Australia, New Caladonia, Vanuatu and Fiji
Jun 30, 2015, 5:17 pm
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Join Date: May 1998
Location: Escondido CA USA
Programs: AS, UA, HY, Hil, Merr
Posts: 3,207
Australia, New Caladonia, Vanuatu and Fiji
For our 40th Anniversary…friends, Australia, and Cruise: New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji!!! And being chased by a Cyclone to add to the excitement. Early 2015.
We drove from Escondido to LAX with an Avis rented car (see FlyerTalk posts on analysis). We flew out of LAX to NAN and then on to SYD on Fiji Airways. We flew business, paying money (see posts on how good Fijian was and the fantastic fares we got. Also posts on the airport clubs available to us).
We stayed three nights at the Holiday Inn at Potts Point (used points to pay, good stay for “price”). Well located. Free wifi. Asked in advance, and received, recently upgraded room on high floor. McDonalds and Subway within a block.
We chose to do the hop on and off bus (stop one block away). Our eighth trip to Australia our third stay in Sydney. We have written up Sydney stays before, so these three days are not covered. Our drive up to Brisbane after the cruise is included.
Cruise out of White Bay is not very well handled. Holland American (Oosterdam) had “Chartered” the previous cruise, so we were not able to get on the ship until 2pm, well past lunch (being well traveled with HAL, we usually have a fancy lunch with wine free). People piled up awaiting boarding. Some people took a free shuttle to some tourist areas provided by HAL, as there was not way enough places to sit for the 3-4 hour wait to board.
Our cruise accommodations are on the Neptune Club level, room #7062. We had upgraded our normal purchase of Veranda, to Suite level for our Anniversary. About 2 weeks before sailing we were offered a further upgrade to Neptune for $1300 each. Hours at most to decide, so we went for it. The room is like two rooms of veranda category. Balcony is huge, with lounge chairs and a separate table and chairs. Room has dining table, two sets of closets and two sinks in the bathroom. Also spa tub and separate shower. We get inclusive laundry, some dry cleaning, pressing, preferred boarding, preferred debarkation, preferred access to tender boats, breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill, use of the Neptune Lounge, among other things. We did not find the servicing of the room any improved, from other cruises with HAL, actually a tad slower? It was not because of not trying, the staff to passenger ratio is not great on HAL.
Breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill is a first class service event, normally attended by 20-25 passengers. We enjoyed this prissy service most mornings.
Use of the Neptune Lounge was a huge benefit. The staff took care of any request: booking tours; arranging special events; dinners; issues; billing; and disembarking. They had comfortable seating, continuous food, juice and cold water. Many languages were spoken by the staff. Bulletins and newspapers were available here as well. No need to go to the Pursers office or the main desk, they do it all here. We often came here after tours to get a snack and a cold drink rather than mob into the Lido. Justine Pouw and Anya Merca took care of us all.
The lounge is located between the two hallways, so the only view is into the hall.
The night of the first full day was a formal dinner night.
The second full day of our cruise the Captain lets us know about Cyclone Pam. She is starting to get in our way, so some alterations in the schedule are likely. We send out some laundry from our 2 day flight and 3 days in Sydney. As laundry is included, we really lessened our amount of clothes packed.
Leslie is doing her 9 eye drops a day, tricky on such a trip. The drops are for glaucoma and for a specialized eye
surgery she had instead of a cornea replacement (she is down to 7 drops now). She starts the first drop of the day at 4:30 AM. She is a trooper, and we still do all the events we want.
Our first port is scheduled for Tadine, Mare, New Caledonia. Pam changed that. We did do a make-up stop in Kuto, Ile des Pins, New Caledonia where Leslie and I got off and walked around a bit. Many people went for a swim or snorkeled. A couple souvenir stands were the total services on this tiny island with little population. The water is choppy because of the winds. There is a toi at the pier. Some of the people there did some dancing for us and gave us leaf leis. Interesting trees and shrubs. Back to the ship.
The weather on this trip is hot, humid and often quite uncomfortable…both the cruise and the portion in Australia.
Leslie and I have dined at table #117, a duce each night and will end up doing so for almost all of our dinners. In time the duce next to us is occupied by Russell and Lynn on a regular basis and we find them great company.
They too are cruisers and experiences are shared. The captain continues to keep us up to date with Pam.
Our second port is Tidane, Mare,New Caledonia and we miss Eso, Lifu, New Caledonia, Tidane is smaller than the first and we decide not to take the bus to the snorkel beach, only to get off and walk around. We did a brief walkabout and returned to the ship, before the rain starting pelting us! We put all our plans into Port Vila, Vanuatu for tomorrow.
Port Vila did not happen. It was sad for us to miss it, but even sadder that several people who lost their lives there and many of the other smaller islands because of Pam.
The crew is scrambling to find activities to keep people busy and have a good time, as the ports get cancelled and the ship is rocking. We have sailed in much worse, with a similar issue here in the So. Pac., where we were locked into the ship for several days. For us, Pam was a rookie.
Our next port is Luganville, Vanuatu. We go to the lounge to await our tour being called to go down to the bus. The first tour is cancelled, the second goes. The third tour is cancelled, as a tree fell across the dirt road and cannot be removed for a day or two. We take the Runsuc Village tour. Several mini buses take our group of 40 along the short highway to our turn off up a dirt “road” to the village. The tour was scheduled for 1 ľ hours but for some reason only lasted a bit over an hour. We were shown sand drawing, magic, had a kava ceremony and watched several singing and dancing routines. Many children were involved. We both tried the kava (mucky water) and had some local banana. After the tour we visited the 25-30 stalls on the docks and watched a few entertainers. We dropped a couple $’s into a box at one “for the children of Runsuc”.
The captain has done a good job of protecting us from Pam. Mostly seas in the 3-4 meters. He also pops for a few drinks during the cruise.
Breakfast continues in the Pinnacle each morning, only now we are often eating with Beverly and Bruce. They live in Surfer Paradise. Eventually, they invite us for dinner at their house while we are making our way up to Brisbane after the cruise. We are grateful, but hesitant with a dicey scheduled already. They prove to be excellent table mates for breakfast, most mornings.
We have another formal night. Pam is still kicking up a bit of a fuss. We switch our watches an hour for Fijian time.
Today we take a tour on Lautoka, Fiji. Visiting Fiji, is a major reason for this cruise. Our last venture into the South Pacific could not get us there. Lautoka is quite large. We first take a scenic drive, with narration, to our first stop, a village. Villages are private communities led by a chief. One cannot just drop in, but must get permission. One must be invited in (pay). The ship attends to these things before we go. Several areas along the wall are vendors from the village selling jewelry, clothing and wood carvings. Photos were restricted by area, but not totally banned. We first congregate in the church. Pictures are allowed in here! As we are sitting and in the shade, we hear about the village and village life on the island. Tois are available in the village. The vendors accept Fijian $’s or $A. No change is given. Next we load up the bus and head for the kava ceremony. Bola’s are exchanged (hellos) and we sit inside a large building with folding chairs. The ceremony is fairly short and consuming the kava is optional. In this much cleaner environment we pass, as it just was not good before. Kava is a stimulant, and claims of much more. There is a show of song and dancing to follow. It is very good. Then we are invited to dance with the performers. Many chose to do this, including me. The vending starts after the show. Leslie pops for a necklace. Isa lei is share by all (farewell, til we meet again). We again load up the bus and head for the orchid gardens. The place is packed, large buses, mini buses and cars. Tois are available. Midway down the pathway, the mossies’ show up (mosquitos) and I go back to the entry. There are comfortable chairs and a punch drink (complimentary). Nice to sit with the fans and a cool drink. This is a 30 minute stop, plus a bit to get the bus back and load up. Bob, from Texas, joins me in the comfort of this oasis seating area at the gardens. Next we head to Jack’s, a 2 story shop in Nadi. We are given 30 minutes to shop and return to the bus. We are told NOT to wonder, as time slips by. After shopping, our bus must wait for 3 couples that cannot follow directions and are 15 minutes late. The driver had to hunt around the area to find our “missing”. Ben, our guide was a great guy, patient to a fault. He kept the bus ride fun with details of the island and area. We pass NAN on the way back to the port. Once back to port, vinaka is exchanged (thank you) and a few tips are distributed. This tour was $150/pp, and gave us a good look at Fijian life and the area…given it was only a few hours.
Tonight the captain has a cocktail party for the Neptune level passengers.
Today we try to visit Dravuni Island, Fiji. This is purely a beach day, but….Pam has knocked out the docks, so we have to scrap this port as well. Not enough time to fix the damage, so on we go. Again the crew is pushed into overtime to add to the onboard activities. For those wondering, we were refunded our port fees for these missed stops (a few dollars each). Nothing makes up for the missed experiences.
Leslie and I both picked the roasted chicken for dinner tonight. The sauce was quite spicy. We both were unable to sleep much that night and were sick.
We have a modest breakfast and head for our balcony for some relaxing time and nodding off in the fresh air. I am drenched in sunscreen, but we have mostly shade at this time on the balcony. The seas have calmed a bit, but most of the passengers still look drunk as they try to walk the corridors. Tonight we both have prime rib for dinner and Portobello mushrooms. Good food. Guess we got our appetite back.
Today we dock in Noumea, New Caledonia. We are scheduled for a 4 hour, “City & Country” tour that starts at 9:30am. The early start requires us to eat breakfast in the room. We arrive at the pier at 6:15am and the dancers are ready for us. You can hear the drums thru the sliding glass door. They perform for about 20 minutes and then pack up and leave…before anyone gets off the ship! Our room faced the pier, so we were able to watch from our balcony (luck of the draw). Passengers start off at 8am. This is an operating port, so everyone is required to take a bus from the ship to the gates, before going on their own. The buses run every 10 minutes and do an excellent job. When we go off the ship, we noticed that the tour buses and “trains” were being allowed to come to the ship and load. We were the 5th tour called, 70 people, 2 buses.
The tour starts with a long drive through the country to visit a small church, nunnery and school. We have a German guide who provides commentary along the route. He does an excellent job. Too bad a local could not be employed to do this. No toi at this stop or on the bus. Next we head into the city for coffee, tea and a small pastry (and some very needed bathrooms). No shopping at this stop. Our next stop is an aquarium. While not the Monterey Bay or Long Beach level, this was a good stop and facility for Noumea. There are only 250,000 people in all of the islands of New Caledonia. We have a bit over 45 minutes at the aquarium, then back to the bus and AC (not all of the tours had AC buses, most did not). The temperature is in the high 80’s.
The balance of the cruise is sea days.
Today is the Mariner luncheon. Everyone who is a prior cruiser with HAL is invited. We expect to be invited and go to this event. Strangely, we are invited to a 10:30am cocktail event before the luncheon. Is it because we are in Neptune? Something else? Turns out that when you reach certain levels in the Mariner Club, you get awarded a medal. We made the 3 level, and along with 45 other couples were invited to this event. Some others were also there, too? Anyway, when it was our turn we were called up to received our medals and a picture taken with the Captain. The picture was later sent to our room. After this ceremony we were lead to some special seating for the luncheon. We sat with Bill and his wife at lunch. They too, had received the award. They were part of a reasonably large group of Canadians. The largest contingent of passengers was from Australia.
It is formal night yet again. Compliance with the dress code is good. No one gets thru in shorts. One person was wearing a plaid shirt, and somehow got in. Many without ties or coats. As usual, ladies attire is extremely fancy to marginal tacky. If you know or run into Amy, one of the wine servers, you are in for a treat. She is skillful, well postured, knock im dead pretty with a great memory. We had my favorite meal tonight. Wine, shrimp cocktail, filet of beef and lobster tails. Apple crisp with ice cream for dessert.
Laundry lost one of Leslie’ socks. We gave them the other to help locate the missing one, and they lost that one too. I sent my suit out for dry cleaning and it came back “piled” in many places. $5 offered for sox and zero for suit. 3 ports missed. One tour shorted 40%. Two steaks were so tough, they could not be eaten. Servicing of our room was only okay, and often very late. That takes care of the bad stuff not previously mentioned. The cruise was, for us, good. The stuff, was mostly “noise” that often happens.
It is now the sadness time. Forms are done, and packing is next. Planning our “escape” to get a cab so we can get to our Avis rental car before 11am (when they close). Being in Neptune comes into play again. We are with the first group out, but we do not have to tote our luggage. We ended up passing those with luggage, as they had to await the elevator on the docks to get to the departure lounge and customs. We found our luggage right away when we got to the lounge. We got a cab right away. At this port, rarely used, non-ship transportation is a problem. Motels are non-existent.
The cruise is over and our next program is a drive up to Brisbane to visit and stay a couple nights with some friends we met on an Outback bus tour and later shared a bus tour with in Switzerland.
Our first stop is at Avis to get our car. The Garmin we rented had not been updated in almost 10 years! (all of them!). This turned out to be a material problem, but the Garmin did help in some places. We drive North toward Port Macquarie. It is 376km or 204 miles. We only make one stop. Jacks (Burger King) is where we have lunch and use the toi. We stayed at the Macquarie Waters Boutique Apt Hotel. It takes a dozen roundabouts from the Hwy to get here! Dizzy. Our room is small, free pking, frig, tv, reception closes at 4 pm, so one has to plan. Room 205 is the cheapest and smallest they have. It does have a small balcony. It is two or three blocks into town. It is 4:30 and most stores are closed. There is a Target. We found a Subway for a sandwich, and then bought a bottle of wine across the street at the bottle shop. We took both back to our balcony to dine. Room clean, lighting in toi poor, bed concrete, quiet. The hwy is being expanded, so much of the time we were in construction zones. Speed cameras are everywhere. Traffic moves at posted levels.
In the morning we walked over to town and ate breakfast at McDonalds. It is a store front with 2 tables on the sidewalk. We drove out of the motel lot at 9:15 for a 481K, 260 miles drive ahead of us to Surface Paradise. We make one stop for gas, toi and a burger (McDonalds). Between the Garmin, construction and driving on the left the trip is an adventure. Note Leslie’s pictures will fill in the view in this road trip and the cruise.
We stay at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort/Spa in Surfers Paradise. We stay on points. The place is stone cold perfect. WOW. Sparkling wine at check in. Underground secure parking. As a Marriott rewards member of sorts, we were given a coupon for two drinks in any of their bars. I wrote a letter announcing our 40th anniversary in hopes of getting a room upgrade or wine or ? When we get to the room floor, we find our keys will not work. I go back down and leave Leslie there. They are sorry at the desk and offer us a bottle of wine for our trouble! They also send some one up with me to insure all works. When we get there Leslie was already in the room. An employee, after some conversation let her into the room. WOW, this is really upgraded. Oh, there is a card and a bottle of sparkling wine on the dresser for us (from my letter). We hurry to get it put in the dresser, before our other bottle of wine shows up! Now you know why we like Australia and Australians so much…well this is part of it. The second bottle of wine shows up shortly. We do a bit of unpacking and then head downstairs to get our “free drink” and relax a bit. The huge lobby is spot on beautiful. Large open public side rooms and massive walkway. At the far end is a huge bar/snack room with ponds out the window and massive seating areas. Only one other couple is in the bar. We end up talking a bit to the manager of the bar and then make our way back up to our room. Our room is 2209. It has views from the balcony to the ocean, both pools of the hotel, the spa, the marina and the river. The hotel is not located for easy access to take out places (for the younger out there, that means you have to walk 10-15 minutes or drive). We order a pizza from room service to have with one of our bottles of wine. We dine on our small balcony. The bathroom is so large that it has double doors! There is a rain shower and an adjustable one. The pressure is adequate. The closet also has double doors. In the closet are pool towels and bathrobes, a safe and plenty of hangers. The TV is large screen and hangs on the wall. Check out is easy. Parking is included in our rate (points) . We see none of Surfers Paradise except the 11 k ride from the highway to the hotel. I am so concentrated on my driving that even that drive is a blur. Note many hotels charge for the use of a credit card and this is one of them. They did not do this last time we were here in Australia.
Today we check out of the Marriott and head for our friends house in Durack (Brisbane). The Garmin gives us a bad arrival time, failing to account for the hour time difference. At one point the Garmin says we have over 90K to go and 15 minutes to get there! We stop at one of the many pulls off Service station complexes to get some breakfast and use the toi. McDonald’s supplies breakfast.
As we get closer, we stop at a Woolworth shopping center. We need to get some wine, beer, snacks and whatever to take with us to David and Jenny’s. A funny story. We park and go into the grocery. Try to get a cart, but they are strapped together with some mechanism. After several yanks, we ask an income customer. We are told you must pay to get a cart! Pay for a cart to shop!!! I go over to the manager to verify this. Sure enough you have to pay a dollar to release the cart, but can get it back when you return the cart. Okay, I have a dollar coin (Australia does not have paper money until you get to a 5). Darned if I can figure how to get the cart, even still. A couple comes in and I ask them. She takes my money and says it is easy, but she cannot make it work either. She says sometimes it doesn’t work and goes to the next row. That on works! We enter the store and start looking for the booze. After a bit, we spot a clerk and ask him. At first he does not understand what I am asking, but then OH, you need to go to a bottle shop to get booze. He then explains in great detail how we exit the store and go over two doors and they will have booze. Our shopping is a bust, but we do get some soda, chips and stuff to fill a corner of our “purchased” cart. Once done, we check out and head toward the car. I see some carts and know when I put this one in with the others my dollars comes back. Unfortunately, these carts are not the same size. Leslie volunteers to take our two bags to the car while I figure it out and we will meet at the bottle shop. I go back to the store manager, who is quite miffed with me already. She tells me to take the cart back to where I got it and I will get my money back. It works. Well I am not thru yet. Off to the bottle shop. It is dark inside and does not look open. I pull, then push the door but cannot get in. While peering into the window, the clerk spots me and motions to slide the door! That worked. Things are the same, only different here. Did I mention this is our 8th trip to Australia? Bought some wine and continued our journey to David and Jenny’s. We are staying three nights with them. As we approached their house (once around the block, as we missed the turn) we were so glad to see David in the driveway waiting for us. I was so glad to park the car and put the keys away for a few days! Driving on the left side of the highway does require a lot of concentration. This was especially true, as Garmin was unreliable, it rained a lot, there was construction everywhere, and those darned roundabouts!
The high cost of real estate, lack of A/C, and the cost of electricity often puts entertaining in the yard. This was the case here. Facilities were well suited to such outside dining and entertaining. We spent a lot of time talking, so I will pass on that. They took us on a lot of site seeing and local color. David was raised not too far from here and his family history, the history of rail and his working in lodging played a part in some of where we went. Also sports clubs are VERY popular in Australia. We drive thru the mountains, admired the various views, visited a park or two and dined out one lunch at an historic place. One day we drove up into the mountains and visited some friends of David and Jenny. They welcomed us into their home, on a fairly large acreage plot in the mountains. We had the views, birds, homes of some mammals, and some breezes. Weather is still hot. They have a couple fans going on the veranda, to help with the heat and to shoo away some of the mossys. While there were only 6 of us, she had prepared a feast for many more. Lots of choices. Great hosts. One night, D&J had another couple (lifelong friends) over to join us for dinner. They were a kick. Another fantastic meal was prepared for us by Jenny! Unfortunately, before desert was done, the rains came, and came and came. David measured over 4 inches in 2+ hours. The time for the other couple to return home had come and gone. Finally a short pause gave them the courage to try an exit. They did make it home, but the rains returned, and they were forced to do many detours because of flooding! Fortunately, we were staying or we would have had to drive down the street and then slept in the car. It sure was nice to have some food, versus Subway and McDonalds for a change. We also went to D & J bowling club for a beer and some relaxation. Hopefully, we will be able to post the pictures and you will be able to get a better idea of our stay, and our visits.
Our departure was a sad event. We are likely not to see them again, unless a trip on neutral ground can be made. We are all getting older and Australia is quite remote for them to travel elsewhere. Hugs and kisses for all. Now it is back to Sydney with stops in-between, and hopefully another visit.
Our next stop is Coffs Harbour. We stop along the way for gas, toi and buy donuts for breakfast/lunch. We next stop at the Café Church for another toi stop and to use their parking lot as a dining area for our donuts. And some diet coke.
We are staying at the Pacific Beach Resort Motel. This is a family place, with great hosts, and adequate, clean, well furnished rooms. They charge 3% for AMEX card. Parking is adequate. It is a 2 story facility, but we are on the ground floor. Refrig, micro, sink and gecko greet us when we enter our room. The wifi is not working, but the daughter of the owner get us access to her computer by wifi. Forget the Resort in the name. It is not there. The drive is 391K or 245 miles. We order a pizza to be delivered from Dominos and add our bottle of wine for dinner. Several choices of food are available nearby. The rain has stopped. Guess 4 inches in 10 hours was enough. Still lots of construction on the highway. As we are commuting, there is not time to really visit town. I am beat after 6 or so hour of this driving.
We try to again get in touch with Bill and Fay. They live in Warabrook, near Newcastle. We have unsuccessfully tried to make arrangement to meet with them and are running short on time. We leave an e-mail message and sort of a phone message. …we bought a phone at SYD, but the store was busy and they did not have staff to show us how to use it. We did not even know our phone number? We are not cell phone people. It will be sad not to see them, as we traveled together and bonded in the past. We did send them our schedule, so they at least knew where we were staying in Newcastle for the night.
The drive to our hotel in Newcastle is 409k, or 254 miles. We are staying at the Gateway Inn, Newcastle. It is on William Street. Well Garmin really kills us today. Lots of William (and Williams) streets are available along our way. The Garmin we have will not allow the zip code. We stop at 3 addresses identical to our hotel, none of which are the correct ones. We are zigzagging around the area, and the clock is ticking on. Finally, shortly before 5 pm, we pull into the back of a building that might be the place. Parking is locked up, so I hug the building with the car and leave Leslie in the car while I go around the front to see if this is the place. Thank you God, we are home! More than that, a couple is waiting for us in the club next door!. We get the code for the parking, take our stuff upstairs and hurry over to the adjoining building. The building serves as the restaurant and bar for the hotel and is leased to the prior owner, BILL’s bowling club! Now that is intervention? We slowly walk down the aisle of this huge open spaced building with several dining spots and a couple bars until there are Bill and Fay waiting for us. They had arrived around three, when we had thought we would comfortable have arrived! Now the hugs and tears abound as we swell up. We spend the next 4-5 hours visiting and having a few beers, and some dinner. WOW, how perfect. Again, the time came to part, knowing that seeing each other was not going to happen. We have to get the car back to the AP early (120K) tomorrow and have no time to spare.
Our hotel, the Gateway is very nice, but we really did not spend any time there except to sleep. Writing ahead got us a very nice room, #4414. View was not much but the windows made the room feel large, which it was. There was no balcony, but it did have a window seat. There were 2 shower heads, a safe, refrig. Etc. At 4 am we decide to extend our car rental. We got thru to Avis at 5:15am. At 9am we try to get late check out, but 10:30am is the best they can do. This gave us time to go over and have breakfast at the club. Check in and out was easy.
We head for the airport to return our car. We stopped at a pull off service station for toi, but hold off on gas until we get close to the airport. The drive becomes a slug. Heavy traffic, windy road, scary. We never do see a service station and end up bring the car back with a bit over half a tank. They charge us $A100 for $A30 worth of gas. When we get our final bill back home other undisclosed charges were added for about $A75 extra and no credit was made for the Garmin. What a rip-off.
We walk to the terminal and ask about where to get the shuttle to our AP hotel. Eventually we find the spot (shuttle bay 12) and have a schedule. We wait 35 minutes for a shuttle that comes every 15? The price is $A6/pp each way payable at the hotel. The service is provided by Super Shuttle. They tow a trailer, so no problem with luggage.
Our hotel is the Holiday Inn Sydney Airport in Mascot. We are paying for this hotel stay. We check in at 3pm. Again, the pretrip letter/and frequent stayer status pays off. We are upgraded to room 1021, a corner room on the top floor. The views are good. The room is not too large. The AC is on and works really well. We have a pocket full on dollar coins, so we scrap our planned walk to Subway (a bit of a walk) and opt for pizza. We are stuck with 2 bottles of wine, and will try to make a dent in them. The room has a safe, shoe socks and robes. No balcony. Good night’s sleep.
In the morning we check out and immediately get on the shuttle (purchased the tickets at check out). That’s service. There are actually two shuttles waiting. One for the international and one for the domestic terminal. Each shuttles hold 18-20 passengers and both are nearly full as they pull out. We pay our bill with cash, to avoid the credit card charge and to use up some of our remaining A$’s. We ride over to Terminal C, where Fiji Airlines is located (at least today). We are really early, so we go into the restaurant for a bit of breakfast and a chance to further lower our remaining A$’s. Here you order at the counter, take a number and the food is brought to you. Water is self-serve and free. Dining is inside and out, your choice. Inside turns into a good choice as the heavy rains return! Flight, food, service, lounge again are all good all the way back to LAX.
At LAX we again have a rental car to drive back to Escondido. The drive is a bit of a trial, as I am tired, and need to get back to by right side of the road mode! We drive home and return the rental car the following morning.
Now as to the pictures. They are on Snapfish. Snapfish members will have no trouble viewing the pictures. Nonmembers will have to join. There are no fees or obligations. Sorry this is the best we can do. For those not familiar with Snapfish, I suggest you copy and paste the instructions below, before continuing.
To open an account with Snapfish click on the link below
http://www.snapfish.ie/snapfishie/welcome
1. Now that you have clicked on the link, you can set up an account with Snapfish. Click the Sign Up option at the top of the page and fill out the information requested for membership. Put a check in the box accepting Terms and Conditions, then Click on Register. You are now a member. Click on the link below Item 2.
2. If you are a member of Snapfish (or after you become one), click on the link below and log in under your e-mail and password..
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3. Click on the Cruise and Australia 2015 Album (473 pictures – Cruise (376) pictures and Australia (97) pictures. View them “By Picture” Item 4 or in “Slideshow” Items 5 – 9.
4. “By Picture”: View the first picture by selecting it. Now click the second picture in the band of pictures above or the arrow at the end of the bank. You are now viewing picture 2. Continue to view the pictures by clicking the arrow. Note an arrow to the left of the bank will take you back to the previous picture. You may need to scroll the picture up to read the captions Also indicated just above this band are the number of photos and which photo you are on. Once you have finished viewing the photos, click Log Off (at the very top of the page) to exit Snapfish. If you wish to view using the Slideshow please follow the instructions 5 through 9 below.
5. “Slideshow” (recommended): Select the Box titled Slideshow on the right side just above the pictures. This will bring up a small screen mode of the slideshow. The slideshow starts immediately so you may want to pause the slideshow. To do this, go the arrows shown on the bottom left of the screen, select the two vertical lines between the arrows to effect the pause. As you most likely have missed the first of the slides you will then need to select the two arrows and a vertical line on the furthest left on the bottom of the page, this will take you back to the start of the slides.
6. Once you have paused the slideshow and then before once more beginning the Slideshow we suggest you set the following options first – at the bottom of the screen on the right hand side are 4 icons, the first one sets the timing of the slides (the preset timing is fast, so just slide the dial down close to the bottom of the timing range), the second is for “full screen mode” (immediately goes to this upon selection, which we suggest you chose), the third is to set the background color (suggest ignore), and the last is to view the captions, which we strongly suggest you select, so just click on that option. Now all the options are set and you should be in “full screen mode”, while in full screen mode all the arrows and options are at the bottom of the screen (these options disappear while viewing the slides, just move your mouse and they reappear). When you want to leave this just hit your escape key at any time or at the end of all the slides – this takes you back to the smaller screen viewing.
7. You are now ready to view the slides. Click on the large center arrow at the bottom of the page to start the Slideshow (it will revert to “pause” double bars). Warning Note – clicking the double arrows to the righ takes you directly to the end of the pictures.
8. While viewing the Slideshow in “full screen mode” the bottom bar will go away and all you need to do is to move your mouse and it will reappear.
9. Once done (or anytime you wish) you can then exit the program as follows – first hit the escape key and that will take you out of “full screen mode” you then will have the initial smaller screen viewing of the slides, select the X in the red box at the right top hand side and that will send you back to the initial snapfish page. You then just need to Log Off the Snapfish Site by selecting that option at the top of the page.
We drove from Escondido to LAX with an Avis rented car (see FlyerTalk posts on analysis). We flew out of LAX to NAN and then on to SYD on Fiji Airways. We flew business, paying money (see posts on how good Fijian was and the fantastic fares we got. Also posts on the airport clubs available to us).
We stayed three nights at the Holiday Inn at Potts Point (used points to pay, good stay for “price”). Well located. Free wifi. Asked in advance, and received, recently upgraded room on high floor. McDonalds and Subway within a block.
We chose to do the hop on and off bus (stop one block away). Our eighth trip to Australia our third stay in Sydney. We have written up Sydney stays before, so these three days are not covered. Our drive up to Brisbane after the cruise is included.
Cruise out of White Bay is not very well handled. Holland American (Oosterdam) had “Chartered” the previous cruise, so we were not able to get on the ship until 2pm, well past lunch (being well traveled with HAL, we usually have a fancy lunch with wine free). People piled up awaiting boarding. Some people took a free shuttle to some tourist areas provided by HAL, as there was not way enough places to sit for the 3-4 hour wait to board.
Our cruise accommodations are on the Neptune Club level, room #7062. We had upgraded our normal purchase of Veranda, to Suite level for our Anniversary. About 2 weeks before sailing we were offered a further upgrade to Neptune for $1300 each. Hours at most to decide, so we went for it. The room is like two rooms of veranda category. Balcony is huge, with lounge chairs and a separate table and chairs. Room has dining table, two sets of closets and two sinks in the bathroom. Also spa tub and separate shower. We get inclusive laundry, some dry cleaning, pressing, preferred boarding, preferred debarkation, preferred access to tender boats, breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill, use of the Neptune Lounge, among other things. We did not find the servicing of the room any improved, from other cruises with HAL, actually a tad slower? It was not because of not trying, the staff to passenger ratio is not great on HAL.
Breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill is a first class service event, normally attended by 20-25 passengers. We enjoyed this prissy service most mornings.
Use of the Neptune Lounge was a huge benefit. The staff took care of any request: booking tours; arranging special events; dinners; issues; billing; and disembarking. They had comfortable seating, continuous food, juice and cold water. Many languages were spoken by the staff. Bulletins and newspapers were available here as well. No need to go to the Pursers office or the main desk, they do it all here. We often came here after tours to get a snack and a cold drink rather than mob into the Lido. Justine Pouw and Anya Merca took care of us all.
The lounge is located between the two hallways, so the only view is into the hall.
The night of the first full day was a formal dinner night.
The second full day of our cruise the Captain lets us know about Cyclone Pam. She is starting to get in our way, so some alterations in the schedule are likely. We send out some laundry from our 2 day flight and 3 days in Sydney. As laundry is included, we really lessened our amount of clothes packed.
Leslie is doing her 9 eye drops a day, tricky on such a trip. The drops are for glaucoma and for a specialized eye
surgery she had instead of a cornea replacement (she is down to 7 drops now). She starts the first drop of the day at 4:30 AM. She is a trooper, and we still do all the events we want.
Our first port is scheduled for Tadine, Mare, New Caledonia. Pam changed that. We did do a make-up stop in Kuto, Ile des Pins, New Caledonia where Leslie and I got off and walked around a bit. Many people went for a swim or snorkeled. A couple souvenir stands were the total services on this tiny island with little population. The water is choppy because of the winds. There is a toi at the pier. Some of the people there did some dancing for us and gave us leaf leis. Interesting trees and shrubs. Back to the ship.
The weather on this trip is hot, humid and often quite uncomfortable…both the cruise and the portion in Australia.
Leslie and I have dined at table #117, a duce each night and will end up doing so for almost all of our dinners. In time the duce next to us is occupied by Russell and Lynn on a regular basis and we find them great company.
They too are cruisers and experiences are shared. The captain continues to keep us up to date with Pam.
Our second port is Tidane, Mare,New Caledonia and we miss Eso, Lifu, New Caledonia, Tidane is smaller than the first and we decide not to take the bus to the snorkel beach, only to get off and walk around. We did a brief walkabout and returned to the ship, before the rain starting pelting us! We put all our plans into Port Vila, Vanuatu for tomorrow.
Port Vila did not happen. It was sad for us to miss it, but even sadder that several people who lost their lives there and many of the other smaller islands because of Pam.
The crew is scrambling to find activities to keep people busy and have a good time, as the ports get cancelled and the ship is rocking. We have sailed in much worse, with a similar issue here in the So. Pac., where we were locked into the ship for several days. For us, Pam was a rookie.
Our next port is Luganville, Vanuatu. We go to the lounge to await our tour being called to go down to the bus. The first tour is cancelled, the second goes. The third tour is cancelled, as a tree fell across the dirt road and cannot be removed for a day or two. We take the Runsuc Village tour. Several mini buses take our group of 40 along the short highway to our turn off up a dirt “road” to the village. The tour was scheduled for 1 ľ hours but for some reason only lasted a bit over an hour. We were shown sand drawing, magic, had a kava ceremony and watched several singing and dancing routines. Many children were involved. We both tried the kava (mucky water) and had some local banana. After the tour we visited the 25-30 stalls on the docks and watched a few entertainers. We dropped a couple $’s into a box at one “for the children of Runsuc”.
The captain has done a good job of protecting us from Pam. Mostly seas in the 3-4 meters. He also pops for a few drinks during the cruise.
Breakfast continues in the Pinnacle each morning, only now we are often eating with Beverly and Bruce. They live in Surfer Paradise. Eventually, they invite us for dinner at their house while we are making our way up to Brisbane after the cruise. We are grateful, but hesitant with a dicey scheduled already. They prove to be excellent table mates for breakfast, most mornings.
We have another formal night. Pam is still kicking up a bit of a fuss. We switch our watches an hour for Fijian time.
Today we take a tour on Lautoka, Fiji. Visiting Fiji, is a major reason for this cruise. Our last venture into the South Pacific could not get us there. Lautoka is quite large. We first take a scenic drive, with narration, to our first stop, a village. Villages are private communities led by a chief. One cannot just drop in, but must get permission. One must be invited in (pay). The ship attends to these things before we go. Several areas along the wall are vendors from the village selling jewelry, clothing and wood carvings. Photos were restricted by area, but not totally banned. We first congregate in the church. Pictures are allowed in here! As we are sitting and in the shade, we hear about the village and village life on the island. Tois are available in the village. The vendors accept Fijian $’s or $A. No change is given. Next we load up the bus and head for the kava ceremony. Bola’s are exchanged (hellos) and we sit inside a large building with folding chairs. The ceremony is fairly short and consuming the kava is optional. In this much cleaner environment we pass, as it just was not good before. Kava is a stimulant, and claims of much more. There is a show of song and dancing to follow. It is very good. Then we are invited to dance with the performers. Many chose to do this, including me. The vending starts after the show. Leslie pops for a necklace. Isa lei is share by all (farewell, til we meet again). We again load up the bus and head for the orchid gardens. The place is packed, large buses, mini buses and cars. Tois are available. Midway down the pathway, the mossies’ show up (mosquitos) and I go back to the entry. There are comfortable chairs and a punch drink (complimentary). Nice to sit with the fans and a cool drink. This is a 30 minute stop, plus a bit to get the bus back and load up. Bob, from Texas, joins me in the comfort of this oasis seating area at the gardens. Next we head to Jack’s, a 2 story shop in Nadi. We are given 30 minutes to shop and return to the bus. We are told NOT to wonder, as time slips by. After shopping, our bus must wait for 3 couples that cannot follow directions and are 15 minutes late. The driver had to hunt around the area to find our “missing”. Ben, our guide was a great guy, patient to a fault. He kept the bus ride fun with details of the island and area. We pass NAN on the way back to the port. Once back to port, vinaka is exchanged (thank you) and a few tips are distributed. This tour was $150/pp, and gave us a good look at Fijian life and the area…given it was only a few hours.
Tonight the captain has a cocktail party for the Neptune level passengers.
Today we try to visit Dravuni Island, Fiji. This is purely a beach day, but….Pam has knocked out the docks, so we have to scrap this port as well. Not enough time to fix the damage, so on we go. Again the crew is pushed into overtime to add to the onboard activities. For those wondering, we were refunded our port fees for these missed stops (a few dollars each). Nothing makes up for the missed experiences.
Leslie and I both picked the roasted chicken for dinner tonight. The sauce was quite spicy. We both were unable to sleep much that night and were sick.
We have a modest breakfast and head for our balcony for some relaxing time and nodding off in the fresh air. I am drenched in sunscreen, but we have mostly shade at this time on the balcony. The seas have calmed a bit, but most of the passengers still look drunk as they try to walk the corridors. Tonight we both have prime rib for dinner and Portobello mushrooms. Good food. Guess we got our appetite back.
Today we dock in Noumea, New Caledonia. We are scheduled for a 4 hour, “City & Country” tour that starts at 9:30am. The early start requires us to eat breakfast in the room. We arrive at the pier at 6:15am and the dancers are ready for us. You can hear the drums thru the sliding glass door. They perform for about 20 minutes and then pack up and leave…before anyone gets off the ship! Our room faced the pier, so we were able to watch from our balcony (luck of the draw). Passengers start off at 8am. This is an operating port, so everyone is required to take a bus from the ship to the gates, before going on their own. The buses run every 10 minutes and do an excellent job. When we go off the ship, we noticed that the tour buses and “trains” were being allowed to come to the ship and load. We were the 5th tour called, 70 people, 2 buses.
The tour starts with a long drive through the country to visit a small church, nunnery and school. We have a German guide who provides commentary along the route. He does an excellent job. Too bad a local could not be employed to do this. No toi at this stop or on the bus. Next we head into the city for coffee, tea and a small pastry (and some very needed bathrooms). No shopping at this stop. Our next stop is an aquarium. While not the Monterey Bay or Long Beach level, this was a good stop and facility for Noumea. There are only 250,000 people in all of the islands of New Caledonia. We have a bit over 45 minutes at the aquarium, then back to the bus and AC (not all of the tours had AC buses, most did not). The temperature is in the high 80’s.
The balance of the cruise is sea days.
Today is the Mariner luncheon. Everyone who is a prior cruiser with HAL is invited. We expect to be invited and go to this event. Strangely, we are invited to a 10:30am cocktail event before the luncheon. Is it because we are in Neptune? Something else? Turns out that when you reach certain levels in the Mariner Club, you get awarded a medal. We made the 3 level, and along with 45 other couples were invited to this event. Some others were also there, too? Anyway, when it was our turn we were called up to received our medals and a picture taken with the Captain. The picture was later sent to our room. After this ceremony we were lead to some special seating for the luncheon. We sat with Bill and his wife at lunch. They too, had received the award. They were part of a reasonably large group of Canadians. The largest contingent of passengers was from Australia.
It is formal night yet again. Compliance with the dress code is good. No one gets thru in shorts. One person was wearing a plaid shirt, and somehow got in. Many without ties or coats. As usual, ladies attire is extremely fancy to marginal tacky. If you know or run into Amy, one of the wine servers, you are in for a treat. She is skillful, well postured, knock im dead pretty with a great memory. We had my favorite meal tonight. Wine, shrimp cocktail, filet of beef and lobster tails. Apple crisp with ice cream for dessert.
Laundry lost one of Leslie’ socks. We gave them the other to help locate the missing one, and they lost that one too. I sent my suit out for dry cleaning and it came back “piled” in many places. $5 offered for sox and zero for suit. 3 ports missed. One tour shorted 40%. Two steaks were so tough, they could not be eaten. Servicing of our room was only okay, and often very late. That takes care of the bad stuff not previously mentioned. The cruise was, for us, good. The stuff, was mostly “noise” that often happens.
It is now the sadness time. Forms are done, and packing is next. Planning our “escape” to get a cab so we can get to our Avis rental car before 11am (when they close). Being in Neptune comes into play again. We are with the first group out, but we do not have to tote our luggage. We ended up passing those with luggage, as they had to await the elevator on the docks to get to the departure lounge and customs. We found our luggage right away when we got to the lounge. We got a cab right away. At this port, rarely used, non-ship transportation is a problem. Motels are non-existent.
The cruise is over and our next program is a drive up to Brisbane to visit and stay a couple nights with some friends we met on an Outback bus tour and later shared a bus tour with in Switzerland.
Our first stop is at Avis to get our car. The Garmin we rented had not been updated in almost 10 years! (all of them!). This turned out to be a material problem, but the Garmin did help in some places. We drive North toward Port Macquarie. It is 376km or 204 miles. We only make one stop. Jacks (Burger King) is where we have lunch and use the toi. We stayed at the Macquarie Waters Boutique Apt Hotel. It takes a dozen roundabouts from the Hwy to get here! Dizzy. Our room is small, free pking, frig, tv, reception closes at 4 pm, so one has to plan. Room 205 is the cheapest and smallest they have. It does have a small balcony. It is two or three blocks into town. It is 4:30 and most stores are closed. There is a Target. We found a Subway for a sandwich, and then bought a bottle of wine across the street at the bottle shop. We took both back to our balcony to dine. Room clean, lighting in toi poor, bed concrete, quiet. The hwy is being expanded, so much of the time we were in construction zones. Speed cameras are everywhere. Traffic moves at posted levels.
In the morning we walked over to town and ate breakfast at McDonalds. It is a store front with 2 tables on the sidewalk. We drove out of the motel lot at 9:15 for a 481K, 260 miles drive ahead of us to Surface Paradise. We make one stop for gas, toi and a burger (McDonalds). Between the Garmin, construction and driving on the left the trip is an adventure. Note Leslie’s pictures will fill in the view in this road trip and the cruise.
We stay at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort/Spa in Surfers Paradise. We stay on points. The place is stone cold perfect. WOW. Sparkling wine at check in. Underground secure parking. As a Marriott rewards member of sorts, we were given a coupon for two drinks in any of their bars. I wrote a letter announcing our 40th anniversary in hopes of getting a room upgrade or wine or ? When we get to the room floor, we find our keys will not work. I go back down and leave Leslie there. They are sorry at the desk and offer us a bottle of wine for our trouble! They also send some one up with me to insure all works. When we get there Leslie was already in the room. An employee, after some conversation let her into the room. WOW, this is really upgraded. Oh, there is a card and a bottle of sparkling wine on the dresser for us (from my letter). We hurry to get it put in the dresser, before our other bottle of wine shows up! Now you know why we like Australia and Australians so much…well this is part of it. The second bottle of wine shows up shortly. We do a bit of unpacking and then head downstairs to get our “free drink” and relax a bit. The huge lobby is spot on beautiful. Large open public side rooms and massive walkway. At the far end is a huge bar/snack room with ponds out the window and massive seating areas. Only one other couple is in the bar. We end up talking a bit to the manager of the bar and then make our way back up to our room. Our room is 2209. It has views from the balcony to the ocean, both pools of the hotel, the spa, the marina and the river. The hotel is not located for easy access to take out places (for the younger out there, that means you have to walk 10-15 minutes or drive). We order a pizza from room service to have with one of our bottles of wine. We dine on our small balcony. The bathroom is so large that it has double doors! There is a rain shower and an adjustable one. The pressure is adequate. The closet also has double doors. In the closet are pool towels and bathrobes, a safe and plenty of hangers. The TV is large screen and hangs on the wall. Check out is easy. Parking is included in our rate (points) . We see none of Surfers Paradise except the 11 k ride from the highway to the hotel. I am so concentrated on my driving that even that drive is a blur. Note many hotels charge for the use of a credit card and this is one of them. They did not do this last time we were here in Australia.
Today we check out of the Marriott and head for our friends house in Durack (Brisbane). The Garmin gives us a bad arrival time, failing to account for the hour time difference. At one point the Garmin says we have over 90K to go and 15 minutes to get there! We stop at one of the many pulls off Service station complexes to get some breakfast and use the toi. McDonald’s supplies breakfast.
As we get closer, we stop at a Woolworth shopping center. We need to get some wine, beer, snacks and whatever to take with us to David and Jenny’s. A funny story. We park and go into the grocery. Try to get a cart, but they are strapped together with some mechanism. After several yanks, we ask an income customer. We are told you must pay to get a cart! Pay for a cart to shop!!! I go over to the manager to verify this. Sure enough you have to pay a dollar to release the cart, but can get it back when you return the cart. Okay, I have a dollar coin (Australia does not have paper money until you get to a 5). Darned if I can figure how to get the cart, even still. A couple comes in and I ask them. She takes my money and says it is easy, but she cannot make it work either. She says sometimes it doesn’t work and goes to the next row. That on works! We enter the store and start looking for the booze. After a bit, we spot a clerk and ask him. At first he does not understand what I am asking, but then OH, you need to go to a bottle shop to get booze. He then explains in great detail how we exit the store and go over two doors and they will have booze. Our shopping is a bust, but we do get some soda, chips and stuff to fill a corner of our “purchased” cart. Once done, we check out and head toward the car. I see some carts and know when I put this one in with the others my dollars comes back. Unfortunately, these carts are not the same size. Leslie volunteers to take our two bags to the car while I figure it out and we will meet at the bottle shop. I go back to the store manager, who is quite miffed with me already. She tells me to take the cart back to where I got it and I will get my money back. It works. Well I am not thru yet. Off to the bottle shop. It is dark inside and does not look open. I pull, then push the door but cannot get in. While peering into the window, the clerk spots me and motions to slide the door! That worked. Things are the same, only different here. Did I mention this is our 8th trip to Australia? Bought some wine and continued our journey to David and Jenny’s. We are staying three nights with them. As we approached their house (once around the block, as we missed the turn) we were so glad to see David in the driveway waiting for us. I was so glad to park the car and put the keys away for a few days! Driving on the left side of the highway does require a lot of concentration. This was especially true, as Garmin was unreliable, it rained a lot, there was construction everywhere, and those darned roundabouts!
The high cost of real estate, lack of A/C, and the cost of electricity often puts entertaining in the yard. This was the case here. Facilities were well suited to such outside dining and entertaining. We spent a lot of time talking, so I will pass on that. They took us on a lot of site seeing and local color. David was raised not too far from here and his family history, the history of rail and his working in lodging played a part in some of where we went. Also sports clubs are VERY popular in Australia. We drive thru the mountains, admired the various views, visited a park or two and dined out one lunch at an historic place. One day we drove up into the mountains and visited some friends of David and Jenny. They welcomed us into their home, on a fairly large acreage plot in the mountains. We had the views, birds, homes of some mammals, and some breezes. Weather is still hot. They have a couple fans going on the veranda, to help with the heat and to shoo away some of the mossys. While there were only 6 of us, she had prepared a feast for many more. Lots of choices. Great hosts. One night, D&J had another couple (lifelong friends) over to join us for dinner. They were a kick. Another fantastic meal was prepared for us by Jenny! Unfortunately, before desert was done, the rains came, and came and came. David measured over 4 inches in 2+ hours. The time for the other couple to return home had come and gone. Finally a short pause gave them the courage to try an exit. They did make it home, but the rains returned, and they were forced to do many detours because of flooding! Fortunately, we were staying or we would have had to drive down the street and then slept in the car. It sure was nice to have some food, versus Subway and McDonalds for a change. We also went to D & J bowling club for a beer and some relaxation. Hopefully, we will be able to post the pictures and you will be able to get a better idea of our stay, and our visits.
Our departure was a sad event. We are likely not to see them again, unless a trip on neutral ground can be made. We are all getting older and Australia is quite remote for them to travel elsewhere. Hugs and kisses for all. Now it is back to Sydney with stops in-between, and hopefully another visit.
Our next stop is Coffs Harbour. We stop along the way for gas, toi and buy donuts for breakfast/lunch. We next stop at the Café Church for another toi stop and to use their parking lot as a dining area for our donuts. And some diet coke.
We are staying at the Pacific Beach Resort Motel. This is a family place, with great hosts, and adequate, clean, well furnished rooms. They charge 3% for AMEX card. Parking is adequate. It is a 2 story facility, but we are on the ground floor. Refrig, micro, sink and gecko greet us when we enter our room. The wifi is not working, but the daughter of the owner get us access to her computer by wifi. Forget the Resort in the name. It is not there. The drive is 391K or 245 miles. We order a pizza to be delivered from Dominos and add our bottle of wine for dinner. Several choices of food are available nearby. The rain has stopped. Guess 4 inches in 10 hours was enough. Still lots of construction on the highway. As we are commuting, there is not time to really visit town. I am beat after 6 or so hour of this driving.
We try to again get in touch with Bill and Fay. They live in Warabrook, near Newcastle. We have unsuccessfully tried to make arrangement to meet with them and are running short on time. We leave an e-mail message and sort of a phone message. …we bought a phone at SYD, but the store was busy and they did not have staff to show us how to use it. We did not even know our phone number? We are not cell phone people. It will be sad not to see them, as we traveled together and bonded in the past. We did send them our schedule, so they at least knew where we were staying in Newcastle for the night.
The drive to our hotel in Newcastle is 409k, or 254 miles. We are staying at the Gateway Inn, Newcastle. It is on William Street. Well Garmin really kills us today. Lots of William (and Williams) streets are available along our way. The Garmin we have will not allow the zip code. We stop at 3 addresses identical to our hotel, none of which are the correct ones. We are zigzagging around the area, and the clock is ticking on. Finally, shortly before 5 pm, we pull into the back of a building that might be the place. Parking is locked up, so I hug the building with the car and leave Leslie in the car while I go around the front to see if this is the place. Thank you God, we are home! More than that, a couple is waiting for us in the club next door!. We get the code for the parking, take our stuff upstairs and hurry over to the adjoining building. The building serves as the restaurant and bar for the hotel and is leased to the prior owner, BILL’s bowling club! Now that is intervention? We slowly walk down the aisle of this huge open spaced building with several dining spots and a couple bars until there are Bill and Fay waiting for us. They had arrived around three, when we had thought we would comfortable have arrived! Now the hugs and tears abound as we swell up. We spend the next 4-5 hours visiting and having a few beers, and some dinner. WOW, how perfect. Again, the time came to part, knowing that seeing each other was not going to happen. We have to get the car back to the AP early (120K) tomorrow and have no time to spare.
Our hotel, the Gateway is very nice, but we really did not spend any time there except to sleep. Writing ahead got us a very nice room, #4414. View was not much but the windows made the room feel large, which it was. There was no balcony, but it did have a window seat. There were 2 shower heads, a safe, refrig. Etc. At 4 am we decide to extend our car rental. We got thru to Avis at 5:15am. At 9am we try to get late check out, but 10:30am is the best they can do. This gave us time to go over and have breakfast at the club. Check in and out was easy.
We head for the airport to return our car. We stopped at a pull off service station for toi, but hold off on gas until we get close to the airport. The drive becomes a slug. Heavy traffic, windy road, scary. We never do see a service station and end up bring the car back with a bit over half a tank. They charge us $A100 for $A30 worth of gas. When we get our final bill back home other undisclosed charges were added for about $A75 extra and no credit was made for the Garmin. What a rip-off.
We walk to the terminal and ask about where to get the shuttle to our AP hotel. Eventually we find the spot (shuttle bay 12) and have a schedule. We wait 35 minutes for a shuttle that comes every 15? The price is $A6/pp each way payable at the hotel. The service is provided by Super Shuttle. They tow a trailer, so no problem with luggage.
Our hotel is the Holiday Inn Sydney Airport in Mascot. We are paying for this hotel stay. We check in at 3pm. Again, the pretrip letter/and frequent stayer status pays off. We are upgraded to room 1021, a corner room on the top floor. The views are good. The room is not too large. The AC is on and works really well. We have a pocket full on dollar coins, so we scrap our planned walk to Subway (a bit of a walk) and opt for pizza. We are stuck with 2 bottles of wine, and will try to make a dent in them. The room has a safe, shoe socks and robes. No balcony. Good night’s sleep.
In the morning we check out and immediately get on the shuttle (purchased the tickets at check out). That’s service. There are actually two shuttles waiting. One for the international and one for the domestic terminal. Each shuttles hold 18-20 passengers and both are nearly full as they pull out. We pay our bill with cash, to avoid the credit card charge and to use up some of our remaining A$’s. We ride over to Terminal C, where Fiji Airlines is located (at least today). We are really early, so we go into the restaurant for a bit of breakfast and a chance to further lower our remaining A$’s. Here you order at the counter, take a number and the food is brought to you. Water is self-serve and free. Dining is inside and out, your choice. Inside turns into a good choice as the heavy rains return! Flight, food, service, lounge again are all good all the way back to LAX.
At LAX we again have a rental car to drive back to Escondido. The drive is a bit of a trial, as I am tired, and need to get back to by right side of the road mode! We drive home and return the rental car the following morning.
Now as to the pictures. They are on Snapfish. Snapfish members will have no trouble viewing the pictures. Nonmembers will have to join. There are no fees or obligations. Sorry this is the best we can do. For those not familiar with Snapfish, I suggest you copy and paste the instructions below, before continuing.
To open an account with Snapfish click on the link below
http://www.snapfish.ie/snapfishie/welcome
1. Now that you have clicked on the link, you can set up an account with Snapfish. Click the Sign Up option at the top of the page and fill out the information requested for membership. Put a check in the box accepting Terms and Conditions, then Click on Register. You are now a member. Click on the link below Item 2.
2. If you are a member of Snapfish (or after you become one), click on the link below and log in under your e-mail and password..
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/th...NAME=snapfish/
3. Click on the Cruise and Australia 2015 Album (473 pictures – Cruise (376) pictures and Australia (97) pictures. View them “By Picture” Item 4 or in “Slideshow” Items 5 – 9.
4. “By Picture”: View the first picture by selecting it. Now click the second picture in the band of pictures above or the arrow at the end of the bank. You are now viewing picture 2. Continue to view the pictures by clicking the arrow. Note an arrow to the left of the bank will take you back to the previous picture. You may need to scroll the picture up to read the captions Also indicated just above this band are the number of photos and which photo you are on. Once you have finished viewing the photos, click Log Off (at the very top of the page) to exit Snapfish. If you wish to view using the Slideshow please follow the instructions 5 through 9 below.
5. “Slideshow” (recommended): Select the Box titled Slideshow on the right side just above the pictures. This will bring up a small screen mode of the slideshow. The slideshow starts immediately so you may want to pause the slideshow. To do this, go the arrows shown on the bottom left of the screen, select the two vertical lines between the arrows to effect the pause. As you most likely have missed the first of the slides you will then need to select the two arrows and a vertical line on the furthest left on the bottom of the page, this will take you back to the start of the slides.
6. Once you have paused the slideshow and then before once more beginning the Slideshow we suggest you set the following options first – at the bottom of the screen on the right hand side are 4 icons, the first one sets the timing of the slides (the preset timing is fast, so just slide the dial down close to the bottom of the timing range), the second is for “full screen mode” (immediately goes to this upon selection, which we suggest you chose), the third is to set the background color (suggest ignore), and the last is to view the captions, which we strongly suggest you select, so just click on that option. Now all the options are set and you should be in “full screen mode”, while in full screen mode all the arrows and options are at the bottom of the screen (these options disappear while viewing the slides, just move your mouse and they reappear). When you want to leave this just hit your escape key at any time or at the end of all the slides – this takes you back to the smaller screen viewing.
7. You are now ready to view the slides. Click on the large center arrow at the bottom of the page to start the Slideshow (it will revert to “pause” double bars). Warning Note – clicking the double arrows to the righ takes you directly to the end of the pictures.
8. While viewing the Slideshow in “full screen mode” the bottom bar will go away and all you need to do is to move your mouse and it will reappear.
9. Once done (or anytime you wish) you can then exit the program as follows – first hit the escape key and that will take you out of “full screen mode” you then will have the initial smaller screen viewing of the slides, select the X in the red box at the right top hand side and that will send you back to the initial snapfish page. You then just need to Log Off the Snapfish Site by selecting that option at the top of the page.
Last edited by ranles; Jul 3, 2015 at 10:51 am
Jul 1, 2015, 5:19 am
#4
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Programs: VA Gold; IHG Diamond Elite; Hertz Presidents Club
Posts: 69
Nice report, always interesting to hear foreigners impressions of Australia, especially Brisbane!
Your experience at Woolies (Woolworths) makes sense to me because I shop there, and I live in Brisbane, but I can see how frustrating it might be for someone not used to it! As an FYI, some supermarkets in NSW and Victoria have bottle shops attached to them, but nowhere in Australia can you actually buy alcohol in a supermarket.
Your experience at Woolies (Woolworths) makes sense to me because I shop there, and I live in Brisbane, but I can see how frustrating it might be for someone not used to it! As an FYI, some supermarkets in NSW and Victoria have bottle shops attached to them, but nowhere in Australia can you actually buy alcohol in a supermarket.
Jul 1, 2015, 3:14 pm
#6
Original Member
Original Poster
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Escondido CA USA
Programs: AS, UA, HY, Hil, Merr
Posts: 3,207
Thank you for your comments, it helps us feel useful in our write-ups.
Has anyone ventured into the pictures?
Formal nights are a throw back to the old days when cruising was an elitist activity. It continues on as many people like getting dressed up for a fancy dinner and evening "out". We dress the part and then go back to the cabin and change. Stay in the room, as we do not want to take away from those who love these nights. Wife tends to like them. I could easily pass. Fortunately there are lots of options for dinner on formal nights, including eating in your stateroom.
Good question on the food and drink. First the food. We do not make food a priority on trips (except cruises). Finding a place that we like the food so much that it justifies the price is very difficult on the road in a "foregin" state or country. We stopped at "truckstops" on the way to and from Brisbane and fueled the car, fueled ourselves and use the toi. We often eat at Subway, as one knows the choices. Breakfast at McDonald's is a fuel stop, granted not a dining experience. We did have some fairly good wine along the way, each night with our "whatever". Just not a priority for us.
We actually spent little time "in" Brisbane on this trip, as we were with our friends. OH, and we did have some great, fancy and local food there. We have traveled, and stayed in Brisbane, twice before. As to being foreigners, we have over 6 months visiting in Australia now. We have done all of the East, South and West and Central. We did over a week in Darwin, but the NW corner is still virgin territory for us. Not likely at our age we will do that area. I did lay out a trip of 38 days to cover what we have not done. For the purists, I do not mean everwhere. We lover Australia and Australians. We feel the same about New Zealanders. The countries are sparsely pop-ulated for the most part, especially on a relative basis. We have taken some bus tours and did self drive. We event took a river boat cruise in Europe on Avalon, as they cater to Australians. I wrote up our experience at Woolworths, as everyone in Australia that we told the story to found it exceedingly funny.
thanks for the condolences on the weather. We have done plenty of world travel and come prepared...both with clothes and attitude. You just do your
best with the "cards your dealt". We are from Escondido, California...near San Diego. SYD does have some busy cruise ports. White Bay is fairly new. Most people, I have been told, were against building it. Among other things, it is a residential area. The people that live there hate the noise, smell and traffic. Cruise passengers hate the isolation, lack of transportation, lodging and dining. The cruise itself, for us, was an attempt to once again get our feet on Fiji. Oddly enough we once again faced a Cyclone (Pam). This time we made it to Fiji. Really strange, in trying to find reasonable air fare in business, we ended up flying thru NAN each way as well! The report speaks to our stops. We not longer do snorkeling and never did do scuba. The small ports were mainly for these water sports and laying in the sun. We already support a skin doctor, so no laying out in the sun for us!
Has anyone ventured into the pictures?
Formal nights are a throw back to the old days when cruising was an elitist activity. It continues on as many people like getting dressed up for a fancy dinner and evening "out". We dress the part and then go back to the cabin and change. Stay in the room, as we do not want to take away from those who love these nights. Wife tends to like them. I could easily pass. Fortunately there are lots of options for dinner on formal nights, including eating in your stateroom.
Good question on the food and drink. First the food. We do not make food a priority on trips (except cruises). Finding a place that we like the food so much that it justifies the price is very difficult on the road in a "foregin" state or country. We stopped at "truckstops" on the way to and from Brisbane and fueled the car, fueled ourselves and use the toi. We often eat at Subway, as one knows the choices. Breakfast at McDonald's is a fuel stop, granted not a dining experience. We did have some fairly good wine along the way, each night with our "whatever". Just not a priority for us.
We actually spent little time "in" Brisbane on this trip, as we were with our friends. OH, and we did have some great, fancy and local food there. We have traveled, and stayed in Brisbane, twice before. As to being foreigners, we have over 6 months visiting in Australia now. We have done all of the East, South and West and Central. We did over a week in Darwin, but the NW corner is still virgin territory for us. Not likely at our age we will do that area. I did lay out a trip of 38 days to cover what we have not done. For the purists, I do not mean everwhere. We lover Australia and Australians. We feel the same about New Zealanders. The countries are sparsely pop-ulated for the most part, especially on a relative basis. We have taken some bus tours and did self drive. We event took a river boat cruise in Europe on Avalon, as they cater to Australians. I wrote up our experience at Woolworths, as everyone in Australia that we told the story to found it exceedingly funny.
thanks for the condolences on the weather. We have done plenty of world travel and come prepared...both with clothes and attitude. You just do your
best with the "cards your dealt". We are from Escondido, California...near San Diego. SYD does have some busy cruise ports. White Bay is fairly new. Most people, I have been told, were against building it. Among other things, it is a residential area. The people that live there hate the noise, smell and traffic. Cruise passengers hate the isolation, lack of transportation, lodging and dining. The cruise itself, for us, was an attempt to once again get our feet on Fiji. Oddly enough we once again faced a Cyclone (Pam). This time we made it to Fiji. Really strange, in trying to find reasonable air fare in business, we ended up flying thru NAN each way as well! The report speaks to our stops. We not longer do snorkeling and never did do scuba. The small ports were mainly for these water sports and laying in the sun. We already support a skin doctor, so no laying out in the sun for us!
Jul 4, 2015, 6:05 am
#7
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: Star Alliance G*, Marriott Bonvoy Titanium,
Posts: 3,584
reflections on TR
As a new be to this thread, I read your TR to see what's interesting about multi-day cruising in the South Pacific. Sorry to say, but my conclusion? Not much!
Like you, I love Brisbane. The airport is hugely convenient, the public transit is excellent, and cycling on the river walk is amazing. Also, we loved Stradebroke Island. Did you visit?
Like you, I love Brisbane. The airport is hugely convenient, the public transit is excellent, and cycling on the river walk is amazing. Also, we loved Stradebroke Island. Did you visit?
Jul 4, 2015, 1:57 pm
#8
Original Member
Original Poster
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Escondido CA USA
Programs: AS, UA, HY, Hil, Merr
Posts: 3,207
Antonia8069
Welcome to the tread.
It had been awhile since we were in Brisbane
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-sep-03-a.html
Our cruise is not reflective of what the cruise might have been to many others that love to snorkel, lay in the sun and veg out. We do not do those
things. We like a more historical, architectural, nature and mingle mode. There was plenty of that on this cruise as well. Being chased by Pam really set this trip on its heels. This is a risk in the area.
Welcome to the tread.
It had been awhile since we were in Brisbane
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-sep-03-a.html
Our cruise is not reflective of what the cruise might have been to many others that love to snorkel, lay in the sun and veg out. We do not do those
things. We like a more historical, architectural, nature and mingle mode. There was plenty of that on this cruise as well. Being chased by Pam really set this trip on its heels. This is a risk in the area.