Monday, Feb 18th

I apologize for the date mix-up of the past few posts.  I had changed the format to Hawaiian time and forgot to change it again when we got to Sydney :( ...  since time changes will occur frequently on this trip, I'll put the actual date in the post headings from now on and not worry if the time is a bit off :)

We are in love with our aft balcony - which is a special treat in Sydney.  Waking up to a view of the Harbour Bridge in the dark and watching it change as the dawn breaks is breathtaking.  I'm not sure that my many pictures of the same sights do it justice.

We had a lovely dinner last night.  Our table-mates come from NJ, California, and Holland.  We have the fewest cruises among the group with one couple tallying 53 cruises!!  Conversation was lively with lots of opinions about cruise lines and recommendations, suggestions, etc about needed changes...reminded me of Cruise Critic posts!  Food was good but not great.  No real complaints though. I enjoyed getting back to my Celebrity cold soups (tangerine last night, mmmmm) and my first Creme Brulee (big splurge - not a nightly venture).  No show last night; many people had flown in on boarding day and it was an early night for many including us.  Slept well last night despite the strange bed configuration in our Aft FV room.  Still trying to figure out how to make the sleeping arrangement comfortable for 29 days (28 to go!).  Up early and went to the buffet for hot water to make my in-room Starbucks with my travel French Press - drinking Starbucks on the balcony watching the sun rise was a great way to start our last day in Sydney.

We met Pam in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art at 9 AM and walked up to George St to meet Ray in the car.  Then we headed across to bridge and drove to Shelly Beach.  Walked along the path to Manly Beach stopping for coffee along the way, beautiful views, lovely beaches, and wonderful company.  

Pam and Sheila on the way to Manly Beach

Interestingly, we met Pam and Ray in NYC last May while waiting for the elevator at the Residence Inn, Times Square!  They asked us to let them know when we were coming to Sydney  and, generously, offered to show us around the Northern Beaches. 

We stopped to view the Heads through which our ship will pass this evening on the way out of Sydney Harbour. 

Then had lunch (fantastic fish and chips) at a beach-side restaurant in Balmoral.  Then a leisurely drive back to Sydney with much lighter traffic than in the morning.  What a wonderful day! New friends who were local guides :) made our love affair with Sydney even stronger.  We are so grateful to and appreciative of our Aussie Hosts for starting our time in Australia off on such a positive note.  

SAILAWAY

This was a magical experience...sailed out of Sydney Harbor with sunset behind the city, sail boats in the harbor, beautiful weather and lots of Cruise Critics together on the Aft Deck 11.  Cameras snapping, fancy drinks, and laughter.

 

The only thing gone awry was the disappearance of the MANIACS nametags that I had printed.  Somehow they were taken from my chair while I was at the railing snapping away!

Dinner was fun  - another couple joined us tonight making for a table of 10 (Elaine and Gray from Sydney (orig. South Africa).  Food was good, conversation excellent.  We went to the opening show which began with good music from the Celebrity orchestra, a rousing dance number and a terrible magician/comedian.  We left early and slept well...the rocking and vibrations in the aft section were nervana for sleep!

Onboard Mercury

We were able to drag out luggage down the street from hotel to dock at 9:15 AM with ease. Then we bought 4 bottles of wine to take onboard and went back to the hotel to pack them in our carry-ons, check out and head to the ship for an 11 AM boarding. Went without a hitch. We had lunch at the pizza/pasta bar, enjoyed the lovely day on Aft deck 11 overlooking both the bridge and the Opera House - what a fantastic start to our cruise. Karyanne and Bill and Joannie and George came by to introduce themselves and we also met Joanne and Art. Two Arts in one group, how unusual!

After lunch we unpacked and left the ship to wander through the Sunday market in the Rocks. Very nice - bought one small pendant and left the real shopping to others. Back to the ship to sign up for wireless Internet - nice to have a 20% bonus on minutes since we are now Elite in the Captain's Club and to find out that we can carry over any minutes to the next cruise. So...here I am in Michael's Club (no access in our cabin :( ) typing away. From now on (now that I know that the access is good), I will do all of my blogging offline and just upload the post...big savings.

Our cabin steward is Norbert from India. Seems like a nice, talkative guy and he's been very helpful already - 4 wines glasses in our room for guests on our balcony and, we hope, a few more chairs!

Sydney - Feb 16 - Hunter Valley Wineries Tour

NOTE: This really is the 16th...we lost a day somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Hopefully we'll find it and add it back in on the way home :)

Had a wake-up call at 6:15 AM and used our travel alarm clock to be sure that we had time for breakfast before we met our tour guide and 3 other members of our Roll Call (Alexandra and her parents from Germany) at 7:45 AM for our day long tour to the Hunter Valley Wine region.

Our driver, Nigel, has received excellent reviews on the Internet, so we were ready for a great day. First we drove around the Rocks area of Sydney - within walking distance of our hotel - with an historical narrative by Nigel. Then we crossed the Harbour Bridge
and rode for a little more than an hour to a coffee break stop and on to the Hunter Valley (another hour away). We visited several wineries, had a cheese tasting and then a lovely lunch with 7 folks (one couple from London, another from Brisbane and our 3 Roll Call friends) on our van.

Our last stop was a liqueur tasting...with the culiminating brew being Dragon's Breath - a chili Schnapps. Needless to say, we had flames shooting out of our mouths (especially Art who chugged the whole tasting according to directions - I tasted a bit and quit quickly :)). Would be a fun drink to spring on one's unsuspecting friends!

We didn't buy any wine to take on the ship (as we had planned since we didn't like any well enough to pay the prices :)) but we will buy some to bring onboard tomorrow. The scenery was lovely - pictures will be posted soon. On the way back to Sydney we detoured through a neighborhood across the harbor from Sydney where the Prime Minister lives and took some pictures of 'our ship' sitting by the dock waiting for us and of the Opera House.

Here's a link to some pictures from the time we left Honolulu through the Hunter Valley tour

The tour was a big success and a nice way to see the countryside north of Sydney...highly recommend it.

We returned to the hotel at 5:45 P.M. only to find that our room was still not serviced. Needless to say, I had a 'little discussion' with the manager and now have complementary Internet access and a late check-out tomorrow. Not the experience we're used to at Marriott, but at least I can post this :). Off to get ready to meet our Roll Call friends in the lobby bar for our first face to face meeting.

What fun....we had a nice group of about 20 people with name tags (I hesitate to list names for fear of leaving someone out....but I talked with Maureen and Biil, Terry and Doug, Tom, Shirley and John, Jan, LeeAnne, Alexandra and her parents and others) and we found out which screen names matched the faces. Everyone told tales of travel and shared their fun in Sydney - most having arrived several days before we sail. Sharon (TenerifeSharon for those who read Cruise Critic threads) came directly from Mercury to meet us and give us a first hand (very positive) trip report. She and her husband Hugo will spend time in Sydney and Adelaide before heading back to Tenerife and Germany.

We walked to Circular Quay for a bite to eat (McDonald's :)) and then to 'our' ship. The dock is truly about 200 yards from the hotel and a sight to behold...all lit up with music from a dockside restaurant, street (dock?) entertainers including a juggler tossing fire-lit batons in the air and lots of people. The atmosphere reminded us of Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Back to the hotel and to bed with high anticipation of packing up and moving in the morning to our home for 29 days.

Honolulu - Feb 14 - Happy Valentine's Day

Our prepaid shuttle showed up late but we made it to the airport in plenty of time.  Checked in and while on the TSA line met Maureen and Bill from our Roll Call...they recognized me...what fun to put faces with names finally.  Stopped at Starbucks for a quick breakfast and then to the gate.  Once at the gate,  I saw Ruth from our Roll Call sitting in her scooter and chatted with her for awhile.  Boarded on time and left Honolulu on Hawaiian Air flight at 12:05 PM.  We  had barely had time to adjust to the 5 hour time change from home to HNL - now it was time to think about crossing the International Date Line (losing a day, yikes!) and changing time by another 3 hours plus one day. Makes my head hurt doing the calculations, but we've really done well adjusting to the new times.

The 9 1/2 hour flight was uneventful (except for the unusual experience of being served a full meal for lunch, free wine and beer, frequently being offered water and Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge ice cream mid afternoon as well as a sandwich and chips about 1 hour before landing)!  In addition, service was wonderful from all flight attendants.

Arrived in Sydney a bit early - now 7 PM on Feb 15th - passengers to Australia wait on the plane for the quarantine folks to spray the overhead bins for bugs then wait another 5 min. for it to work!  Retrieved all pieces of luggage!  We had a long wait to go through customs, then a stop at an ATM machine and on to the taxi queue - got a taxi van...at a much higher cost than a reg. taxi (didn't know that :)).  About 3/4 of the way to Sydney city center, I heard a loud pop, asked the driver what it might have been..no answer, another mile or so heard the clear noise associated with a flat tire suggesting that the loud pop was a blow out!  So...we sat on the side of the road (fortunately just before entering the tunnel) until another driver stopped (about 15 min), transferred luggage, paid an exorbitant taxi fare to the first driver and finally ended up at the Marriott Sydney Harbor feeling a bit frazzled.

Checked in and, after some discussion, did not get access to the Executive Lounge as we usually do but did end up with a room on the 18th floor with a wonderful view of the Harbor Bridge and a cruise ship (not ours) - looks like a fairy land with all of the lights reflecting on the water.  Off to bed at a 'normal' bed time - hard to say what that is with all of the time changes - so that we can get up early for a 7:45 AM pick-up for our winery tour tomorrow.

Wandering around in Honolulu

Up at the crack of dawn - time change of 5 hours playing with our sleep patterns -so out early to get our Starbucks fix and enjoy dawn in Honolulu. Lovely walk aroun Ala Moana park with beautiful views of Diamond Head, morning surfers, beaches and the homeless sleeping in Paradise in the park. On and off drizzle (liquid sunshine) mixed with sunny skies and rainbows, WOW! Some morning pictures

Confirmed our flight to Sydney and found out that Hawaiian Air will feed us a real meal on the way...so no need to shop for food before we board. Changed our minds about walking to Waikiki for lunch. Instead...lounged by the pool, had lunch at the pool bar and were just lazy! Great for acclimating to the time zone and getting ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Tonight - dinner at the Plaza Club overlooking Aloha Tower and the cruise dock!

Journey's beginning....

And so the day begins with a wake up call at 3:30 AM!! Shuttle driver on time; easy airport procedures because NO people.  I actually think the TSA folks were glad to see us.  Boarded on time; flew as the sun rose.

we arrived at DFW almost on time despite a detour around a storm.  Discovered that, even on a flight as long as the one to Honolulu, there is NO food except sandwiches for purchase. Oh, for the good old days of bad airline food :)  So we picked up a sandwich and a salad to share on the plane.

Our flight was posted on time with a weather forecast for HNL that suited us!

Boarded on time; very long flight (7/12 hours), older plane with poor screen placement for our narrow seats so no movie :(.  We read, napped and talked and arrived early in HNL.  So glad we had booked a shuttle service that met us at the baggage claim area...no luggage to schlep and relatively short ride to the hotel.  Our room at the Ala Moana Hotel is nice with a balcony overlooking the water.  Early dinner and off to bed in the hopes of having more energy in the AM.  So glad that all connections were on time and all luggage arrived intact.  A good beginning to our wonderful trip!

And we're off!

Spending tonight at a hotel near the airport. It will be nice to have them take us sleepy people to the airport at 4 AM instead of having to drive, sleepily, and thenpark a car. Of course, leaving a 3:30 AM wake-up call makes me tired just thinking about it. But since we're all wired for the beginning of this trip, I'll probably not sleep much anyway. After a light take-out meal in the room, we're bunking down early. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ