Blogs from Coral Sea, Pacific, Oceans and Seas

November 1 I haven’t blogged for a couple of days since we were cruising and basically read, slept, ate, read, slept and ate some more. The weather has been lovely but Hot, Hot, Hot and the seas calm. We did attend a show, a combination of a comic violinist and a wonderful concert pianist. The pianist was wonderful and her selection of material was familiar and accessible to a wide audience. I am enjoying a delicious bowl of orange slices and ML is off for a scalp massage. We are now on our way to Indonesia. Yesterday we visited Darwin. The temperature was between 80 and 90 but the humidity was very high. We took the shuttle into town. It is a lovely small city, impeccably maintained, no graffiti and parks manicured. We stopped in the ... read more

Monday – 10/29/12 5:00 am “Good morning, this is your Captain speaking from the bridge. The alarm you just heard was the fire alarm. A fire has been detected in the Security Office on Deck 2. Fire Station 2 crews, man your stations. No action is required of our guests at this time.” “This is your Captain. Please evacuate cabins 2622 to 2657 and 3622 to 3657. All guests in these cabins please assemble in the Atrium.” “This is your Captain speaking from the bridge. There are no signs of fire detected in the area. We are now trying to determine where the smoke in the corridors is coming from. We will keep you informed.” “”This is the Captain. The smoke in fire area two resulted from a filter that failed. It has been replaced and ... read more

Wow! what an amazing experience. We left Brisbane Port onn the 3rd at midday and after being deafened by the mega horn going under the gateway bridge we promptly fell asleep. Two days of only slightly rocky waves left us to enjoy the pool, kids club, restaurants and kids club while we chugged along on our way to New Caledonia. Noumea was our first stop and it was a town that had indeed stopped. the kids played merrily in some gravel, as they always do anywhere we take them, until we were told "that's where the dogs go wee wee". We bypassed the town and went out on a glass bottom boat which the kids loved - heaps of fish to see. Back on the boat and off to kids club for the grommets while we ... read more

Final shots of Cairns pre-Christmas... read more

Hi everyone this is the first time I have used this blog but am quite excited about that as to what will actually happen- anyways we have just got back from an 11 day cruise on Rhapsody of the Sea of Royal Caribbean LInes- or Caribbbbean as the americans call it- to Hamilton Island, Cairns, Port Douglas, Cooktown and back to Sydney. Interesting cruise- Royal Caribbean were quite good but wouldn't rave about them- everytime you turned around they were charging you extra- the shore excursions were outragously expensive and the crew didn't know much about anything to do with Australia unfortunately. On the positive side the ship is really quite impressive- we had a junior suite which was good- the cabin crew and waiters are attentive and the nightly entertainment was quite good.. Anyway wouldn't ... read more

So after leaving Cairns last saturday we arived in this little town (although I'd more say it was a street) called Prosepine just nearby Airlie Beach. We got there at night and then we worked the day after. had to get up at 5 am and leave for work an hour later. and then we picked tomatoes for one day. I got sunstroke and got sick and Lisa pulled through but we decided it was just not woth it. and so we grabbed our stuff and the next day we were out of there. Jumped the next bus down to Airlie Beach and here we are. Stayed at a hostel and met up with our english pal from the plane, and some people from our cruise in Cairns, pretty amazing to meet up again. Meet alot ... read more