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Tuesday we headed to our ship. After trying to decide between an Uber and a Taxi, we chose wrong. The hotel suggested we’d probably be about even but during rush hour, Uber puts their prices up and the cab is a fixed amount based on distance and how long it takes, regardless of the time of day.

Uber was showing about $20 from our hotel. The taxi charged us $47! There were streets closed and it was rush hour taking longer to get there, but really?!? Lesson learned….

We managed to get on board ahead of schedule and then began to unpack. It’s wonderful to not have to live out of a suitcase for the next month! We also did laundry right after supper.

We have the early seating which starts at 5:30. We have our own table; a bit disappointing. The meals are great, but don’t head to the dining room wearing shorts as Paul found out. Back to the room for long pants….

Our evening show was enjoyable. We’ll have opportunity to hear the group again later this week.

It took us until Saturday to arrive in Vanuatu. They ended up changing the port due to storm damage at the planned pier. It would have meant we could still go there but tender in from the ship, so they changed to Luganville so everyone could go ashore if they wanted.

Next stop Fiji!

Sunday we had booked a sightseeing cruise of Sydney Harbour. First on the itinerary was breakfast however. We didn’t feel like a breakfast buffet at our hotel for $45 each, so we headed outside down to Circular Quay at the harbour. As we left the hotel, we saw barriers along both sides of the road we were walking on. A check with the police standing alongside and we found there was going to be a St. Patrick’s Day parade starting at 11 and ending at the waterfront where we were headed.

We watched part of the parade after eating breakfast and then it was time to board our sightseeing boat.

The cruise was informative and weather perfect. We soon arrived back at the dock and headed over to where all the people were for the party.

The crowds were mixed – people our age, families with babies and young children and young adults. We wandered a bit to see the area, bought a pizza for lunch and then decided we’d had enough noise and headed back to the downtown. We picked up a bit of supper and suddenly I checked out a poster I had seen earlier that mentioned a broadway musical on that night. I quickly checked, found there were still some tickets available and booked them. It was a rushed supper and shower and we were out the door at 5:45 for a 6:30 performance. It was only a 15 minute walk so arrived in plenty of time.

It’s been quite some time since we’ve been to a theatre production and we both enjoyed it. Better yet, it was about half the price of Toronto tickets.

Monday we had a lazy morning and got to the wharf for lunch, not breakfast. While we were expecting a cloudy day, we had nice sunny skies and enjoyed being outdoors. We discovered our ship had already come into port so we went and got some info for our boarding.

After lazing around at the harbour, we headed back to our hotel to spend time packing up and then went and picked up salads for supper. We figure we’ll get a lot of food options in the next month! We enjoyed a soak in the hot tub at the hotel before calling it a night.

Tuesday morning we packed the balance of our stuff and headed to the cruise terminal by cab. Other than getting ripped off by the cab driver for the cost (should have done Uber but were advised we’d be better with a taxi during rush hour), we arrived and dropped our luggage before finding breakfast. We’ll board later this afternoon and then won’t be getting much connectivity until we hit the US.

Australia and New Zealand have been amazing! We’d come back for sure!