February 27, 2016 – Komodo Island, Indonesia

For those of you who weren’t sure if there really is an island in the world with living dragons, Jim can now tell you that he’s seen Komodo Dragons with his own eyes. Ginny decided to skip this trip off the ship to Komodo Island today, because she thought she’d have trouble outrunning one of the dragons in a footrace.

The deadly Komodo Dragon is actually the world’s largest living lizard, and it can grow to lengths of up to 11 feet and weights of up to 300 pounds. Komodo Dragons are exclusively carnivorous and will eat just about anything – deer, goats, wild pigs, water buffalo, dogs, and humans. They have large sharp claws and serrated teeth to attack animals. We were told they are also cannibals – they will eat weaker Komodo Dragons, including their own young. They can run (in sprints) up to 12 miles per hour, swim well, and can climb trees. These dragons don’t exist anywhere else in the world but are protected on this island, which is both an Indonesian National Park, and a World Heritage Site.

Having learned all this about the local dragons, Jim still signed up for the shore excursion to visit the island. For safety reasons, going ashore on Komodo Island is under strict supervision of local park rangers. No independent visits are allowed without being pre-booked on a tour.

When Serenity arrived at Komodo Island for anchoring this morning, we were surprised to see another cruise ship (Holland America’s MS Rotterdam) already anchored here. The Serenity pulled up close by, so there were two sets of tender boats transporting passengers ashore from both ships all day. It was an easy tender ride to the island, although we were an hour late leaving the ship, as the local government authorities were apparently overwhelmed with two such large ships arriving at the same time. That’s understandable.

Once reaching shore, our Crystal visitors were divided into smaller walking groups (about 25 people per group). First, the rules were explained to us – stay on the marked trail, stay with our group, listen to instructions from our guide, and don’t approach any animals on our own. Visitors are not allowed to walk freely and cannot leave the walk once it begins. We had an Indonesian guide and a park ranger (Makasao) with our group. Makasao had a long forked stick that he carried with him to help protect us from any dragons that might approach.

We had been warned in advance that there would be a lot of walking in a hot & humid setting. We set off on an uneven trail of loose, dry rocks through the jungle, and everyone was in an adventurous spirit. After about 20 minutes, we approached a clearing where we saw some fellow visitors surrounding a dry watering hole, snapping photos. There were six Komodo Dragons lying there waiting for some unsuspecting animal (or human visitor) to come to the watering hole for a drink. We circled the clearing about 10 feet or so from the giant lizards, while park staff members with pointy sticks kept an eye on the dragons (and on us).

Suddenly our guide shouted to us to back up quickly! A dragon had approached us from the rear walking out of the jungle behind us. Once we got out of its way, he ambled slowly in to join the rest of the group and didn’t threaten any of us, although he was slithering his reptilian, forked tongue at us as he walked by.

After leaving this group of dragons, we continued on the trail. The only animals we observed past that point were two deer and a wild pig that darted past us. These animals, of course, had to be wary, as they are favorite meals for the dragons.

Here are some facts we learned about Komodo Dragons from our local hosts: The number of Komodo Dragons on the island is about 2,800. There are close to that many on two adjacent, uninhabited islands that are also part of the Komodo National Park, meaning there are at least 5,000 of them here. If the dragons survive childhood, they can live for 35 - 50 years in the wild. The infants must escape from their parents and hide (mostly in trees) for about 2 – 3 years or they will be eaten by their parents or other dragons. If an animal is attacked by a Komodo Dragon, it may not be killed instantly. Often, the dragon will not eat the animal immediately. Saliva on the Dragon’s teeth is very toxic and, usually within 24 hours, the bitten animal dies of blood poisoning. Komodos eat bones, hooves, and even the hide, leaving not that much behind after eating. They are capable of eating 80% of their body weight in one feeding.

There are no roads, cars, or shops on Komodo Island. A group of Indonesian people are apparently allowed to set up souvenir shops under tents near the tender landing site, so that area was very crowded with passengers from both Crystal Serenity and MS Rotterdam. Jim bought a small wooden model of the Komodo Dragon and a t-shirt.

This stop on our itinerary was certainly a big change from our previous four stops in Australia. Even though the islands in the Komodo National Park are mostly uninhabited and quite mountainous, they are a very striking tropical green in color. The first visitors to the islands must have found them inviting until they stepped on shore and encountered the Komodo Dragons!

Thankfully, Jim returned to the ship healthy after his successful visit to see the Komodo Dragons. As far as we know, the same number of Crystal Serenity passengers returned to the ship that went ashore this morning. We did see one Holland America passenger receiving first aid on shore, but we think that heat exhaustion was her problem. Captain Vorland and Crystal Serenity left Komodo on time at 5:00 pm, and we’re on our way to Bali.

Activities continue unabated on board Serenity. We had dinner Friday evening (Feb 26) at the Prego gourmet Italian specialty restaurant (our second time on the World Cruise). It was great, of course. That same evening we attended the “My Life: The Music of Billy Joel” production show in the Galaxy Lounge for the second time. You may remember that this show was staged about a month ago, on our third sea day out of San Francisco heading for Hawaii. That time the ship was rolling and bucking in heavy seas, but this time all was very smooth. We really enjoy this great, high-energy show, including the dancers who put everything they have into it. The lead vocalist and piano player, James Fox, starred on Broadway doing these same songs.

On Thursday night (Feb 25), we attended “An evening of stories, song, and tap dancing with Arthur Duncan” in the Stardust Café. Mr. Duncan is now 83 years old and is still very active. You may remember him best for his appearances on “The Lawrence Welk Show” from 1964 to 1982, which made him the first African-American regular on an American variety television program. Our Cruise Director, Rick Spath, told us that he had invited Mr. Duncan onto the Serenity for a small appearance on the special event jazz show that the Entertainment Team staged about a week ago. However, Mr. Duncan told Rick that he really wanted to do a complete show for us, and Rick was happy to set it up. We were a little unsure of this but, surprisingly, we actually enjoyed the show – nice songs (old favorites) and impressively good tap dancing.

Jim & Ginny

February 25, 2016 – Darwin, Australia

We arrived early in Darwin this morning, because of our early departure from Thursday Island, as described in our previous post. Darwin is the final stop on our 10-day tour in Australian waters. As you can see from the map below, since leaving Sydney, we cruised north along the east coast of the continent (stopping at Brisbane and Hamilton Island), finally reaching the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsula at Thursday Island. After skipping that stormy port this past Tuesday, due to rough seas, we cruised westbound reaching Darwin – the northernmost city in Australia – this morning. 

We’re at 12.4º South latitude and, as expected, it was hot and humid today. We understand that the temperature and humidity were both in the 90s. It started out rainy in the morning, but then the rain stopped long enough for our time off the ship, although it was cloudy most of the day.

One oddity for Darwin is that we had to turn our clocks back 30 minutes to match local time, then we’ll turn it back 30 minutes again overnight tonight, to get back to universal time for this zone of the world.

We walked off the ship at about 9:30 in the morning and caught a shuttle bus right outside the cruise terminal. This took us to the Visitor’s Center in town. As planned, we then purchased tickets on the Hop-On-Hop-Off Darwin Explorer bus for a sightseeing tour of the city. We always find these buses to be a good way to quickly see the highlights of a city. There’s a running dialog on the bus about the sights where you’re riding. You can get off the bus at any one of the predetermined stops (10 locations in this case), do some walking around, and then get on another bus when it comes along. Cost was $30 per 24 hours per person.

Darwin is not a large city like Sydney (nearly 5 million people) or Brisbane (2.3 million people). Total population of Darwin is 125,000. It is capital of the Northern Territory, which at 548,000 square miles would make it the third largest Australian state. But, we were told that it has territory status, and is not a state. The Northern Territory is sparsely populated (243,700) and incorporates a large part of the vast desert wastelands of the Outback. In fact, Darwin claims that “The Outback starts here.”

In addition to its relative isolation (located on the Timor Sea about 2,000 miles NW of Sydney and 1,600 miles north of Adelaide), Darwin has had a tough history with two very painful events wiping out the city in the past 75 years. First was in World War II when Darwin suffered 64 air raids at the hands of the Japanese within 18 months. Worst was on February 19, 1942 (Australia’s Pearl Harbor Day) when a strike force of 188 Japanese aircraft from four aircraft carriers – the same strike force and aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, ten weeks before – bombed Darwin. We read that they dropped twice as many bombs on Darwin as on Pearl Harbor. The attack sank or disabled 21 ships, destroyed much of the city’s waterfront facilities, and wrecked much of the town. A second force of 54 bombers attacked two hours later. On that one day, 292 people were killed, and hundreds more were wounded, according to local figures we saw today.

Then there was Tropical Cyclone Tracy on December 24-25, 1974 which destroyed 70% of all buildings in the city and killed 71 people – the greatest natural disaster in Australia’s history. Almost the entire population of the city (35,000 people) were evacuated after the storm, in one of the world’s largest airlifts. The people returned and rebuilt, although most now seem to be living in steel-reinforced mid-rise apartment and condo buildings, at least from what we saw today on the bus.

On our bus ride, we got off at two places. First was the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. This is a very nice facility which features exhibits on aboriginal art and culture as well as an excellent retelling of the story of Cyclone Tracy’s impact on the city. We were impressed with Sweetheart – a 17-foot long crocodile (claimed weight of 1,700 pounds) that was caught and placed in the museum some years ago. It had been attacking fishing boats and was deemed a hazard.

We also had lunch at the Cornucopia Café in the museum. 

Then we stopped at the “Defense of Darwin Experience and Military Museum.” There we learned a lot about Australia’s Pearl Harbor Day, as well as the heroic contributions of Australia’s military forces in World War II and Vietnam.

Here’s a few more things we learned about Darwin: It’s a multi-cultural city, with much more of an Asian influence than is seen in the remainder of Australia. Today nearly half the Northern Territory’s land is back in aboriginal peoples’ hands. Swimming in the ocean is not recommended here for two reasons – Box Jellyfish and Salt Water Crocodiles. Qantas Airlines began service as the Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service. There is a Royal Flying Doctor Service within the Outback, due to the lack of physicians in this very large geographic area; they currently have 60 aircraft.

All in all, we had a very nice quick visit to Darwin. It is an attractive, modern small city, but we're not sure we'd want to live in this remote outpost. The people we met here did seem to be happy and friendly. Maybe it's because (as we were told) Darwin has the highest per-capita beer consumption in the world.

Updates on shipboard activities:

Tuesday evening, we attended a show in the Galaxy Lounge by musician and humorist Jimmy Travis. We’ve seen him before, but he’s still great. There were many, many belly laughs over his 45-minute show.

During Sea day on Wednesday, we attended two enrichment lectures: Adrian Vickers (Where Australia Meets Asia) and Terence Smith (The U.S. Presidential Race). That evening, before dinner we attended a magic show with a small (20-person) group. The master magician was fantastic. After dinner, we went to the Hollywood Theater and saw the latest James Bond movie, “Spectre,” instead of attending the Hector Olivera concert (the world-renowned organist that we heard earlier in the cruise – before Sydney). Because of the movie, we also missed the cabaret show featuring jazz clarinetist Kenny Martyn in the Stardust Club at 10:30 pm. We just can’t do everything, but it’s great to have choices.

It’s been necessary for the Captain to make two changes to our upcoming itinerary. Our arrival in Bali on Sunday, February 28 will be at 2:00 pm, instead of 9:00 am, due to unfavorable tidal conditions. As a result, we’ve changed the date for one of our excursions in Bali to a different date – not a big deal. More interestingly, Crystal Serenity will now depart Shanghai one day early – on March 31st at 8:00 pm, instead of April 1st at 4:00 pm. Chinese authorities are apparently going to enforce a rule that vessels cannot call on two consecutive ports, so we must now go to a Korean port between Shanghai and Beijing (Tianjin) on April 1st. It was explained to us that this was due to recent “explosions” that took place in Tianjin.

We were happy to hear from our former dinner table mates, Norman & Sherry. They reported that their trip home to California from Sydney was uneventful. We’re sorry they left, but that was their plan all along. So far they haven’t been replaced at our table – there are now six of us (three couples).

After our 10 days in Australian waters, we’re now on our way to six days in Indonesian waters, with our first stop at Komodo Island on Saturday, Feb 27.

Jim & Ginny

February 23, 2016 – Thursday Island, Australia

We had a very scenic cruise through some of the Whitsunday Islands Sunday afternoon upon leaving Hamilton Island. The Australian Reef Pilot was alongside the crew on the navigation bridge as we dodged around some of the shallower portions of the Great Barrier Reef in this area. We were surprised at the amount of evergreen trees on the islands at this latitude.

Monday was a very relaxing (lazy) sea day for us, as the ship cruised almost due north along the Queensland coast of northeast Australia – the Cape York Peninsula to be exact. The sky was clear, winds were nearly calm (2 - 3 kts for most of the day), seas were placid, and temperatures were warm (low 91’sº).

At his noon update, Captain Vorland told us that we were within 10 nautical miles of the site where Captain Cook famously discovered the Great Barrier Reef in 1770 by running aground on it.

Seas continued extraordinarily calm overnight. Here’s a photo taken from our balcony:

Sometime during the night we turned left (westbound) and headed through the Torres Strait, which is a fairly narrow sea lane separating Australia and New Guinea. It is approximately 93 mi wide at its narrowest point. To the south is the Cape York Peninsula (the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland), and to the north is the Western Province of Papua, New Guinea. We understand it is a hazardous passage through the strait, as it is very shallow in places, and there are at least 274 reefs and islands to watch out for through here. Additionally, strong tidal currents occur in the channels between islands. Yet more reasons for the Australian Reef Pilot to be on board.

We were scheduled for a five hour stop this afternoon at Thursday Island, within the Torres Strait, 24 miles north of the tip of the Cape York Peninsula. This is a small island, with an area of about 1.4 sq mi. However, it is the administrative center of the Torres Islands. We were told that the population of Thursday Island was 2,610 at the 2011 census. Noteworthy is that during World War II, Thursday Island was a base for Australian and United States military forces due to the concern about Japanese forces invading Australia across the strait from New Guinea.

Several days ago we were warned of possible problems going ashore on Thursday Island, and of the planning that was underway. This is the rainy season in this part of the world, and strong currents were also expected. There are no docking facilities on the island for a ship of our size, so we would need to anchor offshore and go in using smaller boats. Captain Vorland and the local authorities communicated and decided to use catamarans from the island rather than the ship’s tenders for the 20-minute ride to shore.

We arrived off Thursday Island at about 11:30 this morning, and things looked ominous – cloudy, windy, and choppy water. Then the rain started. The catamarans arrived and attempted to pull up alongside the ship, but a stable platform could not be established. We were watching this from a vantage point on our balcony and didn’t like the looks of it. After a while the Captain came on the ship’s loudspeakers and announced that he was cancelling the visit to Thursday Island, for safety reasons. We definitely agree with that decision.

Here’s what Thursday Island looked like during a time when we could take a picture. 

                           

Life continues on board Serenity. We’ve taken two more beginners’ piano lessons, moving up from “Twinkle. Twinkle Little Star” to “Love Me Tender” today. We’re using Yamaha EZ220 keyboards, and it’s actually a lot of fun.

We attended an interesting enrichment lecture given by Sir Roger Carrick, a former British diplomat who retired from Foreign Service after serving from 1994-97 as High Commissioner to Australia. He covered the history and evolution of ties between Britain and Australia from five different perspectives. This was an excellent summary given by someone who really knows the topic well.

Catching up on more activities -- Sunday evening, we enjoyed a piano concert given in the Galaxy Lounge by Bernard Walz, one of Australia’s premier “pops” pianists; he was nothing short of superb. We’ve dined at Silk Road and at Tastes this past week and will go to Prego next Friday. We had decided to go to each of the three specialty restaurants once each segment of the World Cruise. This is a short segment (12 days), compared to the first segment which was 22 days long. We skipped the “Curtain Call” stage show last night. Although the Serenity singers and dancers do a great job on this, we’ve already seen it three times before and decided to read and relax instead.

We’re now heading for Darwin, Australia, with scheduled arrival on Thurs morning (Feb 25).

Jim & Ginny

February 21, 2016 – Hamilton Island, Australia

When we left Brisbane Friday night, a special pilot came on board the ship to help with navigating and crossing through the Great Barrier Reef. It’s now Sunday, and we are anchored off the coast of Hamilton Island inside the reef. Hamilton Island is one of 74 tropical islands that make up the Whitsunday chain between the Queensland Coast and the Great Barrier Reef. Hamilton is the largest inhabited island of the 74 and is the only one connected to the outside world by domestic airline flights. If you’re looking for us on a map, we’re located at 20°21′S 148°57′E (approximately 550 mi north of Brisbane and 320 mi south of Cairns). Interestingly, this is close to the same latitude in the Southern Hemisphere as Honolulu is in the northern hemisphere.

The ship anchored before sunrise this morning, so that about 300 passengers could catch excursions to the Great Barrier Reef. Some went by catamaran, some by helicopter, and others by seaplane; but they all departed between 6:00 and 7:00 this morning. It was a beautiful morning, so we hope they all had a good time. We chose instead to go by tender boat onto Hamilton Island and look around.

The island is actually owned by the government and is a national park. A family-owned corporation holds a long term lease to run a resort complex on about ⅓ of the island. The remainder of the island remains in its natural state. This single Australian family owns and operates the majority of accommodations and businesses on the island. There is a large marina where our ship’s tender delivered us. We were very impressed with the number of very large yachts docked both here and at the yacht club.

Motor vehicles are prohibited on the island with the exception of those for tradespeople and public transport (small buses). There’s a fleet of golf carts available for tourists to rent and are apparently included as part of some accommodation packages. Accommodations range from hotels to single family homes. There are some “permanent” residences for employees of the various businesses on the island.

We spent a few hours exploring the resort complex. At first we walked along Front Street, admiring the yachts and visiting some of the businesses – bars, restaurants, a grocery store, clothing store, a few art galleries, ice cream parlor, and plenty of water activities being offered. A free public shuttle bus serves major points of interest and accommodation sites. We hopped on the Yellow Line bus which was running today primarily for day visitors from our ship. This was about a 20-minute island tour, with stops at One Tree Hill (scenic overlook) and at Cat’s Eye Beach (the main hotel complex). Along the way, we listened to some commentary from the driver (who must be paid by the marketing department) and saw some of the nice holiday homes, which could be leased short term or purchased.

This is a true remote-island resort where you can “get away from it all,” and the owners have poured a lot of money into making it an upper end facility. The natural blue/green color of the water inside the reef is especially beautiful. We’re happy we were able to visit here, but can’t imagine returning – it’s a long way from home.

The ship departs Hamilton Island this afternoon at 3:00 pm; Captain Vorland and the Australian pilot will pick the best way out through the Great Barrier Reef again on the way to Thursday Island.

On board Crystal Serenity, the entertainment department staged another great World Cruise Special Event last evening in the Galaxy Lounge, a 45-minute show titled, “Jazz – A Crazy Rhythm.” There were 25 extraordinarily talented performers – primarily the Galaxy Orchestra, the Crystal Ensemble of Singers & Dancers, Curtis & Beverly (dancers), Jonathan Hawkins & Sara Hayes (soloists), and four featured performers – Arthur Duncan, Kenny Martyn, Jimmy Travis, and Bernard Walz. They played, sang, and danced to nearly every possible form of Jazz and wowed all of us. We can’t imagine how they put this show together in the short time they’ve to organize it since we left Sydney. Everything was outstanding.

Another group of enrichment lecturers are on board since Sydney, and we’ve attended a few of the lectures. One person we enjoy is Ken Rees – the destination lecturer, a veteran traveler as a foreign correspondent in television journalism in the UK. We love his sense of humor.

We’ve also both signed up for piano lessons which started yesterday and will continue for 45 minutes every sea day for the remainder of the World Cruise. These lessons are on Yamaha keyboard synthesizers. There are about 10 people in the class and the lessons are intended for complete beginners, which definitely describes us.

Jim & Ginny

 

February 19, 2016 – Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane surprised us with its size and exploding modern growth. We had no idea the city was so large. With a population of 2.3 million people, Brisbane is Australia’s third largest city (after Sydney and Melbourne). It has a unique location 20 miles from the ocean, straddling both sides of the Brisbane River which flows in a meandering W-shaped pattern through the city.

It took us two days to reach Brisbane, which is 600 miles north of Sydney. When the ship entered the river this morning, Jim was outdoors doing his 3-mile walk around the promenade deck of the ship at 6:00 am. We cruised up the river for another two hours, docking at 8:00 am at the Portside Wharf and Cruise Terminal – a very nice location adjacent to modern apartment buildings, as well as convenient shops and stores. Once again, our travel agent and Signature Travel Network had arranged a private car and guide for a half-day guided sightseeing tour for us. The tour was to begin at 10:00, so we left the ship at about 9:45. Our guide, Tamara, and driver, Chris, were already there waiting for us in the terminal.

A quick history: As you may recall, Australia was first colonized by the British in Sydney with convicts shipped from England starting back in 1788. By 1823, a surveyor named John Oxley was sent by the Governor of New South Wales to locate a suitable site for a penal colony to house the worst of the criminals who were causing problems in Sydney. He discovered the freshwater Brisbane River, and a town with prison was established. After finishing their sentences, many of the convicts remained and settled in the area. By 1842 Brisbane was opened to other (non-criminal) settlers, and the area has been growing ever since. Today Brisbane is the capital of Queensland, one of the six states in Australia. 

We started the tour by visiting Newstead House, the city’s oldest surviving house (dating back to 1846). During World War II, the U.S. Army occupied the house and used it as a communications hub. 

We also drove past the location downtown where General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief, South West Pacific, directed forces assigned to him from July 1942 through August 1944. According to Australian sources, “Brisbane was home to fewer than 350,000 people in 1941. Over the next three years, many times that number of troops passed through the city
. . . . By mid-1943, nearly 100,000 US troops were stationed around the city.” There is an Australian-American War Memorial on the grounds of Newstead House in memory of this.

Tamara and Chris drove us by many of the historical highlights downtown, including the Parliament House (shown below), Treasury Building, City Hall, and the old Customs House. Exteriors of these old sandstone buildings still look impressive and interiors are still in use today, although some have been re-purposed in new roles. 

We stopped for a while at the top of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, just across the Brisbane River from the central business district for a photo opportunity. Tamara is with us in the first photo below. Note all the skyscrapers across the river in the second photo.

Most attractive to us was the site of the very successful World Expo held in Brisbane in 1988. Almost all the temporary exhibit sites were torn down after the expo, and the area along the river was transformed into South Bank Parklands with a riverfront promenade, plazas, a giant Ferris wheel (Wheel of Brisbane), fountains, cafes, picnic tables, a large (free) municipal swimming pool, and downtown sandy beach. We’ve read that 11 million people visit South Bank Parklands each year, and we can see why – it’s a beautiful, functional public park. The only remaining trace of the Exposition on the former site is the Nepal Peace Pagoda. Adjacent to the park is the Queensland Cultural Center – housing an art gallery, concert hall, and museum.

We ended our tour by going to the top of Mount Coot-tha – the highest peak in Brisbane. Here we stopped to admire the view and sit for a few minutes while enjoying a cool drink and a Lammington (sponge cake rolled in chocolate and coconut) – a well-known treat in Australia and New Zealand.

                         

Brisbane also makes good use of the river as a transportation artery, with passenger ferries and City Cat catamarans similar to what we rode in Sydney. The city is also close to some of Australia’s best beaches – Gold Coast (where Tamara lives) is one hour to the south, and the Sunshine Coast is two hours to the north.

We returned to the ship by 2:00 pm and weren’t scheduled to depart Brisbane until 10:00 pm. We could have gone back into this wonderful city and explore some more on our own, but we decided to hang it up for the day as we were pretty tired by that point.

Thursday evening (Feb 18), after dinner in the dining room, we attended a great concert in the Galaxy Lounge by Patrick McMahon, billed as “The Superman of Entertainment.” This guy was wild – perhaps electrifying and energetic are better words to describe him. He’s an outstanding entertainer who holds nothing back, to say the least. His show included hits by Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers and more. If you close your eyes, you would think that these entertainers were on stage themselves. As always, the Galaxy Orchestra did a flawless job accompanying him. We were so impressed that we bought one of Patrick’s CDs after the show.

Tonight in Brisbane, we skipped the entertainment, titled “Swingin’ in the Stardust – A Celebration of the Big Bands.” This was yet another “Bring your dancing shoes” event for the 10 Ambassador Hosts to dance with all the ladies who have spent a fortune on dance lessons but don’t have a partner with whom to dance. For almost everyone else on the cruise this is just a spectator sport.

We continue north with a stop on Sunday (Feb 21) at Hamilton Island – one of the Whitsunday Islands between the mainland of NE Australia and the Coral Sea.

Jim & Ginny

February 17, 2016 – Sydney, Australia

Crystal Serenity arrived well before sunrise the morning of Feb 16th and anchored in Sydney Harbor. Once the sun came up we had a beautiful view of one of the world’s great cities – downtown Sydney, the Opera House and Harbor Bridge – all from our cabin’s verandah. Captain Vorland explained to us yesterday that he would be deploying eight anchors in the morning to keep us stable in this busy harbor. 

Although it would have been much easier for all of us if we’d been docked at Circular Quay, adjacent to the Opera House and many of the prime attractions in Sydney, that wasn’t possible this year. There was already a very large ship docked at the one pier at Circular Quay (called the Overseas Passenger Terminal). We also saw later that the location where our Holland America ship had docked three years ago (Barangaroo Wharf, near Darling Harbor) is no longer a viable option, as a giant development of high rise buildings has been constructed there, and the Barangaroo Wharf is now gone.

Crystal came up with a good plan for transporting us into Sydney by arranging for large local ferry boats (capable of carrying approximately 200 passengers at a time) to pull up alongside the ship every 30 minutes or so and transfer us to Dawes Point, on land, just under the Harbor Bridge. Then there were shuttle buses to take us over to Circular Quay. This system worked very well for us both days in Sydney. However, we imagine it was probably stressful for those passengers leaving the ship at the end of Segment 1 of the World Cruise to head to the airport, and for new passengers arriving for embarkation onto the ship as well. 

Our travel agent back home is a member of the Signature Collection which arranged for a private tour for us the first morning in Sydney. It was an easy transfer via our ship’s tender station onto the ferry boat, and we traveled on one of the first runs to shore (leaving the ship at 8:30 am). Our car, driver Fred, and guide Lara arrived at Dawes Point at 9:30. The 4-hour private tour was great. We asked them for primarily a sightseeing tour of city highlights. There was a proposed schedule, which we all agreed to modify just slightly. We drove all around the bustling city, stopping first at the Observatory for a pleasant nature walk and view of the Harbor Bridge.

Lara described the story of the first British colonization of Australia, in Sydney, by convicts shipped from England starting back in 1788. She continued with many of the highlights of the following 230 years’ history and was a wealth of information. The city of Sydney now has a population of 4.8 million, not counting the growing metropolitan area. The entire nation of Australia just passed the 24 million mark, which is less than some of the largest cities of the world (such as Tokyo, Delhi, and Shanghai).

As we traveled around this energetic and exciting city, we marveled at the large number of attractive areas, tall modern skyscrapers, and many historical, golden sandstone buildings that we passed by. It’s a large city with a lot of interesting features. Specifics are too numerous to describe in detail. We visited the Rocks (oldest part of the settlement, down along the waterfront), Royal Botanical Gardens (including Government House and the views from Mrs. Macquaries Point), Hyde Park, King’s Cross, Woolloomooloo Bay and inner city housing, as well as Bondi Beach, a very crowded beach area just 15 minutes outside from the city center (by car).

Part of the day included an excellent group tour of the Sydney Opera House – one of the architectural wonders of the world – which lasted for more than an hour. As you probably know, its white-tiled roof was designed to give the appearance of billowing sails. There are five performance halls, and we visited four of them – opera hall, concert hall, drama hall, and studio. The 10,154 pipes of the organ in the 2,500-seat Concert Hall were especially impressive.

Fred and Lara delivered us back to Dawes Point where we caught the next ferry ride back to the ship docked in the harbor. The day and private tour were fantastic. Especially nice was the pleasant weather with temperatures in the mid-70s. We made it back to the ship by 2:00, had lunch, and rested for the remainder of the afternoon. There were many visitors on the ship. It’s interesting how many passengers have friends and family in Sydney. This included Jerry and Karen, our table mates in the dining room.

Our second day in Sydney was equally great. We had signed up for an excursion to Featherdale Wildlife Park (our chance to cuddle a koala), but the tour was cancelled due to lack of signups; that was strange, but it did save us some money. So, instead, we set off on our own and repeated the ferry boat ride to Dawes Point; but this time we caught a shuttle bus for the short ride to the harbor’s focal point – Circular Quay. This is a busy confluence along the waterfront of six ferry boat wharfs, a major train station, bus terminal, and the “Overseas Passenger Terminal.” It can get crowded here, with both local people and visitors from all corners of the world. But it’s very pedestrian-friendly, and everything is clearly marked with good signs.

After spending the day in town yesterday, we decided to get out of town today and take a roundtrip catamaran ride on a River Cat boat from Circular Quay along the Parramatta River, as far as the community of Parramatta (Australia’s second oldest settlement) about 15 miles west of the city. We understand that the land along this river was occupied by Aboriginal peoples for thousands of years. But now the ferry service along this river seems to be used by commuters and leisure travelers from fairly wealthy suburbs into town at Circular Quay.

We left on the 11:07 River Cat which made nine stops at wharves along the way, including one for the Sydney Olympic Park area. We saw public parkland and walkways along both sides of the river, several rowing clubs and sailing/yachting clubs, large, beautiful homes (closer into the city), and forests of new high-rise apartment and condominium developments.

We enjoyed the roundtrip ride, which took about 2½ hours in total. When we returned to Circular Quay, we did a little shopping, and then Ginny returned to the ship via shuttle bus and ferry. Jim walked around the area adjacent to Circular Quay, known as The Rocks, Sydney's historic old town. This is an interesting area for exploring, with many old buildings, including some of Georgian and Victorian architecture, lining the historic cobblestone streets and back lanes. It can be a little hilly here, but manageable. The convicts and colonists landed and started settling in Australia right here back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the old warehouses still survive but have been converted to stores, cafes, hotels, and other uses to fit modern times. After wandering for a while, Jim found a very pretty walking path along the waterfront that led right back to Dawes Point and caught a ferry ride back to the ship.

Departing passengers were leaving and an equal number of new passengers were arriving on board the Crystal Serenity most of the afternoon. Interestingly, these transfers were being done by ferry boats leaving from the opposite side of the ship from the in-transit passengers (that’s us) who were coming and going for sightseeing in Sydney by ferry to Dawes Point. The arriving and departing passengers were being transported to/from a different location – the White Bay Passenger Terminal – for customs/immigration processing and transportation to/from the airport. The picture below gives you an idea where we're located in the harbor, to the left of the screen:

In our opinion, the best part of Sydney is the beautiful natural harbor. Of course, the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge are magnificent structures which greatly add to the beauty and appeal of the harbor. But we also enjoyed simply watching the many sailboats and ferry boats crisscrossing around us as we sat in the center of things. Our departure between 10:00 and 11:00 last night, with the moon shining and all the lights of the city visible was a memorable experience. In summary – a wonderful visit.

We now depart for Brisbane on Segment 2 of the World Cruise. This segment is titled “Australian Discovery Cruise" and will end in Bali, Indonesia on February 29.

Jim & Ginny

February 15, 2016 – Two Days at Sea

We’ve been cruising southwest from San Francisco for three weeks and are reaching the end of the first segment of the 102-day voyage. Crystal Cruises titled this segment of the world cruise “Pacific Isles,” and it lived up to that, as we visited only islands -- eight of them -- along the way from San Francisco to Nouméa. With the exception of Oahu (Hawaii), these were all new visits for us; and the experiences we had reinforced the mental images most people have of beautiful South Pacific island paradises.

We departed Nouméa at 6 pm on Saturday, Feb 13, heading for Sydney. It’s about 1,100 miles between these two ports, so we had an opportunity to relax for two days at sea on board the beautiful Crystal Serenity. The first day out of Nouméa the weather was quite windy and seas were rough. Once again, water was drained out of the Seahorse Pool, and walking around ship was more difficult. Captain Vorland explained that the weather was being affected by two tropical storms – one to the north of us and the other behind us (near Fiji). Our timing was very lucky, as the storm near Fiji was causing 60 foot waves in the area in which we had just traveled several days ago. Of course, south of the equator this is Summer and the season for tropical cyclones.

Some of the opportunities we took advantage of the past two days included a backstage tour of the Galaxy Lounge (main theatre). The lead dance team captain showed us the dressing rooms, props, and staging areas backstage for about 45 minutes. It was quite cramped back there, but very organized. He answered any and all questions we had, so we gained an understanding of how this marvelous team operates. Dimitri and his wife Valentina (both from Israel) have been performing on the Crystal Serenity stage for the past nine years. Both of them are real professionals and tremendous assets/advocates for Crystal Cruises. That night we watched their performance of the “6/8 Café Jukebox Musical” show.

There was a Valentine’s Day Mixer in the Crystal Cove that we skipped. These functions end up being opportunities for the 25 or so single women on board who absolutely love ballroom dancing with the 10 Ambassador Hosts (male dance partners under contract with Crystal) who are always on the dance floor dancing with them. For the first few of these functions we found it fascinating to watch these activities; but, by now, we’ve chosen to avoid the events altogether.

A big highlight was today’s 12:00 noon Grand Gala Buffet, which was also held in the Crystal Plaza and was well attended, of course. This involved a feast of culinary masterpieces -- foods and pastries – set up on many attractively decorated buffet tables. We went through the lines, and waiters carried our plates into the Crystal Dining Room. Most of us returned for seconds. Before the buffet started, there was time set aside for guests to photograph the room and to applaud the chefs responsible for the event. We were a little late arriving, as we were attending one of the enrichment lectures in the Galaxy Lounge (theater).

Monday night’s show in the Galaxy Lounge featured Kenny Martyn, a very talented jazz clarinet player. His show was great, with a wide range of music, including songs and arrangements by Benny Goodman.

We’ve been told that 400 passengers will be disembarking in Sydney and 400 new passengers will be joining us for the next segment of the world cruise. Our tablemates Norman and Sherry will be leaving us and returning to their home in northern California; we’ll miss them. It appears to most of us that the ship has been full to this point, so we guess it will remain that way for a few more weeks.

Jim and Ginny

February 13, 2016 – New Caledonia

   

Distance from Mystery Island (Vanuatu) to our next port in New Caledonia was only 140 miles, so the Captain cruised very slowly overnight in the calm waters of the South Pacific. We made two port stops in New Caledonia (or Nouvelle-Calédonie if you’re French) – Maré Island on Friday (Feb 12) and Noumea on Saturday (Feb 13). If you’re looking for us on a map, New Caledonia is roughly north of New Zealand and east of Brisbane, Australia.

New Caledonia is an overseas French territory, meaning that all New Caledonians hold French citizenship, regardless of their ethnicity.

If you’ve heard of New Caledonia, it may be related to World War II. Nouméa – capital city of New Caledonia – was headquarters for U.S. military forces in the South Pacific during the war. It’s said that more than 50,000 Americans were stationed here. They still remember that era in Nouméa, with a number of monuments and a museum.

Maré Island
Maré Island is the second-largest of the six inhabited islands which lie to the northeast of Grande Terre, New Caledonia's main island. They are known collectively as the Loyalty Islands and are governed as one of the three provinces of New Caledonia. The island is 26 miles long and 20 miles wide, at its widest point. We understand that the population of Maré is just under 7,000, and almost all the people on the island are indigenous Melanesians (called Kanaks), living primarily in tribal villages.

Ginny remained on the ship this morning, as Jim left on one of the ship’s tenders to the island. He returned about two hours later. After arriving at the tender pier in Tadine, most of the passengers (including Jim) hopped onto a free shuttle service that Crystal had arranged to take us out to Yejele, one of the best beaches on the island. The shuttle was the only way to get there, as it was a 25-minute drive on the bus – way too far to walk – and there were no other excursions being offered. It did seem like an attractive, unspoiled beach – pure white sand and clear water that proved to be excellent for snorkeling. Once again, Jim didn’t get in the water; but those guests from the ship with whom he talked said the water was cooler than they’d experienced at previous ports, but they all seemed to have a wonderful time. Because we live so close to several great beaches at home in Florida we don’t go as crazy about spending time at the beach while on vacation as others do.

                          

After taking the shuttle bus back to Tadine, Jim wandered around a little bit in town by foot, but didn’t go too far from the tender pier. There was a very small local food market set up for the local citizens, but that was about it.   

                           

Nouméa

We had a wonderful visit today and were very impressed with the attractiveness, cleanliness, and appeal of this city. Since leaving Honolulu two weeks ago, this was the first urban environment we’ve encountered across the South Pacific. Nouméa is the capital of New Caledonia and is located on a peninsula at the southern tip of the country’s main island, Grande Terre. It is a large, cosmopolitan area with a population of 100,000 within the city and 180,000 in the metropolitan area. Some local people call this “Paris of the Pacific,” and French is by far the primary spoken language. Nearly 70% of the population of New Caledonia live in greater Nouméa, and it is home to the vast majority of the country's Europeans.

Nouméa has a thriving seaport and is also one of the South Pacific's most industrialized cities, with a very large smelting plant dominating a large part of the northern section of the city. We were told that 25% of the world’s supply of nickel is mined and smelted here.

This morning we walked about ½ mile from the ship to La Marché, the city’s morning market, which is located adjacent to a large sailboat marina on Moselle Bay. The market is a rather modern setting of five hexagonal buildings, each with differing themes, including a fish market building, a vegetable building, a jewelry building, and so on. There was also a cluster of tents outside where vendors were selling very attractive arts & crafts. Although there were many tempting, unique items available, we only bought a refrigerator magnet to add to our collection. We walked back to the ship a different route through the city center, stopping once at a small café for two ice-cold Coke Light drinks. It was a hot, humid walk this morning.

After lunch on the ship, we departed at 1:15 on a ship excursion titled “Panoramic Nouméa by Tchou Tchou Train.” We weren’t too sure about this when we signed up, but it turned out to be a great choice. On the 2-hour ride on the cute, little rubber-tired train, we saw many of the highlights of this beautiful city. The tour guide was excellent and weather was perfect. Because there were no windows, the wind kept us cool. 

We had no idea that Nouméa was so scenic, with wide boulevards, many large apartment and resort hotels, natural beauty of blue lagoon bays, panoramic lookouts, and the popular beaches of Lemon Bay and Anse Vata. We also enjoyed watching the dozens of kite surfers at several points along the way.

On board Serenity, life continues to be full – food is always well prepared and beautifully presented, activities abound, and entertainment is first-class all the time. Thursday and Friday nights (Feb 11 and 12) there were solo shows by outstanding performers. First was vocalist Peter Cousens, a musical theatre star in Australia, New Zealand, and London’s West End, as well as television and recording roles. Next was international pianist, composer, and conductor Kym Purling who has mounted, music-directed, and conducted many Broadway shows, in addition to performing in over 100 countries. Once again, we're amazed how the Galaxy Orchestra is able to accompany the wide variety of performers every single night of the cruise. They're definitely real pros!

Tonight (February 13) was especially busy. The Crystal singers, dancers, and orchestra performed “An Evening in the South Pacific” concert three times (5:15, 8:30, and 10:30) in the Stardust Club. We attended the 5:15 concert, had dinner at 6:00, and finished the evening by going to a movie (The Martian) in the Hollywood Theatre at 8:00. The concert consisted of favorite Rogers & Hammerstein songs from South Pacific. The entire performance was nothing short of great.

Now we have two sea days before arriving in Sydney on Tuesday (February 16).

Jim & Ginny