Explore the world with Pete & Judy on the 2018 Holland America Grand World Voyage

I keep looking for the “like” button every time I read your posts.

Day 35 – At Sea 8 Feb Gala Night – Under the sea theme

 

Judy started her day with Tai Chi where they have progressed to the “Punch Ears” step.

 

Wonderful! Can you tell me who the instructor is? I did Tai Chi first on the Statendam and later on the Veendam. That instructor was an excellent young woman with Spanish, French, German and English language skills. I do the routine at home that she taught us. I hope she still works for HAL and will be on our Pacific and Asia cruise.

And yes, I also look for the 'like' button when reading your reports.

Thank you for your super reports.

Did you see any Albatross when arriving or leaving the Otago Harbour?

Good visit in Sydney....At Sea now....reports later today

Thank you for your super reports.

 

 

 

Did you see any Albatross when arriving or leaving the Otago Harbour?

No we didn't see any

This just in....Port Arthur cancelled due to expected 6 foot swells at the anchorage. Proceeding to Hobart as scheduled. Will leave Hobart at 8 pm vice 3am following morning to get ahead of the weather.

Complete schedule on the blog

Enjoying reading of your cruise. Thank you.

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What a shame you are not going to be going to Port Arthur as it is well worth a visit. We were on the Noordam at Port Arthur two weeks ago. Luckily for us the seas were smooth so tendering was easy. We've missed ports in NZ because of heavy seas.

Sorry to hear that you will be missing a port.

Best to stay ahead of that bad weather.

This just in....Port Arthur cancelled due to expected 6 foot swells at the anchorage. Proceeding to Hobart as scheduled. Will leave Hobart at 8 pm vice 3am following morning to get ahead of the weather.

 

Complete schedule on the blog

Sorry to hear you are missing Port Arthur and have to leave Hobart earlier. :(

Your captain and crew are wise to try to get ahead of the weather though. Hope your seas improve.

Day 37, Sydney, Australia - 10 February 2018

We cruised thru scenic Sydney Harbor very early this morning. By the time I made it to the bow, we had already passed the Opera House and were beyond the Sydney Harbor Bridge headed toward our berth at White Bay Cruise Terminal. “Opera House” rolls were being served on the bow and they looked the same as the Fiordland rolls a few days earlier, but different than the “Panama Canal” rolls that were served during our canal transit.

White Bay Cruise Terminal

Our destination was the White Bay Cruise Terminal, which is not your best spot for visiting Sydney. The berth near the Circular Quay at the Overseas Passenger Terminal (OPT) is far preferable, but priority for that location is given to ships too large to fit under the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Note: We were joined by the Viking Sun who was berthed next to us for most of the day. We would see her move to the Circular Quay around 5 PM to facilitate their guests going to the evening Opera House performances on Saturday evening. She would return to White Bay Cruise terminal very early Sunday morning. Viking was using their ship as a giant tender! I have never heard of a cruise line shifting its location twice in a port before. Please comment on this post if you are aware of another instance.

Australian Immigration

Australian Immigration requires a face to face passport check for every passenger and crewmember. Everyone was required to get off the ship even if you didn’t want to visit Sydney. No one could return to the ship until everyone cleared immigration. We picked up our passports a few days ago and the Front Desk completed most of the blocks on our Australian Immigration form. We still had to complete the questions about whether we visited a farm, were carrying any microbes, etc. Our Australian immigration forms were stapled to a letter (HERE) describing the process we would follow along with a number indicating the order when we would be called to leave the ship to get processed. I am not sure exactly how the numbers were assigned but I suspect they started with Deck 7 and moved down from there. The first groups were letters A and S followed by numbers 4 thru 17. Groups A, S and 4 were called at 8:30 and the last groups were called at 9:30 AM. Even though we were in Group 5, we waited until final call since we weren’t in any rush to leave the ship.

The gangway was attached to the ship on Deck 3 near the atrium using a jetway style telescoping arm. As we left the ship we spotted Henk monitoring the immigration and disembarkation process. Clearing immigration was a breeze and we weren’t asked any questions. We saw a few people sent over to secondary screening by agricultural officials. I suspect they may have answered “yes” to one of the questions about visiting a farm recently.

Inside the Cruise Terminal

There isn’t much in the cruise terminal, a small shop selling drinks and snacks and a pop up information center with some people available to answer questions and hand out maps. There was an ATM machine near the snack bar. There wasn’t any Wi-Fi available for passengers.

Shuttle Bus and Uber

Due to construction near “The Rocks” the shuttle bus drop-off location was near the Aquarium at Darling Harbor rather than the normal spot at near Circular Quay. We decided to avoid using the shuttle bus and use Uber directly from the cruise terminal.

Note: Uber now offers an option to request an UberXL which will produce, for a slightly higher price, a vehicle with a capacity of 6 people. This option proved handy when our group of 5 headed to the Opera House later in the day. UberXL fare was about $34 AUS from White Bay Cruise Terminal.

Note: Every time we left the cruise terminal there were taxis waiting at the nearby taxi stand. We still prefer Uber since the app requires you to put in your destination which eliminates any potential confusion. While most taxis now take credit cards, this is never an issue with Uber.

After spending a few minutes getting organized, we requested an Uber to take us to Skein Sisters Yarn Shop about 6 miles away in Dulwich Hill. Our Uber arrived in about 10 minutes and we arrived at the Yarn Shop in about 20 minutes.

Skein Sisters Yarn Shop

Skein Sisters is a wonderful shop that has been in business for less than a year. The proprietor, Deb McDonald, greeted us as we entered and oriented us to her shop and the various types of yarn available. Her sales associates, Molly and Jane, were quite knowledgeable and helpful. Every month they feature yarns dyed by a local indy (independent) dyer. This month’s feature is Revive Designs. They had a yarn dyed in shades of green for an exclusive color called ‘SISTERS’. The shop also sells most of the Shibui line of yarns as well as Woolmeise. We have been to the Woolmeise shop in Germany and know that it is in very few other stores.

Judy decided to buy five hanks of Revive Designs fingering weight yarn in the ‘SISTERS’ colorway. There should be enough to knit a sweater or cardigan.

The shop is bright and cheery with a lot of natural light. A small seating area is perfect to browse patterns or for a place for husbands to relax. There is a classroom in the back. We had a wonderful time chatting with Deb and she mentioned that she will be visiting friends in NYC this fall and then taking a side trip to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival in NY.

We had originally planned to visit another yarn shop in North Sydney (Middle Cove) called Unravelled Textiles, but it was going to close at early today and that wouldn’t leave us much time.

Check out the Skein Sisters web site HERE

Dulwich Hill

Deb suggested we walk about half a mile toward the center of Dulwich Hill where we would find a variety of shops, restaurants and coffee shops. After saying our goodbyes, we headed off on foot walking down New Canterbury Road until Dulwich Street where we found a nice local coffee shop called Campos Coffee. We ordered a latte, an apple juice and a pulled pork sandwich. We normally don’t take our laptops off the ship, but we needed to get some things synched up and we would never be able to accomplish this on the ship regardless of how long we wanted to spend trying. Dulwich Hill is well off the normal tourist track and we enjoyed chatting with a local woman who shared our table for much of the time.

It was now around 3PM and we needed to get back to the ship and meet our friends at 5PM to head over to the Sydney Opera House for the 7PM performance of “Limbo Unhinged”.

NOTE: Uber is at its best when you are in place off the beaten path like Dulwich Hill. There aren’t any taxi stands in this part of town and calling a taxi would require you to find the phone number of a local taxi company or ask a merchant to call one for you. Using Uber gives you many more options to explore Sydney which is very useful if you have been here before and are wanting to explore something else beside the usual haunts within walking distance of the shuttle bus. As I have mentioned before, get the Uber app before you leave your home country and use it once or twice in a familiar area to get used to how it works.

We arrived back on the Amsterdam around 3:30 which gave us enough time to order some room service for an early dinner and get changed for our evening at the Sydney Opera House.

Limbo Unhinged

There are usually two or three events going on every day at the opera house. Check out the Sydney Opera House website six months ahead of time and you will start to see what programs are available during your time in Sydney. Buying tickets online is easy and you will either print them at home before you leave or pick them up at the box office on the day of the event. There are two box offices in the opera house so ask someone when you arrive for the directions to the box office where you will find your tickets waiting. This will save you waiting in line only to find out that you were waiting in line for the wrong box office.

Note: HAL will usually offer an evening at the Opera House as an excursion but will end up costing almost twice as much as if you do the bookings yourself. If you book thru HAL, you don’t have to plan for anything as everything is arranged. When you book on your own, you have to get your own tickets and arrange for your own local transportation - taxi fare will run about $20-$25 USD each way.

There were five of us going to see “Limbo Unhinged”. I ordered up an Uber XL which arrived at the cruise terminal in about 10 minutes. Twenty minutes later we arrived at the Sydney Opera House taxi drop off spot which is about ¼ mile away from the entrance. If you take the HAL excursion, I think that the buses are allowed closer and can drop you off within steps of the Opera House entrance.

As we were walking up to the Opera House, we watched the Viking Sun slide into her berth alongside the Overseas Passenger Terminal where she would spend the evening. She would return to White Bay Cruise Terminal on Sunday evening.

“Limbo Unhinged” was in the Studio, a smaller venue on Opera House’s ground floor. Described as “vaudeville steampunk”, Limbo Unhinged has been touring Australia for the last couple of years and is in the Opera House for a three month engagement. This is an amazing show which runs for 90 minutes without an intermission. There isn’t any plot that I could follow, but a series of very entertaining circus type displays of skill and daring do. One of the many highlights was the incredible display of sword swallowing by Heather Holliday who dazzled the crowd by swallowing six swords simultaneously. Another act featured her ability to work with fire as she swallowed some type of flammable liquid which she sprayed into an 15 foot stream of fire.

You can read more about the show HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Back on the ship

After the show we headed back to the taxi pick up area and requested an UBER. Our car arrived in about ten minutes and we were back on the ship in twenty minutes. There were numerous taxis waiting to pick up passengers, but there weren’t any that had capacity for 5 people. Another benefit of Uber is the ability to summon a larger car holding 5 people.

Lots more on the blog

About Viking - since they do this shifting a lot of the time on the European rivers [ships are rafted together at docks], I'm guessing that - if there is no port rule against it - they have continued the practice on the oceans of the world.

That yarn shop looks wonderful. There was a time when I knitted and crocheted -- now with my fingers severely crocked I can no longer do things like that.

That show at the Opera House looks like a great one. Did you enjoy it?

Regarding changing docks on a port: We had the experience of having an overnight in Venice on the front end of a Transatlantic. We boarded at the usual pier near Piazzale Roma, but during the wee hours of the night the ship repositioned and docked "Seven Bridges from St Mark's" just east of St Mark's square. This way the guests were very close to the action for our second day in port. We left that dock in afternoon.

That berth was just along the side of the canal where the canal is quite wide east of the mouth of the Grand Canal. We were on Ruby Princess, a large ship at 113,000+ and 3000 passengers. I don't think Venice allows use of that dock anymore.

Not so funny, some late arriving passengers, of course not knowing about the repositioning wound up at the dock near P. Roma with no ship to board!

Thanks so very much for your instructive posts. I'm enjoying them all! m--

That yarn shop looks wonderful. There was a time when I knitted and crocheted -- now with my fingers severely crocked I can no longer do things like that.

 

 

 

That show at the Opera House looks like a great one. Did you enjoy it?

Yes, we enjoyed the show very much

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Cloudy day in Hobart Heading off to get our rental car then drive to Tahune airwalk, mt wellington and yarn shops

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Just announced Valentine's Day ball postponed due to heavy seas. Gala night cancelled as well....didn't want ladies to try walking in heels

hope we can still get into Kangaroo Island.

I am not surprised that the Valentine's Ball has been postponed.

Hope you make it to Kangaroo Island.

Be careful walking the ship in those high seas.

I imagine the pools will be emptied.

Day 38, Feb 11th, Sydney

Sometime early this morning, the Viking Sun moved back to the White Bay Cruise Terminal from her temporary spot at the Overseas Passenger Terminal last evening. We heard that this may have cost upwards of $50,000 to move the ship both ways when you consider the tugs, pilots and other expenses involved.

Walking tour

At 9:40 AM we were off the ship and requested an Uber to take us to the Rocks where we had scheduled a walking tour with a company simply called “The Rocks Walking Tour”. They offer two tours a day at 10:30 AM and 1:00 PM for $28 AUS pp.

Sixteen people were in our tour group and we enjoyed chatting with another couple from Cincinnati who were on a 3-week land vacation around New Zealand and Australia. They were also frequent cruisers and were working on taking cruises around all the continents. Not sure if that is possible, or how you would even measure that, but it made for some interesting conversation.

Leisa was our tour guide and she welcomed everyone to the Rocks before we headed off on the tour. The pace was slow, easy enough for anyone with a cane to keep up, but there were quite a few steps involved and we probably covered about a mile. She wore a portable amplifier on her hip which made her easy to hear except for once when we stopped close to a street performer playing his amplified guitar. A thick binder full of pictures helped illustrate her stories along the way. We probably crossed 3 other walking tours as we proceeded on our tour so there are many choices if a walking tour is of interest. Our group’s pace was probably slower than normal as we returned to the starting point about 10 minutes late.

Feeding the Birds

We were looking for someplace for a quick bite to eat when we discovered a small area along Playfair Street, about halfway between Argyle Street and Mill Lane, that had a couple of walkup restaurants around a common eating area. The $10 Fish and Chip special advertised at 7 Rocks Deli caught our eye and we placed our order which was ready in about 5 minutes.

Despite numerous signs about not feeding the birds, there we several Ibis roaming around, feeding off scraps left behind or tossed on the ground by other tourists. They would get close to us, but didn’t make any attempt to steal food that was on our plate.

After lunch we headed off to the Sydney Harbor Bridge where we would climb the southeast pylon.

Pylon Lookout Climb

The Sydney Harbor Bridge climb is very popular, but expensive – around $250 US – plus the cost of any additional photographs you many want to purchase. The Bridge climb also takes 3.5 hours as it appropriately involves a lot of preliminary safety briefings and clothing changes. We did the bridge climb in 2006 and would recommend that everyone do the climb once. I was considering doing the climb a second time when I stumbled across an alternative – The Pylon Lookout Climb.

The Pylon Lookout climb costs $15 AUS ($10 AUS for seniors) and takes you to the top of the southeast Sydney Harbor Bridge pylon which overlooks the harbor and the Sydney Opera house. Instead of 3.5 hours, the pylon climb takes about 90 minutes as timed using the Rocks as the starting point. More information here

The pylon climb (292 feet above the harbor) doesn’t get as high as the bridge climb (440 feet) but is a great value when you consider the price difference and shorter time commitment. Unlike the Bridge Climb, we were allowed to take our cameras to the top of the Pylon. There aren’t any restrictions (backpacks are ok) on what can be taken up to the top of the Pylon.

The starting point for the Pylon Climb is at the base of the pylon on the bridge’s pedestrian sidewalk. You get there by climbing up the stairs to the bridge pedestrian sidewalk near Cumberland street. There are about 150 steps from the Rocks to the pedestrian sidewalk. Once on the bridge you walk about .4 of a mile, up a slight incline, to the base of the pylon. The Pylon Climb Lookout fee is collected at the ticket counter about 75 steps above the bridge. There is also an informational video available here, but it was out of service when we were there so we didn’t see it.

You may read that the pylon requires 200 steps, but the 200 steps doesn’t start until after you buy your ticket, which is 75 steps above the bridge and about 150 steps above the rocks. There are plenty of places to stop as you make your way up the stairs. It is well ventilated, brightly lit and wide open – no closed in feeling. A gift shop and rest rooms are available about half way up to the top.

At the top of the pylon you will find a small room with an informational display with a door that leads to a small walkway that circles the pylon’s superstructure. It was quite windy, but the visibility was superb in all directions. You can spend as much time as you like before you head down the stairs. We spent about 20 minutes enjoying the view and taking pictures.

You go down the same way you went up until you reach the ticket counter 200 steps below. After this point there is a separate stairway to return to the pedestrian walkway on the bridge.

The Pylon Climb was something we would do again when we return to Sydney. Highly recommended.

Ken Done

The Ken Done gallery was our next stop and was a short walk from the point where we returned to the Rocks from the bridge stairs. Judy is a big fan of Ken Done and we enjoyed looking at his current exhibit and the adjoining bookstore.

Tommy Bahama and Forgotten Songs

Our final stop of the day was the Tommy Bahama store located at 330 George Street. We requested an Uber which arrived within 5 minutes and we were dropped off near the store 10 minutes later. George street was closed due to construction, so our driver dropped us off one block over at the corner of Angel Place and Pitt Street.

As we walked down Angel Place we came upon an outdoor art display consisting of numerous empty bird cages, called “Forgotten Songs”, suspended about 50 feet above street level. At first we weren’t quite sure what to make of these cages, but there was a sign giving the exhibits name and the website was easy to find.

From the City Art Sydney website: “Forgotten Songs commemorates the songs of fifty birds once heard in central Sydney, before they were gradually forced out by European settlement. The calls, which filter down from the canopy of birdcages suspended above Angel Place, change as day shifts to night; the daytime birds’ songs disappearing with the sun, and those of the nocturnal birds, which inhabited the area, sounding into the evening”

More HERE

After we were done shopping we headed down to the Apple Store to catch an Uber back to the ship. NOTE: If you need to sync up your apple devices, stop by the Apple store – free and super-fast Wi-Fi.

Sail Away

SailAway was well attended at the Sea View Pool. Waiters were circulating with trays filled with a miniature BBQ beef sandwich which was quite tasty. We enjoyed chatting with the Beverage Manager, Ivelin Kolarov, who stopped by to check on how the party was progressing. Cloudy, gray skies, with no sun, kept things cool, but also hid blue skies and a colorful sunset as we sailed out to the open sea.

Evening on the ship

Fresh fish is now back on the MDR menu after we had a chance to resupply in Sydney. I enjoyed the “Blue Eye Trevally Caponata” which was very good. Judy enjoyed an end cut of Prime Rib.

On the Queen Stage this evening was comedian Paul Adams. We have seen him numerous times on various HAL ships over the years. He has more of an edge than some cruise ship comedians but was very funny and we enjoyed his show once again. We have never seen his show in a full house, so he does spend some time commenting on the meager audience size. We always get a chuckle when a joke goes flat and he must “explain” what he meant.

More pictures on the blog

Day 39 - 12 Feb – At Sea

Coffee Chat

Paul Adam, the comedian from last night, was the guest for Coffee Chat. He took over the interview and basically did another show touching on a wide variety of topics. He has been a professional comedian for over 20 years with extensive experience on cruise ships. Paul has been on numerous HAL ships and world cruises over the years and shared many humorous anecdotes about his interactions with guests and staff on other cruises.

Cruise Critic Meet and Greet #2

Today was our second Cruise Critic Meet and Greet for the cruise. As expected, attendance was down, probably by 50% from the first meeting, but everyone present had a good time catching up with people and meeting a few new faces who joined us in Sydney. The first slot pull was so popular that Jerry decided to organize another one sometime soon.

Casino

I had another good day with Texas Hold’em and won the only tournament I played today. There are 3 tournaments every day, sometimes 4. People start lining up at 7:30 to sign up when the casino cage opens at 9 AM. I don’t get there until they open and always get the 3 PM game and somethings one other.

Port Arthur Cancelled

Captain Jonathan came over the public-address system this morning and announced a change to our schedule. Due to forecast heavy swells, Port Arthur was cancelled, and we would be leaving Hobart at 8PM instead of 4AM so we could get ahead of weather and allow us enough time to transit around the north coast of Tasmania rather than the southern coast. Although we would have enjoyed seeing Port Arthur, we also enjoy sea days so we were not too disappointed. Our plans for Port Arthur was to take a pre-arranged taxi to the Unzoo, visit a chocolate store and then return to the ship. Now that Port Arthur is cancelled, we only have one tender port remaining for this cruise: Kangaroo Island.

Read the Captains letter about our cancelled port HERE.

Dinner

Dinner featured another Fresh Catch – Macadamia Crusted Barramundi. It was delicious. Our servers, Deden and Billy continue to impress us every evening with their outstanding service and good humor. Dinner is a major event of our daily routine and Deden and Billy are significant reasons we are enjoying our meals so much. Our wine steward, Kaye, celebrated her birthday while we were in Sydney and everyone at the table gave Kaye a small present.

Queen's Lounge

Andy Joy was the featured entertainer this evening. If you look at the daily When and Where you will see Andy pictured with a variety of instruments, none of which is a piano. This is usually code for something unconventional. As it turned out, Andy runs a piano bar in Australia and he played a number of hits by Elton John, Billy Joel and more. Toward the middle of his show he pulled out an accordion and wowed us with his talent on that instrument. Andy put on a great show – don’t miss him whenever you have the chance.

Enjoying your reports, blog and pictures,

You are certainly enjoying your ports.

Here is a working link for the captains letter explaining our weather situation and our missed port. http://www.theinsidecabin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/letter-cancel-port160.pdf

The link in the post is broken....

I wonder how things will go with Kangaroo Island?

I wonder how things will go with Kangaroo Island?

They start passing out tender tickets at 10 am....first person in line arrived before 6 am.....they sit there in the chairs for hours by the lido pool

Has this actually happened for Kangaroo Island?