Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Sydney - cruise turnaround day

Yesterday was the end of the first part of our back to back cruise, the 8 night Tasmania and Melbourne  portion and we returned to Sydney to disembark all the passengers and embark new ones for the 11 night New Zealand cruise.
We received a letter in our stateroom the night prior giving us instructions regarding the procedures for this day.

The first cruise was a domestic cruise so there was no need for customs or immigration processing. 
Even if we were staying in for the New Zealand cruise we needed to be processed out of the country by customs and immigration staff.
Last time we did this on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, the customs staff came on board the ship so we didn't need to go ashore to he processed.

This time our letter was very confusing so we asked at the Passenger Services desk and they told us we had to get off at 10.00 am and would not be allowed back on until 11.30.
This was after we had been told 3 different things by 3 different staff members and our letter said none of this.
Anyway, whilst we were not keen to get off and fight our way back on with 3500 embarking passengers, we got off the ship and went for a walk and stocked up on some goodies for the next 11 nights. 
We returned to the terminal at 11.00 and went straight up to the waiting area and then waited to board with the first group of boarding passengers.
We took some nice photos ashore so that was worthwhile.

 
 
 
 
Once back on board we had some lunch and then  relaxed.
We did not have to attend the emergency drill again.

The afternoon cleared up and we took some nice shots of Sydney harbour from our balcony.

 
 

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