Mooloolaba, Gateway to Brisbane

March 6

Yet one more place name with too many o’s and an odd pronunciation: it isn’t Moo-loo-LA-ba, but Moo-LOO-laba. Your Aussie town name lesson for the day – more to come.

As we had never been there before, we opted to spend the day in Brisbane (that’s BRIS-bin) instead. One of the shore excursions was basically a bus transfer from Mooloolaba to the city, about a 1 ¼ hour drive by highway, and we had planned to take the Hop On-Hop Off Bus to visit the more interesting sights. Unfortunately, when we checked the Bus the day before, we found that it was no longer running. Well, we figured we’d have to wing it since we couldn’t change our minds at this point.

But our tour guide for the bus transfer was prepared. She gave out maps of the city and lots of information on areas to visit and how to get around. Once we arrived in Brisbane, she made sure we knew where we would meet the bus, and led us to the City Hall for the always-necessary bathroom break and a little history lesson. Then she turned us loose, hoping that we would all make it back to the bus for our 2:30 departure – not a minute later, as we would need 1 ½ hours to make sure we got back to the tender pier on time.

The Brisbane River and CBD in the distance

The City Hall - yes, that tower DOES look
like the one in Venice!

We used our 5 hours to the best advantage. We walked toward the Brisbane River, which runs through the heart of the city, and crossed over the Kurilpa Pedestrian bridge to stroll along the waterfront on the other side, passing the Performing Arts Centre and the South Bank Parklands.

A swimming area and beach at the South Bank Parklands

Our guide had told us about the free ferry service, part of the transportation network, called the CityHopper. We found one of the stops just as the ferry arrived, and rode along toward Eagle Street Pier, where she had said we would find lots of options for lunch.

The view from Eagle Street Pier, with Story Bridge in
the distance. You can do a 'bridge climb' on this one, just
like in Sydney.

We stopped at a burger place called Grill’d, which we later discovered was part of a chain, where the specialty is healthy burgers. No matter if they were healthy food or not, they were quite delicious!

After lunch we started walking back along the riverfront, through the Botanical Gardens and back toward the bus meeting point at Brisbane’s ANZAC Memorial.

Even though there were 30 of us spread out all over downtown Brisbane, we all met on time – early, actually, as it was getting quite hot and humid in the afternoon – and had to wait a few minutes for the bus to arrive. And it was a good thing, as the traffic heading out of the city was quite heavy; maybe it being a Friday afternoon in late summer had something to do with it, and we needed every minute of that 1 ½ hours to get back to the tender pier in Mooloolaba.

Mooloolaba is a sort of vacation town for Brisbane - lots
of boats in the marina.

We sailed out of Mooloolaba not long before sunset, and this was another very colourful one.

All in all, it was a good day. We discovered one more Australian city that it would be nice to explore again. The next time Crystal visits the area, it looks like the ship will be able to get to the port in Brisbane, which is being improved and will be reopened for larger cruise ships later this year. Then they’ll probably be offering shore excursions to Mooloolaba!

March 7

We had another sea day before arriving at Airlie Beach, which ended with yet another spectacular sunset. We had never seen the clouds built up like this before – the sky was changing from one minute to the next – over some distant islands. We were approaching the Whitsunday Islands in the Great Barrier Reef.

Our favourite pre-dinner spot at the Sunset Bar
with the whole vista ahead of us. The best
place to see the brilliant sunsets.

That evening Waterside Restaurant was showcasing a menu from the Australian guest chef onboard, Jason Roberson. Fresh made Burrata cheese, rack of lamb and a Pavlova to top it off. The meal was mouthwatering and delicious!

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.

Monica, Kathy and Rene as we sail away from Sydney

Off to continue the adventure. Next stop – Mooloolaba!

Milford Sound

Thanks for waiting so long for the next post! Milford Sound seems quite a long time ago; in fact, it has been just over a month since we were there.

In the interim, COVID-19 managed to wreak havoc with the rest of the World Cruise, along with the rest of the world. We had been hearing about the virus in China as we sailed around the South Pacific, and then began to get news of the spread to Europe while we were in New Zealand. By the time we reached Sydney, Singapore and the Indonesian ports had been closed to ships, and Italy was seeing more and more cases. Our itinerary was changed to stay in Australia once we left Darwin, heading toward Perth, and then across the Indian Ocean to Mumbai. But as we continued, more and more countries were closing their borders to cruise ships, and ultimately Crystal decided to end the World Cruise in Perth.

We didn’t continue the blog then, as we were busy packing up, figuring out how to fly home as quickly as possible, and commiserating with our fellow guests that we would lose the last 5 weeks of the cruise. But we all agreed that it was the best thing to do, and that we should be home with our families as the virus continued to spread around the globe. So here we are, finishing the story from home. Hope you enjoy the photos of the ports we did manage to reach!

February 27, 2020

We left off last time as we were heading into some bad weather in the Cook Strait and the Tasman Sea around the bottom of New Zealand. The captain wasn’t lying when he said we would be rocking and rolling for a number of hours. It was quite rough, with high winds and a lot of rain – we’d had quite a lot of rain on the cruise so far, so that was nothing new – so that the outer decks were closed.

Looking out over the lifeboat deck

From the Deck 5 windows at Crystal Cove

And on the other side of the ship....

As we had been expecting to visit Dusky and Doubtful Sounds as well, we had both a naturalist guide to the Fjordland area and a fjord pilot on board the ship. Captain Vorland was very proud to tell us that the pilot had been extremely impressed by how well Serenity managed the bad weather, as compared to some of the other ships he had been on in similar conditions. But no matter how well she handled it, Serenity wasn’t quite fast enough to get us to Dusky or Doubtful Sounds, and we were told that the sea and wind conditions would have made it difficult to enter them, anyway.

We did make it to Milford Sound, a little later than scheduled in the original itinerary. The good thing of this was that, with all the rain we’d had, the waterfalls in the Sound would be nothing less than spectacular. We were looking forward to this, as our other visits to the Sound were all in good, clear weather.

It was drizzling as we sailed in, but the waterfalls were already coming into view. The very low clouds and mist made it look really eerie and otherworld-like.

There was a lot of fog ahead of us toward the end of the fjord, and the drizzle continued. We were wondering if we’d be able to see the really awesome falls down that way, but the captain and the pilot continued to point Serenity’s bow into the fog. Maybe they knew something we didn’t… We just continued to gape at the amazing scenery all around us.

Bowen Falls, closest to the end of the sound.

Rather than join everyone else on the upper decks at the front of the ship, we stayed on the open aft Deck 11, down from our stateroom. We could hear the commentary, and had nice vistas from the back of the ship. It was also much quieter there, with only about 6 or 8 of us, so we could hear the commentary and move from side to side of the ship as we liked.

The volume of water made for some beautiful
cascades.

A panoramic shot of the sound behind us. Mitre Peak is left of centre.

As we reached the end of the fjord, we noticed that the clouds were lifting, and there were actually blue patches in the sky. Mother Nature was taking pity on us after all!!

The sun finally started to brighten things up.

One of the falls. You don't notice how high
everything is until you see the sailboat.

It couldn't get much better than this!

There was a small tour boat taking visitors who had driven to the Sound on a tour. It was actually great to have it out there, just to give the fjord some scale.

Looks quite different in black and white!

Water was falling from everywhere.

Stirling Falls, the highest in the sound, is
151 metres high - that's about 500 feet, or
the size of a 30 storey building!

The power of the cascade hitting the water

We only had a couple of hours in Milford Sound, but it was well worth it. Nature at its most spectacular!

As we left, the pilot boat from the small community came out to pick up the pilot and naturalist, and we said a final goodbye to New Zealand.