Thursday, 14th February
At 11.30am we boarded the Aurora for our cruise home to the UK. After a busy and long afternoon unpacking our six!!!! cases, we walked round the ship to familiarise ourselves, then dressed for a 6.30pm dinner, where we met our six dinner companions for the next 42 nights. They are a mixed bag of people, but think we will have fun during the voyage. After dinner we went to a show of aboriginal dance and songs and then went up to the top deck (Lido Deck) to have a last look round Sydney at night, before the ship departs. Despite only being in Sydney for 10 days we felt quite upset to be saying goodbye and as we left the quayside to the tunes of Waltzing Matilda and Rod Stewart singing “Sailing” we both felt quite emotional. It was nice to receive two text messages from Nicola and Alison, who were watching our departure from Sydney on the ship’s web cam. It felt that others were enjoying the experience as much as we were. Finally we went to bed about 1.00am to experience our first night at sea (which thankfully was not too rough)!
Friday, 15th February
The day entailed getting our stomach systems used to the eating regime on board, which involved breakfast (cereals, fruit, full English and coffee), then morning coffee, then lunch (lamb curry and rice, with pappadoms – declined on the dessert), afternoon tea (with sandwich), then evening dinner at 6.30pm, which consisted of five courses, not including the coffee and jellies. Our day isn’t really dominated by food, although it may seem so to you. We spent the rest of the day in between eating familiarising ourselves with the ship, a short sunbathe around the pool and in the evening after dinner we went to two shows one a singer (Michelle Montiouri) and second a comedian, can’t remember his name, both of which were enjoyable.
Saturday, 16th February
This morning at 7.00am the ship berthed at the grain terminal!!!! In Brisbane Port (which is about 30mins from the town centre). We had pre-arranged a coach trip to Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin) and the Sunshine Coast. Unfortunately the weather didn’t live up to its name and for the majority of the day we had extremely heavy showers in between the dull and overcast sky. However, the Australia Zoo was very interesting with close encounters with crocodiles, kangaroos, dingos, and snakes. We returned to the ship at about 5.00pm to prepare ourselves for dinner at 6.30pm (another five courses). This was followed by a show starring a comedian, Kevin Duncan (from Essex) – he was very amusing. We have now left port and turned north towards Whitsunday Island and the weather seems to be getting a little rough. Will report tomorrow.
At 11.30am we boarded the Aurora for our cruise home to the UK. After a busy and long afternoon unpacking our six!!!! cases, we walked round the ship to familiarise ourselves, then dressed for a 6.30pm dinner, where we met our six dinner companions for the next 42 nights. They are a mixed bag of people, but think we will have fun during the voyage. After dinner we went to a show of aboriginal dance and songs and then went up to the top deck (Lido Deck) to have a last look round Sydney at night, before the ship departs. Despite only being in Sydney for 10 days we felt quite upset to be saying goodbye and as we left the quayside to the tunes of Waltzing Matilda and Rod Stewart singing “Sailing” we both felt quite emotional. It was nice to receive two text messages from Nicola and Alison, who were watching our departure from Sydney on the ship’s web cam. It felt that others were enjoying the experience as much as we were. Finally we went to bed about 1.00am to experience our first night at sea (which thankfully was not too rough)!
Friday, 15th February
The day entailed getting our stomach systems used to the eating regime on board, which involved breakfast (cereals, fruit, full English and coffee), then morning coffee, then lunch (lamb curry and rice, with pappadoms – declined on the dessert), afternoon tea (with sandwich), then evening dinner at 6.30pm, which consisted of five courses, not including the coffee and jellies. Our day isn’t really dominated by food, although it may seem so to you. We spent the rest of the day in between eating familiarising ourselves with the ship, a short sunbathe around the pool and in the evening after dinner we went to two shows one a singer (Michelle Montiouri) and second a comedian, can’t remember his name, both of which were enjoyable.
Saturday, 16th February
This morning at 7.00am the ship berthed at the grain terminal!!!! In Brisbane Port (which is about 30mins from the town centre). We had pre-arranged a coach trip to Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin) and the Sunshine Coast. Unfortunately the weather didn’t live up to its name and for the majority of the day we had extremely heavy showers in between the dull and overcast sky. However, the Australia Zoo was very interesting with close encounters with crocodiles, kangaroos, dingos, and snakes. We returned to the ship at about 5.00pm to prepare ourselves for dinner at 6.30pm (another five courses). This was followed by a show starring a comedian, Kevin Duncan (from Essex) – he was very amusing. We have now left port and turned north towards Whitsunday Island and the weather seems to be getting a little rough. Will report tomorrow.
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