The last few days were sea days so lots of lazing around, trivia, shows, casino, dancing and of course a couple of cocktails! We spent a bit of time with Gary and Kaylene and Paul and Fiona, funny how you just continually run into the same people. They are a lovely couple and hopefully we'll keep in touch with them. One time we went up to the Plantation Buffet for lunch all the tables were full but we saw one of the big round tables just had one lady sitting on her own so we asked if we could join her. Turned out to be a lady Rodd had spoken to one night while I was dancing and she just raved about what a beautiful couple we are and how lovely it was to watch us dancing. She was very nice but a little spinney we sat there with her for as long as we could with her doing most of the talking!!



On the morning of 26th I thought it would be a good idea to get some washing done, it had been 8 days of washing things out in the cabin sink and wearing all the same clothes afterall!! I left Rodd in the cabin          ( mainly cos I had all his clothes to wash so he wasn’t going anywhere ) and found the laundry with my $1 coins in hand, I was pretty lucky to get a machine straight away so put in my washing and checked the time and went off to do other things… the machine says 30-45 mins so I went back after about 35 mins and only had to wait about 5 mins for it to finish… then there was the problem of finding a dryer. This is where you have to be tough, keep an eye on the dryers and as soon as one is finished stake it out, you can then wait about 10 mins and if the owner of the washing isn’t back you just drag all their stuff out and get yours going. Ooooo this is where it gets interesting, some people refuse to touch others washing so they wait patiently and miss out all the while whinging about how inconsiderate people are!! I got my washing drying and by this time Kaylene was in the laundry so I talked to her a minute and then I said I’d be back.. Watch my dryer please!!! I came back after about 30mins but the dryer was still going so I sat with vodka in hand talking to Kaylene and some other women and watched the laundry rage incidents!! Wow, great mornings entertainment, if they had a bar in there it would have been a perfect morning!! Anytime you get bored on a cruise ( not likely but if you want some entertainment ) make your way to the laundry…. Especially great for those of us that love people watching and analysing.

Sometime on the night of the 27th there was an announcement by Captain Stefano Revaro that due to bad weather and a building storm cell the ship could not travel at the speed required to get us into Sydney at 8am for the estimated 8.30 docking but instead we would dock at 10.30am… no problem there cos it meant we didn’t have to be up and fed before 7 to be able to go up on deck for sailing through the heads and under the Harbour Bridge!! A few days before disembarkation you have to fill in a form for preferred times and then are given a coloured and numbered luggage tag, you then have to attach that and leave bags outside the cabin by 8pm the night before disembarkation.

We got up to the buffet by 7am cos we do like to try to avoid the crowds.. Good idea as all the masses were on their way in as we were leaving! They asked everyone to be out of the cabins by 8.30 at the latest so that the cabin staff could get all the cabins stripped and made up again for the next lot of lucky cruisers.

We left our cabin just before 8.30 and made our way up to the Connextions Bar which was our assigned assembly point for disembarkation. We sat there for about 10 mins and then realised our set time was 11.40am so still a long long wait so we made our way out to the Oasis Deck at the rear (aft ) of the ship and found ourselves a great spot in the shade. We stayed here for around half and hour until the ship was just about to go through the heads, there was virtually no-one there when we got there but more and more people came out which made it hard to get a spot at the rails so then we went up to Deck 14..the kids area and had the entire place to ourselves with the occasional person wandering through. We hovered between the back deck and moving up to the side to see where the ship was headed… what amazing views of the Harbour from up there. Going under the bridge was as awesome as it was on the way out… it really seems like the smokestack is going to collect the bridge but it has a whole 9 metres clearance!!!!

The great white lady aka Pacific Jewel docked back at Wharf 5 Hickson Rd Barangaroo at almost exactly 10.30. I had sent Gretta a text around 7.30am to let her know where and when we’d be and had several texts throughout the next few hours. Andrew and Gretta were at the Port by 10am but they had 2 hours to wait so had a bit of a "tourist" morning in Sydney, breakfast and wander so at least they didn’t have to sit around just waiting for us!!

As we docked and were waiting for clearance to disembark we were watching the frenzy of activity on shore, great big pallets of food and alcohol waiting to restock for the next cruise. The sewerage truck hooking up to empty out the system ready to go again! I read a stat somewhere that 130 tonnes of food were consumed on our cruise!!

Finally it was time to go back down to Connextions to listen for our “Black 2” group to be called, the customs officials were circulating asking if we had anything to declare and stamping customs dec forms to make the process faster. I must say it all flowed very smoothly, our group was called and we walked straight out down the gangway, into the terminal building (past all the lucky early birds waiting to board for their cruise ) and there our luggage was under a big Black sign.. Straight through the customs line and outside to find Gretta and Andrew waiting for us.

I did try to talk them out of coming to pick us up cos they live way out in the Western suburbs, at least an hours drive away. They wouldn’t hear of us taking public transport ( Gretta did the same thing when we came back from NZ a few years ago, picked us up from the international terminal ) and assured us that at this time of year the traffic is minimal so an easy drive for them. All I can say is a big Thankyou to both Gretta and Andrew, truly wonderful and lovely people, we really appreciated having them come to pick us up. It didn’t end there though, we drove out to their place and chatted for a bit then Gretta just handed us her car keys so we could go and see Rodds mum. Rodd doesn’t get to see her very often these days so was lovely to be able to go and spend a bit of time chatting with her, Rodds brother Daran was also there so nice for Rodd to catch up with him too. We had a bit of fun trying to get out of their suburb… got a bit lost but eventually worked it out! Rodd did a very unmanly thing and stopped to ask for directions!!! It was funny cos Andrew had said if we couldn’t find our way back to just type “home” into GPS… well would help if we could find the GPS!!! Anyway we got there and back and then we took Gretta, Andrew and Sean out for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse at Penrith. It was a lovely meal with great company and we were home at a reasonable hour… Rodd and I were pretty exhausted so were in bed by about 9ish!!