Second day

Day two of the cruise sees us somewhere north-east of Stradbroke. There is absolutely nothing to see from our balcony except water and flying fish. On a previous cruise in South East Asia there was always another ship, a reef or islands to see. It is a pity that the TV doesn’t show our progress as can been seen on most aircraft flights.

The Ship: The Pacific Dawn was launched in 1991 and it shows in a few areas. The only other cruise we have been on was on a more modern ship from Singapore through South-East Asia.
The Pacific Dawn has lots of creaking noises even in relatively calm weather. Lots of rust has been painted over and external woodwork needs sanding back and revarnishing.

The food is great and there is plenty of entertainment at various locations. The ship has a full complement of passengers (around 2,000) with lots of young people showing off their tattoos and midriffs. On tattoos: many young Australian blokes have just their right arm tattooed. I guess this may be because it costs so much, but I reckon it is because the right arm is the one that hangs outside the driver’s door on the ute. We have urged Katherine to check out the guys in the U.S. when she returns after the cruise and let us know if Yanks have most tattoos on their left arms.

Katherine is our niece and she paid for her parents Dorothy and Mike to go on this cruise. The cruise was booked months ahead and specific requirements were given for cabins and location. Mike has Parkinson’s disease and requires a separate bed and Katherine asked for her cabin to be close to her parents’ cabin to help them. Upon getting to their cabin they found just one double bed and Katherine’s cabin was a long way from Mike and Dorothy. Katherine was/is very upset and harangued the Purser to no avail; probably because the ship is full and once unpacked it would be difficult to get someone to move cabins.

We are a little embarrassed by all this because a couple of weeks ago, we were offered an upgrade to a mini suite for $100 each and took the offer. The difference is well worth the $200. At the time Joan rang Dorothy and told her about the offer, but unfortunately these offers are given to travel agents at random and most likely offered to our travel agent because of volume sales or something similar.

Another full day at sea tomorrow before we dock at Noumea the following morning.

STOP PRESS: Katherine has been given a cabin change adjacent to her parents’ cabin and the bedding arrangements have been sorted in Dorothy and Mike’s cabin. We think that a cabin upgrade has been the key to get people to change cabins for Katherine.