Day 52 - 11/23/22 - Sydney, Australia - Turnaround Day

 Overnight the rough seas continued until around 3am.  It then calmed down.  As the ship approached the Sydney harbor it had to do a 360º turn to accommodate boarding the pilot.  We ate breakfast as we sailed into the harbor and I took some pictures from Deck 9 forward.  We were secured to the dock by around 10am.  And then the waiting started.  It was nearly 45 minutes for the independent travelers to be released to go ashore.  

We had to change rooms on this segment and I worked it out with our stateroom attendant, Komang,  that we could just move our sodas and some miscellaneous items to the new stateroom just 20' away.  Angela ended up leaving her backpack and I wish I had left mine but we were specifically instructed to bring all of our luggage to the Australian Border Force checkpoint.  We had packed and set out our two large duffel bags the night before and I had all of my meds, computers, and cameras in my backpack and decided to follow the rules and bring it to the checkpoint as instructed.  Shortly after 11, our color was called and we easily walked off the ship having scanned our old keycard for the last time.  We zigzagged our way down into the main floor of the terminal and found our luggage and joined the line for the inspection.  

At the inspection point, all they did was examine the border card and if there were any yes answers one had to rejoin a secondary line.  Angela had a wooden Hawaiian Ukulele which she declared, but the border official did not even want to see it.  So we found the luggage drop off point and turned in our luggage except for the ukulele and my very heavy backpack.  Now we had a decision to make.  We could wait for 2 plus hours and after the ship disembarked all passengers, we could  use our in transit pass, re-board the ship and drop off the backpack.  We were told at security that we could then leave the ship, but others told us we had to stay onboard.  So I decided that the time was more important, and I packed the backpack for the rest of the day on shore.  And we headed on out for the day's adventure.

When we were here two weeks ago, we decided that we would visit the aquarium at Darling Harbor.  We walked from the Overseas Passenger Terminal to the nearby ferry terminal and found the ferry and charged up our OPAL cards (used for public transportation).  Since it was noon, we decided to eat something here in Circular Quay as there weren't many good options at Darling Harbor.  At Terminal 5, we found a Burger Q and for $26AUS ($15US) we had the special burger of the day with fries and a Coke Zero.  They were good.  A couple sat next to us and they were from New Zealand and were just joining the cruise.  We enjoyed a good chat and learned that they are just down the hall from us on Deck 4.  It's always good to meet new fellow passengers off the ship.

Also, during this time we followed online and with text messages from our friends, Erik & Marilyn, as they attempted to make their 2pm flight to San Francisco.  Thankfully, they made it.

Refueled, we caught the next ferry to Darling Harbor and it turned out to be a nice harbor cruise with a number of stops.  At Darling Harbor we walked about a 1/4 mile to the Aquarium entrance and purchased a couple of tickets.  We got the senior discount so the tickets were $39AU each instead of $49AU.  That's about $24US.  The aquarium was delightful and I especially enjoyed all of the penguins as well as walking beneath the sharks.  It's a well done aquarium and I'd recommend it as an activity when in Sydney.  It closes at 4pm and we left shortly before then and walked back to the ferry dock, waited a bit and boarded a ferry back to Circular Quay. We had an onboard time of 5:45. It was once again a local ferry and was like taking a harbor tour which we rather enjoyed.  Our seats were in the very front outside so we had unobstructed views.

From the ferry terminal we walked back to the terminal, flashed our in-transit passes and were directed straight to the 3rd floor and there we had to wait in the security scanning line for congestion to clear.  I flunked the first walk through the scanning arch.  I emptied more paper items out of my pockets, and flunked it again.  Then I was called aside and hand scanned with nothing being found.  The scanning person even asked me if I had a pacemaker, artificial hips, knees, or shoulders.  To which I replied negative to all of them.  At the end, having found nothing I was released without so much as an apology.  

We went to the HAL scanning station and when the security officer scanned my card, it wouldn't work.  I told him we had to change rooms and gave him the new room number.  That worked, and both of us were allowed on board on deck 3.  Just inside the door we ran into Albert, the Executive Housekeeper, and I expressed my frustration with having to take all of our luggage off of the ship for no reason at all.  He concurred with me, but indicated that those were the rules HAL were presented. They had even discussed it at their 9am meeting before our arrival.  It just made no sense especially since some in transit passengers didn't have to take their luggage off.  If we didn't have to take luggage off, we would have disembarked as soon as possible to maximize our tourist time in Sydney.  In any event, we made lemonade out of the lemons presented us. 

As we were walking aft on deck 3 a lady called out my name.  She had been reading my blog and recognized me from my pictures.  We chatted a bit and we'll see each other in a few days at the Cruise Critic meet and greet which I am hosting.  We headed up to our new stateroom and our luggage was waiting for us.  I was able to unpack mine in just a few minutes before we went up to the LIDO for some dinner.  The menu tonight once again included the wonderful barbecued pork ribs which I really enjoy.  I limited myself to only two of them and we ate a leisurely dinner by ourselves.  As we were finishing, the horn blast came on indicating our departure.

 So we made our way to Deck 9 forward and watched much of the sail away from there until it got too windy.  I then adjourned to the Crow's nest for a bit before going outside to watch the pilot get transferred from our ship to the pilot boat.  It's impressive to watch it.  It's got to be a very dangerous maneuver to climb down a a rope ladder on the side of a large ship doing 12-15 knots and then step off the rope ladder onto a bobbing little boat that is speeding alongside the huge cruise ship.  In any event, he made it safely. I've watched it many times, and this time I even took a video of it.

We then watched Christopher, our new Cruise and Travel Director, present the canned HAL Origins video story.  We've seen it many times but felt it was time to see it again.  Afterwards we chatted with him as I tried to figure out which ship we're sailed with him on.  He looks like a younger Daniel Craig, the actor who played Bond in a number of James Bond movies.  Returning to the room, Angela unpacked and I wrote today's blog.

Once outside the harbor, the seas were still a bit rough and we have different noises in our new stateroom which is only 20 feet forward of our last stateroom.  The room is also quite warm which we'll have to get fixed.  I bring a wall thermometer for times like these as the thermostats don't always have temperature readouts.  

Tomorrow we are in Eden, New South Wales, which is a short trip from Sydney.  We don't have specific plans, but we'll follow rule number 1:  Just show up.