OzKiwiJJ

I've taken champagne from France to Australia in checked luggage on flights with no problems. I did pack it in bubble wrap then two ziplock plastic bags and nestled it between layers of clothing. It arrived safely.

I suspect the only wine I'd be able to drink would be the rose. It was interesting on our recent Cunard cruise. I asked our sommelier about their wine package - he just shook his head and told us that most of the wines were out of stock. I believed him - I had that happen on Princess cruise once except Princess were quite happy to sell us the package knowing most of the wines were unavailable.

You should have seen some of the gorgeous dresses worn by those who were slim enough to wear them. Stunning!

There is a thread on the Cunard forum that would love to have those photos added to it.

The problem is that these days they are pricing the wine in USD, regardless of what it cost, then converting it to AUD, which makes the prices totally unrealistic compared with local prices. In the past they just used the same prices - if it was US$30 a bottle it just became AU$30 a bottle. The other issue is that they haven't really catered for current Australian wine trends. The Plus list appears to be suited to US tastes rather than Australian - oaky chardonnay, straight merlot, Cab sauv blends. No straight shiraz, no unoaked or lightly oaked chardonnay, no pinot grigio nor any of the other Italian wine varieties that are becoming popular here. But the Plus package does make it possible to buy wines by the bottle at a slightly better price since you get 25% discount on those. But having a drinks package does not mean people necessarily drink more. Of course some will "to get their money's worth" but others, like us, prefer the convenience of not having charges for every single drink, be it wine, cocktails or mocktails, bottled water, espresso, soft drinks, etc - showing up on their account. Our habits don't change no matter whether we have a package or not.

My attempt at a 20's look!

Day 6 - Hobart. Finally we've managed to be in Hobart on a Saturday again and it's not raining this time. Of course Saturday is Salamander Market day! I didn't feel like much breakfast, I was still recovering from dinner, so just had berries and toast. Thank goodness they had Vegemite which, to me, is the perfect tummy settler. They had quite a nice multi-grain bread but it was a bit over-toasted. Still, it went OK with lots of butter and Vegemite. After breakfast we got our wallets out of our safe and head off to the markets. It's a very pleasant walk to them. First we went past a whole lot of new restaurants that had opened in the ground level of a hotel that I think opened just before or just after the pandemic. Unfortunately none of them had their menus on display on the wharf-side walkway but some looked interesting. We hit the markets around the mid-point and turned left. They have grown immensely since we last went there in 2015. There was some great stuff for sale but we managed to get around half the market without being tempted. Then we broke off into a lovely plaza for a comfort break and refreshments at a cafe where we could sit down for a while. I had a fairly nice iced latte although given the size of the glass it was served in it really needed a double shot of coffee as it only had a very mild coffee flavour. Still, it was refreshing. We headed back to the market and carried on from where we'd left off for our break. We spotted a stand that had some very interesting gins and liqueurs. I tasted the raspberry gin and really liked it, also the coffee liqueur, and the citrus liqueur which is made as a byproduct of their gin process. We bought those three but passed on the gin made from Carolina Reaper chillies! They wisely didn't offer tastings of that one but did have a milder chilli gin to taste. A bit further along I spotted a stand that had some interesting earrings. Dangles made of coloured metal in various shapes so I bought three pairs - different colours and different shapes on each pair. We made it to the upper end of then started back down the other side. I spotted a truffle stand - the truffle products brand of the truffle farm we'd passed on the Burnie excursion. They had truffle mustard so I bought some. I used to get truffle mustard years ago but it became harder to find so I haven't had any for ages. We eventually made it back to our starting point and it was definitely time for lunch. I recalled going to a really nice fish restaurant nearby in 2019. Blue Eye Fish had survived the pandemic so we went there. Oops, big mistake, there goes the budget again! They had local crayfish (lobster) on the menu, offered two ways - one hot in a Thermidor sauce, the other cold with a seafood sauce. Oh oh! I love cold lobster. It always tastes far nicer to me just boiled and chilled. And it was perfect. The nicest and freshest crayfish I've had since 2007 - that time it was from Nins Bins just north of Kaikoura in NZ and had just been caught and cooked. This one must have been just caught and cooked immediately too as the leg meat came out perfectly cleanly - that's a good test of how fresh a crayfish is. BTW it's interesting how Tasmania, Victoria and NZ all call them crayfish although they are actually rock lobsters. Luckily it was a reasonable walk back to the ship as we need to walk off that beautiful lunch. Rolf is going to have to lock me in our cabin on our upcoming Virgin cruise otherwise I'll be heading straight back to Blue Eye Fish hoping to encounter some more crayfish. 🤣 Tonight was the second Gala night with a Roaring 20s theme. I had gone through my kaftan collection and found one that had a vague art deco pattern in blues, turquoise, and purples. I found a sparkly headband on Amazon, then took my dress to Spotlight where I found a feather boa that was an exact match for one of the blues, and some feathers that matched the turquoise and purples. I modified the headband removing the white ribbons that came with it and replacing them with clear plastic elastic so I could hide it under my hair. Then I stuck some feathers behind the main piece of the headband. I was very pleased with the way it came out. Rolf wore his blue dinner jacket which wasn’t strictly 20’s attire but toned well with my outfit. Unfortunately we missed sailaway as we were showering and changing. It always takes a little longer on formal nights. With this attire what else could we have as our predinner cocktail but a martini. Cunard have lovely Riedel martini glasses, a bit bigger than a standard martini glass but much easier to drink from as it has a slightly curved rim so the martini doesn't slosh over it. I have completely forgotten what we had as an appetiser. It was off the always available list and we chose it because it sounded nice and light. We followed that with a consomme Royale which was (barely) truffle scented and very enjoyable. We chose venison from the always available list and that was delicious as well. I decided to try the chilled cinnamon rice pudding but our wonderful waiter had me sussed by now and also served me the iced Grand Marnier parfait with an orange and olive oil cake. The rice pudding was nice but the parfait/cake was superb. We finally made it to one of the shows. This one was Palladium, inspired by the London Palladium show. The performers were excellent and there were some very beautiful dance routines. It was one of the best cruise ship shows we've ever seen. After the show we headed up intending to finish off the night in the Commodore's Club but ended up watching some karaoke instead. A couple of the singers were amazing. Thank goodness we had a sea day as it was after midnight when we got back to our cabin.

This was our first Cunard cruise and we found QE very comfortable but, of course, we haven't tried the other Queens. Grills was amazing. We've cruised on two luxury lines - Crystal and Regent - and the Cunard Grills experience topped both of those. Plus you have all the benefits of being on a bigger ship than most of the luxury lines - a proper theatre for starters.

Oh good, I was hoping the weather would be nice for them there.

We've done several Australia-only cruises on Princess just using our drivers licences. Have a great cruise!

Good point but I don't think it's the only reason. Of course, realistically we only have a limited number of possible itineraries, most of which involve some sea days. The Australian ports are few and far between. NZ has a good selection of ports but getting there and back either involves too many sea days or a one way flight and cruise.

The main difference is that calamari is usually served as nice inoffensive rings, or in pieces. A whole octopus tentacle can be a bit confronting for some people. Mind you, even squid tentacles can be off-putting to some. Many, many years ago I was in the US with my ex and we ordered some salt and pepper squid as a shared appetiser. My ex refused to eat the "wiggly bits"! 🤣 They were the best parts. ☺️

They might come back in a few more years. With Melbourne seemingly out of action and Sydney desperately needing another cruise terminal east of the bridge they may have decided it's not worth it at the moment. Still, I guess they are able to keep their ships filled without Aussies onboard. Maybe we're too casual for Cunard? 🤔🙄🤣

Richmond Bridge The Dalek Amusing signs

Day 5 - Hobart Again we didn't have to get up too early as our excursion didn't leave until 10am. We had our usual breakfast, berries followed by fried eggs. I've learnt to ask for two hash browns as they are quite small. I like to use them to soak up the egg yolk as I don't usually have toast on cruise ships - I don't like the bread much. Our bus was the only one left when we headed out. Our excursion, Historic Richmond and Coal Valley Wines, was only a four hour excursion although it did run over lunch. We enjoyed the drive out to Richmond. We went through the town and over the lovely Richmond Bridge then the bus stopped so we could take photos of it. Back on the bus we went back into the town and stopped by the historic Richmond Gaol. We explored the gaol then discovered a fascinating puzzle shop that actually had a full-sized Dalek. Unfortunately it had lost its voice - they were waiting for a part to repair it. Since we were going to be too late for lunch getting back to the ship, and our next stop was at a winery, we decided it would be prudent to grab something to eat in Richmond. We found a lovely cafe and had delicious toasted sandwiches and coffee. I wish the excursion had allowed more time in Richmond, I would have loved to have explored the town a bit more. However we did spot some great signs outside some of the places we passed. Our second stop was at Puddleduck Winery. This is a small family-owned and operated winery. We had a tasting of four wines - a sparkling wine, a fume blanc (it's very rare to see one of these in Australia these days), a chardonnay, and an excellent "summer" pinot noir. We had some time to wander though the shop and picnic area - although they do provide meals they also allow BYO picnics as long as the food is consumed outside and drinks are purchased. There were plenty of ducks and guinea fowl looking for handouts. These birds act as bug exterminators in the vineyard in return for being given a home. Many of the ducks are rescue ducks that have been dumped at the winery and are earning a happy living eating unwanted pests. When we returned to the ship I was expecting to have the wine we'd purchased taken off us until the final day but they didn't even seem to notice we had it. After dropping off our stuff in our cabin we headed up to the Grills Lounge for a pot of tea and a quiet bit of reading. We had cocktails in the Grills Lounge before dinner, and managed to go into dinner reasonably early (for us). We'd both chosen the King Prawn Tempura Spiced Fish Cake for an appetiser. I was expecting to miss out on the fish cake but they'd made one without the coriander in it and it was delicious. The prawn was nice but the tempura batter wasn't great. Next was Lobster Bisque which I think was the best one I've ever tasted. Then tonight we indulged in the special roast duck main. It's a whole duck roasted then carved and finished at the table in an orange sauce. We indulged in a very good burgundy to accompany it. The Cunard wine list is superb and we've blown our drinks budget to smithereens on wines. We decided to try the cheeses tonight as they had a superb Pont l'Eveque (a stinky washed-rind cheese) on the cheese trolley. It was just at the perfect stage to eat whereas the brie could have done with another week or two of aging before being served as it wasn’t quite runny enough. We adjourned to the Grills Lounge to see it they had any Amaro - a type of Italian digestiv of which there are many varieties. Diego, who served us, thought he had seen one on as one of their cocktails used it. He went searching and came up with a different one from the one listed in the cocktail list. It was very nice and just what we needed after a rich dinner.

Grilled octopus done properly is delicious. It's a fairly neutral-flavoured seafood so relies on extra flavour from the grilling and saucing.

I'm trying to figure out how we can wangle another cruise on one of the Queens. There is a possibility we might go to Europe next year to do a Spain Intensive cruise on Azamara and there is a cruise on Queen Victoria that looks tempting and which might fit in with our plans. I haven't really started planning that trip yet though.

The upper level of the library. The spiral staircase in the library.

Day 4 - At sea enroute to Hobart We had a leisurely breakfast. I started with the berries then tried the Eggs Benedict. Definitely the best I have ever had! Then it was time for trivia, which was held in the Golden Lion. We were lucky to get a table, we'll have to get there a bit earlier in future. We really liked the questions and did reasonably well for just the two of us. We were only three points off the winning score so we were very happy. We then wandered up to the Grills Lounge. This is a lovely quiet place to sit and read when the weather isn't good enough to sit outside. And then it was lunch time again! I started with spinach and chickpea fritters which were even nicer than I expected. Rolf didn't order those but I let him have a little taste. Then I had grilled rainbow trout and, since I was on Cunard, I just had to have the sherry trifle to finish. We wandered around the ship a bit more after lunch and discovered the library which was on two decks with a gorgeous spiral staircase in the library itself. It's an excellent library although the general fiction section tended more towards thrillers and suspense, however I did spot a few familiar contemporary women's fiction books. There was a separate section for crime novels as well. All the books are hardbacks and I think they have to be checked out by the librarian and returned before the end of the cruise. Outside the upper level of the library there were some jigsaw puzzle tables. and a good selection of jigsaws. We had a quick coffee in the cafe before heading off to the Golden Lion for afternoon trivia. It was even more crowded than morning trivia, partly due to those having an afternoon libation rather than just being there for trivia. But, again, we were lucky as a nice gentleman had just finished his ale, saw us looking for a table, and offered us his one. Rolf indulged in an ale but I just had sparkling water. Again there was a great selection of questions and we improved on our morning score. We were only a point or two behind the winners this time. Back to the cabin to shower and change, then off to the Commodore's Club again for music and a cocktail. We were enjoying the music so much we had a second cocktail and were very late getting to dinner. I forgot to mention earlier that every night the meal started with an amuse bouche. Unfortunately quite a few of these were Thai-based with coriander in them and on those days I just got some fruit. But I did get a couple of delicious ones during the course of the cruise. Tonight I started with chilled grilled octopus with a black garlic puree. It was quite a big tentacle but very tasty. Then I had the Chilean sea bass which was quite nice but not the best sea bass I've ever had on a cruise ship. I finished with the chocolate souffle with chocolate sauce - well, actually I had a lot of really, really good chocolate sauce and somewhere in there was some souffle. Like most cruise ship souffles these days the ramekin it was served in was too small for the souffle to rise properly - another cutback since pre-Covid days. 😪 We had intended to go to the show tonight but in the end we didn't feel like it so we just slunk into the Grills Lounge for our digestif. We ended up chatting to one of the couples sitting next to us in the dining room for quite a while before retiring.

It does indeed!

But that can also mean your cabin gets very warm in the late afternoons. Some ships have poor air-con!

Ditto when we did NZ back to Sydney on Westerdam - we had the passport inspection in Hobart. I also recall doing a PNG cruise some years ago that stopped in Brisbane first and we had the passport inspection there.

How cool would it be to own a waterfall, especially one as pretty as this one!

Day 3 - Burnie. We didn't have to get up too early this morning as we weren't due to dock until 9am and our excursion wasn't until 9:45am. We enjoyed a relaxed breakfast. This time we tried the mixed berries which were very nice and the serve wasn’t too big. This became our fruit course of choice for the rest of the cruise. I decided to have a ham and cheese omelette which was reasonably good as far as cruise ship omelettes go. I indulged in a Pain au Chocolate afterward, luckily they are quite small. 😊 I went to see the Grills Concierge about our shower problem. He checked the appropriate database and neither our cabin steward nor the Purser's desk had logged a service call for it. I wasn't very impressed! We nearly didn't get into Burnie as there was a strong wind blowing. Two cruise ships hadn't made it in the previous day (Pacific Explorer and Silver Muse I think). We ended up being about half an hour late docking. We went back to the cabin and grabbed our rain jackets before leaving the ship. I was trying out a new, small cross-body anti-theft bag that I've bought for our world cruise later in the year. I deliberately bought a small one so I can't overload it with heavy items as then I end up with a sore back after sightseeing all day. I spent the time on the bus waiting for the excursion to leave rearranging things in it until I had everything in the perfect places. My small wallet I use when travelling fits perfectly in the RFID protected pocket at the front. Rolf also got an anti-theft bag, a bigger one, but he didn't bring it on this cruise as it’s similar to the regular one he uses. We were doing the Tassie Tasting Trail excursion. Our first stop was at Ashgrove Cheeses where we had a tasting of three different cheeses. Two were a bit ordinary but there was a very interesting wasabi cheese that we both liked. It wasn't strongly flavoured but was tasty. They recommended adding it to mashed potatoes. There were viewing windows into the factory with storyboards outlining the cheese-making process, a cafe, and a shop. Our next stop was at the 41° South Tasmania Salmon Farm. Neither our driver nor our guide had done this tour before and they missed the turn-off. After a few more kms they realised they were lost so had to turn around and head back. I wasn't complaining as it allowed me to discover the location of the truffle farm I'd seen on a couple of cooking shows. It started raining lightly as we arrived at the salmon farm but they had a nice undercover area set up for the salmon tasting and lunch. We tasted hot smoked salmon, a salmon spread, and a very tasty spice mix that Rolf loved. Lunch was a choice of a salmon burger, a salmon wrap or a salmon sandwich and we’d had to pre-order these at the start of the trip. I chose the wrap which turned out to be quite spicy. Sadly the salmon in it was a salmon burger patty which was a bit boring. Rolf had the sandwich and that had the lovely hot smoked salmon in it. We had just finished lunch when the rain decided to get serious. Thank goodness we had good rain jackets as it was time for the farm tour of the small lake, fish tanks and the beautiful waterfall. The owner is very proud of his waterfall, rightly so as it is lovely. We spent about half an hour out in the rain and were drenched despite our jackets. Luckily I had quick-dry hiking pants on, and Skechers which also dried quickly, so I wasn't too uncomfortable. Unfortunately my new water-repellent bag couldn't handle a Tasmanian downpour although it tried hard, but the volume of water was just too much for it. I should have put it under my jacket but I had my phone in it to take photos with so needed easy access. My wallet got soaked but it dried out nicely once we were back on the ship. Our next stop was at the Spreyton cider factory. We were given generous tastings of several different ciders - a sweet cider, a raspberry cider, a sour cherry cider, and a very dry cider. Some of these were also available as a non-alcohol cider. We loved the sour cherry one best and we both chose that as our free take home cans. Our final stop was at the Anvers Chocolate Factory where we were treated to huge slices of chocolate cakes of various different types - I had a yummy one with a raspberry cream layer - and the most delicious hot chocolate I've ever tasted. There were viewing windows into parts of the factory here too. We bought some chocolates at the shop, and some chocolate pieces for cooking. The owner had written a very interesting book - part biography and part cookbook - so I bought that too as it has the hot chocolate recipe in it. We got back to our cabin and our shower was finally fixed, but they'd put it in a different place - on the left side and one tile too low. The shower head had a natural tendency to twist slightly to the left which meant the water flow now ran right along the shower curtain. I managed to change the direction of flow by using the hose hooked around in a complicated manner to reposition the showerhead slightly. It worked but it wasn't as good as it should have been. Unfortunately our cabin steward kept tidying up the hose so we had to reset it most nights. After changing for dinner we went up to the Commodore's Club for our pre-dinner cocktail and enjoyed the Burnie sailaway from there. They have an excellent pianist in that bar most nights. I can't remember exactly what I had as an appetiser. I must have chosen it from the always available list - I even took a photo of it but that hasn't given me any clue as to what it is! I thought I'd taken photos of the all the special menus but obviously I didn't. Rats! Naturally I had the duck consomme which was delicious, followed by kangaroo with beetroot and a blackberry dressing. I finished with what was supposed to be a frozen souffle but was more of a thick cream. Very tasty but not as good as the Princess frozen souffle. I wonder if they forgot to freeze the Cunard one? Despite being tired after our big day out we had to go back to the Commodore's Club after dinner as the Queens Room Musicians were playing jazz there. We lingered a bit longer than we should have but, hey, it's a sea day tomorrow!

Get in quick, she's pulling out of homeporting in Australia soon. I'm not sure if it's from next season or from the 25/26 season.