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| Our new friends from top, left to right, John and Kat from Australia, Cheryl and Stan and Lois and Tom from the US and the two of us. |
“Sighting on the Ship in Australia”
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| Unusual piece of art on the wall in a lounge corner. |
Last night, again, we had a very good time with our new friends, presented in today’s main photo. We all settled down in a fabulous routine of spending nights together.
When we started sailing, we knew we weren’t necessarily going out with the same people night after night. However, after making friends with these wonderful couples its been so much fun we have no interest in changing the routine.
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| Cake decoration in the Centrum had the crowd howling when the chefs and cruise directors threw icing at one another. |
Laughter, conversation, camaraderie and shared interests kept this group completely committed to spending this time together. We all wonder how close we have become in such a short time, hoping that plans to meet in the future, long after this 33-night cruise ends.
The young couple in the above photo, Kat and John with their adorable six month old son, William are disembarking in Perth on Day 17th, while the rest of our group stays aboard for the remaining second leg, ending on December 3rd.
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| With the huge numbers of passengers watching, it was hard to get close for good photos. |
This cruise, back to back, consists of two cruises that run simultaneously from October 31 to December 3, 2016. Only 500 of us passengers out of a total of about 2500, are actually staying through all the Australia bypass.
There’s an immigration process involved in making the transition from the first to the second leg which was started yesterday when we were assigned a time slot to meet with immigration officials who’d boarded the ship to aid in this process.
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| During the frosting tossing. |
The ship staff works hard to ensure this transition is as smooth and seamless for passengers as possible. Other than spending about 30 minutes in line yesterday morning while our passports were processed, its expected to be relatively painless.
This morning we’ve arrived in Port Hedland, Australia, the largest town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Once we’ve uploaded today’s post, we’ll disembark the ship and take the free shuttle to the town where we’ll walk and take photos we’ll share tomorrow.
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| Fun was had by all during the presentation. |
Have a beautiful day! We’ll be thinking of all of you!
Photo from one year ago today, November 13, 2015:
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| A mooring spot for the locals in Fiji. For more details, please click here. |