Semi Live Ovation 16th Nov b2b Our Trip to a Land Down Under

[tribefan]

7 hours ago, kernow said:

Is your second cruise going to NZ? I think it was their government that insisted that the b2b passengers were tested.I know earlier in the week they said we wouldn't have to be. It was certainly the NZ authorities who insisted on 7 days quarantine, it's only 5 days for Australia cruises. Hopefully it will have cleared a bit by the time you go, just my opinion but I think the staff were probably passing it around a bit.

 

Feeling back to normal today, currently sitting in the sunshine at Bondi Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NZ is our first cruise, then the South Pacific.

[little britain]

Just catching up with this thread - can’t believe it! 
 

You’ll just have to rebook with us for next January for the NZ leg!!! 
Hugs to you both

LB xx

 

[kernow]

8 hours ago, tribefan said:

NZ is our first cruise, then the South Pacific.

I think that is probably the better way around, as things currently stand you will probably not have to re test for the second leg but who knows, things might change by then. We (Mark as I was isolating😀) heard of a few people who were asymptomatic but tested positive and had to miss the b2b.

 

Anyway I'm sure none of this will happen to you and you'll have a lovely time.

[kernow]

7 hours ago, little britain said:

Just catching up with this thread - can’t believe it! 
 

You’ll just have to rebook with us for next January for the NZ leg!!! 
Hugs to you both

LB xx

 

I know, how unlucky was I? 😁. Not so bad though, there's certainly a lot worse places to be stuck than Sydney.

 

Enjoying your pics of your trip, that looks fun too and somewhere else we'd like to visit one day. x

[M-H-B]

Glad you are feeling better already. I recently caught COVID on Carnival Splendor and was down with it for almost two weeks.

Enjoy Sydney. That Anzac memorial in Hyde Park is right across from my office, its a lovely park. 🙂

[kernow]

1 hour ago, M-H-B said:

Glad you are feeling better already. I recently caught COVID on Carnival Splendor and was down with it for almost two weeks.

Enjoy Sydney. That Anzac memorial in Hyde Park is right across from my office, its a lovely park. 🙂

Two weeks sounds horrible, think I got off lightly.

 

What a lovely view to have from your office.

[kernow]

Feeling back to normal now, Mark is still negative to seems to have got away with it.

 

Yesterday we went to Taronga Zoo, a fabulous day which I would really recommend. Even travelling there on the ferry was a pleasure. 

The highlight of my day was seeing the Koalas, almost worth missing NZ for😆.

[kernow]

Forgot to say that we've also heard back from our TA and they have put in the claim for a refund from RCL. They have been told it will take up to 30 business days.

[ecslady]

I'm so glad you are making the best of your unexpected stay on land! Glad you are feeling better and your hubby stays negative.

 

[kernow]

Just spent the day around the shops in the centre of Sydney. Huge number of shops and malls but I have a serious question for all the Australians. Where do you buy your everyday clothes? Everything seemed to be what I would call designer shops, all the clothes I looked at that I would wear were 200 dollar plus 😯. 

For my everyday clothes I shop in places like Next and M&S, could not see any equivalents in Sydney.

[Coralc]

Not a local, but we spent most of the day at Paddy's flea market. fun shopping! Link: https://paddysmarkets.com.au/ They had new clothes, not used and good prices. 

 

Most popular mall, according to Google: https://www.westfield.com.au/sydney

Edited November 30, 2022 by Coralc

[Duck Creek]

People who live in metropolitan Sydney shop in the suburbs. Lost of malls and shops that have reasonably priced clothes. 

Lots of residents rarely go into the centre of Sydney.

The Westfield's in the suburbs have 'normal' stores 😃

[kernow]

6 minutes ago, Babsjo said:

People who live in metropolitan Sydney shop in the suburbs. Lost of malls and shops that have reasonably priced clothes. 

Lots of residents rarely go into the centre of Sydney.

The Westfield's in the suburbs have 'normal' stores 😃

We have Westfield's in the UK too with 'normal' stores, thought it was strange that it was so expensive. 

[Duck Creek]

Years ago Westfield Sydney was a pretty normal shopping mall.

Then they re-did the whole thing and put high end stores in.

 

If you want some further trips on the harbour, try:

Ferry to Manly  or 

Ferry to Watson's Bay then a walk around South Head

https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/walking-tracks/south-head-heritage-trail

Hope you have a nice time enjoying our lovely city. 

 

[kernow]

1 hour ago, Babsjo said:

Years ago Westfield Sydney was a pretty normal shopping mall.

Then they re-did the whole thing and put high end stores in.

 

If you want some further trips on the harbour, try:

Ferry to Manly  or 

Ferry to Watson's Bay then a walk around South Head

https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/walking-tracks/south-head-heritage-trail

Hope you have a nice time enjoying our lovely city. 

 

Thanks, we're planning to go to Manly tomorrow. Loving the city, you're very lucky to live here.

[kaseyoz]

Hi again.

i would hop on a train and go to Parramatta. The train stops right at Westfields. A huge shopping centre.

 

missed you on this cruise. All staff wearing masks but minority of cruisers are.

lucky you missed out on the mess at Auckland. Many decided not to get off after snaking lines all through the ship and waits of three and four hours for the buses to the city.

but the weather has been great. 

[resordanis]

7 hours ago, kaseyoz said:

Hi again.

i would hop on a train and go to Parramatta. The train stops right at Westfields. A huge shopping centre.

 

missed you on this cruise. All staff wearing masks but minority of cruisers are.

lucky you missed out on the mess at Auckland. Many decided not to get off after snaking lines all through the ship and waits of three and four hours for the buses to the city.

but the weather has been great. 

I agree Parramatta or even closer get the train to Bondi Junction. Everything more affordable. Also agree with everything kaseyoz is saying! Nobody wearing masks, it makes us wonder what will happen as we are doing B2B2B. We will miss you both on the Picton Wine tour too!

Looking forward to Tauranga today!

[kernow]

Thanks for the replies, hope you all stay clear. We noticed the Westfield mall when we went to Bondi on the bus the other day. Think we will try one of those on one of the days. 

 

I saw people saying about the mess in Auckland, such a shame as it was only an afternoon stop anyway wasn't it?

 

Cheryle, where are the next two cruises going? Do you know yet if you will have to test? Fingers crossed you will avoid the dreaded covid🤞

[resordanis]

2 hours ago, kernow said:

Thanks for the replies, hope you all stay clear. We noticed the Westfield mall when we went to Bondi on the bus the other day. Think we will try one of those on one of the days. 

 

I saw people saying about the mess in Auckland, such a shame as it was only an afternoon stop anyway wasn't it?

 

Cheryle, where are the next two cruises going? Do you know yet if you will have to test? Fingers crossed you will avoid the dreaded covid🤞

The next cruise goes to Tasmania and Adelaide followed by your Vila Noumea trip. The thing is even though we have the same cabin we have to pack up, get off the ship with luggage and start again! Not happy about that either! Yes, we have to have the test, but we are testing every couple of days and only had Covid last month, if that helps us!

[kernow]

20 minutes ago, resordanis said:

The next cruise goes to Tasmania and Adelaide followed by your Vila Noumea trip. The thing is even though we have the same cabin we have to pack up, get off the ship with luggage and start again! Not happy about that either! Yes, we have to have the test, but we are testing every couple of days and only had Covid last month, if that helps us!

Having to pack up everything is not good.Sounds like you should be OK with covid though, not heard of anyone getting it again that soon.

 

That sounds like a really nice trip, enjoy. We'll be thinking of you all in Picton on the wine tour🥂

[bretts173]

1 hour ago, resordanis said:

The next cruise goes to Tasmania and Adelaide followed by your Vila Noumea trip. The thing is even though we have the same cabin we have to pack up, get off the ship with luggage and start again! Not happy about that either! Yes, we have to have the test, but we are testing every couple of days and only had Covid last month, if that helps us!

You have to pack up for customs clearance as the following cruise is domestic and there will be no border force present when that arrives.

[kernow]

Back to our time in Sydney, yesterday we took the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day and the sun never really broke through. We spent the day walking along the coast and around the town. It's nice that it has beaches on the harbour side and on the coast but I think overall I preferred Bondi, just liked the feel of the place better (and the sunshine 🌞)

 

Today we walked over the bridge from the Rocks to Kirribilli. I don't know how anyone can climb that bridge, even just walking along the path made my knees feel like jelly😁. 

The Jacaranda trees are all out in Kirribilli and are beautiful.

[Coralc]

We just did the Pylon Climb there. It was kind of a lot of stairs to. But much less expensive than the bridge climb. But if you don't like heights, the view from the top probably wouldn't be appealing. It was interesting though, a lady used to have a cattery at the top of the pylon, years back. ☺️

[kernow]

17 minutes ago, Coralc said:

We just did the Pylon Climb there. It was kind of a lot of stairs to. But much less expensive than the bridge climb. But if you don't like heights, the view from the top probably wouldn't be appealing. It was interesting though, a lady used to have a cattery at the top of the pylon, years back. ☺️

We saw that, I would never go up but said to Mark he should! I would not even go to the edge of the walkway to take photos, I stayed close to the road side.

[M-H-B]

Do you have many more days to fill up? If you do, a day trip out to Katoomba/Blue Mountains would be nice