Today was ship boarding day! Started our day with another
omelette from the hotel breakfast, before spending the rest of the morning
packing up the suitcases. Checked out and jumped in a taxi for what should have
been a quick journey to the cruise terminal, instead the taxi driver decided to
take a stretched out route, not the first time this has happened in Sydney to
Andrew.

Check in for the boat was very straight forward and from
arriving to being handed our first mimosa took only 20 minutes. It was all a
bit surreal again, we walked around just gawping at the whole place for about
half an hour before deciding to get some lunch. Was pretty busy as expected but
found a table, as we sat down someone took the table and it happened….. We had
a talker, when we say that we mean someone who won’t let you enjoy your lunch
for talking AT you. We enjoyed our lunch as much as possible, but really had to
get away from this guy so probably didn’t have as much from the amazing buffet
as we would have had he not been SO annoying (52nd cruise, 60th
time he has been in Sydney, owns 3 properties in Hawaii, you get the idea?!) We
shook him off and haven’t encountered anyone like this again so far!

After lunch we headed to our now available room to check out
our home for the next 12 days and took the chance to actually unpack all our
stuff for the first time on the trip. Had a bit more of a look around the boat
and relaxed in the solarium for a while before nipping off the boat to find
some free wifi and post yesterday’s blog.

We have pre-paid all our drinks which means basically we can
have pretty much anything that you can buy by the glass from any bar. We
started the evening with a couple of Martini’s at the aptly named “Martini
Bar”. Mandy had a Raspberry lemonade one and Andrew a Flirtini which had
Cointreau, champagne and pineapple juice in it. They were lovely. Then it was
dinner time, so we headed to Blu where Andrew had blue cheese soufflé followed
by fillet steak and Mandy had quail followed by Ahi tuna.

After dinner cocktails were taken in Molecular bar where
they make the most amazing cocktails we have ever had. They are created by a
liquid chef! Somewhere between a cocktail, and a dessert.

We finished the evening off with a drive by the
late night buffet for some pizza and garlic bread.