At Sea and Brisbane

At Sea

            On Thursday, 11 December Jesse awoke at 6:30 AM and worked on the computer.  Since Sally had had trouble falling asleep, she slept late and we went to breakfast very late.  Then at noon, Jesse went down to Club Fusion to check out New Vogue Dancing.   Although that’s something they do in Australia, we have been told that it is worldwide, though not apparently in America.  Anyway, it looks similar to country and western pattern dancing, except that the music is similar to ballroom music.  In the early afternoon, we went for a swim.  When we decided to go for a light lunch at about 3:30 PM, only a snack line was open by then and we both had a bowl of Japanese noodle soup.  However, Jesse put too much red pepper in his soup and was unable to finish it; therefore, except for an ice cream cone afterward, he really did eat light for a change!  While eating, we sat next to another couple and discussed our cruise plans.  They would really like to go to Egypt, but no ships are going there right now.  When we told them that we had been there twice, they asked us a lot of questions about Egypt and about our cruise.  Our conversation was interrupted when Peggy came over to our table and started talking about dancing.  (We hope we didn’t insult the other couple; good manners seem to be very important to Australians.)

            For dinner, we shared a table with Maureen and John, from Queensland, and Yvonne, from New South Wales.  Although Maureen and John have known each other for many years, they just met Yvonne on this cruise and had quickly become close friends.  Yvonne recently retired from her job as general manager of an engineering company, although her background is accounting.  Her father was American soldier who had been stationed in Australia during WWII.  After the war, he returned to Australia and married her mother, and together they had eight children.  Yvonne has dual citizenship and has traveled extensively in America.  Both Maureen and John expressed great appreciation for soldiers who have fought in the wars (including Vietnam), and especially for Americans for coming to their aid in both World Wars.

            After dinner, we went to the Wheelhouse Bar for dancing, where we danced a few times with Paul and Mary, and with also Kevin and Martha.  After the Soul Wave went on break, we said our goodbyes to Kevin, Martha, John, and Annie, who would all be disembarking in Brisbane, along with 246 other passengers.  They will be replaced by 240 passengers who will be boarding in Brisbane.  After returning to our cabin, we tried downloading our e-mail, but the Internet was very slow, so we logged off and retired for the night.

Brisbane

            On Friday, 12 December, we awoke to our alarm at 7:30 AM, downloaded our e-mail, and went to breakfast in the Horizon Court.  Since we ate the usual amount of breakfast that we have been eating much later in the morning, afterwards we felt really stuffed.

As pre-arranged, Jim and Gail were waiting for us on the pier; we said our hellos and made our way to their vehicle.  We found their vehicle unusual.  It had two rows of seats like a regular car, but there was a truck bed at the rear of the vehicle, which was covered by a truck bed lid.  The vehicle was manufactured in Australia by General Motors, but is not sold in America.

Kangaroo Point

            While Jim drove us through Brisbane streets, they described the sights.  However, we mostly just talked about cruising and recalled memories of our 2012 Pacific Cruise.  We drove through New Farm Park and then made a photo stop at Kangaroo Point, where we had a great view of the Brisbane River.  They pointed to the areas that had flooded in 1974 and 2012.  Apparently these floods occur every 30 or 40 years, and make most upper Mississippi River floods seem minor in comparison. 


Mt. Coot-Tha

We drove past wool shipping and storage buildings, which have been converted to expensive housing units.  Wool was Brisbane’s main export for many years, but has now been replaced by mining.  Also, we stopped by a Discount Chemist Warehouse (drugstore) so that we could replenish our supply of cold medication; then we continued on to Mt. Coot-Tha, where we had a great view of Brisbane.  Although Jim and Gail had burgers for lunch at one of the restaurants, we just had tea, since we still felt overstuffed from our breakfast.  While we were sitting outside at the restaurant, it started pouring rain; and when it started splashing on us, we moved inside, where we talked for a couple of hours.  On the restaurant grounds, we followed a brightly colored wild turkey until Jesse could get his photo.  Gail says they live everywhere here and tear up people’s yards.  Finally, Gail thought we had better head back to the ship, just to make sure we didn’t get held up by some unexpected traffic jam.  Back at the pier, we said our goodbyes and re-boarded the ship at about 4:00 PM.  Our tour of Brisbane was great, but we mostly enjoyed spending time with our friends, Jim and Gail.  We will all be together again in September 2015, when we will be on another Princess cruise!  Although we were still not very hungry, we went up to the Horizon Court for a light lunch so that we wouldn’t be famished by dinner.

Fisherman's Island Cruise Terminal

            For dinner, we joined a large, round table with three other couples and one single person.  We had shared a table with the single woman, Madine, previously, and remembered that she is an artist.  The couple next to Sally was Bob and Gail, from New South Wales, and across the table from us was Barry, who was celebrating his birthday.   We didn’t catch the names of the others.  With such a large table, Sally was not able to hear much of the conversation and was glad when dinner was over.  After dinner we went to the Wheelhouse Bar and danced to the Diamond Princess Orchestra.   The orchestra was a little too large for the Wheelhouse Bar, so the music was much too loud.  After watching Paul perform a few magic tricks (one of his hobbies), we returned to our cabin by 10:30 PM.  Before retiring for the night, we set our clock and watches forward by one hour.  Although Brisbane and Sydney appear to be about the same latitude, Sydney is on daylight savings time, and Brisbane is not – hence the time difference.