Viking Sun docked in Darwin
Our final few hours in Australia aboard the magnificent Viking Sun on the 2020 World Cruise, now called the “Magical Mystery Tour”. We had booked the included excursion to a local museum, but Judi slept in today, so I went for a stroll ashore, heading up to the town.
I might even have found a purveyor of craft beers around the waterfront.
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.
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.
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.
We were scheduled to dock in Brisbane at 08:00, departing at 17:00, but last evening we received another “Bing Bong” on the P/A system, throughout the ship. Due to the inclement weather, Brisbane Pilots would not board during the hours of darkness, so not boarding about 05:30 put us alongside at 11:00. To facilitate the tours and crew and pax to enjoy the port, the Captain delayed departure until 21:00.
This post will cover our time ashore and the evening aboard ship. I will do a separate post for the arrival photos.
The Farewell Performance is normally scheduled for the last sea day before a TAR port, but with the little storm causing extensive movement up fwd, especially in the Theatre, the show was postponed until after arrival Sydney.
Read on to view a few photos from the Segment #1 Farewell Show. Continue reading
After 3 busy days in Sydney, a quiet and relaxing day at sea, is just what the doctor ordered. However, with yet another Cyclone brewing in the Pacific, it was more lively than quiet and peaceful. Certainly not as rough as between Hobart and Sydney, but certainly not smooth sailing.
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