Day 36 - 11/07/22 - Sydney, Australia

 A day time arrival in Sydney, Australia is an absolute treasure.  Since leaving the aborted stop at Moreton Island we've traveled at 21+ knots in order to arrive in Sydney mid day.  It was so worth it.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.


We started our morning with Rachel's coffee chat with our Executive Housekeeper.  It was immediately followed by Dr. Jack Hardy's presentation on Amelia Earhart, Mystery Solved? (No it hasn't been solved).  Our last event of the morning was a meet the artist session with Nate & Grace, the Billboard Onboard musicians.  It was good but many of us felt the pressure to get outside and up front to view the entrance to the Sydney Harbor.  At just before 11am I saw the pilot boat approach so I knew we were close.


After the meet the artist session, we went up to Deck 9 forward and it was pretty crowded.  But it was a nice day and we enjoyed a beautiful sail in.  The sail in into the Sydney Harbor is one of the most spectacular in the world.  There's two iconic items that come into view:  the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge.  And they didn't disappoint.  Fortunately for us, today we were able to dock at the Overseas Passenger Cruise Terminal in Circular Quay which is in the heart of downtown.  Overnight tonight, we'll have to move to White Bay for most of the disembarking passengers who leave the ship tomorrow.  By for today, it makes it really convenient to enjoy downtown Sydney.




We were among the first off of the ship and made our way to the nearby passenger ferry terminal.  While waiting I purchased tickets to the Toranga Zoo (there's a slight discount for purchasing the tickets online).  I, however, forgot my OPAL card onboard, so I had to buy two one way tickets to ride the ferry to the zoo.  It's only about a 12 minute ferry ride.


Once we arrived at the zoo dock, we boarded a bus and were taken up the hill to the main entrance.  We obtained some maps, passed through the entrance and enjoyed about 3 hours in the zoo.  It's a smaller zoo and many animals were not on display due to construction or in one case the lions had escaped a bit earlier and were being re-socialized after being captured.  But we enjoyed ourselves and had a little snack to tide us over.  The zoo closes at 5pm during this part of the season and we left the zoo just before 5 and caught a 5:12 ferry back to Circular Quay.  While walking to the ferry terminal, we caught sight of the P&O ship Pacific Explorer departing on a cruise.  From the Circular Quay terminal we strolled out to the Opera House and back and found some dinner at a Subway as we wanted to experience how Australian Subway meals taste.  We both had wraps.and they were good.  We enjoyed them sitting on a bench overlooking the harbor.  As we finished, a local chap engaged us in conversation and we enjoyed about a 20 minute chat with him.





We took some more photographs of the ship as we walked back to it.  We easily reboarded it and dropped our day packs back at the room.  I stayed in the room editing my pictures and posting them in my normal Facebook and Cruise Critic locations while Angela enjoyed the views from the Crow's Nest.  We met for the 9pm show which featured Patrick Roberts, a world class violinist.  His show was spectacular.  He's coming back to Sydney in a couple of weeks to play with Air Supply and then later this year or early next year will be touring with Sting.  That's his caliber of play.


His tribute to Leonard Cohen and his song Hallelujah 

After the performance we ate a little late LIDO meal at the 10pm feeding and chatted with another passenger we've recently come to know before stepping out on the AFT deck to photograph the night harbor scenery.  It was spectacular as well.




Sometime around 4:30am in the morning our ship will be moved from its current mooring to the Cruise Terminal at White Bay where the bulk of the disembarking passengers will leave the ship.  A few left today, but they were the exception.  For us, we are considered "In Transit" passengers and we have a special card that will allow us to leave the ship without going through the Border Control process tomorrow morning.  We have a pre-booked private tour for tomorrow morning starting at 9am.  


Everyone must leave the ship tomorrow by 9:30am so they can achieve a "zero" count. Around 11:30am, passengers are allowed back on the ship. BUT, if one comes back on the ship, one can't leave the ship the rest of the day as we will be processed out of Australia when we reboard the ship.  Our onboard time tomorrow is 6pm, so we will not be in a rush to return to the ship.   It should be a fun day.

 

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