Torres Strait

Just a random Strait that we passed through today. The water is such an amazing colour - it is a great day outside!

Mardi Gras

What a random night as usual... basically consisted of us running around the ship yelling as loud as we can "When the Saints go marching in." I hope everyone had a great Mardi Gras!

Cairns, Australia

Well Cairns was kind of a bust as it was terrible weather all day long. We planned on going Snorkling in the Great Barrier Reef, but because of the thick clouds, rain and wind we had to cancel. Liz and I did hold Koba the Koala and got our photo with him (no Koala pee on me either!) and we met some crazy locals that liked to yell at the shop owners. But you know you're in Australia when the majority of clothing stores in a mall are surf-wear, the number of hair and barber shops outnumber those of anything else, and the liquor stores are drive thru!

Sydney, Australia (Day 2)

Ronan, Jon, Steve and I met in the office at 6:00am for our early morning Harbour Bridge climb. What an amazing experience – highly recommended! I was so impressed with the headphones we wore so that our guide (Melinda, Mel for short) could explain things to us about the bridge and city. They sat beside your ears like sideburns and reverberated on your head to send the sound directly to your inner-ear. 1439 steps and 1.8 kilometres later we arrived back at the beginning and off the bridge. Jon and I then went shopping on Oxford Street and walked back to the ship from there (quite a distance). Needless to say, my feet no longer have an arch to them at all! Sydney was an awesome time, as I think it would be extremely difficult to have anything but that.

Sydney, Australia (Day 1)

Ahh, well let’s just say that it’s so nice to have been in Sydney – very much needed and well received! Jen, I regret to inform you that our giant sushi roll place has closed and a café opened in its place. Johnny, all the usual bars are still around! We had a gorgeous sunrise sail-in and docked in Circular Quay, which is right between the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. As soon as we could, Ronan, Jon, Steve and I got off the ship and went to get a meat pie. The good news is that by law, all meat pies must now have at least 25% real beef… it did taste great, despite that terrifying news! I spent most of the first day just wondering all over downtown Sydney, the parks and the Botanical Garden. The best part is that the humidity is normal and not like the grossly humid tropical islands that we just came from over the past couple weeks. Jon, Chris (from the new Prinsendam cast) and I went out that night to Arq (Johnny, the big room wasn’t open because it wasn’t the weekend), where a lot of ship people ended up, quite random. Monica – from the Prinsendam World Cruise ’06 – lives in Sydney and I saw her throughout the day as well as at the club. It was an early night, however, as we got back to the ship at about 3:30am.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

As usual I dressed as Cupid...

Spreading VD since 300BC...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Noumea, New Caledonia

Lori, Liz, Ronan and I got off the ship in search of La Petit Train... as you can clearly see we found it. Noumea is beautiful with gorgeous beaches and scenery. I would love to take a vacation here, except it is damn expensive being a French location...