John and Gloria Travels

MONDAY 20.5.2013 Had a lovely leisurely drive up from Shell Harbour with Kaz and Reg, it was wonderful of them to drive us up to the White Bay Cruise Terminal in Sydney, boarded the Sea Princess by about 12.00 and had lunch whilst awaiting our departure at 4.00p.m. The boat was a bit late leaving heading out at about 4.40p.m., we thought it would be dark before we got outside the heads in Sydney but were very lucky to see everything as we cruised out under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House at about 5.30p.m. Absolutely SENSATIONAL!! views, we don't go much on Sydney as a city but it is very, very pretty. Many smaller boats, ferries etc on the harbour also people walking up the harbour bridge stopped to view the huge ... read more

Hi everyone, we are starting to get a LITTLE bit excited as we are leaving in just over three weeks time on our 104 night cruise, 20th May from Sydney and back to Sydney on the 2nd September. These are our ports of calls Sydney 20/5, brisbane 22/5, Singapore 31/5, KL 1/6, Langkawi 2/6, Mumbai 7/6, Dubai 10/6, Safaga, Egypt 16/6, Aqaba, Jordan 17/6, Suez Canal 19/6, Ashdod Israel 20/6, Athens 22/6, Lesbos Greece 23/6, Istanbul 24/6, Anzac Cove 25/6, Naples 27/6, Rome 28/6, Florence 29/6, Monaco Monte Carlo 30/6, Barcelona 1/7, Seville Spain 3/7, Lisbon Portugal 4/7, Cork Ireland 7/7, Dublin Ireland 8/7, Glasgow 9/7, Normanby France 11/7, Dover England 12/7, Rotterdam Netherlands 13/7, copenhagen Denmark 15/7, Oslo Norway 16/7, Faroe Islands Denmark 18/7, New York 25/7, Antigua Barbuda 29/7, Curacao 31/7, Panama Canal 2/8, ... read more

Well another week has gone by. The time just flies when we are over here, our friend Cam arrived on Sunday for 4 nights, to do some business here so he was very much on the go but had the evenings to catch up. Gloria's birthday on the Wednesday night so we went to Mamasan for dinner, which as always was fantastic, a taste sensation. We have had a few wild storms atnight while here this week, but all in all the days have been fine during the day. Just arrived back this afternoon from a couple of nights up at Amed with our friends Adele, Reg and their son Noah (3). Its about a two and half hour drive flat out but we detoured to Pading Bai and had a very late lunch on the ... read more

Arrived in Bali late Friday night, first time with Jetstar, wasn't too bad! Got business class for $1000, all good which we were all very surpised about, Simon and Lee managed to get two seats behind us so all worked well. Raining a bit here each night but days have been lovely and hot. Simon and Gloria fronted up to the dentist Saturday morning 10.00.a.m. , Simon one root canal and crown and one filling $430, Gloria 6 root canals and crowns and teeth whitening, have temporaries in and go back later in the week to have all fitted. Lee and Simon great company and have been out for some lovely dinners already, new restaurant called Gastroteque, absolutely sensational, amazing!!! also to a couple of old favourites Dahana and to Mamasan tonight. Have one of our ... read more

2.2.2013 Had a night cap of some gorgeous sticky wine we bought down in Hawkes Bay (smuggled back onto the ship in one of our bags). Got out of Auckland Harbour about 5.00p.m. last night, the scenery was magnificent, looking back over Auckland and the North Shore. So we are set sail for Melbourne now, had a sleep in this morning, late breaky, then joined Betty and Muz on deck for a bit of lovely sunshine, bit cloudy this morning, but cleared by about 11.30a.m. Met all our dining buddies in Magnums Bar in afternoon to listen to the guitar player and have a few drinks, there is probably 6 different bars on ship, so plenty of choice there. We have a wine tasting booked for tomorrow for all of us so that should be a ... read more

1.2.2013 Had French night in restaurant last night, very yummy!! Docked in Auckland Harbour very early 7.00am, we had a bit of rain on our bed last night so had to move cabins this morning before we head out to see Auckland. Harbour is virtually in the middle of the city so easy access to shopping, Sky Tower etc. Took the Hop on Hop off bus around to see sites of Auckland, another very pretty city and loads of yachts in the harbours. Betty and Muz went to Sky Tower for lunch but we didn’t want to waste time there so gave lunch a miss and saw more sites. Ship had to sail at 3.30pm so not a long day here in Auckland. Another lovely sunny day 25 degrees, can’t believe the weather, as we were ... read more

31.1.2013 Had a fun dinner with our usual mob last night! Had a fairly early night as we had to be up fairly early for our tour out of Tauranga to Rotarua. Being on late sitting for dinner (8p.m.)it is 10.00 – 10.30 before you know it. Ten of us on our tour of Tauranga to Rotarua, 6 Germans from St Albanks and us 4, they were a friendly bunch and our tour guide Dennis looked after us all very well. Had a bit of a tour around Tauranga and headed to Kiwi 360 where we tasted the different types of Kiwi fruit, juice and also kiwi fruit wine (yes wine again) and then on towards Rotarua taking in the Green and Blue Lakes, then to a very fast flowing river to see the white water ... read more

30.1.2013 Had a fun dinner last night with all our crew but didn’t do a show as we had to be up pretty early for our early morning tour of Napier and Hawkes Bay. Picked up at the boat for our tour of Napier and Hawkes Bay wineries by our lovely guide Mike, who made our day perfect in the area. Being a private tour made it much more personal than going with a big bus tour from the ship, I booked all our tours before we left home. Napier is a very art deco town being just about demolished with earthquakes in 1931 – another very picture perfect seaside place – we were greeted on the wharf with an array of vintage cars with their drivers all decked out in dress of the art deco ... read more