Steve and Cathy's Blog

Today we rest up from such a busy day yesterday, which included a delightful evening in the Polo Grill restaurant on Deck 10.  It was Patricia Watt’s birthday (a picture of part of her birthday cake heads up this post), and we were honored to be among the eight people invited to dine with her in celebration.  Of all the people we have met on this ship, Pat definitely is one of those whose friendship we

This town, located on the Bay of Plenty 131 nautical miles south of Auckland, was so named “the resting place for canoes” by the Maori, and it is where some of the first ones arrived in New Zealand.  Captain James Cook sailed into the Bay of Plenty in 1769 and gave it its present name because of the friendly and generous reception he was given by the thriving local Maori. Overlooked by Mauao (Mount Maunganui), it

Our day in Auckland was compliments of Oceania Cruises.  There is an Around The World event that will occupy our whole day here.  We leave the ship around 10:00am and board buses for a tour of the city.  We will be dropped off at the 1,076-foot tall Sky Tower for a long lunch at the Orbit 360 Degree Dining restaurant at the 620-foot level at 12:30pm. Our tour guide is also our driver, and he is

By every measure, we are entering one of the world’s most inviting and livable cities.  We have just arrived in this magnificent harbor and already we can sense this.  Even the container port and automobile receiving pier are neat and orderly. It’s 10:00am and we are right on time. Because the itinerary had to be adjusted last-minute, there are no excursions available, plus it is Sunday. Unlike the retail-consumer-ruled United States, most of the rest of

We are tracking pretty much due east, so we will be moving the clocks ahead by one hour tonight. This is the third Sea Day in a row, so Steve is making some progress on his posts.  Today he writes the post on our first day in Bali, Indonesia and starts the second day in Bali post.  The latter (April 27th) is not an easy one, because there is a great deal that we learned about

We wake up at the usual time and see a beautiful sunrise.  The sea is still pretty busy, with 8-10-foot waves rolling at us from the north, giving the ship is pretty good roll since we are heading virtually due east. But it could be worse – way worse – as we find out when Cruise Director Ray Carr interviews Captain Morvillo.  This is a special program put together to explain why the significant itinerary change. 

Right now everything is up in the air.  Insignia left Sydney at 0400 heading due east.  We have started to receive more detailed information on what we are avoiding as to weather.  Steve went on to a Melbourne newspaper website and the weather is predicted to be terrible.  Loads of drenching rain and plunging temperatures, weather so cold that stockmen are being advised to protect their sheep flocks from the weather. Right now we are to

This is going to be a long day no matter what.  It is our only day in the largest city in Australia, capital of New South Wales and voted (according to Oceania Cruise Line) on one of the ten best cities in the world to live in.  That we will spend so little time here is the major shortcoming of this ATW cruise.  We call it a “Bump-and-Run Day” and the only consolation is that it

Tomorrow we dock in Sydney and we already anticipate a very busy day.  So today is catch-up day.  But first Steve has to say good-bye to Shobraj Bachar, or Sho, who has been his personal trainer for the past four months.  Sho must return to his home in Mumbai, India to get some kind of medical recertification that is a requirement for his job on Oceania.  This was unexpected, but unavoidable too.  So he is leaving

Well, we learn first thing that the weather did indeed slow down our ship, and we won’t arrive in Brisbane (pronounced Briz’ bin) until 9:30am.  Our excursion, Mt. Tamborine, Winery & Crafts, was to begin at 8:15, and the ship has to leave Brisbane at 5:30pm. There is no leeway on that departure time because Insignia is to sail 484 nautical miles to Sydney and is to be there, without fail, at 6:00am on May 9th.