Jim_Iain

We are being told that it is New Zealand Lamb but I tell you the New Zealand Lamb we get at Costco has never been tough. May be the grade they are purchasing. One would think they would at least buy Costco Quality. LOL

No. It is automatically fed into their immigration system when you file. Sign says you have to complete prior to trying to pass through. Immigration is via a virtual agent. You first you lay passport on a scanner and it opens first gate. Next you look at a camera and when you get recognized you put your right thumb on a reader and then the second gate opens and you are cleared. On Iain's departure he and David were rejected and they had to manually enter the data so good to have a copy.

Well wasn't all OBC. I did hit a couple jackpot. Since I finally hit Onyx I don't think they lock me out of my Refundable OBC. I like to bledd it off or withdraw at front desk last day of cruise. I know it comes back as a credit on my CC but then I loose 3X Chase Sapphire points.

I may have to fudge a bit on this one because this cruise is not representative of the norm. Possibly because it's the fact that it's part of the World Cruise and we are having 4 Chic nights and part because I would say is about 50/50 American / Australian. The First chic nighgt was much more dressy than we normally see in Caribbean Europe. Saying that it was less dressy than the Old Day. I saw possibly 10% in Formal - Including women in long gowns and men in Tux and even Kilts (saw 3). The next two the dress has been more and more casual. The hot weather may also be a driving factor. As you can see Iain and I dropped the Bow Ties but David and Robert wore dinner jackets, Bow Ties and Tux shirts. We all enjoy dressing and I think David brought 3 jackets. Knowing him if he knew it was 4 Chic nights he would have brought a 4th. Will be interesting to see the dress tonight as it with be the 4th Chic night. The next cruise the demographics will totally change. 1. It is the inaugural cruise of Edge in the Australia Market and Captain Matt has indicated there will a fire boat display on arrival at 5is as well as news helicopters etc. Also they are expecting families with about 300+ kids. Thus the mix may be 80% Australian and 20% Americans. Even on European Cruises of late, 90+ percent dress resort casual and then spattering of Kilts, Mostly Business Suites on men and a spattering of tux. You see maybe 10% in fabulous floor length dress and Lots of Cocktail dress. The intent of Chic is for you to define your level of elegance instead of having a set of rules like Cunard. This isn't a slam to Cunard as we will be sailing them for the first time next year and love Black Tie. I chuckle when I read their board that the debate is whether it is acceptable for a man to remove his jacket if hot climate while dancing.

Sorry I've fallen behind and I think I am two pages in reading comments from all of you. With two sea days ahead I will surly get caught up. Today was Airlie Beach Airlie Beach is a coastal locality and resort town in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Airlie Beach had a population of 1,208 people. It is Best known for incredible Scuba, High End Resorts and Fun Fun Fun Sorry no underwater pictures - Just a stock teaser. We were just aboard at 5:30PM after bobbing on a tender for over an hour... More tomorrow I am due for Cocktails in Retreat in 2 minutes.

I also look forward to the day we may meet.

I’m not sure if it just this ship or whether they have mad an unannounced change. The MD has advised us we can order anything from Blu and MDR in addition to the anytime.

The waves are being driven by an approaching tropical cyclone. Captain Matt said we should be out of the area before it hits Australia

We got back with 1 minutes to spare as the tour buses start arriving it looks smooth in the harbor but once outside the seas and winds started intensifying. ROUGH ride to ship and slow disembarkation from tender. The would only allow one person at a time on the gangway. We later heard they had to suspend boarding using Magic Carpet due to one of the glass panels shattering. Some of the tenders sat out there bobbing for an hour.

Driving back to the Ship

Finale- Ice Cream

After lunch we had spotted an Ice Shop but we stopped at a men's shop. I got in trouble and spent over $1,000 on some beautiful shirts from Sainte-Troez. Beautiful Italian Muslin. I had touchy feeling shopping but when I get in the mood I'm dangerous but luckily it only lasts 10 minutes.

Next stop along memory lane was the Marina where we had a 50th birthday lunch for me a couple years ago. Ahummmm..

What a great idea. David said they do it because it is less expensive then sending someone out and picking up all the change.

The boys took a rest under a Banyon tree while I took a walk around the park to get some photos.

Earlier that day in Port Douglas - Rapid fire posting so I keep up to date. Aboriginal Art Gallery

Before I get behind - Dinner 12/5 Day 10 Menu Corn Soup - 10+ even Iain that generally doesn't like corn gave it a 10+ and wants me to make it when we are home. Tuna Tartar - 10+ We didn't order but Kumar brought two to the table just in case. Robert liked them so much he ate two. Balsamic Trout - (OceanTrout) - 9 Good but ever so slightly dry so I took away 1 point. A new Desert - Strawberry Cream - Bed is Whipped Cream with chunks of Burrata in them --- the do have a couple little tomatoes which sound weird but Tomatoes are are fruit and it reall worked. 10+ Chocolate Sphere - I screwed up and somehow hit the selfie button and took a great video of the ceiling. Maybe next cruise. Aker (Pronounced Iker) - MD of Luminae

As I was getting ready for our Visit to the Great Barrier Reef later today, I chuckled when I looked at my feet. Just before our trip I went for my annual physical. While my Doctor was checking me for skin cancer, he suddenly said that's funny.. Being concerned I said what's funny... He chuckled .... Your feet are white.

Port Douglas Port Douglas is a town on the Coral Sea in the tropical far north of Queensland, Australia. It's known for its beach resorts and as a base for visits to both the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef system, and Daintree National Park, home to biodiverse rainforest. In town, Macrossan Street is lined with boutique shops and restaurants. Curving south is popular Four Mile Beach. Stock Photo--- Google Maps

Since we have been to the Cairns area a number of times we planned a very relaxed day. I rented a car through Gem Rent a Car. I made reservations about 9 months ago to assure a booking. In my opinion it was a good a good deal for Au $135 ($88 US) for the day. They are really good with communications. I had been advised that I should call them when I boarded the Tender and they would meet me at the pier. When I called a very pleasant agent told me he would meet me at the Yacht Club adjacent to the Tender Dock. He said he would be sitting under the big white tent to the right. He then asked what color hat and pants I was wearing - I said Purple Top and Red Shorts... He kidded and said he had a purple shirt on also. We completed the paperwork in less than 10 minutes and took us to the car. I rented a compact but he said with 4 he would give us a bigger car for free. Showed us all about the car and told us when we return it to park in the same area and lock the car in the trunk. Easy enough Off we went for a day trip to Port Douglas.

We originally planned on going ashore around 9:30 but we were all up early. The anchor dropping right under our room was our wake up call. After a light breakfast in Retreat, we joined a group that was about to be escorted to the tender. They really have it well organized. The Retreat hosts are in walkie talkie contact with the crew controlling the tenders. While a new tender is being tied off the escort the group down and the Retreat guests are loaded and then the line of the regular guests fill up the tenders. They were loading 2 tenders at a time from the Magic Carpet. They were large Double Decker port tenders holding about 300+ passengers each. They had new ones waiting to replace each as they took off. It was a 20-25 minuted tender ride to the port. They did a good job of providing guests with the price of the Shuttle and also information on costs by either Uber or Taxi. It always fun to watch people shooting selfies.

The nice thing about the machine I've been playing, after about 10 days I think I understand what I need to do to get it to start the wheel sniping and doing automatic plays. I've pulled about $3,400 of OBC off the account. Initially I pulled some off and got frozen out from further charges to the room account. A couple days later I was un-frozen. My objective was to start taking out $20 dollar increments playing until I was up. Then cash out and put the chit in my little room key holder. Before I knew I had about 40-50 of those chits - Then I would take out in 100-200 increments playing and when went above my initial withdrawal - Cash out and move to a different machine. Yesterday I started consolidating the little chits and playing a little more until above the value before moving machines again. Kept me entertained. I cashed out everything and gave my Pimp - Iain, my earnings for the cruise fund. No more slots until next cruise. This was just last nights cashing in. Better than working the streets!

I was trying to find something I posted and had to do a search to find it. It is fun and with all the sea days kept me out of trouble. Well. I did get in a little trouble.... Good Trouble. I've been playing the Penny Slots --- I think I mentioned before that 'm terrified of gambling. Mostly is even the slots I can't figure out what some of them are doing but they just start spinning and ringing - This is from a guy that was a day trader for 4-5 years after retirement. Iain tells me ---that's gambling - I of course so - no way I was controlling my trades. He laughs and says no way. He just didn't understand the market. I was a momentum trader and the only way I would loose is that the market just goes flat. I would have 200-300 trades a day and loved it. Finally retired from that also. Not at huge gain but averaged about 18-20% gain a year.

The one I bought was about 5 years ago so may be different now. When I was trying to use it You had to connect via I believe Blu Tooth then control the Go Pro - via the phone for trying to capture a time lapse of sailing out of the port. Then I had to transfer the footage via bluetooth to my phone and then had to put all of the segments together. Other options was you would connect to your laptop and do the same. I was wanting something I could just turn on and start shooting. May also just have been my technical knowledge as my son loved it and was happy with the gift. I did notice he used it a couple times and went back to his phone. The scallops were good. Mushrooms were sauteed with Garlic. Scallops just seared on both side and succulent

I love Lamb Medium Rare an the lab we get in California is tender enough to cut with a fork without a knife - I honestly think it was just tough lamb as David ordered it Medium Well and also said was tough