aussielozzie18

She is adorable 🥰 wonder what she is dreaming of

@Sea Dog Greg, I was thinking the same. Its looking good Charlie & Lizzie must give you hours of entertainment with their tussling and other shenanigans. Your cruise is tempting. That date works for me and I’ve always wanted to cruise on an Oasis ship as they don’t cruise down here and it would lovely to finally meet you. Just depends on DDs availability.

Thank you. Yes, I would very much like to return and explore the region as part of a road trip of Tasmania and give it the time it deserves.

@SteelCityCruiser10 obviously all sorted for you now but I had the same error notification re the passport the night before the cruise. Weird that they check & advise so close to sailing departure. Good thing was, It gave me the opportunity to change my document from passport to drivers licence which is all I needed for my domestic cruise.

Pre-made boxed options. I liked these as grab & go. All The Galley (food court) options on Resilient Lady. I am sure the options are very similar on Scarlet Lady.

I wore mine for a few extra days after the cruise as a little memento. Love that you don’t need to take it off at all.

Yum! We didn’t have time to stop at the onsite cafe. We were encouraged to have a look at the “behind the scenes” of the factory but there was no-one working in the kitchens on show.

Self disembarked with my suitcase the next morning at 7.30am. Very quick & easy. Loved The Band that is Virgin’s version of the key card. Like some of my fellow cruisers, still havent taken it off, it’s a nice memento. My thoughts on this cruise So pleased I got to experience Virgin’s Resilient Lady in her first cruise season in Sydney. (ps had no issue spending all of my loot. Bought a good quality backpack & a bottle of my favourite perfume) Thanks for reading.

Then it was the only show I was able to book through the app. Persephone. This runs for an hour and you stand on the floor watching the performers dance, sing & perform aerials above you. I was one of the first on the floor but followed the lead of a couple of other cruisers and headed upstairs to the very small seating area - mainly in the hope of it being less loud. Photos are a mix of mine & the better ones from the floor are with permission from my roll call members. I really enjoyed this.

Back in the Test Kitchen (third time for the day 😀) for dinner. Test Kitchen offers 2 menus. The actual menu is a small square card that lists 6 ingredients. On Sydney Open Night we had: Delicious. keen to dine there again so booked it for this final night on board. Bonus was we had the other menu. The mushroom pate was devine. I didn’t like the peas dish but the couple I was dining with absolutely loved it. My dining companions loved the scallops and ordered seconds (waiter was happy to oblige) We all choose the beef dish. (My brother saw the photo and said it looks like the chef lost a limb before serving it up)plated looks aside it was mouthwatering good and my fellow diners ordered seconds (waiter wasn’t particularly happy about this request but obliged) blue cheese & chocolate dish was 🤤 Fabulous meal to end my on onboard dining experiences.

Afternoon activity was back in the Test Kitchen. Shot for Shot - $50 USD - a mixology class learning to make 3 cocktails + photo class with the same host & a Virgin bar tender. Lots of good info here on cocktail making techniques that fellow cruises found very informative. We got to keep the mixing spoon. Participants encouraged to film this This was my favourite cocktail. It tasted delish and looked great when we swirled it and filmed in slowmo. It had delicious mini balls inside & silver sparkles. This was well done & informative. Free to me as again I paid with the loot.

Deleted

Last full day of the cruise. In the morning I had booked: Plate Snap Eat - a foodie photo workshop in the Test Kitchen. Small group activity. Excellent Virgin staff host. A very social & enjoyable activity. Generous glasses of free champagne throughout. Got to eat our creations as a group at the end in the Test Kitchen. Cost was $35USD for 1 1/2hrs (free due to paying with loot). tbh, didn’t learn much about photography but enjoyed “styling” the food and using the staging set ups for the photos and such a lovely fun & friendly group of cruisers. Our excellent host (male) No need for lunch….

The restaurant was buzzing and everyone was wearing RED. It was Scarlet Night - the biggest party night on the ship. New decorations around the ship and the cabin balcony had a red glow. My friend & I had enjoyed Scarlet night on the pool deck during the Sydney open night. I had packed a red outfit and I fully intended to go but after 2hrs at Pink Agave, I was in a food coma. I crawled into bed at 8.30pm with the intention to watch a movie then head out to the pool deck at 10.30pm. Side note - loved the cabin’s mini tablet that operated lights & tv - it gave you the option of “movie night” - automatically closed the cabin curtains, switched on the tv and dimmed the lights and gave you a range of movies & tv series to watch. Bliss. Too blissed out to move at 10.30pm. So I missed out. Photos of the Scarlet Night pool party (courtesy of my roll call with permission)

Just after Pink stepped away, the Restaurant Manager and Assistant Manager appeared next to my table. They very apologetic and asked if I would mind moving from my booked table for a diner who had just arrived. I smiled and said no problem at all. I was shown to a new table and from then on I was treated like an absolute VIP. My drinks were comped. The Restaurant Manager personally served me each and every course and then checked in with me during each dish to make sure I was enjoying my meal. I had two other senior staff come over and sincerely apologise and thank me again for agreeing to move (to a perfectly fine replacement table). And Pink’s recommendations were spot on. Sadly, I was too full for dessert.

Dinner Restaurant - Pink Agave ”Elevated Mexican fare” (I actually remembered to take a photo of the menus here) I took one look at the menus and decided I needed help. My waitress looked like Pink and her name badge said Pink. She introduced herself and said my name is….but I prefer to be called Pink. I told Pink I had no clue what to order and I was in her hands. After a discussion about my likes and dislikes, she took my order based entirely on her recommendations.

DD is planning on flying back home. She has a fear of falling again with all the ice & snow. She only had the operation on Saturday and I told her she must speak to her surgeon before she books a long flight home to Sydney. I think there would be a risk with bloods clots on a long haul flight(s).

If anyone is reading this thread that isn’t Australian. Here is a map with Burnie & Devonport marked, with Ulverstone where we had lunch in the middle.

Then we started heading back to Burnie via one last scenic lookout. Got back to the town centre in time for the shuttle bus to take us back to the ship. Very nice day out. Very nice sail out from Burnie. Love the name of the pilot boat “hell yer” Prior to the cruise I did consider booking a day tour to Cradle Mountain but decided against it because I didn’t want a long coach ride there and back. Those that did go, had gorgeous weather & took some lovely photos.

The Berry Patch - a strawberry patch & cafe. Surprisingly for February, there were still lots of strawberries ready to be picked and other visitors were coming in with big punnets from picking. We were just there for their ice-creams (this was paid for by the guide - only thing included in the tour). Very very popular. We had a fairly long wait. But definitely worth it. Strawberry or Raspberry flavour. I had strawberry. We all agreed they were delicious ice-creams. Definitely worth a visit if you are ever nearby just for the ice-cream alone but they also had pizza which looked rather nice.

No idea. I wasn’t keen enough to find out. I was going to buy a jar for my dad but he said he wasn’t keen on pickled onions when I messaged him so I didn’t look at the jars on offer, to see any labels.

Then we headed for a beautiful winery. Our guide said it looked like a villa in Tuscany. On arrival, lots of apple trees with apples and inside the beautiful villa for wine tasting with the lady owner. $10 a taste (then taken off cost of a bottle of wine) or you could buy a single glass of wine from 6 varieties. We all sat outside the villa in the shade to sip our wine (at our own cost). Very nice location. Camera battery died at this point - so brochure photo. Funny thing was every time any of our group headed back inside to use the toilets, a loud gong would sound. Bit of an Adams Family moment that made us laugh.

Chocolate factory? Yes please. Stocked up on gifts and bought a yummy ice-cream. Anvers Chocolate Tasmanian Devil made out of chocolate

Next up Mersey Bluff Lighthouse and lookout at Devonport. Beautiful day for it.

Lunch (at our own cost) was at Windows on Westella cafe on the outskirts of Ulverstone. The site contains the Broad Acres Vineyard and the manufacturing facility of pickled onions. I thought I liked pickled onions but I wasn’t keen on these: For mains I chose Tasmanian Fish & Chips. I was too busy talking to take a photo (we had one long table) this is a stock photo from their website. My actual portion was bigger. Apparently their specialty is waffles but we didn’t stay for dessert.