Day 35 - Wednesday Feb 1 Sydney, Australia Day 1

Sydney photo

position at 6:45 am: S33:51:31 latitude E151:12:37 longitude
(Sydney, Australia)
temperature: 79F, cloudy
distance since FLL: 13,222 miles

We looked out from our rain-soaked balcony about 5:30 and could see the Sydney Harbour Bridge up ahead. So, we got up and headed to the Observation Lounge where we understood from the Daily Passages that they would be set up like for the Panama Canal with narration from the bridge starting at 6:45am by Roger Condon, the Travel Concierge Manager, whose hometown is Sydney. We got there about 6:15am and were not the first ones there. We were approaching the heads. The glass was too spotty with rain and they were not setting up with juice and coffee there. So, we moved up top where they did have juice, coffee and pastries. The sun did come out and although everything was very wet, the weather was pleasant. We stayed up top for the approach to the Sydney Opera House, the bridge and Diamond Princess docked at Circular Quay (where Voyager will move tonight at 9pm). Roger announced that Capt. Dag had gotten permission to do a 360 degree turn in front of the Opera House. It was just 7am and LaVeranda was supposed to open then, so we went down and got a table outside. There were no chocolate croissants today at any of the pastry-offering options, including here. There was also no oatmeal and no eggs cooked to order. Debbie asked and was told that they were expecting an inspection today, so they could not have things they way they usually do. OK, which means what, that it is unsafe the way it has been every other morning? Sometime around 7:45am they did start cooking eggs to order, apparently too many complaints. Since the sign was up at 7am announcing that the special this morning was lamb chops, it was weird that you couldn't get fried eggs. Anyway, we had already eaten by then and the ship was docked so we were ready to go.
After 8am, Jamie started calling deck 6 to begin customs/immigration clearance of the passengers in the Constellation Theatre. Right before he called deck 7, we were in line. It was very disorganized by the locals at that point, although there were about a dozen of them. When we presented ourselves, they were asking each other what do we do, what about this. The guy that stamped our passports couldn't remember if he had stamped them or not and started paging through... We have now been at dock for 2 hours and Jamie has only called through deck 9. Oh well, we will be here for a couple of days anyway. Debbie just walked out on the balcony to check things out portside on the dock and watched two passengers just walk ashore into the terminal building. Security was there and no one stopped them so, we must be cleared. Bye for now!

We got out and went to wait on a complimentary RSSC Shuttle Bus over to Circular Quay. We had hoped to get tourist info at the desk at the Darling Harbour Cruise Terminal but it was closed. We have to go to Circular Quay to get a ferry over to Taronga Zoo anyway and that is our target for today. The shuttle bus stopped right at the corner of George St. and Circular Quay, so we easily found an info kiosk and Transit Shop. We bought 3-day Sydney Passes for unlimited travel and all buses, trains and ferries. We hoped for the Sydney Transit Guide with maps and schedules but he didn't have any. (Cost $100AUD each) We went into the Ferry Terminal building and to Wharf 2. About 10 minutes later we were on the ferry and headed to the zoo. The Sydney Pass got us a 15% discount on the zoo admission. (Regular price is $31AUD for admission and the cable car up the hill to the top entrance.) We rode up and walked back down and through the zoo. They do not have any elephants in the zoo anymore. Not sure when they will be back. We did see the koala encounter, Seal Theater, Feed Giraffes and the Free Flight Bird Show. We saw one platypus in the night area. The platypus is the zoo logo. Sadly, they have no T-shirts with it. It was blazing sunshine, about 90 degrees, 90% humidity and 100,000 children. We were told that this is the first week of school, that their school holidays ended last week. You couldn't tell it by the zoo attendance. We came back about 4pm and wandered the Rocks area before returning to Circular Quay to catch the last Sydney Explorer bus at 5:20pm. It is normally a 2-hour loop bus ride. The 4th from last stop is at King St. Wharf which is adjacent to Wharf 8 Cruise Terminal. So the plan is to ride it to there and get back on the ship for the 1 hour sailing from Darling Harbour over to Circular Quay and the Overseas Passenger Terminal. Traffic was a horrific nightmare and it took us about 20 minutes to get the small loop done at the beginning. It was only the 2 of us plus 2 other men, so after he was so late that he assumed no passengers would be waiting at stops any longer, he started taking shortcuts and re-routes. It was a very informative and amusing alternate tour. We were glad that we did it because we got a lot out of it. The other two men had spent the day getting on and off this bus route and said it was the best part of the day. We enjoyed it. We learned that Australia now has legalized prostitution and that has put Sydney's red light district into a bit of a state of flux. After he dropped of the other 2 men he really started improvising and he dropped us off right in front of the gate to Wharf 8 Cruise Terminal. The security guard there watched with her jaw dropped and waved to him. Then, she laughing told us that well we had gotten a very personalized tour. We told her she was right. It was past time for that bus to have made its last stop at Circular Quay when it dropped us off at a place it wasn't even supposed to be. We made a good choice.

We cleaned up quickly and got to Compass Rose by about 8pm. It was a slow night and we only ate 3 courses. We got back up to the cabin before 9pm. We sat out on the balcony for the short sailing. The ship did a spin in Darling Harbour and then off past lit-up Luna Park, the Sydney Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and then docked at Circular Quay. We are now docked on the starboard side, so we have a view of the Sydney Opera House. It is an impressive view. We stayed up to watch the movie "Capote" tonight and then to bed.

Sydney photo