21st June

Sydney Overcast but fine not much wind

Needless to say we were up reasonably early this morning but we used up all of our apartment time and checked out at 10am. It was too early to go to the cruise terminal so we waited in the foyer of the hotel until about 11am before looking for a taxi which could take all our luggage. Taxis were out the front but the bell boy insisted that we would be better with a station wagon. One of the taxis drivers was observing what was going on and came up and said that as there was only 2 of us he could get all the cases in OK which what he did. We were expecting to be at the cruise terminal too early to check in as we had been previously advised that check in was not until 12.30pm however when we got there we went straight into the check-in procedure and we were on the ship before 12 noon. We were held up somewhat after boarding because they need to take your picture for your cruise card security but this time they were also doing it for our arrival in Korea and they had to be more particular which took extra time. Quite a queue formed before we could go down to our cabin.

Once in our cabin we dropped off our carry-on bags and headed for the Buffet for lunch. There have been quite some changes on the ship since we were on it before and one of them is more room in the Buffet. After lunch it was back down to the cabin to unpack our cases which by this time had arrived. Apart from the fact that we had trouble opening the wardrobe door this all went without any argument about who has where etc. It turned out that we were trying to open the wardrobe door outwards but it opens inward all of which caused some merriment with our cabin steward. Later we of course had to go to lifeboat drill and get a take away coffee.

On arrival back in our cabin we were greeted with a huge bunch of flowers sent to us by our Travel Agent Debbie plus a voucher for a bottle of wine for later in the cruise. Not all TAs do this for you, our friends on-board are very jealous. Talking of our friends on board when we went down to dinner we found that we were on a table for 8 when we thought it should be 10. 2 friends were not even in the same dining room. We all visited the Maitre d’Hotel after dinner and requested a change of table we will not know until tomorrow if it is possible. Our group of 10 all meet after dinner for a hot chocolate before most of us headed for our cabins to try out the new beds as it has been a long day. Just a little movement of the ship after we went through the heads as the wind is now quiet strong.