn’t get left behind. Not that that would have been a disaster; the Majestic Princess sailed to Hobart, arriving there at 8:30pm for an overnight stay. Hobart is less than two hours from Port Arthur by road, but if our tardiness had resulted in the ship arriving in Hobart late tonight, we wouldn’t have been very popular with anyone board, crew and passengers alike (there was a spectacle awaiting us in Hobart- read on- and the crew loves their overnights in port).
Once back on board, I was going to get showered before dinner, but G pointed out that we’d most likely be going out again after dark in Hobart, so it didn’t make sense to get too cleaned up. Besides, we were more hungry than dirty after our 19000+ step day, and instead shared a pizza from Alfredo’s, leading me to offer that comment that gets said at least once a season: Hurry up and finish eating so we can go to dinner. ;-)
We limited dinner to just one course each, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery from our window-side table as the Majestic Princess cruised along the steep rock cliffs of Tasman National Park. I love overnights in Hobart for several reasons, the biggest one being the beautiful scenery between Hobart and Port Arthur that gets missed if the overnight isn’t scheduled.
Day 6 dinner menu, page 1
Day 6 dinner menu, page 2
Day 6 dessert menu
We watched from the Hollywood Conservatory as the ship entered Hobart Harbour. It was finally cleared by the local authorities for passengers to proceed ashore about 8:30pn, but we didn’t leave the ship right away. Today was the middle day of the three-day Royal Hobart Regatta, and there was a large fireworks show scheduled for 9:30pm over the water next to the Regatta grounds, just beyond the port terminal. It was chilly, and we chose to watch from the Open Deck Behind the World Fresh Marketplace as it felt a little warmer there, despite the fact that the Harbour Control Tower blocked a tiny bit of the view. I love fireworks (and am missing the Friday night fireworks in Hawaii), and this was a great show.
Royal Hobart Regatta fireworks with the Tasman Bridge in the background
After the show, we walked off the ship and along the waterfront to a pier where there are several restaurants and bars with outdoor seating. The area was packed; Regatta weekend is obviously a very big deal. We finally returned to the ship just after midnight. It had been a fantastic day, and there are lots of Regatta activities scheduled all day tomorrow. They will give us nice options for our fourth visit to Hobart this season...assuming we have the energy to even get off the ship, that is. I think if I was boarding a flight from Sydney to LAX right now, I’d sleep the whole 14 hours.🥱
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 4
