AT SEA, Cruising The Tasman Sea – March 3

Overcast, 17 degrees, windy

My plans to spend the day on our new balcony were mostly realized. It wasn’t the perfect day for balcony time, but as I thought yesterday…I forced it. In addition to being huge and off of the back of the ship, our

balcony is sheltered from the wind.

Australian lunch

We were on our balcony until we went for cool by the pool and lunch – WOW, it was like a hurricane on the pool deck and was cold – we felt none of this on our balcony.

After lunch inside it was time for me to do some work. I always create a spreadsheet / calendar for our trips detailing our itinerary. I find this is a great way to always know what’s on the go for each day. When we are on a cruise, there’s quite a bit to keep

view from bed

track of each day; I include each day’s port or ‘at sea’, excursions and their lengths, dinner reservations, and if we are at anchor. I also include any flight, hotel, and transfer details. It’s a lot of work before we leave, but this really keeps us organized with we are travelling. As things change to our plans as we go, I just change by hand. However, this itinerary change we are experiencing is the biggest one ever for us. So, the work for me today is to make changes to and print the new version at the ship’s business

dining table and living area

centre. Mission accomplished it was time for a beer.

As usual, the ship has a selection of local beers. After my successful printing we did some blogging and reading in one of the ship’s lounges. We have been less than impressed with Australian beer. The pubs we visited in Sydney had some interesting beers and many on tap, but not as much variety as we’d find at home or in the UK – I did find that one delicious cider, nothing dark for

desk/bar/coffee area

Chris (not in the summer we are told.) The ship has about 6 bottled and they mostly seem the same. We only had 2, but I think we had the most flavourful ones. I can’t believe I’m doing a beer editorial other than to say ‘blech’, but I’m becoming a bit of a beer drinker (I won’t quite yet say beer lover.

One perk that comes with having a butler (yes, we have a butler in this

BALCONY!!!!!

new room!) is that he will bring us ‘evening canapés. The last thing we need on a cruise is more food, plus the timing of these is during our getting ready or nap time, so we usually say ‘no thanks’. However, today being a sea we thought we’d have them. Of course they were delicious and it gave us a chance to

dinner invitation

chat with Rajib. 
Another thing we hardly need is a butler…I can’t believe I’m writing about having a butler. This is the third time we’ve had a butler and we don’t find we use them too much. However…Rajib totally came through and got the ship’s flax seed ground for me. Without going into too much detail, I’ll say that my tummy needs a fair amount of fiber…travelling and fiber don’t really go together. I try to eat All Bran cereal for breakfast, but would love to just have plain yogurt and flax. The ship has flax, but I can’t seem to

blogging and beer

get anyone to grind it for me…Rajib totally came through!

We had dinner tonight with 2 of the ship’s electrical officers…as usual

updated spreadsheet

when we chat with staff…very interesting.