Travel Blog: Extra Time in Sydney

February 28 to March 4

…is never a bad thing! Except in order to get it, we lost our scheduled stop in Hobart, Tasmania on February 29. It was also supposed to be our first World Cruise Shoreside Event…but because of the continued bad weather in the Mighty Tasman Sea, Captain Vorland had decided to sail far enough up the coast of New Zealand to get north of the storms before crossing to Australia.

So we had an extra sea day as well as the additional time in Sydney.

But first, despite the storms and weather after we left Milford Sound, we had another pretty sunset, after which we paid another visit to Umi Uma.

The Entertainment Team had put together special show for the next evening – one that is only performed on the world cruise, for all guests, not just the world cruisers. This one was a Tribute to the Sound of Music. And to be in keeping with the theme of the evening, a few of the staff got to dress up - Stacey, the World Cruise Hostess, and Barkeeps Henrique and Natalia:

Stacey with Cruise Director Rick

Henrique and Natalia serving beer outside the theatre

The show was great – they played scenes from the movie on the screen behind the stage, and then the singers and dancers appeared to ‘take over’ from the movie and perform the songs. It was a lot of fun and really well done. As Larry said, probably one of the best shows we’ve seen on Crystal, and we’ve seen quite a few!

We arrived in Sydney on March 1, a day ahead of schedule. And because of this, we were anchored quite a distance from Circular Quay for the day; but every cloud has a silver lining – this meant that our tender pier was right between the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. We had arranged to meet our friends Terry and Kerry for lunch at Doyle’s on March 2, so we had the day to wander around without a schedule.

Monica was actively knitting, and getting a lot done, with the ‘world cruise knitters’, many of whom she knew from the last couple of years’ of sailing segments, and they had all been talking about a yarn shop that was a ‘must-visit’ not that far from Circular Quay. So we went there - yes, she did buy some yarn - and as the shop was near the bridge to Cockle Bay, we walked over there afterwards to find somewhere to eat lunch.

Cockle Bay is full of restaurants and bars, the nightlife area of downtown Sydney, so we wandered around in a very hot and humid day, until we found Blue Fish, a restaurant where we’d eaten fish and chips a few years ago. And we had the fish and chips again! We’d called it ‘whale and chips’ then because of the portion sizes….and they were almost as big this time! Larry had the fish of the day, and Monica had barramundi fish and chips, because it is local and a favourite.

Crystal Serenity was moving from her anchorage to a berth at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in the evening, a process that would take almost 3 hours in total, so we took a tender back to the ship and had dinner on board. The views of the Opera House in the evening were amazing; it was easy to go outside for a photo, but the wind was so strong it was hard to keep a phone still long enough to take one!

In the late afternoon. The wind changed direction and got
quite strong

Just as we started moving toward the Overseas
Passenger Terminal. That little thing on the left is NOT
a submarine - it was originally a prison; now it's an
event venue.

The next day we had breakfast in our suite – we really had not been keeping our butler Engin very busy at all – before we headed out for a walk before meeting Terry and Kerry to catch the ferry to Watson’s Bay.

Full breakfast service

Some of the architecture in The Rocks district

And our string is still intact -- Scaffolding!!

We met Terry – Kerry was a little under the weather – and headed out on the ferry for our lunch reservation. We had a table near the beach – the very first time we were here, in 2004, we had a table that was actually ON the sand beach! – and ordered the hot and cold seafood platter for two…but shared it between the three of us. They’d changed the presentation, and because we had said we would share between three, they had added a third piece of some of the items. It was always our favourite item on the menu, but we’d found that it was becoming impossible to finish… with Terry’s help, we demolished the whole thing!

Terry and our Seafood Platter

Up close - Oysters, mussels, prawns, crab legs, fish, calamari
and chips

The view towards downtown Sydney behind us

And the restaurant from the ferry

We started to get a little rain on the ferry ride back to Circular Quay, and said goodbye to Terry before we headed back to the ship. Dinner was, once again, soup and small sandwiches in the Bistro.

Some of the homes on the waterfront - if you have to ask, you
can't afford them!

The Opera House, and Crystal Serenity at the OPT.

The next day we definitely needed some exercise! But first, breakfast!! Kathy joined us in our soggy walk to Pancakes on the Rocks, which had moved since our last visit, but not too far away. Bigger space, and, as it turns out, even closer to the Passenger Terminal than it had been before. The meal was delicious, as always. It was still raining when we left, and as it turned out, the weather forecast was right for a change and the skies did clear in the afternoon.

Our exercise for the day was a walk through the Botanical Gardens. As the summer was almost over, some of the gardens had already been cleared of the bright annual plants, but a lot of the perennials were still in bloom.

The Opera House from a different angle. If you zoom in
on the photo, you can see work on one never-ending job --- there
are two window washers hanging part way down the centre window!

As the situation with COVID-19 was spreading in the world, people did have the option of leaving the cruise in Sydney, and a number of world cruisers did so. As our new itinerary would be taking us around Australia to Perth, and then across the Indian Ocean to Mumbai, we decided to stay on. We weren’t sure that we would make Mumbai, but Australia was still safe territory. We left Sydney with 200 world cruisers, 50 segment guests who were sailing to Mumbai or beyond (hopefully!), and 50 guest lecturers, instructors and entertainers; significantly more crew on board than guests.