Day 2 – Sydney – Darwin 17/5/12

Day 2 – Sydney – Darwin

Once clear of Sydney Heads yesterday afternoon, Sun Princess set various northerly courses off the east coast of Australia, initially off the coast of NSW, our northerly courses took towards the waters of Queensland, we went past our Gold Coast home about 2pm.

Well the first full day of the cruise could best be described in one word - “SOCIAL”

We have started off the cruise with a sleep-in (by my standards) , not getting up until 7am.

We have committed to start each day with exercise. Our cabin is on deck 6, so very convenient for the promenade deck walk on level 7. We did a one hour walk, at a very brisk pace for an hour. 3 laps of the deck equals one mile, at our pace we do a lap in about 5-6 minutes. There were a lot of folk out doing the same thing, it became quite crowded out there.

We generally always dine in the restaurants, rather than the buffet. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of all is the temptation to load up the plate, and go back for seconds !!!

Down to the restaurant for breakfast, where we met a couple from Australind, WA, a couple and a fellow from Sydney. Good company.

Donna wanted to do check out the Zumba class in the Vista Lounge, and see what it was all about, and stayed to participate in the class. Steve enjoyed watching all these middle age folk strutting their stuff, and making fools of themselves, so much that he has committed to joining in tomorrow...now that should be worth a photo!!

Trivia was held in the straight after that, and we formed a team with cruise critic friends, Marie & Mal, and Kim & Narelle. Wow..what a team, we scored 18/20..not a bad first up effort, but not good enough to win...there were a few teams with a perfect score, and a tie-breaker was needed. Our success needed to be celebrated accordingly, so it was off to the Atrium for a couple of hours of chatting...how time goes so quickly when your just hanging around is amazing.

Lunch in the Regency restaurant was yummy of course. So far bread rolls and deserts have been resisted, not how long that can hold out for !!!

The highlight of the day was the Meet and Greet of the Cool Cruisers – the folk from the online forum – Cruise Critic. It was simply amazing. There were so many in attendance that all the seats in the Shooting Stars were taken, as were rows of chairs that were brought in and placed on the dance floor. About 120 people came along, and we spent 2 and a half hours just chatting with a multitude of people.

As we had been the Roll Call administrator since it was set up on the forum in Jan 2011, we were awarded a fantastic commemorative T-shirt..totally unexpected, and really appreciated. Pam Ryan, a wonderful lady from Tuscon, Arizona arranged the meet-up through Princess. Not only did we have the whole nightclub to ourselves, but Pam had arranged for the bar to be opened, with waiters in attendance. We also had Captain Froude attend with some of his senior crew, which was quite a buzz. It was great for Donna and I to have a chat with him.

We enjoyed the pre dinner show of Irish comedian George Casey, fantastic funny guy who had us in genuine belly laughs. He has excellent timing, and a great ability to play the words.

After another fantastic dinner in the restaurant, we went to the after dinner show of vocal entertainer, Donna Campbell. She does a Dolly Parton tribute show..really really good.

Today set a high bar for enjoyment :)