All aboard - we set sail from Fremantle

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Today we boarded our ship, thanks to Sophie and Cory driving us to Fremantle docks. We offloaded our large suitcases and went upstairs to the waiting area. As we entered they called for all people with cards #18 to proceed to checkin - the lady at the door gave us #18, so there was no waiting. The checkin lady was a Perth lady who used to work for Qantas, but then she retired and she and her husband do this for Cunard about 12 times/year.

From checkin we went to the next room which was security and X-ray machines. We were all ready to hand over the newly purchased Margaret River gins and Shiraz that we had EXTRA to our allocated one bottle of bubbly each (plus our bubbly stopper and two plastic crystal-look flutes). But no-one noticed the bottles in the X-ray machines, no one asked and we were left with our contraband to bring to our stateroom. I checked Find My Friends as we finally approached the gangway, and Sophie and Cory were well on their way back home.

We forwarded onboard from there and found our stateroom. When Tom went to the fridge to chill our sparkly he found a bottle of champagne in there already. We also have tea and coffee making facilities which we’ve never had on a ship before. Tom put a fridge magnet on the front of our door so we can easily identify it. Our stateroom is much smaller than we have become accustomed to, and the bathroom is minute. Our cabin steward, Larry, came and introduced himself to us. I told him our safe had been left locked and he had a little man come and unlock it within 10 minutes! We had to present ourselves to our muster station before dinner so we went upstairs to the lounge that served as our muster station, presented ourselves and found that it was also an afternoon tea space. We had skipped lunch as we’d had a remarkable breakfast at Rockingham this morning, so we availed ourselves of the donuts (Tom) and meringue (me). From there we returned to our room for a nap, had a glass of champers, and then changed for dinner.

Dinner was in the Britannia Dining Room. We had requested a table for two, which we got - in a row of three tables for two. So there were six of us! The man next to Tom was intent on starting up a conversation. When we were friendly but short he turned to the man on the other side and spoke to him continually, all through his meal. His Chinese wife (for he’d told us all about visiting his wife’s relatives for the Chinese New Year) mostly sat on her phone when she wasn’t eating and didn’t seem to be fluent in English. We also only ordered the starter and main, whereas the people next to us also ordered the soup and salad in between the two courses, and we had to wait for them to get to their main course before ours arrived. I asked why it took so long for our main to arrive and the waiter indicated that it was because it was our first day - which was total rubbish. We are still able to order a bottle of wine, drink some and have the rest put away for another night and we found they have the Billi Billi Shiraz we like so much. There are no Aussie sparkling wines! I had a shrimp and crab terrine as a starter, Tom had a ham hock terrine. Then I had pork medallions wrapped in bacon, Tom had steak Diane. We loved the veg. I did however enjoy a wonderful port with my wonderful cheese selection whilst Tom had some delicious chocolate ice cream.

After dinner we ventured out on deck (where it was still very warm) and watched our departure from Fremantle. There were people lining the river bank, and the break wall leading to the lighthouse, all cheering, clapping, calling out and tooting their horns. It was lovely. As we were leaving the river there was a long string of green lights navigating our way - we went to the north and around Rottnest Island.

Passing trivia: So our ship is on a Round the World voyage, having just come from Mauritius. Some people have boarded in Southampton, some in New York and the others from Capetown. One of the lounges is restricted to people on the full voyage only. There is a large group of Germans.

1200 people joined the ship in Fremantle, doubling the population. An Aussie was making a call to a mate and remarked at how he had to put on a shirt with a collar to go to dinner! He was scandalised and asked if he’d have to get dressed up like this everyday! He was shocked that there were men at dinner in jackets!

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