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Round Australia with “ Sun Princess “ March 5th to April 2nd, 2009
We joined “ Sun Princess “ in Sydney on March 5th., at Wharf 8, Darling harbour.
Embarkation was very easy and quick, more so as we were Platinum members and had a dedicated check-in; we were in our cabin within half an hour of arrival at the wharf. Heavy baggage was taken by porters as soon as we got to the pier and was outside our cabins within an hour. Hand baggage was given a cursory security search but they did not appear terribly interested in what we were carrying. The liquor policy was certainly not strictly enforced and indeed on this voyage, Princess allowed everyone to take on board 2 bottles of wine ( and I believe beer too ) at every port, worth knowing and ,of course, not widely advertised.( for cabin consumption only, if you try and take it into the dining room they want $20 AUD corkage !! )
Our balcony cabin was A 744 on Aloha deck, which was a last minute upgrade for us from our B cabin on Baja. This was very much appreciated, mainly as it gave us a cabin on the port side of the ship which is the shoreward side on this anti-clockwise circumnavigation; and certainly gave us a lot more to see from our balcony right the way round the coast. It was also the last( after) cabin on the deck and gave us quick access to a very pleasant outside deck, while a bit of a walk to the food and entertainment areas ( but that was no bad thing ! )
Cabins on “Sun” ( and her sisters Sea and Dawn Princesses) are all pretty much standard and are the smallest in the Princess fleet; but still entirely adequate ,comfortable and very clean.
Interestingly enough, we noticed just along from us there were a couple of the same size cabins that were 4 berth ( with bunks) which would have been a pretty tight fit for 4 people ;insides appeared to be a bit more variable in size and worth checking out if that is your preference. Overall , ships staff were very good and pleasant and Captain Andrew Froude was always visible and around the ship.
Front office staff( pursers desk ) were the only exception and were not particularly helpful or pleasant, but did their job. Don’t forget that gratuities are automatically charged to your account at $10 AUD per person per day, but you can cancel that at the Pursers desk and then give what you wish to who you wish. Also it pays to keep a check on your on-board account with the Front desk, as they seem to have unusual and “accident –prone “ accounting methods. We were charged twice for our Darwin excursions and not credited as agreed until we told them; and check the final one too before leaving, a $25 purchase at the shop was debited to ours on the last night which was clearly not ours.
Passengers were well mixed , about 1300 Australian, 300 New Zealand, 150 USA and 150 from the UK. Quite a good age mix too, but there did seem to be a larger than usual proportion of walking sticks, walking frames and wheelchairs. We made some good friends and caught up with some old ones; one morning early in the cruise my wife had her shoulder tapped by an old friend from her college days; and I also met up ,at an Old Mariners get-together, a friend who had worked with me for over 15 years at the Auckland Container Terminal.
Dining and food were good; we used the Horizon Court ( upstairs forward buffet) for breakfast and lunch , and the standard was adequate without being exciting; the layout of the buffets leaves a bit to be desired and at times flow was difficult, poorly designed and seemed to us the wrong food in the wrong places; but after a few days we soon got the hang of how to tackle it for the best. Drink stations ( tea, coffee etc ) were inadequate with only one each side. It was always crowded, with a full ship but we never had to wait for a table. Lunches are “themed” every second day or so ( Italian, Caribbean, Mexican etc.) and mostly these were good ; watch out on theme days as the best part was often set out in the midships area forward of the buffets .
Evening dining was in 2 traditional sittings at 5.45 and 8 in 2 restaurants. “Anytime Dining” was not available on this ship. We had opted for second sitting and decided that it was the best option, as it gave one time to get back from ashore etc, have a shower, and settle down before going to eat. But that is entirely personal preference. Second sitting was far from full so probably better attention and service . Our waiter ( from Romania) was very professional and always very pleasant and helpful; his recommendations for food were always spot on. Food itself in the dining room was very good with plenty of choice and we were pleasantly surprised by how good it was.
Alternative dining was available at the Verdi Pizzeria ,we tried it once and while the food was good the service was awful! The other alternative was the Sterling Steakhouse ( with $20AUD surcharge) in the evening; this was just a part of the Horizon Court buffet curtained off ; though we did have first hand reports that food was very good.
Entertainment was typical of any vessel and was generally of a good standard, 4 main “ production” shows and the rest smaller shows with some excellent, and some passable , entertainers.
We did ,however, think that timings could have been a lot better; most evenings the main show for second sitting was not until 1030 p.m. which was far too late, and we felt that that the show for second sitting should have been on at 7 p.m. and the show for first sitting then at 8.30 which it was. Some evenings that was done and it was much better but there seemed to be no pattern at all, most people thought the same. Any comment to the cruise staff was met with a smile and shrug of the shoulders as “ that was how it was ” . The main theatre is not terribly impressive, and really not big enough for the number on the ship; the alternative Vista Lounge ( aft ) was used for smaller shows and repeats of some of the main theatre shows, and was very pleasant. There were of course plenty of other activities, lectures, trivia, craft and movies to name a few and everyone had their day kept pleasantly full. One thing that caused a stir ( luckily did not worry us) was that all gambling ( including Bingo, shock, horror) was closed for about 10 days from before Broome to after Albany due to West Australian regulations.
Port visits were plenty and varied ; we tended to take the ships excursions in quite a few of them and they were generally pretty good albeit expensive; but as first timers to some places and returns after up to 50 years to others we thought it the best way to get to see places and generally were correct.
Sailing was on time and departure from Sydney on a lovely afternoon at 4 p.m. was a real picture.
Brisbane; ship was berthed well down the river in “container land” due to “Pacific Sun” taking up the passenger terminal and ship ran a shuttle bus into town( small charge).
We took the Gold Coast tour which included a visit to the top of the Q1 building (77 floors and spectacular views) plus free time and then “ high tea” at the Palazzo Versace which was excellent and plenty for a late lunch . This tour was excellent and not expensive for what you got and saw.
We then had to miss Airlie beach ( Whitsunday’s ) as Cyclone Hamish came down the coast and spoilt the party; the ship had to go well out to sea to avoid it and we felt very little of it, coming back into the reef at
Cairns( Yorkeys Knob) where the ship is at anchor and tenders take you ashore. We booked the SkyRail and Scenic Railway return tour to Kuranda and that was another good choice ;a very good day out and excellent scenery especially with all the waterfalls in full flight after the cyclone ; highly recommended.
A couple of days at sea up through the Barrier reef, the channels are extremely narrow at times and of course we had a Barrier reef pilot on board ;very pretty and lovely weather.
Darwin; we had our visit here brought ahead ( was supposed to be 8 to 6 on the Saturday ) but came forward to 12 midday to 10 p.m. on Friday at not much notice. We found out when we got our tour tickets for the harbour cruise and Darwin sight seeing which were supposed to be 12 noon to 4.30 but were given to us as 4 to 8.30 pm. ( useless times) We got them changed back to the original times without too much problem; but the ship was feeding out an implausible story about “ tides at Darwin and Broome” which turned out to be quite incorrect when we found out the only reason was that ”Dawn Princess” was double booked with us for the Saturday in Darwin and it was “Sun “ that was shunted aside. I wrote a letter to the Cruise director about this and other things in Darwin but never received a satisfactory response to this particular question as to why they were not upfront about the reason. Our tour in Darwin started on the wrong foot when we sat for 45 minutes on the wharf for no apparent reason apart from the bus driver saying he couldn’t go until he had clearance ; turned out that there was a wheelchair passenger booked on the tour but they couldn’t get them ashore with the gangway being used. No advice from cruise staff at all ,which was poor. We took the harbour cruise part first which was very pleasant with a glass of wine and very nice antipasto platters. We did not realize until later that the vessel we used was the pearl lugger “Anniki” which had a starring role in the film ”Australia” so that was nice; the rest of the tour round Darwin was conducted at high speed without a single stop as the bus had to “get back on time” entirely due to our late start and for no apparent other reason. We had planned to get off in town and walk around but at that particular moment Darwin had its regular evening spectacular thunderstorm and downpour so we went back to the ship ; those on the late harbour cruise got drowned ! So not the best experience but not as bad as it could have been. We did get a partial credit on our tour after our complaints which were echoed by everyone who did it. For info there is a free shuttle into town from the wharf which we would have used had we been in port at the advertised times.
Broome was the next port; we elected here to do our own thing as the tours were extremely expensive for what was offered. There was a free shuttle into town which linked ,at the Tourist Office,with another free bus out to Cable Beach so we did that and then had a very pleasant time wandering around the town which was a lovely place for tourists. We enjoyed Broome on our own.; apparently the camel rides were very good for those interested and the Hovercraft trip was also recommended.
On then to our next port Exmouth ; we anchored at about 8 a.m. in a howling gale and it was impossible to put the tenders down to get people ashore; we stayed there for a couple of hours but it did not abate so at 11 we up-anchored and away. From what we heard it was the port to miss if you had to, not a lot there. Main thing was the huge radio masts of the Harold Holt Communications centre, ( basically a US centre for submarine communications) which were interesting to see from a distance.
Fremantle was the next call and to us was one of the highlights of the cruise; especially as we had nearly 2 full days there. It is a lovely town, full of historical buildings beautifully restored and we enjoyed it very much. We took the ships excursion by bus up to Perth , also a lovely city, and the Swan River cruise back, which in perfect weather made a great day out, highly recommended. The second day we stayed in Fremantle and took the free bus around to various places, it picks up at the ships side and takes you into town and there is also another free bus around as well, so very well served for the tourists. A great day and we would like to go back and spend more time there and in Perth.
Bunbury, just down the coast was next; here we again took the ships tour, this time to the Margaret river wine country, visiting 2 wineries (Leeuwin Estate and Vasse Felix) with lunch at the latter ;a very pleasant tour, with a call at Busselton on the way ; once again only marred by very poor service at the Vasse Felix lunch, they must have known exactly how many they were catering for ; the service was dreadful( due apparently to lack of kitchen staff) but the food was excellent. This meant we took twice as long over lunch and thus had to race back to the ship to be in time for sailing. But a very nice day nevertheless.
Albany was a very pleasant place; we berthed alongside , not anchored and tendered as advertised, which suited everyone. Here we did our own thing again and something very different; my wife had always dreamed of riding on a Harley Davidson motorbike and I had picked up on the internet that a company did this in Albany; so we booked ahead and both took fantastic Harley rides with a gentleman called Tony, really another highlight of the whole cruise. Albany has a free shuttle bus that goes into town and the bikes are there where the bus stops; they also cater for local tours at the bus stop which were much cheaper than the ship, though we understand the ships tours, especially to the whaling station were very good. A nice little town with plenty to see and do. When the ship sailed the cliffs out from the port were lined with locals to watch us go by ; apparently we were the last cruise ship of the season but again a place we would like to go back to.
Once we were clear of Albany the casino and Bingo were able to open again !
A very pleasant and calm 2 days across the Australia Bight ( notorious for its weather) so we were very lucky with the weather ( all the way round in fact apart from a couple of days out of 28 )
Adelaide was next; ship berthed at Port Adelaide and shuttle buses into the city available at small cost. We opted for the ship’s tour to Adelaide and Glenelg and this was very pleasant and interesting; Glenelg is a seaside area and a nice little town, and Adelaide was also worth a look; we were disappointed with the main shopping area, Rundle Mall, which was a peculiar mix of up-market arcades and tacky $2 shops with loudspeakers blaring; not a good look. For some reason Adelaide did not grab us greatly but we only saw an overview.
Melbourne followed and here we decided not to take any tours as public transport is so great. Ship berths at Station pier and there is a regular tram service into town. Free shuttle buses operate from ship’s side to the tram stop but its not far to walk. Tram tickets are available in the passenger terminal and our $3.50 all day pass ( for Seniors ) was a real bargain. We took tram 109 into town and then saw most of the city by switching trams between the regular services and the City Circle free tram; it was the most beautiful weather that day and Melbourne was alive with people as it was Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend ;which resulted in rather strange terminations of some tram routes, but we saw everything we wanted to ( and some of it twice due to trams doubling back ! ) When we got back to the ship we could hear the Grand Prix car noise very clearly from our balcony, so heaven knows what it was like at the track ! Altogether a very nice day indeed.
Burnie up on Tasmania’s north coast was next, and here we took the ship’s tour to historic Stanley along the NW coast. A very nice scenic drive there and back ; a bit disappointed with Stanley itself which was rather spread out, but Highfield House was very interesting and well presented. A pleasant day out that gave us a good feel for Tasmania’s north, even if the weather was a lot colder than we had been used to so far ! The security at the wharf was ludicrous ;3 times our bus was stopped and we had to produce our cruise cards before getting back to the gangway; and twice the bus was “swept” underneath with mirrors looking for we know not what ?
Hobart was our last port of call and we had nearly 2 full days there. The first afternoon we took ourselves off on the free bus to town and had a good wander around the lower town, very pleasant indeed with Constitution Dock and Salamanca Place; enjoyed it very much.
The second day we took the ship’s full day tour to Port Arthur and this is a must for any visit to Hobart provided you have the time. A very well presented area of the old prison etc., with a reasonable sandwich lunch included, and a short harbour cruise . If you want to take tours and have the 2 day stopover, there are good ones to be had at reasonable prices at the Tourist Centre in town ( where the shuttle bus stops) or even better at Captain Bob’s down at Constitution Dock.
The final day sailing back up to Sydney was the roughest weather we had encountered all trip and did not make suitcase packing easy ! But as we had been so lucky with almost perfect weather elsewhere it did not worry us too much. Disembarkation in Sydney was very easy, colour coded suitcases according to one’s requirements and also that bit nicer being Platinum members where we could wait in the Vista lounge at our leisure to be called ashore. Plenty of taxis on the wharf and we were on our way within half an hour of being called.
What a pity we weren’t able to buy duty free on this coastal voyage; but you can’t win them all !
Altogether a really great trip which we thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone; a lovely voyage to see Australia the easy way.
Our thanks to our travel agents in Auckland, especially for the great deal they found for us, and also for organising the ( included ) Air New Zealand flights so we could spend time with our daughter and family in Sydney at both ends of the cruise which was a huge added bonus.
Our thanks also to “starskyfan” for their detailed review ( published on CruiseCritic ) of the same voyage on
“ Dawn Princess” in October 2008 which gave us a huge amount of extremely useful information to work with.
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