Approaching the berth at Brisbane Cruise Terminal.
It was a beautiful day although we did have a light shower when in the city, which was about a thirty minute drive from the cruise terminal.
One of the main shopping areas in the city.
we hurried passed this building – I wasn’t taking any chances!
Further along the same block of shops we came across Chanel, and a strange site.
The entrance door to the shop is at the lefthand site of the above picture (near the pink model) and a long queue of Chinese tourists from the entrance snaked all the way along the Chanel window well passed the Chanel sign and nearly all were on their phones. We didn’t see any other nationality, so I assume that Chanel Brisbane prices were cheaper than the prices in China.
This bridge across the Brisbane river was interesting.
It is the Kurilpa Bridge and is the world’s largest hybrid tensegrity bridge. Only the horizontal spars conform to tensegrity principles. It is a multiple-mast, cable-stay structure based on principles of tensegrity producing a synergy between balanced tension and compression components to create a light structure which is incredibly strong. It is 470 mtrs (1540 feet) long and the bridge is only for pedestrians and bicycles. It was originally known as Tank Street Bridge, but later after a competition it was renamed Kurilpa Bridge, which is an Aboriginal word for South Brisbane, and means ‘place for water rats’.
On our return to the ship I watched the crew handling large inflatable rafts, some inflated and others deflated.
Majestic Princess – eight lifeboats on either side, plus two rescue boats.
I looked towards the bow of our cruise ship and I saw crew members working on deflated ‘rafts’ on the wharf – the above picture is the closest I could find on line. Try and imagine the above rafts deflated without the Shute. There were four of five on the wharf.
I didn’t pay too much attention until later when I heard that our departure would be delayed. From memory we were due to sail at 5.30 pm for a leisurely day and night cruise to Sydney.
What I could gather later was that the repacking of the inflatable life rafts ready for use in an emergency, had not gone well, and we could not sail until everything was ‘shipshape’.
In fact we were delayed until after midnight because it was illegal to sail without the life rafts being ready for use.
The delay would mean that we would be anything up to six hours late arriving in Sydney and passengers had flights booked, the ship had a pilot booking for about 4.30 am to enter Sydney Harbour, and the berth was booked with labour waiting. Plus could the Majestic Princess be ready in time to accept new influx of passengers for the next cruise.
A delay was unacceptable.
Our last day onboard and I could feel the ship moving at a higher speed than we were used to as we ‘raced’ for Sydney. The Captain did comment over the public address system that he was grateful for a southerly current that was adding to our speed.
I believe our average speed during our cruise would have been 17 to 18 knots (a knot is about 1.15 mph), but now it was travelling at a faster speed – the maximum speed that the Majestic Princess could do was 23 knots, and I think she was doing the utmost to recover the lost time in Brisbane.
Our Captain was successful being only a few minutes late as the Majestic Princess‘s crew passed our moorings lines ashore as dawn was breaking.
All was well for the departing passengers and the ship would be ready to accept a new group of passengers around lunchtime.
silverfox175 