Once you’ve been on a cruise, every cruise company starts sending you emails. Twenty one nights cruising to Thailand sounded good and it was on special. We have booked through the US Vacations To Go and got a great price.
We board the Diamond Princess (DP) in Sydney and find our stateroom quickly. We settle in quickly and wander the DP to get our bearings. It’s big at just under 300 meters, about 80 meters longer than the Vollendam which we cruised on in 2009.
We have an ocean view room, which is really quite spacious. We enjoy our first evening’s departure with drinks watching Sydney disappear behind us. We cruise overnight and all the next day. The swell builds during the day but the DP just surges on, without missing a beat. Remarkable smooth given the conditions. We spend a day in Melbourne, just doing Melbourne things, catching trams, walking Collins Street and lunching in a pub. Back on board the DP we disembark for Hobart in the late afternoon.
At first light we are cruising up the Derwent River and dock in Hobart before 8 am. We have already book a rental car for the day and head off to find the office. Before long where in the traffic heading out of Hobart for Port Arthur. It about an hours drive as there’s very little traffic even in the peak compared to Sydney. It’s Pam’s first time in Port Arthur so we do all the touristy things, a tour of the goal, take a boat trip to the island of the dead and visit the museum and the Broadarrow Cafe. By 1 pm where on the road back to Hobart, we stop at the pub at Dunalley for lunch and a beer (best seafood chowder, other than Fisherman’s Wharf).
Australia
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The afternoon is spend with drive to the top of Mount Wellington and a walk around the various lookouts. Well worth the drive if you have the chance. Back on board, we depart for Adelaide.
After a sea day, we arrive in Adelaide. It’s quite early but already hot. I had planned catching up with an old but very unreliable friend who lives in Adelaide. He was obviously bad in a previous life and his purgatory was life in Adelaide. So we walk across the road from the port terminal to find the trains are not running today, but you can catch a bus. We join the line with about 300 other people. 3 buses and an hour later we arrive in downtown Adelaide. It’s now really hot !
We wander past a cancer council shop and buy some hats, we have a coffee. The pool on the DP is looking better and better and we bale out a start looking for a bus.
Australia
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Fremantle is the port for Perth which is an hour or so away from Fremantle by public transport. As neither of us have been here before, we decide to explore Fremantle rather than Perth. The DP has berthed a short walk from the Main Street just up from the Maritime Museum, it’s a great spot.
After a quick trip to the tourist information center, we have tickets for a round city shuttle. We visit the old goal, parks and other local sites before returning. We spend the afternoon walking the docklands and museum, enjoying a seafood lunch.
Time to return to the DP for a dip in the pool and drink as we farewell Fremantle.
Michael and Pam
