Solstice in Newcastle today

[GUT2407]

a lot of people say Newie is new, but in the 60s it was Going into Town, for mum, but certainly as teen in the 70s we were using Newie.

[GUT2407]

4 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

I was at a loose end that morning so I went in to town to have a squiz. Newcastle was always called "town" when I was a young'n - never heard "newey" until recently. I'd forgotten about the rev head weekend coming up and couldn't do a foreshore crawl due to road closures. I parked at Nobby's beach. Plenty of spare parking spots which surprised me as it was a beautiful sunny day in town, it was cloudy overcast at the Lake when I left.

I sat at the promenade, enjoying the sun, enthralled by the surfers who now have foils on their boards - cool. Had a brief chat with a Polish/Canadian cruiser. His English wasn't very good but I said g'day in Polish which made him smile.

I tried to get on the free tourist tram but it had been booked for cruisers only. I wonder how much they paid for that? I noticed a few cruisers did the Memorial Walk to bar beach and there were a few up at the cathedral as well as other places around the streets with their maps.

I parked up the top of Bar Beach car park and enjoyed the view of the surf, beach goers and surfers while I listened to "Conversation" on the ABC.

I wondered if the old baths under the old Newcastle arcade in Hunter street could be an interesting place to visit. From memory, you have to go through a hidden door in someone's shop to get to it - I could be wrong. I'd love to see it.

Quite a relaxing morning.

Did I just do a review of sorts?

 

Yeah the baths are still there, but I am not sure how to get to them. And the Slot Cars have buggered town up again, close Wharf roa$ to put up the grandstand, turn half of Church Street into a clearway (no idea why, Supercars don’t even go down that road) and why so far before and after the race? move the bus depot, Bolton St this year I think. Sad bit is, a number of shop keepers say last year there was way less boost to their business than the year before.

[NSWP]

I hope some of the Solstice pax went further afield than ye olde Newy.   Perhaps to the Hunter Valley to taste some great wines there.  Alas they could not get a Darby's pie.  

 

Mr Gut did the locals ever refer to Newacastle as Newcy?    Like the Newcastle UK locals who refer to their local brew as 'Newcy Brown.' (Newcastle Brown.)  Also known as 'Walking the Dog.'  An old term a bloke would tell his Missus 'I am going out to 'Walk the Dog' when he went out with the mutt he went to the pub for a pint of ye olde 'Newcy Brown.'   Still sold in UK and in Straya too.

 

A bit of nostalgia, here endeth todays history lesson.

Edited October 18, 2019 by NSWP

[GUT2407]

2 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I hope some of the Solstice pax went further afield than ye olde Newy.   Perhaps to the Hunter Valley to taste some great wines there.  Alas they could not get a Darby's pie.  

I think the Vineyards get the bulk of the tour traffic.

 

No Darby but I know Harry’s does a roaring trade, a few years back on of the Cunard ships was in and the sold out by about 2:30.

 

[MicCanberra]

Sounds like an enjoyable day in any case.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, GUT2407 said:

I think the Vineyards get the bulk of the tour traffic.

 

No Darby but I know Harry’s does a roaring trade, a few years back on of the Cunard ships was in and the sold out by about 2:30.

 

I am sure they would still be hitting the pies if they see them.

[NSWP]

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I am sure they would still be hitting the pies if they see them.

Mr Gut could buy a Harrys Franchise and set up shop on the Newcastle sea front, attracting locals and tourists including cruise pax.

[MicCanberra]

12 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Mr Gut could buy a Harrys Franchise and set up shop on the Newcastle sea front, attracting locals and tourists including cruise pax.

He could but he may well be eating into the profits.

[Suzi66]

Last two times I went visited Newcastle on the Solstice we had to pay for the tram.  I'm not sure how it ended up being free for cruise passengers this time.

Perhaps what was said by the operators was that it was 'reserved' for cruise passengers.  They did pay a lot of attention as to the fact that we came off the ships shuttle last time when they gave us the flyer.  The first time I had pre-booked so they knew that I was on the ship already.

[GUT2407]

She is back again today.

[MicCanberra]

Nice, I wonder if she will get the usual send off by the gunners.

[GUT2407]

24 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Nice, I wonder if she will get the usual send off by the gunners.

Yep they all do. Saw a list by Fort Scratchley of when they would be firing any why, gave a pretty good list of ships visiting.

[MicCanberra]

It is good to see and hear.

[megsie]

I can remember cruising into Newcastle on Radiance of the Seas quite a few years ago. It was around 7 am and  the canons fired off to welcome us. A very calm morning and I think it would have woken half the town.

We did get the canons firing when we left as well. But for the following cruises we only had the canons on departure. Don't know why !!.

[GUT2407]

I know that finances impacted on firings recently so things may have changed. But at one stage they only fired on arrival if it was an inaugural visit by a ship.

 

HMAS Newcastle recently had the honour of returning fire after her final visit before decommissioning.

[MicCanberra]

22 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

I know that finances impacted on firings recently so things may have changed. But at one stage they only fired on arrival if it was an inaugural visit by a ship.

 

HMAS Newcastle recently had the honour of returning fire after her final visit before decommissioning.

That would have been awesome to see and hear.

[GUT2407]

1 minute ago, MicCanberra said:

That would have been awesome to see and hear.

Yeah unfortunately I missed it.

[MicCanberra]

6 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

Yeah unfortunately I missed it.

have you started to pack yet?

[GUT2407]

19 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

have you started to pack yet?

Clothes are out, back up chair charged, toiletries and electronics were never unpacked after last cruise RCCL still say no accessible cancelled please try again on Monday and if no luck again after muster drill.

[MicCanberra]

43 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

Clothes are out, back up chair charged, toiletries and electronics were never unpacked after last cruise RCCL still say no accessible cancelled please try again on Monday and if no luck again after muster drill.

How are you getting down to Sydney, and are you going down tomorrow?

[GUT2407]

14 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

How are you getting down to Sydney, and are you going down tomorrow?

At the moment, subject to change as we watch the fires Miss Gut is driving us Tuesday leaving about 6:00 am, don’t sail till about 7:00 if memory serves so leaves us early 8 hours wriggle room, she can’t take us Monday s she has to work, so. But if a gamble but I will take this one time.

[MicCanberra]

14 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

At the moment, subject to change as we watch the fires Miss Gut is driving us Tuesday leaving about 6:00 am, don’t sail till about 7:00 if memory serves so leaves us early 8 hours wriggle room, she can’t take us Monday s she has to work, so. But if a gamble but I will take this one time.

Okay, for some reason I thought you were going Monday, but that makes sense. Wasn't sure you could take the train anymore but that has it's own risks anyway.

[GUT2407]

11 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Okay, for some reason I thought you were going Monday, but that makes sense. Wasn't sure you could take the train anymore but that has it's own risks anyway.

We would normally go Monday, but just did a car swap with our daughter and can’t fit everything in our “new” car.

[MicCanberra]

11 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

We would normally go Monday, but just did a car swap with our daughter and can’t fit everything in our “new” car.

Bummer.

[GUT2407]

2 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Bummer.

We were planning on trading the Lexus in soon anyway but they needed the extra space for the kids, so they took it we took the Jazz and will trade it in when we can get what we are after.