Our next port of call was Port Douglas on October 29th. We got off the ship and walked around this small town.
The three ports of Airlie Beach, Cairns and Port Douglas all have excursions to the Great Barrier Reef. All of these ports are tender ports, and I had read that often one or more ports are cancelled due to bad weather. In case of a cancellation, you have three chances to go to the reef. We booked the reef at the first port in case of cancellation, so we might still have a chance. That worked well for us. By the time we got to Port Douglas, there were no excursions we were interested in doing.
There is a small church right on the water called St. Mary's by the Sea. It was originally built in 1880, destroyed by a cyclone in 1911 and rebuilt. Then restored in 1989. We were there on a Sunday, so services were being held. No chance to see the inside.
On Sundays, they also have a very large outdoor market. We wandered around and saw lots of local handicrafts and food for sale. A few venders had opals in their raw form. That was interesting to see.
While we were walking around, we saw quite a few of these SUV vehicles. The exhaust pipes coming out of the top is something we had not seen before. Kevin speculated it is to keep water out of the pipes when going through marshy or wet areas.
We visited the Hemingway's Brewery so Kevin could sample a local beer. He said it was good.
Back on board the ship, we were treated to a beautiful view of the full moon in the evening.
When I booked this trip, the itinerary listed Willis Island as a port of call. On October 30th, we sailed by the island at about 9 am. There is a weather observation station on the island, and four people work there. The ship blew it's horns as we went by. That's it. Not what I would call a port of call.
Many birds were flying close to the ship near the island. Not sure what was attracting them. Most of them were albatrosses which was cool to see.
The weather was still nice and tropical, so I decided to take a dip in the pool. The pools on the ship are actually fresh water. All other cruises we've been on had salt water in the pools. This was our ninth cruise, and I'd never been in the pool on any of our other cruises, so I thought it was about time. I also spent some time in the hot tub. Kevin was not interested.
Our next two days were at sea on our way back to Sydney. We arrived early on the morning of November 2nd, and left again around 5 pm for our next cruise to New Zealand on the same ship. We had to change cabins due to an earlier scheduling change by Princess of the cruises. By the time we had that straightened out, our cabin on the first cruise was no longer available. Not that big of a deal. We had to pack up all our stuff, and the crew moved it all to our new cabin. It was located on deck 16 almost at the very front of the ship. We definitely could feel the movement of the ship more up there. Our previous cabin had been on deck 10.
I went ashore for a little while to find some nail polish. I walked past a store with some very beautiful Australian opal jewelry in the window. I did buy an opal necklace while in Sydney, but these rings were more than I wanted to spend, even with a very favorable exchange rate. In the vicinity of $5,000 USD and up.
Here's another view of the ship from the Sydney Circular Quay.
That wraps up our 10 days Queensland Australian cruise. We saw lots of amazing scenery and animals. Next up the adventure continues with a 13 day cruise to New Zealand.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!
