Where In the World Are Tom and Jet

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hope your weather is lovely in Sydney.

That is great that the majority of the tour operators are willing to help people with wheelchairs.

[boards]

Thank you for the review you have given us and we hope "Jet" will fully recover soon. It is heart to hear how good the service and treatment Hal has been giving you. We have been to Sydney for several short stays and have enjoyed them very much and especially the hop-on and off bus. We have taken the full ride twice, the red and the blue bus (Bondi beach). A ferry ride and visit Manly is very enjoyable to. I could go on but you only have two days. Just one little correction - it just a "Koala" not with bear added. If I don't mention someone there might politely. It is a very enjoyable place to "visit", but expensive, seriously, no tipping required.

[Stratheden]

There was a wild kangaroo crossing Sysney Harbour Bridge a couple of weeks ago and also one was pulled from the water in Sydney Harbour after getting into difficulties whilst swimming. :D

[erewhon]

Hope you are enjoying your visit in Sydney, today.

[greysandy68]

Can’t wait to follow your cruise notes. Sounds great.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[bay guy]

February 10, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Hello from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. We arrived here early today and will stay until 6 p.m. tomorrow evening. The day started out very cloudy and it really looked like it was going to rain. However, after a couple of hours, the skies cleared and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Light breezes with about 82 degree temperature. The weather forecast is the same for tomorrow.

The ship is at the White Bay Cruise Terminal and, since that’s a good way from the center of town, we had shuttle buses to take us into town. We had to clear immigration before we could go anywhere today but that was a fairly simple well organized procedure and we were on our way by 10 a.m.

The shuttle bus took us to Darling Harbor which seemed to be right in the middle of everything. The Australia National Aquarium was right where they left us off and the National Maritime Museum was right across the harbor which was easily crossed by bridge or you could walk around the edge of the harbor on a nice brick walkway and get to the other side.

Before we explored Darling Harbor, we boarded the hop on hop off bus and did the full circuit around the the main part of town. The bus was $45 AUD each for a 24 hour ticket but we each received a $5 AUD discount because we’re seniors. The bus took us by all of the main important parts of the city that a tourist would want to see. I thought it was interesting that one area we went through was a very busy shopping area by day but became the red light district at night. There were some interesting characters there while we drove through so I can only imagine what the sights are at night.

We had considered possibly getting off the bus at the Sydney Opera House but the crowds outside there were huge and we didn’t feel like getting hung up in that crowd.

After we did the full bus route, we got off back at Darling Harbor and crossed the bridge to the other side and went into Harborside. It’s supposed to have over 200 stores but, from what I could see, the number of stores was vastly outnumbered by a slew of fast food places and restaurants.

We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to have lunch which consisted of two very good hamburgers and fries plus Pepsi to drink. Our lunch was $53 AUD which is about $40 US. Like New Zealand, nothing is inexpensive in Australia. We had looked at several other menus at other restaurants before we ate and every one of them was comparable in price.

While eating, we ran into our cruise director, Hamish, who was enjoying some quiet alone time away from the ship.

After lunch, we left Harborside and walked along the pathway around the harbor and boarded our shuttle back to the ship.

Jet did really well today. She did more walking as we went around and, while she’s tired at the end of our adventure, just like I am, she isn’t totally wiped out like she would have been about a week ago.

They’re going to have an Aborigine dance group and didgeridoo music on board this evening for our entertainment so we’re staying aboard for the rest of the day. Many of the crew members, especially those working in the dining room and Lido are going into town tonight. I imagine that many of them won’t get much sleep before they have to be back at work in the morning.

As we get closer to Indonesia, where the majority of the staff is from, I can tell that many of them are getting excited because they’ll have the opportunity, even if it’s for a short time, to see their families for the first time in months.

 

Until tomorrow.

[kftw]

More thanks for sharing your cruise with us. I look forward to each post.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad that Jet was able to walk more -- big improvement.

We love eating at a Hard Rock Cafe whenever we can. DH has quite a collection of pins from them.

That will be nice for the crew to see their families for a little while.

[bay guy]

February 11, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Today turned out to be another beautiful day in Sydney. Even though it was warmer, there was a nice breeze. When we woke this morning, Jet said she was sore from all the jiggling and bumping in the wheelchair yesterday as we rolled over mainly brick walkways and wasn’t going to go into town today. However, after a while she changed her mind since we may never get back here again.

We took the shuttle bus into town and caught the Hop On Hop Off bus to The Rocks section of town. This is the area that was first settled by the prisoners who were sent here from Great Britain. Today it is a very nice area and they had a very large outdoor market on the streets, which they apparently have every weekend, with lots of vendors selling arts and crafts and food. We could have had our choice of either kangaroo or alligator meat on a skewer but decided to pass on those.

We purchased a couple of things from the vendors there and enjoyed watching people and looking at what everyone was selling.

After we finished looking around The Rocks, we rolled down the hill to the waterfront. We were right across from the Sydney Opera House and got some great pictures of it and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Many people were climbing up the bridge to the top in groups. It’s a tour that’s available here.

We walked around the harbor area called The Circular Quay and watched all the ferries coming and going as we did so. There was also a cruise ship, the Carnival “Spirit” docked right there on the Quay and passengers were boarding for their cruise.

At the head of the quay, there was a larger ferry station on the water side and, opposite that, on the other side of the street was the Sydney train station. The area was very busy with people.

We caught a taxi back to Darling Harbor and then boarded the shuttle back to the ship. After we got back aboard, we ate a quick lunch and now Jet is taking a nap while I write this.

Tomorrow is a sea day as we head to other ports.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad Jet changed her mind and you both toured around Sydney.

We think the same way -- you never know if you will get back to any place.

[bay guy]

February 12, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Today has been a day at sea while we travel to Hobart, Tasmania. It’s been a cool windy day and most people have stayed indoors due to the strong winds on deck.

We’ve been busy doing laundry, playing trivia and bingo and doing on line things. I went to crafts class and made Jet a pair of earrings while she had her hair cut. The young lady who did her hair did a great job.

We had a great high energy show this evening. The entertainer was Andy Joy from Australia. He did a full hour of songs on the piano and, believe it or not, the accordion. He had a nice singing voice and the ability to get the audience to sing and clap along with him as he entertained us.

He apparently has two piano bars in the town he lives in which are quite successful, which I can see considering his entertainment skills. Unfortunately, he’s leaving the ship tomorrow and won’t be with us to do another show.

We were told by the captain earlier today that we are going to be leaving Hobart early tomorrow. We are leaving at 9 p.m. versus staying over night and leaving early the next morning for our next port. There is a big storm moving in which is predicted to have 40+ mph winds and seas up to 24 feet! Because of this, the captain is changing our route after leaving Hobart and we are skipping the port of Port Arthur because it is a tendering port and the waves in their harbor are expected to be 6 feet. Also, Port Arthur is on the western side of Tasmania, which is where the storm is supposed to have the greatest impact, so we’re going to stay on the eastern side of Tasmania in hopes that the land will block a good bit of the wind and the waves won’t be as high.

The change in plans will put us at sea on Wednesday and hopefully allow us to make our next 2 ports in Tasmania on Thursday and Friday.

Wish us luck! The ship has handled high waves pretty well so far and hopefully we won’t have anything higher than what we had earlier in the trip.

 

Until tomorrow.

[kazu]

Is it Cyclone Gita which is causing the issues with your itinerary? Poor Tonga is being hit pretty hard.

 

Hope you manage to get ahead and avoid it and have fair seas afterwards.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sorry that you will be missing a port. Hopefully taking a different route you will miss the worse of the storm.

[bay guy]

February 13, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Once again, we lucked out with the weather today. It started out being very cloudy and looking like it was going to rain any minute. After a couple of hours, the sky had cleared and it was very comfortable with a nice breeze.

We had a great day visiting Hobart, Tasmania, and its surrounding areas with Paul from Let Us Show You Tasmania Tours. We started out with a tour around the city so we could see the highlights. It’s a very clean prosperous looking city with lots of history. As many others of Australia, this area was first settled by prisoners sent here from England and Ireland. Most of those sent here hadn’t committed any serious crimes such as murder, but instead had perhaps stolen some bread or other item which would have had them spend 5-7 years in prison.

When the prisoners were sent here, after they’d served their sentences, many, depending on the type of work they did or skills they had, were given land grants or perhaps enough money to start their own businesses. There was no going back to England.

After we saw the city highlights, we went to visit The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. They were beautiful and had several different sections we were able to visit using the wheelchair. They had a beautiful fern house and Japanese garden area.

From the gardens, we went to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary where we were able to see many of the animals indigenous to Tasmania including Tasmanian Devils, koalas and kangaroos. We were fortunate to see one of the koalas feeding, which is unusual for daylight hours since they’re nocturnal animals. We also saw a Tasmanian Devil which was interesting. The Devils are marsupials and can give birth to as many as 40 young, the size of a grain of rice, at one time. Unfortunately, the females only have 3 or 4 teats for feeding in their sacs so when they give birth, the first young to make it into the pouch and claim a teat are going to be the ones that most likely live. The others will most likely be eaten by the mother. That’s survival of the fittest at its most extreme!

They had several kangaroos in a large enclosed area. Most of them were relaxing in the sun when we were there but a few did get up and move around.

After leaving the sanctuary, we went to a small town named Richmond which was very quaint and had lots of stores and shops. We went into a bakery and had a delicious croissant sandwich. I also sampled a Lamington cake, which had been recommended to me before the trip. It was a very moist layered cake with a cream between the layers and a coconut crust on the outside.

After leaving Richmond, we went to an overlook to be able to see the areas we had covered during the day and take some pictures. We had Paul drop us off at the ship after that while he took the other 4 people in our group to the top of Mt. Wellington for a higher elevation look at the area.

After we were dropped off, we stayed in the terminal to use some free wifi and then came back aboard the ship so we’d be ready for our early departure due to the storm.

Tonight, we have a Mardi Gras party.

Paul also showed us pictures of a large fire they had at the Circular Quay in Sydney yesterday. It was right in the area we had been walking the day before.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you had a decent day in Hobart.

Enjoying your reports and pictures.

[pianobargeelong]

February 12, 2018

We had a great high energy show this evening. The entertainer was Andy Joy from Australia.

 

Hey bayguy!

Thanks for your lovely words! I really, REALLY enjoyed performing for y’all last night! Such a vibrant, energetic audience for a long cruise.

If you are ever in Geelong (near Melbourne), you’ve gotta make the trip to http://www.pianobar.com.au for the “full experience!”

Really wish I could have stayed around for a second show.

Wishing you the most memorable and awesome of cruises as you continue your Grand Voyage around the world!

Love and blessings,

Andy Joy

[bay guy]

February 14, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Well today has been rocking and rolling day. We’ve had winds up to 78 MPH and seas of at least 12 feet. The captain has stayed closer to the eastern shore of Tasmania so we can use the land to block as much wind as possible.

We were eating breakfast earlier today and the captain announced that it was most likely to get significantly worse about 12:30 because he was going to change course to go through some straits for our next port and the wind would then be blowing almost directly at the starboard side of the ship. He told everyone to secure loose items in the cabins and the crew to secure everything inside and on deck that hadn’t already been secured.

About 15 minutes after he said to secure, the ship listed to one side for about 10 minutes. All of a sudden, everyone looked like they were walking up hill and our little ladies in the Lido serving line had dishes flying towards them off the counters.

When we returned to our deck, the fire door leading to our corridor had apparently been jarred loose and closed. It took everything I had to be able to open it and get it back to its locked position. Luckily, there was another man in the corridor who came over to help me with the final push needed to lock the door in place.

They gave us all chocolate bars for Valentine Day and gave the ladies a red rose as well. Due to the inclement weather, they postponed the Valentine ball. The dining room and Lido are decorated with hanging hearts.

Not sure if we’ll be able to make our stop tomorrow. Just depends on the storm we’re in right now.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hope you stay in your cabin and don't do a lot of walking around the ship.

Stay safe.

[bay guy]

February 15, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Another rocky day at sea while we make our way to Kangaroo Island for our next stop. It turns out that the highest winds we had yesterday and over night were 86 mph with seas up to 26 feet. The captain said when we started hitting those large waves that he basically brought the ship to a dead stop to keep us from being pounded by those waves and waited until things calmed down some before picking up speed again.

We still have 50 mph winds and heavy seas but the ship isn’t pounding and moving quite as much as last night. As a result of our slow down, we’ll be about 4 hours late arriving at KI. We haven’t heard if the port stay will be extended any, so people may take their full tours, but we’re hoping it can be since our next port, Adelaide is just a short distance across a narrow channel from KI.

Our captain has done an excellent just protecting the passengers, crew and ship from what has been a strong category 1 hurricane, or as they call them in the Pacific, cyclone. The ship has handled the waves exceedingly well in my opinion.

Since Jet has been so slow to recover her walking strength, we went back to the doctor again last night. He did a battery of tests which showed a normal EKG but the blood work showed high normal white blood cell counts and slightly low potassium and the chest X-ray, while not showing any overt signs of pneumonia, did show some small areas which could be signs of infection. So, she’s now on a third stronger antibiotic and potassium in hopes that the tough bug in her system will finally succumb to treatment. I kind of blame the doctor at our family practice back home, not our regular doctor but a fill in, for not prescribing a strong enough antibiotic for the sinusitis she had before we came on the trip which may have allowed that bug to just sit and fester and cause all the subsequent problems she’s had. However, that’s water under the bridge right now and we just hope she responds to this antibiotic. The ship doctor did mention having her see someone on shore if it doesn’t but we’re not really keen on doing that unless absolutely necessary.

We had a great show last night done by guitarist Louie Shelton. He was excellent and has played the guitar on many hit songs done by a variety of artists. Everyone from The Jackson Five, to Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand and The Monkees, to name a few. He’s supposed to do another show tomorrow night which we’ll be sure to attend.

Well, that’s about all for now.

 

Until tomorrow.

[erewhon]

Hope the seas become calm enough for you to tender at Kangaroo Island.

[bay guy]

February 16, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

We finally made it to Kangaroo Island. It’s been a long rough journey from Sydney. The captain mentioned that the route he took was not supposed to have winds higher than 60 MPH and waves higher than 12 feet. Of course we had 85 mph with gusts to 100 plus 27 foot waves at one point. He lamented the point that meteorologists are often wrong in their predictions and we ended up suffering the consequences.

We were supposed to arrive her at 12 today but, instead, made it here at 10:45 a.m. We have a set ship tour today, having canceled our previous private tour since the operator couldn’t accommodate Jet with a wheelchair, so we don’t leave until 12:45.

We leave for Adelaide this evening and will actually dock there around 10:30 tonight instead of in the morning. The captain said there is a large container ship due in tomorrow morning about the same time we were scheduled to dock so the port manager gave him the option of coming in tonight versus possibly being delayed in the morning as they docked the container ship before us.

We had a nice surprise when we went to Lido for breakfast this morning. It’s Chinese New Year so the Lido was decorated with lanterns and large dragons and tonight they will have many Chinese specialty foods for dinner.

Our servers and hotline staff in Lido are awesome, The ladies working in the hot line that fix our plates as we select our food know our names, even though neither of us have told them what they are, and they usually know what we want for our meals. For breakfast, the servers know Jet wants tea and I want OJ and they usually have it ready shortly after we sit down. It’s funny because some of the servers “fight” over who’s going to prepare Jet’s tea for her and she sometimes ends up with 2 cups sitting in front of her plus, sometimes, multiple glasses of cranberry juice since she’s been drinking that to help with her potassium.

Even though it’s only been about 2 days since she started her new antibiotic, Jet seems to be responding well and is able to do some things she couldn’t do before without getting exhausted. Still not 100% but at least there’s some progress versus basically being stagnant before. I’m starting to kick myself for not taking her back to the doctor sooner.

Well, we’re getting ready to leave for our tour so I’ll be back after we return later today.

Later in the evening.

Well, unfortunately, the wind picked up right before we were going to board the tender this afternoon, which caused the tenders to really bounce up and down at the ship side landing. Jet and several other folks who had mobility problems decided not to take a chance on getting hurt boarding the tender so she didn’t go ashore but insisted that I go. To show you how every single person on this ship is service oriented, when I started to push her back to the cabin, the cruise director, Hamish, saw what was going on and he took the wheelchair from me and, despite him basically being in charge of the tender loading, moved her back inside and then got a crew member to wheel her back to our cabin. Just can’t say enough about this crew!!!

When I boarded the tour bus, the ship tour operator had actually reserved a couple of seats up front for us since they knew we were dealing with some mobility problems. I took the seats at first and then saw two older ladies who were really struggling to get on board and told them to take the seats and I moved further back on the bus.

Kangaroo Island is about 100 miles long and 50 miles wide. It was first discovered around 1802 and settled by the British. It’s actually the first area of Australia we’ve been to which was not settled by convicts who were shipped here as punishment. It’s mainly a tourist destination as well as a large farming area with large sheep farms.

The tour was OK. We drove to Penneshaw Bay, which was beautiful for pictures, and then went to the town of Kingscote where we had over an hour to walk around and check things out. It was a nice town. I got something we needed from the local pharmacy and then stopped in a bakery and had their version of a Lammington, which is a cake pastry popular in Australia. It wasn’t nearly as good as one I had in Hobart the other day.

Probably the best part of the tour day was when I found a bunch of pelicans in Kingscote. They were much prettier than the brown pelicans we have at home. These had pink bills and black and white feathers. I was able to get close to them because they were in an area where they apparently feed them.

On the bus ride back to the tender, we saw several kangaroos by the road and stopped to take some pictures of them.

When I returned to the ship, Jet was ready for dinner so we went to Lido to see what they had for Chinese New Year dinner. They had added to the decorations and the staff was wearing traditional Chinese shirts and hats and having a good time with the passengers. We ended up eating in the main dining room because they had some food items which were more appealing to us.

After dinner, we went to a cocktail party we’d been invited to by our tour company and then went to see another show done by guitar player Louie Shelton. It was excellent again and he played songs by everyone from B.B. King to Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.

That’s about it for today. It’s been busy and we have an early tour tomorrow in Adelaide.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you made it to Kangaroo Island. Sorry that the seas got rough an tendering was bad such that Jet didn't make the tour. Glad to hear that Jet is responding to the new medication.

[bennybear]

Glad you made it safely and that now hopefully Jet is on the mend.

[bay guy]

February 17, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Today was a long busy day. We spent the day with another couple touring the Adelaide, Australia, area with Greg and Beth, husband and wife, from CP Tours and Charters. For the last 14 years, they have run a lunch and dinner cruise boat on one of the local rivers. At the first of this year, they leased the boat to the captain they’ve had for about the last 8 years. Instead of sitting home, they decided they would do tours with their van.

We had actually booked the tour with another company but they had a larger group touring Kangaroo Island today and asked Greg and Beth if they’d take care of us. Boy did they!. They have a great VW van with 6 captains chairs and plenty of leg room with 3 zone AC. It was extremely comfortable and easy to see outside.

They met us at 8:30 and took us through the city of Adelaiade, which is very pretty and well laid out for easy travel. The city is surrounded by large park areas on all four sides which are used for recreational activities. We saw lots of teams playing cricket. The open park land was used to protect the city against attack after it was founded. Anyone trying to attack would have to cross the large open park land areas before they could even reach the city so it was easy to protect.From there, they took us to Loftie Point, which is on top of the local mountain chain, where we got a great view of the entire region because it was perfectly clear today. From there, we went to get a quick cup of coffee/tea and then we went to a cheese shop and a candy factory. Lots of god things to taste and buy in both places.

From there, we went to a nice pub to have lunch. After lunch, we attempted to go to a couple of wineries but one was having a music festival today and the other was too busy to do a tasting for us. So, we headed to the town of Hahndorf which was settled in 1836 by Prussian Lutherans who left Germany to escape persecution. The town still has strong German roots and the main street was busy with lots of shops, pubs and other places to visit. There were a couple of places where people were playing German songs on accordions.

After some time in Hahndorf, Greg started back towards the ship but took a route with took us through some beautiful neighborhoods and eventually along the oceanfront and back to the ship.

It was a long busy day. Jet walked more today than she has been, even though we’re still using the wheelchair and definitely handled the busy day much better than she would have even a week ago.

We leave this evening and have 2 sea days before we stop in Albany, Australia.

One thing I’ve forgotten to mention about Australia is the minimum wage. Up until the age of 18, the minimum is $15 per hour. After that, it’s $22 per hour. That sounds very good but things seem to cost that much more here so having the higher wage doesn’t necessarily give you any more buying power.

When we got back to the ship tonight, our cabin steward came to tell us that we had a hole in our bathroom floor. Since we’ve been on the ship, he’s been working on the floor to remove some rust that got into the grout. Apparently, his supervisor came to look at it today and pressed down on the tile right next to the shower and ended up poking a hole in the floor. With that happening, the ship wanted to move us to another cabin. They gave us a cabin they wanted us to move to and we went down to look at it. The minute Jet saw the cabin number, she remembered that a lady, who apparently had some very serious health issues prior to the cruise, had died in the cabin during the first week of the trip. We’re not superstitious but with all that’s happened health wise to Jet on the trip she refused the cabin. They tried to give us another cabin which was 2 decks below us but we really like our cabin steward team, since they’ve really helped us while Jet has been ill, so I spoke to the head of housekeeping and told him if possible that we wanted to stay on our deck with Deden and Ipa, our stewards. At first he said that wasn’t possible but with more persistence on my part, the cabin right across the hall from our present cabin was suddenly found to be vacant. So, we’ll move all of our stuff tomorrow since we’re tired from our adventures today.

Until tomorrow.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you had a full day of touring and Jet was able to keep up.

It does sound like she is getting better.

WOW -- hole in the bathroom floor. Hope your new cabin is to your liking. I don't blame you for not wanting to stay in that first cabin where the woman died.