Hello Everybody from Port Arthur Tasmania,
As most of you know we are on a 5-day jaunt with ECruising (our travel agent) on the Majestic Princess. It's a bit cold down here. A top of 14 deg today but yesterday in Hobart the weather was miserable. Our friends in Hobart told us that on Monday it was 25 deg so thems the breaks!
Captain Craig Street is our worthy Captain and we in fact, met him on Monday. Brett the owner of ECruising arranged for 10 of his clients to visit the bridge. We felt very special.
Since then it has been full-on. Our welcome cocktail party was on Monday evening, the only formal night and Brett arranged for the adults-only Hollywood area to be closed off for his 100 guests for about 1 1/2 hours all free drinks, fun awards ie. best outlandish dress -The men usually win this, most frequent Princess passenger and the most frequent single traveller. Then yesterday we had to meet early off the ship to be transported by double-decker red bus (2 of) out to Richmond Bridge the oldest bridge in Australia, a look around the town and then onto Frogmore Winery for a wine tasting and three-course lunch with wines. By this time it was a bit wet but nobody seemed to mind, perhaps it was the amount of wine consumed at the tasting and then lunch.
The food was delicious with a selection of 6 different wines to accompany lunch. Brett and Philipa really make sure we have a great time and they go a lot of trouble to ensure everything works smoothly.
We had previously arranged to meet our friends Heather and Bob, who live in Hobart, after the bus trip. We first met this couple traveling across the Nullabor on the Indian Pacific and onto the Sun Princess to sail via Broome back to Sydney about 12 years ago and then met them in Hawaii for a return cruise back to Sydney a few years later and we always catch up when we come down south. Good friends and great company.
Arriving back at the ship about 9 pm we were both exhausted and although a joint orchestra of the ship's orchestra, a jazz band and a couple of girls on string instruments sounded really good at 10.15 pm we just did not make it.
The shuttle service to shore this morning is being run by a couple of tender vessels and a larger local catamaran and David has just come back from his coffee run and there are very few people still aboard.
Brett is again making sure our cruise is memorable. He has divided the 100 guests into groups of about 20 and booked the specialty dining for a special dinner. Our invitation is for the Harmony Restaurant tonight which should be very nice and then to finish the evening entertainment before we come home the Captain's Circle cocktail party is on Thursday night.
You might notice I have not mentioned any of the entertainment in the Princess Theatre or the Vista Lounge. The truth is that we just have not had the time
We arrive home on Friday, early, and should be able to pick Tuxie up at lunchtime.
We can't do the ECruising jaunt next year because we will be in Dubai awaiting the Regal Princess cruise to Australia for the first time. It's a shame because that will be the first we have missed. Can't be everywhere!!!!
We were lucky to do the cruise this year because it conflicted with the Bathurst 1000 motor race. Normally nothing is allowed to affect David's viewing/coverage of this race BUT fate intervened. When we were looking at booking this cruise Supercars aust. had just announced the race would be on Sunday 6th October. How could they make such a monumental mistake as to announce the wrong date is very hard to believe but it is true. So we went ahead and booked the cruise and sometime later the date for the race was corrected, much to David's annoyance. Anyway we watched the race at home until 2pm and then David watched the race on kayo on his phone or tablet even while travelling. He even casually stood at the back of the safety drill on the ship with one earphone in his ear and the phone held discretely so only he could see the screen. Successful recovery from a serious situation.
You will next hear from us on the Voyager of the Seas. We are doing a back-to-back (two cruises) over Christmas and New Year
Untill then, love to all. David and Jill xxxxxxx
