Welcome to my travel blog. We are occasional cruisers, usually with the aim of travelling at least once each year.

Previously I have published each cruise with a separate blog. I have now decided to combine them all in a single location. This blogs primary purpose is to keep a summary of our cruises for ourselves.
The Brisbane ship tab is a list of upcoming ships into Brisbane for the ship watcher enthusiast. The photo tab are cruise ship photos. World cruise blog tab has links to follow, making it easier if you access the blog by a mobile device and can't see my reading list on the right.

Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Fraser Island, Queensland

In a media release today, P&O Australia are including a stop at Fraser Island next year. I haven't been to Fraser for a number of years. I'll have to check out the itinerary and see if it's possible to fit a short cruise in.
Details of the media release are here

Monday, 26 October 2015

Champagne Bay tour, Vanuatu

Well, with the change in itinerary, our private tour to the blue hole is still going ahead.

I haven't organised any other tours yet. Maybe over the next weekend I'll shortlist some options to pursue.

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Itinerary change for the Pacific Aria, cruise A550

Well, it looks like my premonition of the wharf works at Luganville Santo has come to fruition.
Today I received an update to the itinerary.
Fortunately the only shore tour booked was at Champagne Bay, so hopefully I'll be able to change the day.
The new ports we pick up are Mare and a half day at Noumea.
The ports we are missing are Isle of Pines and Luganville, Santo.

We have never been to Mare so that will be new and exciting.
Noumea is the first port we called at on our very first cruise back in 2010.

So back to the drawing board for shore tours.

Friday, 16 October 2015

Ryndam review before embarking on last cruise.

I have found a ship review of the Ryndam by Harry Cotterill. It has heaps of photos, recently taken and it will be interesting to see the changes when the ship is in dry dock in Singapore.
The link to Harry's review is here

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

E-Tickets printed, cruise bag tags arrived

Last week, I was able to print our E-tickets and bag tags for our up-coming Pacific Aria cruise. It seems so real now. I'm sure the time will fly past and before I know it I'll be packing suitcases.

Last week-end I dug out the snorkeling gear and ventured to the local indoor heated pool to try them out. The mask leaked badly which was not that surprising as it is many years old. So a new mask is now on the shopping list. Lucky I didn't leave that to last minute.

I'm still agonizing over shore tours. I have sent an email to one company. Hopefully they aren't full. I have found a couple more companies and have been adding them to the list as I go.

There's still 53 days to go and the Ryndam is still sailing it's final cruise before it's transformation in Singapore. I'm really hoping they install a webcam on board. I love to check the weather especially when someone I know is on board.

Sunday, 4 October 2015

Shore tours for Vanuatu

Well this week my cruise bag tags arrived and they look great. They also sent a complimentary credit card size magnifier. With my deteriorating eye sight it will come in handy and will fit in my wallet. E-tickets should be available for printing on Thursday 8th Oct, so next weekend all the suitcases will be labelled ready for packing. WooHoo! only 9 weeks to go.

Back to shore tours... I've decided to make a list of the websites links of private operators at each of the ports to narrow down the selection. I thought it might also help someone else further down the track who is doing the same thing. If anyone has used any of these operators or know of any others, please post a comment below.

 Luganville, Santo, Vanuatu
Port Vila, Vanuatu
Mystery Island, Vanuatu
Isle of Pines, New Caledonia