After two and a half years and 6 cancelled cruises, we were finally away! Originally, it was to be a 12-day coastal cruise ex-Brisbane. However, fate stepped in when that was cancelled and made into two back-to-back cruises. Sadly, that cut out out our visit to Newcastle and our much anticipated Hunter Valley excursion.

Oh well, never mind. Apart from the proliferation of those damned masks and the e-n-d-l-e-s-s queues to get into the MDR for dinner each night, it was all much as we remembered. Although, and here my wife disagrees with me, I felt the food served in the MDR was inferior to what it had been previously. There seemed to be a proliferation of cheaper cuts of meat, slow cooked, and very dense and glutinous. The wait staff tried hard, but it was obvious they were under pressure and harried. The pace was more frenetic, less relaxed.

Then my wife caught the dreaded Covid, probably in Sydney. We were isolated in separate cabins, because I tested negative, and continued to do so. All we could do was stand on our respective balconies, wave to each other and gaze out at the ports we were denied. Then the weather turned nasty, a storm front of immense size moved in and our balcony sojourns ceased. Read more