February 10, 2017

    The clocks were changed to one hour earlier than Sydney time for tomorrow’s arrival in Brisbane (and for Cairns).  Claire awoke with a stiff back ,which was remedied by a few yoga back stretches. We walked circuits on Deck 5, which is the promenade deck, where you can walk from bow to stern around the whole ship, which takes about 800 steps.  The day was sunny about 26 C and humid. There was a breeze about 10 km per hour.

    Since this is a “Sea Day” (sailing to the next port), we had breakfast in the dining room,  with Bob and Maureen and a couple from Perth, Australia, and another couple from Philadelphia.  This is the first of four cruises for the Philadelphia couple, who will stay on board at Perth, then in Sydney stay on board for a round trip to both islands of New Zealand with the final cruise sailing through the South Pacific islands to Hawaii and on to Seattle, arriving there in about three months from now.   We had plenty of time to chat with our table mates as service for breakfast took over an hour.  There seems to have been difficulty with the new provisions being loaded in Sydney.   Since we were not docked in Sydney everything, like the luggage and food, needed to be loaded onto a barge which was not the usual procedure causing mix-ups to occur.  Even the boutiques manager noted that the duty free alcohol selection is limited as their order was not fully delivered.

   The average age of the guests seems to be about 6 or 7 years younger than most of the Celebrity Cruise ships.

   There are 43 steps to get to the staircase toward the front of the ship and 131 steps to the staircase toward the back, which we use to go to the dining room on Deck 4.

    In the Aurora Theatre, the first of three destination talks was given, about the next three destinations and the tours offered.  We already have all of our excursions booked for both cruises. 

    If you need to find a place in the ship, at each elevator lobby there is an interactive 72 inch screen to help you. It also shows the list of all the day’s activities on board, eliminating the need to carry the schedule with you.

    We walked some more and explored Decks 13 and 12 before going to the dining room for lunch.  We sat with a couple from England, three Australians and a couple from Europe.  After lunch Claire went to a presentation about pearls and Larry visited the casino. Later in the afternoon, in the Starquest Lounge on Deck 13, there was an hour of prerecorded ballroom dance music which had a maximum attendance of four couples but in the last 15 minutes, while waiting out a dance, the 400 square feet floor was reduced by one third with a buffet table for a Diamond Club and above event.

    Before dinner, the walking goal was met and the digital pedometer retired for the day with a count of 12,065 steps, 12.56 miles.

    Tonight was the first of three formal dress evening on the ship.  The interpretation of formal dress was varied with most men wearing long sleeve shirts & dress pants, sports coats & dress pants or tuxedos and women wearing sparkling tops & dark pants, cocktail dresses or gowns.  The chosen menu items this evening were a salad of peas, onion, endive, mint leaves, sugar peas and artichoke  or bay scallops au gratin for appetizers; Hoki white fish with mini roast potato, saffron infused cauliflower and broccoli ending with dessert choices of pistachio ice cream or chocolate soufflé.

    After dinner was the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Reception and pictures with captain. Complimentary New Zealand Rosé “champagne” was served before the introduction by the captain of the ship’s managers and senior officers. Dance music with the Kronos Band was played in the Colony Club on Deck 6 , including waltz, foxtrot, swing and rumba.  It has a bigger rectangular dance floor of about 800 square feet. For one Foxtrot the five couples actually followed line of dance for a while. Then we made our way down to Deck 4 where the Traffle Duo was also playing dance music in the Centrum, an even smaller circle of maybe 200 square feet reduced to half the dance floor space with armchairs of the tables ringing the area.  The music was lively and varied, including a quickstep which was choked for lack of linear space,  even though we were only ones on the tiny dance floor!  We will make a point of dancing to the music of the Traffle Duo tomorrow evening when they play in the Colony Club. With that exercise, we turned in for the night.