DAY 47 - WELCOME TO NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA

Had Another Wonderful Time At Prego Last Evening  ✔  Enjoyed The Captain's Farewell Reception ✔  Enjoyed enjoyed The WIne Tasting Tour ✔  


We had an absolutely wonderful time on the ship last evening.

Before dinner, we attended Captain Glenn's Farewell Reception.  This was the final reception for those who will be departing the ship in Sydney, Australia.  It was also the final formal night on the ship.  Formal nights are always special on the ship as seeing everyone so very dressed up adds to the overall ambience on board the ship.

Captain Glenn recognized the employee of the month who is the Switchboard Operator and he also mentioned some of the highlights of the cruise.  The employee of the month receives a nice letter from the President of Crystal Cruises along with a gift certificate for the on board shops, the opportunity to go to one of the specialty restaurants with one other person and a cash bonus.  It is so nice to see that not only the employees are recognized but also are recognized by the Captain at a reception with all of the guests present.  This adds to the family feeling on board the ship.

We sat at the bar as we have at many of the receptions.

Anne Marie with World Cruise Hostess Elise Ivy.  We spoke with Elise for awhile at the Reception and also spoke with several other members of the crew and several of our fellow guests.

One guest we spoke with is named Herb.  We met him last year when he took his first World Cruise and we were on board for a little over half of the World Cruise.   He is around 90 years young and he had such a wonderful time that he booked the 2012 World Cruise but has also booked next years 2013 World Cruise.  He has one daughter that came on for one of the legs of last years World Cruise and she will also be back for one leg of this years World Cruise.

He made an interesting comment when he said for a similar amount of money he could sit in a nursing home or take the World Cruise.  Now in our opinion he is a long ways away from needing a nursing home but it was an interesting analogy.  The opportunity to take such a special adventure appeals to guests in a variety of ways and we think this is why you have a wide range of guests on the cruise.  They range in age, their backgrounds, where they are from, their interests, whether they are traveling solo or with someone else and so forth.  For us, it makes the voyage so interesting having the opportunity to meet so many people with a variety of backgrounds and interests.  It is really part of discovery.  We feel very humbled and very fortunate to have this opportunity and we hope this is conveyed in our posts.

While we dined in Prego last evening, we wanted to begin with the dinner menus from last evenings Captain's Gala Dinner.  As a reminder to view larger versions of the menus just click on each menu.  The same is true for the photos.  The dinner does include some of our favorites including the broiled rock lobster tail.

We dined at Prego with fellow World Cruisers Mike and Sandy.  We had a wonderful time with them. We first met them on the 2010 World Cruise and had the pleasure of getting to know them more last year.  We are on the same Team Trivia team with Sandy.

Our waiter for the evening was, once again, Costa who took excellent care of us.

We each began our meal with a salad and we each had the additional fish of the day which was the Coral Trout which was brought on the ship in New Caledonia.  Keith also had a side order of steamed vegetables.  For dessert Anne Marie had a small scoop of chocolate gelato.  Believe it or not, and be sure to hold onto your hats, Keith ordered a dessert and had a trio of delectable desserts which is shown in the  following photo.

The Specialty Restaurant Maitre d', Antonio, came by our table and showed us how to make a nice garlic spread either to eat by itself or as a spread on the roll.  He was right and Keith enjoyed its taste.

Since this was a formal night and the cruise is winding down Prego was not very busy.  By the time we left there was a lull in the restaurant as no other guests were there.  However, more were on their way as it was a little past 8:00 PM.

We really enjoyed out conversation with Sandy and Mike and we enjoyed a lot of wonderful laughs with the two of them.  All and all it was a fun night.

Later on, we enjoyed a drink at the Crystal Cove with one of the senior officers and we didn't get to bed until around 11:30 PM.  We both slept very.  In spite of getting to bed later than normal Keith was up at his normal time and worked out at the Fitness Center as he does each and everyday.  Friend John joined Keith about thirty minutes before Keith finished his workout. With many tours scheduled for today the Fitness Center was fairly quiet other than John and Keith working out.

On each of three stations the lectures from the day before are shown which makes it very easy to catch any lectures that we missed from the day before.  In this case, Keith watched the lecture given by Former Ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlin whose topic was "How Real is the Threat from Iran?"  She did a nice job of walking through the current situation, the possible options to deal with this situation, possible outcomes and also some behind the scenes communications that are taking place with the assistance of a third party country.  As she said the options are not pretty.  While some of what was presented we already knew from news reports she provided some information that we were not aware of as well as putting it all together which we find very useful.

After his workout, Keith enjoyed coffee at the Lido Cafe as he read and wrote some e-mail.  He spoke with some of the Lido Deck Stewards such as Liebert.  John's wife, and our friend, Linda arrived a little after Keith sat down and also fellow passenger who is known as Doctor Tom as he is a retired physician.

A short while later Anne Marie walked for one hour on the Promenade Deck as we made our arrival to Newcastle.

We enjoyed breakfast in our room. We spoke with Rao for a little while.  We were telling him about how we learned from Antonio about how to prepare the garlic and Rao shared some other suggestions with us about not only the benefits of garlic but also another way to have it each morning.

We just wanted to highlight that while today is Monday it is Sunday in the USA and thus the Super Bowl.  The Super Bowl was shown on each of our stateroom televisions but also at the Hollywood Theatre where hot dogs, popcorn and complimentary beer and other soft drinks were served.  Kickoff was set to start around 10:30 AM so we caught part of the game but we were on tour for the second half of the game.  It will be repeated so we will watch the second half later this evening.

During Captain Glenn's morning talk he reminded everyone to be back on the ship by 4:30 PM (the time our tour was scheduled to return) as we sail at 5:00 PM to our next port of call; Sydney, Australia.  Captain Glenn shared his thought for the day which goes like this.

"We all live under the same sky but we don’t necessarily have the same horizon."

Later in the morning we learned that in addition to the nice weather forecasted for today that the outlook for Sydney looks great.  Hopefully, the forecast will be correct.

With our arrival to our first port in Australia there were several inspections for the ship today by the local Australian officials.  On top of this there was a crew emergency drill for today.  Today's exercise simulated a fire in a passenger cabin.  These drills are very important and we applaud the entire crew for the efforts that they put into all of this in order to make safety the number one priority on the ship.

This is our first visit to Newcastle, Australia which is also a Maiden Port Of Call stop for Crystal Cruises.

Newcastle is the second oldest city in New South Wales. It is rich in history. Its population is close to 300,000 people.  It is located North of Sydney.  It was the  home for the first coal mines in Australia.  Today it is known for its spectacular surfing, its swimming beaches and for it waterfront dining options and its city galleries and boutique shopping.

They receive very few cruise ship on an annual basis at this port.  Most of the shipping activity relates to the transportation of coal.

We booked our tour through Crystal Cruises and it is called Hunter Valley Wine Tasting.

Our tour began at 12:00 Noon so we had lunch on the ship before the tour began.

Our tour took us to Hunter Valley which is the home to over 100 wineries.  As part of this tour we visited two wineries.   The major reason why we booked this tour was not to taste the wine but to have the opportunity to visit Hunter Valley to enjoy its beautiful scenery and we were not disappointed.  We enjoyed the drive to and from Hunter Valley and the pristine areas that we had the opportunity to see along the way.  The drive took about one hour each way and we took two different routes.

The first winery we visited was Lindemans.  Keith was familiar with the winery as they export a good deal of wine to the United States.  Often their wines fall into the low price category.

We did our wine tasting in an area that was outside.  We tasted about six wines.  We didn't really care for any of them, but some on our tour did purchase some wine.

Our next visit was to McGuigan Cellars.

We tasted several wines including a Semillon, a choice of either a Chardonnay or a Gewuzrtraminer, a Shiraz a Black Label Red or a Noon Harvest Merlot and finally at Dessert Wine which was a Personal Reserve Tawny.  Our favorite was the Dessert Wine and if transporting it home was not an issue we would likely have bought a bottle or two.

The drive in and out of Hunter Valley took us past several other vineyards.  We enjoyed a lot of nice scenery.

We enjoyed the tour and we were happy to take a long drive into the country.  The scenery was spectacular with majestic mountains, rolling hills, and lots of greenery all around us.

Maybe today was Keith's lucky day.  On the way home the tour guide said she would look up the final score of the Super Bowl.  Keith whispered to Anne Marie; New York Giants 21 and New England Patriots 17.

Our ship is departing New Castle at 5:00 PM.  Since we do not have too far to travel we will proceed to Sydney at around 10 knots per hour.

We will dine in the Crystal Dining Room this evening and will post all about this tomorrow evening. After dinner we along with several other guests will have cocktails at the Captain's Quarters.


TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.....


“I'd much rather be a woman than a man. Women can cry, they can wear cute clothes, and they are the first to be rescued off of sinking ships.” -  Gilda Radner


Keith and Anne Marie