Day 39 – February 23, 2011 – Sydney, Australia

Jan woke up early again and watched it get light.  We were supposed to have been at the pilot station at 6:00am and we were, but the pilot was not.  Captain Scala did figure-8’s for almost an hour.  Finally the pilot finally came aboard.  Jan did her two miles on the track and had it finished before the ship entered the Sydney heads.

The good thing about being late was that our entry into Sydney was in the day light instead of just before dawn.  It was a nice sail in.  We saw the Queen Mary II docked by the navy ships and the Queen Elizabeth docked in Circular Quay.  The Voyager passed under the Sydney bridge and docked just on the other side at a pier called Barangaroo.  It is basically a big parking lot with a temporary cruise terminal of tents set up.

Disembarkation was a bit of a problem for some as we were one hour late arriving and there were five buses going directly to the airport.  The Australia custom authorities were quite cooperative and allowed the ship to be cleared in stages so they could get those folks off before all the luggage was off the ship.  In-transit guests were cleared just before 9:00am.

We caught the first shuttle into Sydney which left us at the Strand Arcade on

George Street

.  It turned out to be a very good location.  You could walk through the Arcada to

Pitt Street

which was pedestrian for the block between King and Market Streets.  We walked toward the Queen Victoria Building and got a map from one of the information desks in the shopping center.

We stopped and had a couple of coffee while a rain shower passed over.  On the map we discovered that there was a monorail in the area that would take us over to the Darling Harbour area.   We really didn’t want to walk too much because Fred’s feet are doing so much better we didn’t want to do anything to set him back.  So we found the Monorail Station, bought day tickets and rode over.  We walked around the east side, stopping for a rest now and then, around the head of the harbour, and then through the Harborside Shopping Center.

We got back on the monorail and rode over to the Paddington Markets which were supposed to be this great shopping area.  It turned out to be a gigantic flea market with a fresh fruit and vegetable market in one section.  Back onto the monorail which then took us back around to the first stop in the Darling Harbour area where we got off again.

By this time it was 1:00pm and it was time to find lunch.  We had a nice lunch at a seafood restaurant and then walked all around again and back onto the Monorail for the ride back to the City Center station where we got off.  A short walk back to the Strand Arcade and we got the 3:00pm shuttle back to the ship.

You could have actually walked from the ship to the Darling Harbour area.  We saw lots of people walking from that area down towards the shop and that is when we realized you really could walk.  It would have been way too far for us, but younger legs would have made it easily.

Jan saw several of the LCT group at the pool bar but we didn’t connect with anyone later that evening.  We decided that after our late lunch, a cocktail with canapés would be fine for dinner.  So we spent most of the evening up in the Observation Lounge enjoying the view towards Darling Harbour and the lights of Sydney.  At 9:00pm they had “Deserts and Dancing on the Deck” where they duo sang and they had a nice layout of deserts.  We enjoyed a glass of wine and Jan had desert before calling it a night.