After a long morning, Jessie came up to Hazelbrook and picked us up. She and Pete are going to the northern beaches for a party so we were so pleased to be offered a lift to Circular Quay. Entering the ship was very easy, the whole process streamlined, although might have been easier due to the walking stick - we were ushered through. Our room is as we would expect, although lacking a few amenities we're accustomed to. There are no dressing gowns (which we planned to use), there are no vanity sets, so no cotton buds or balls, and there are no shampoos and conditioners (which I planned to use). Hmmmm. We did an emergency drill at 4.30 and then we were to dine at 5.30. The dining room is huge, 3 stories high, like the QM2. We were seated at a table for 12. The man next to me seemed nice to begin with but when I mentioned something about teachers he proceeded to tell me how awful they are, and when I told him we had been teachers, he just continued with more awful teacher stories. And we have to sit with him for the next 2 weeks! Dinner itself was okay. I had some very nice seafood dishes, Tom had roast beef which he said was a bit tough. They had dishes on the menu that you could choose (like surf and turf) and pay an extra $40 each for! We were disappointed that we were in the dining room when the sail away happened. By the time we'd finished dinner we were well clear of the heads and out at sea, heading up the coast. After dinner we returned to our cabin to unpack, watching the lights and lighthouses on the coast, passing by.