Things are proceeding uneventfully...we are in the Perth airport waiting for our flight to Tokyo
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| restaurant staff farewell |
Cloudy, 22 degrees, bits of rain
Despite waking up at 5:30, this
morning was the most uneventful morning in a long while. We woke up, checked
the tweets, saw the Trudeau press conference, realized that anything new wasn’t
significant
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| restaurant staff farewell |
enough to change our extraction plans.
On a typical disembarkation day, we
would have to be out of our room by 8 and off the ship by 9, today Australian
customs doesn’t want anything to do with us until 10…fine with us…our flight
isn’t until 10PM, so we have nothing but time.
As we approached the gangway to
the exit the ship, a few of the senior staff were there to bid us adieu…this is
nice. We then turned the corner, stepping foot off of the ship nearly all of
the 450 crew members lined
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| seems a bit too happy to see us go! |
either side of the dock applauding and waving good bye…not
just us, but all of the 500 passengers disembarking. If we weren’t weepy before,
this display did it, it was very moving. Normally, this would have been lovely,
every cruise we form relationships with crew, but these aren’t normal times, and
this isn’t a normal goodbye. This farewell lasted for about 3 minutes as we
zigged and zagged our way away from the ship. Faith, one of the restaurant
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| house keeping staff...Leah, our steward waves |
maître
d's who dealt with our almost nightly window requests, shouted “good bye table
by the window”. This said it all…although there were 500ish guests, they
remember you.
Once again, I have nothing but praise
for the ship’s crew. Most of the passengers were not planning to disembark in
Perth and most of us were scrambling to find a way home. However…we all have the
means to do this, I suspect few of us are on our own – away from our nearest family…most
of the crew are not in that boat.
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| chefs |
As I’m writing this, sitting in
the business lounge in Perth, anxious to board the first of our 3 flights to
get home, I’m fighting back tears. All of this emotion is exhausting…I hope to
use it to my advantage and pass out hard on the flight…I’m not holding my
breath.
We decided to send one suitcase
with the luggage delivery service Regent was offering…that makes hauling our stuff
easier. However, we
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| bar staff |
could do it. Some passengers had to scrounge up boxes and bubble
wrap for their stuff, we saw some couples with 7 boxes/cases to ship and
keeping 4 with them…wowza. Most of these people drove to the port at the
beginning of the cruise and never expected to have to get on a plane.
Most people didn’t have flights
until this evening or over the next few
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| pre lunch pint |
days – Regent was putting everyone up
in hotels. We had a ‘day-room’ at the Ritz Carlton Perth. We weren’t sure what
a ‘day-room’ would be…it’s a hotel room for the day. We were able to dump our
stuff before we checked out the city, take a nap and then a shower before heading
to the airport. I’ve been in some half
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| Ritz Carlton |
decent hotels and I’m pretty sure this
is the nicest hotel I’ve been in.
After we checked in, we wandered
around the city centre (the CBD – central business
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| add from the Perth news paper |
district, very common term
used in Australia), did some shopping, found a pub for a pint and came back to
the hotel for lunch – we were given an allowance to use at the hotel. Next was
a nap, shower, check out, too early to get on our transfer, one last drink and
we’re off.
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| in flight meal |
The flight was DEAD! Maybe a
quarter to a third full. I choose the Japanese
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| safety demo |
option for dinner…I can have steak
and pasta any day…but raw fish,
miso soup and lotus root on a plane…bring it!
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| safety demo |
1 comment:
wow... I can only imagine the emotions you, and the crew were feeling. Tough day , tough situation for all... But happy you were on your way home!
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