Today we docked in our final Australian port of Darwin, where we have another overnight stay. Arrival time is 14:00, so we have booked an optional excursion – Eco Cruise.
Prior to arrival Darwin, the Galley hosted an amazing buffet for all World Wonders pax, sailing from L/A to London. It was a special German buffet, with some excellent food and drinks.
Another scorching hot and humid sea day, where the aircon in some spots throughout the ship is struggling to keep the ship cool. As soon as an external door is opened, on walking outside it resembles walking into a brick wall, then the immediate area inside the ship get assaulted with hot and humid air.
Viking have provided us with an extremely generous compensation package for missing a few ports, so this morning we met with the cruise consultant to review options. Read on to determine is we booked another cruise.
Thursday Island is one of a few small islands, just off the northern tip of Australia, in the Torres Strait. Two of the neighbouring islands are called Wednesday & Friday Islands.
The revised itinerary only has 1 sea day between Thursday Island and Darwin, so the original departure time of 18:00 was moved ahead to 12:00. Therefore, our time ashore is only a couple of hours, or little more than a quick walk around the harbour.
Based on the heat and especially the humidity, most passengers only lasted an hour or less, before heading back to the ship.
Having taken almost 400 photos yesterday during our Magnetic Island tour, today was mostly sat at the laptop working on photos. In addition to a repeat performance from Tobias in the evening, the entire entertainment staff hosted an afternoon atrium concert.
This is another of the new ports added since we boarded the magnificent Viking Sun. Noumea in New Caledonia was the first new port and we had a great overnight stay. Well, Townsville was equally impressive, even if the weather wasn’t overly co-operative.
Read on for lots of photos, including Judi holding a Koala.
Cruising down the coast from Cairns, our ETA at this coastal and most picturesque town by the Whitsunday Islands was 11:00. It is another tender port, requiring a 25-minute tender ride to reach the shore.
At breakfast, we experienced really heavy rain and about 30 kt winds, which aren’t the safest condition to operate the tenders. Read on to find out if we made it ashore.
Well, Cairns is certainly living up to its reputation of being a tropical rain forest during wet season. Above is the view from our balcony this morning, and this is the clear side of the ship. When we went for breakfast, it was raining so hard, we could barely see the first buildings.
We had a tour booked up the mountain, further into the rain forest and after yesterday’s tour, Judi was hurting, so after breakfast we decided to skip the tour and spend a quiet day aboard the ship. However, I did go for a stroll around the Esplanade and picked up some postcards and t-shirts for the grandsons.
Arriving in Cairns, which is located in the Northern tip of Queensland, we are definitely paying the price for our gorgeous calm sea day yesterday. Cairns is located in a tropical rain forest and this is the wet season. Well the weather didn’t disappoint, as we experienced the equivalent of a monsoon.
As we docked in Cairns, this was my first view of the shore OMG !! Viking have taken us to heaven, with a brewery at the bottom of the gangway. Life just doesn’t get any better.
Wow!!, what a day aboard the magnificent Viking Sun. As seen above, we finally achieved smooth sailing, with virtually no wind and swell. The Noon announcement from the Captain and Bevan certainly caused a stir aboard, with many scurrying back to their cabin to check out the notice, being sent to the cabins confirming and expanding on the changes provided in the announcement.
We also had another first today, trying out the Infinity Pool.
With the virus spreading throughout SE Asia, Viking made a bold decision to completely by-pass the entire area. A few days ago, we received the amended itinerary for the current segment that ends March 9th, but they were still finalising segment 3, from Bali to Bombay.
During the Noon announcement, the Captain advised the itinerary revisions are complete and a notice is being delivered to the cabins.
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