March 31. Back Home.

After our epic 19 day adventure and a very long 30 hour travel day we got home at about 7:30pm last night. We were on American Airlines on the way home. Delay of an hour out of Sydney while we were on the plane, they had to fix a seat or something, but we made it into LAX on time at 7:30am (after departing at 12:30pm from Sydney... going back in time!) It took the rest of the day to get home. First through the chaos of LAX, though passport control was seamless. So stupid that they make you collect and recheck your bag, no other country makes you do that (at least that I have visited). Then we were on a flight to Dallas, short layover, then home!

The trip couldn't have went much better, I am so happy there were no travel delays or other issues. I can't wait to read back and see all the things we did that I probably forgot about since the trip was so action-packed.

I realize I didn't post much about the actual cruise... We basically just used it as a floating hotel to get to the next destination. Our room was nice, dinners were good, and wine and cocktails sufficient. If I had a criticism it would be that there were several bars but everywhere had the same drink menu, which is kind of boring. And I don't know why they had a wine menu when almost everything on it they didn't have. But the service was amazing, there wasn't an unhappy or grumpy person our whole cruise.

Our room was room 10608... Perfect considering I didn't get to pick the room. It was easy to remember - 10 plus Madison's area code 608! It was small, but it had tons of smart storage. I loved the shower water pressure and our little balcony was great, especially when we were in Milford Sound looking at the Fiords. 

 

And the carpets in the hallways had fish swimming toward the front of the ship to give you some frame of reference. 

It was really rocky a few nights. Especially when we were crossing the Tasman Sea. We wondered how rocky it has to get for the crew to put the puke bags out on the stairs. 

Fun abstract art was all over the ship. This was our favorite.

On the two sea days we just relaxed around the ship. I gambled in the casino a little bit in the morning. We played bingo. We had a wine and cheese tasting class the first day at sea. On the second day we did a margarita tasting class. The head mixologist on board had a funny toast before each drink. 

The toasts I thought were the best -

"May we all have the chance to prove that money can make you happy."

"Rejoice and be of good cheer. Because they are out there and we are in here!"

"Cheers to the floor. The only one who will hold you when no one else will."

Dinners are always a big event on a cruise. 

We ate at the free restaurants a handful of times. In "Taste" we happened to get the same awesome server Ni Luh twice, and when we came in the last night she was beating people back telling others we were her customers and she was waiting on us. The other main dining room "Windows" was huge and we only ate here once. Fittingly, it had gigantic windows looking over the back of the ship out to sea. There was also a complimentary Asian restaurant "Silk" which was pretty basic with small portions and only okay food... only needed to eat here once.

For the specialty restaurants, as previously discussed Teppanyaki was good food, but so loud. We ate at Cagney's Steakhouse twice and I had two delicious steaks. Onda Italian was delicious twice, especially the variety of flatbread pizzas we had for appetizers. And Le Bistro French Restaurant was too fancy for us... most of the food was weird, so we only ate here once. But the main dish of lamb two ways was tasty.

 

There was a show in the main theater every night. We made most of them. There was a comedian who was decent, a fun magician, and an acrobatic show that we missed. The two productions show on the ship were "Blazing Boots," a fun country music show and "Elements," a Cirque-like show that had SO MUCH dancing and was a bit boring. 

Our favorite bars were Spinnaker Observation Lounge, Magnums Wine and Champagne Bar, and Waves Pool Bar. 

There were just under 1900 passengers onboard and 889 crew members from 54 countries. 

Norwegian Spirit facts:

• Built in 1998, 100 million refurbishment in 2020.
• 908 feet long, 105 feet wide.
• Maximum speed 24 knots (28 mph).
• 9 passenger elevators, 8 crew elevators... we only used the elevator once, on the last morning when we were getting off the ship and had to get our luggage down a few floors.

I liked watching our progress on the tv in our room.

 

Thanks for reading, cheers until next time!

March 29. Blue Mountains and Sydney Day 2.

We were up and at 'em at 5am to get ready to meet our tour at 7. It was a full day tour.

We started with a two hour drive to the famous Blue Mountains and the Great Dividing Range, mainland Australia's most substantive topographic feature.

"The Three Sisters"

There were several lookout points that were varied and interesting, especially as the morning fog and clouds cleared.

Then we went to Scenic World, site of an old coal mine that had been turned into a tourist attraction with three fun rides.

From there we ate lunch at a lovely restaurant, The Bunker, which had great views.

We went to Featherdale Wildlife Park where we saw lots of Australian animals and got our picture taken with another koala, Sage

Dingoes

We were reaching the point of exhaustion, both with the day and the trip. We drove back closer to central Sydney and had an hour ferry ride to get back to the central business district and our hotel. The ferries were like subways, but on the water in the bays. It was cool to see how fast and efficiently they made the stops and what a common mode of transportation it is. 

We went back to the hotel and refreshed after our 11 hour tour, had a drink at the hotel bar to cheers an awesome trip, and then had a delicious last dinner outside on the bay at the Eastdocks cafe. 

Overall, Sydney was nice and we could have spent more time exploring, but we saw a lot and it ultimately seems like a city for the ultra rich. 

March 28. Sydney.

We sailed into Sydney Harbour at 4:45am and went right past the Opera house. Bucket list item box checked!

We pulled into port for the last time. The ship traveled 3,911 miles on our amazing journey. 

Everyone had to be out off the ship by 9am, but we got up early so we could meet Ben, our Aussie tour guide for the day. (It was no small task getting packed up after 12 nights in our room.)

We drove around Sydney Harbour, the largest and deepest natural harbor in the world. We passed the Sydney fish market, the 3rd largest fish market in the world. Sydney has 250 beaches and we saw a lot of them today, some may say too many. :) 

Greater Sydney has more than 700 suburbs and runs from the coastline to the Blue Mountains and surrounded by national forests. There are around 5.5 million people in Sydney, half are immigrants or children of immigrants. The average home price in all Sydney is around one million dollars, closer to four million in the harbor area.

We learned that Sydney was built by convicts.  Convicts from England couldn't be sent to America anymore after 1776 independence.  England didn't know where to send them but Captain Cook had arrived in Australia in Botony Bay in 1770, so they decided to send 11 boats of convicts on the nine month journey to sail to Australia. They arrived in 1788 and the land was claimed by England, one week before the French arrived. Our guide said if not for America winning our independence, Australia probably would have been claimed by the French and they would be speaking a different language and eating croissants today. 

Our favorite part of Sydney was the old area "the Rocks", This is where 100,000 convicts arrived between 1788 and the 1850s and were forced to work in the rock quarries and cut out the sandstone by hand to build the city. There were many beautiful buildings in this area where you could see the hand pick marks on the sandstone blocks.

We had a glorious visit to the outside of the Opera House. It was sprinkling for about a half hour, which apparently scared people away because we had the place practically to ourselves.

A Danish guy was the architect and he was fired before it was complete. It took 14.5 years to finally complete at a cost 10x the initial estimate. It opened in 1973. It has six theatres, the largest seats 4,700 people. The silicone tiles on the building are self cleaning when it rains... How handy!

We had lunch at world famous (or at least Australia famous) Bondi Beach. We also saw several more beaches around the bay, saw gorgeous houses, heard about some military history, and then headed back to the central business district. 

We got checked into our hotel, Intercontinental Sydney at about 5pm. We were pretty exhausted. We got our traditional first cocktail at the Treasury bar in the lobby, walked around the Rocks neighborhood and got dinner and dessert and then went to bed early.