All Aboard

Tuesday was our day to set off. I had rung Princess line a few days earlier to find out about when and where we could go aboard. I was told we could drop our luggage off but the immigration desk opened at 5.30pm, which seemed a bit of a rush as the ship was sailing at 6pm. However, I am a trusting soul and accepted that, although I did considering ringing again to see if I got a different answer.

I took Krista and the boys  in to the museum mid-morning. When Jan arrived at my place, we went in and picked them up and went on to Portside where the ship had been moored since 8am. And, of course, we could have been on board from early morning. We had arranged to meet Carmel for coffee at about 3.30 and Dave was also joining us for a while so we all waited for quite a while on the dock. Hudson was a bit whingy and Cory was also tired, so Krista took them home.

At about 4.30 Jan and I went on board and Carmel and David went to the viewing area to see us off. We were just in time for the safety briefing. Our cabin steward Bernardo Vivero had been expecting us all day as most Brisbane poeple had joined early in the day - as we had expected to! Before dinner, we unpacked. I was pleased to have tossed in a few wire coathangers as there were about a dozen hangers for the pair of us. I was rather embarrassed to take up two-thirds of the hanging space till I discovered that Jan had a drawer full of T-shirts. I thought I must have over packed.

This is a 26 day trip, with four formal nights and four theme nights so we do need a few changes of clothes for evenings as well as the casual wear for daytime. I have brought most of my wardrobe with me, and also a beautiful black coat I have borrowed from Margaret. I hope it gets cold enough in the southern states to warrant carrying it around.

We had booked for the second sitting of dinner at 7.45. When we arrived, we found ourselves at a table for ten, - but just the two of us. There were a lot of spaces around the dining room so we hoped that the table would fill on other nights. Our waiters were Arfan from India and Iketut from Indonesia. With the current commericial about Ketut and Rhonda, he was already getting used to being asked to 'Kiss me Katut'.

The stage show Shimmy was in its last night so we went to that - what energy from the Princess singers and dancers! Early night, well, before midnight!