Month: February 2024

Hop skip & jump

Dawn as we approach Airlie Beach – we were too large to have any chance of going a alongside, so it was a tender job.


Maureen & I were fortunate in being allocated to the above craft for the trip ashore, rather than a tender boat.

Not that there was anything wrong with the tender boats it was all to do with speed. It was a win / lose situation we arrived at the destination quite quickly, but the faster boat being larger took longer to manoeuvre amongst small private boats to discharge the passengers. The ship’s tender being slower but smaller was able to nip in and out of the other small craft and the passengers from both vessels were disembarked at the same time. QED.

We had visited Airlie Beach before, so knowing of the beauty of the place we were concerned that Cyclone Jasper (13 – 28 December 2023) might have caused a lot of damage.  Fortunately, Airlie Beach had been spared to an extent.
I posted a blog about Airlie Beach in November 2022 so will not repeat myself as nothing seemed to have changed since our last visit.
The above beach scene is part of the man-made lagoon to protect people from box jellyfish which can kill an adult.
The day was hot, and I thought as the hair on my head was getting thinner perhaps I should buy a hat.
The market near the beach, which is open whenever a cruise ship arrives, was the obvious place to buy a hat. I think the last time I wore a hat was during my time at sea in the early 1960’s so this was a big deal.
I bought a hat (which can be washed in a washing machine) and wore it for the rest of our time ashore.
It did protect me from the sun, but it also caused excessive sweating and I think I used the hat more as a fan than a head covering – we live and learn.

Around 5.00 pm we sailed from Airlie Beach to Yorkeys Knob near Cairns.

Flat calm as we slowly edge to our place to anchor.

Prepare the tender boats.

Tender boats away!

We soon built up speed.

It wasn’t long before we were at a boat harbour where Maureen & I stepped ashore with the idea of visiting the small town of Yorkeys Knob, which we had seen during a holiday in Cairns in 1992. It was a short drive from Cairns and just about to be developed.
We looked around a very busy carpark area, coaches being filled with tourists from the ship who had booked various tours. We needed to know how far it was to walk from the arrival area to the centre of Yorkys Knob.
So I asked a tour guide who was ‘collecting’ her ‘flock’ for a tour to somewhere inland.
She pointed to a man controlling tickets and she said get a ticket from him. So, we obtained a ticket at a cost of $25 each (which I thought was expensive for such a short drive, but perhaps my memory was not what is was thirty-two years ago and it was further than I anticipated.
Once the coach was full it pulled away and the driver gave a short chat of welcome as we speeded through a small town. When he reached the end of his welcome chat, he mentioned that the drive to Cairns would be about twenty minutes!
Our small problem was that we did not wish to visit Cairns having visited the place a few month earlier, but we didn’t have a choice – welcome to Cairns, and being a Sunday many shops would not open until lunchtime.

The above is the Crown Hotel, (think pub) which was opened in 1886, but closed as we made our way to a shopping centre.

We walked from the drop off point to the shopping centre that we knew would be open and treated our time in Cairns as a form of exercise – it was easier than walking around the ship.
The driver on our return gave a talk of the damage to Cairns during the Cyclone Jasper (13 – 28 December 2023).
We saw fields still flooded, rail lines damaged, and we were told that three aircraft had been moved to higher ground but all three were flooded and were complete losses.

Cairns Airport during the cyclone. Flood damaged aircraft can be seen.

Our next port of call would be Port Douglas which is 57 km (35 miles) from Yorkys Knob. I believe we took our time and anchored about midnight off Port Douglas.

Port Douglas in the distance- another tender job, but once ashore it was a short walk to the town centre.
I posted about Port Douglas in November 2022 – nothing had changed, and it was still very hot, and my new hat-fan came in handy.

We sailed for Willis Island (a weather station) at 6.00 pm at a speed to arrive just after breakfast.


Sunrise at 05.50 hr as we steered right into the sun heading for our visit to Willis Island. We approached the island slowly & without stopping the ship became tax free. (Think duty free drinks).
Check the November 2022 post for the history of the islands & why Australia has four people living on the island.

Weather or not . .

An interesting place, but I doubt that I’d be keen to spend months on the island.

 Next stop Brisbane.

There are shows &

I can’t help getting up early to watch the sun rise, and as we were on the starboard side of the ship, and we were heading north, photographing the above from our balcony was compulsory.

Each evening at 7.30pm was showtime, if you missed the 7.30 pm show it was repeated at 9.30 pm.

I believe that the theatre can seat 922 people, but we always tried to take a seat no later than 7.10 pm. The shows were popular and mostly very professional.

Sadly, we and many others have walked out of two shows – once on the Coral Princess and once on the Majestic Princess. At both times the act was a ‘comedian’ a female on the Coral Princess and male on the Majestic Princess.
The language was ‘clean’ but the delivery was atrocious. In both cases the comedians used notes as memory jogger and tried  to include the first couple of rows of the audience in to his/her act.
This procedure would work for a pub or small auditorium with a close relationship to the audience, but not in a large theatre where those on stage cannot see beyond the first few rows.
Life on a cruise ship is too short to be polite and tolerate a poor performance when there is plenty of alternative entertainment onboard.

Neither of the failed comics were seen again after the ship left the next port.

On the next night it was time for ‘American Juke Box’ Mikey Vatano

He is a saxophonist, a piano player & a singer. He was very popular.

When it was time for the most popular entertainment, which was Production Shows, one had to make sure you were in the best seat that you could find. People had books to help pass the time and of course most would not be seen dead without a phone in their hand.

  Production show time with the Princess dancers/ singers. Beautiful voices and great dancing, a very professional show. The above pic doesn’t do them justice.

The following night Grant Galea – a singer who was able to sing sounding like Frank Sinatra, Dean Marin, Sammy Davis, Bobby Darin and a few others that I have forgotten. His impression / singing as Dean Martin was good.
Grant Galea

Next night another production show Fiera packed in the audiences.

The following evening was time for a female singer. 

                                                               Katheryn Relf

This entertainer concentrated of Freddy Mercury’s music -she could belt them out but did not try and imitate Freddie.

A change of pace and style for the next evening.

Anna Stephens

A beautiful voice, she sang opera and pieces from various shows – click on her name and you will have a choice of songs that she sings.

We were getting close to our last night of the ten-day cruise and this evenings show was a mix of Grant Galea & Kathryn Relf. I think we were told that they are an ‘item’.

The last production show called Fantastic Journey – once again I couldn’t fault the dancers & singers – very professional, and enjoyable. 

and part of the show joined the passengers . . . can’t remember what the costumed dancers were supposed to be . . .  

On our final evening it was Stephen Fisher-King, I think he joined the ship in Brisbane, our last port of call before Sydney.

Stephen Fisher-King

The cruise was a ten-night cruise, but we always seem to take too many clothes, just in case – perhaps it is the Pom in us that we grew up with the idea of covering all weathers. Those who have experienced an English summer will know what I mean.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge can still be photographed at 6.00 am.

Afterall it is one of the best shows in town. 

Odd thoughts & pics of Sydney

View from our balcony as we boarded the Majestic Princess – one never gets tired of the Sydney Harbour Bridge area.

As we slowly moved from our berth – the fun fair can be seen through the bridge.

Luna Park is the name of the fair, which was opened on this site in October 1936 and is still going.
The bridge was opened in 1932 and once opened the land where Luna Park is located went to tender.
Herman Phillips, his brothers and A. A. Abrahams were looking for a sight to create a fun park, but they were having problems with the local councils and residents. Fortunately, they won the tender and Luna Park as we now know it was opened in 1936.

 The first Luna Park was opened at Coney Island, New York, in 1903.
The above two fun fairs are the only funfairs in the world that are protected by government legislation.

The Opera House, which used to be a tram terminus – the Opera House opened in October 1973.
The point of land is known as Bennelong Point.
In the early 1790s, an Aboriginal man named Bennelong, who was employed by the British as a ‘go between’ between the local Aboriginals and the British, persuaded Governor Philips to build a brick house for him on the point of land. Hence the name.

One of the cheapest way to experience the harbour is to use the local ferries. The cost from the Sydney ferry terminal at Circular Quay to Manly is about $8.80 ($5.50 USD or £4.40) and the time it takes is around 30 minutes.
Manly is on the north side of the harbour near the Gap, and Watson’s Bay is on the south side near the Gap.

Warson’s Bay, which is one of my favourite spots – beach, good restaurant and a pub that offers fish & chips at a reasonable price. 
To walk off lunch it is a short walk and climb to the top of South Head which is a great place to see the harbour and the ocean.

Point Piper

For those with spare cash the view from the above homes across the harbour might be eye watering. A recent sale for a house is thought to have been sold for $69 million ($44.55 million USD or about £35.6 million)- in 2002 the main street of Point Piper was the 9th most expensive street in the world. I don’t have any idea of the street’s ranking today.

The famous ‘heads’ and the ‘gap’ – North head on the left and South head on the right.

Ferry boat cutting across our bow – there wasn’t any danger I had the camera on ‘zoom’. North Head behind the ferryboat.

Approaching the Gap – the vessel on the left is the pilot boat getting ready to take the pilot back to Circular Quay. Not sure about the small vessel on the right.

Pilot boat coming alongside to collect the pilot.
As always it has been pilot’s advice Captain’s orders. The only place where the pilot takes full command of a vessel is during the transit of the Panama Canal.

South Head of Sydney Harbour, pilot has disembarked, full ahead and the cruise has begun.