2024 – Queen Mary 2 Grand World– Part 2 –Cape Town to Sydney  2.2 Mauritius to Perth

After my successful shopping expedition in Mauritius, on February 9 I was happy to have new clothes to wear for the seven sea days coming up.  I did some more research on Melbourne and Sydney to see what value added I might bring to the experience.  I found a Peter Hosking in my database, in Melbourne and wrote to see if he might be a tour guide I had used before.  I don’t know where the rest of the day went, but we had a good pianist on stage.  He was Tim Abel and I would go see him again. 

The next day, the 11^th, One couple came to tell me that they had handed their visas in, which reminded me to hand in all the ones that I had done.  That way, the ship won’t charge for doing them.  I since found up their rate was $15 per visa, which we all would have paid gladly not to have had to go through the processes.  Three more people stopped by on various bits of business.  Ten of us had dinner in Britannia and we got the Captain’s Table, which was very nice.  You always see the same people.  On this cruise, I see most of them but dinners don’t work for people who barely eat, or have allergies, or are vegan.  I’ll probably never need more than the Captain’s table.  It was a fun dinner and I made it better by buying three bottles of wine for it. Tonight we had another repeat production show, so I gave it another pass. 

Nobody came to the desk at all,the next day,  so I worked on air for my own clients and on our meeting up with the Volendam in Perth.  It had started out with me meeting my one client on the Grand Australia, and there are now nine people joining us from that ship.  And, yes, I know every one of them.  Three were DV people from last year and the rest just friends of theirs and mine.  The entertainment on the main stage was Susannah Miranda and she was good.

We were still at sea on February 13.  They have stopped serving tea in our lovely World Cruise lounge, so I have been getting it at the buffet, and it’s not nearly as nice.  Same food, but the place has no charm.  I had a nice table for dinner, though and went to the main stage show.  It was 4 male singers from the West End, all of whom were good, but the group had little collective charm and I didn’t even like the music.  It was Rock On but it was 2000s music and it didn’t rock me one bit.

Next morning brought email from Peter Hosking, who turned out to be Jo Mayfield’s son, who had once visited us in Napa, with her, when he was working in New York.  He was no tour guide but happy to have dinner with me on our overnight in Melbourne.  That’s probably all I need.  I can’t drink wine like I used to. 

Valentine’s Day can be sad when you don’t have a partner, but I was lucky enough to get a good dinner table that included the Bridge Instructor and his wife, who are from Victoria, B.C.  The pianist, Tim Abel, was excellent again. 

February 15 was anther day at sea.  I did some personal taxation work, so much fun, and got myself a room to give a talk about Hong Kong.  I’ll be giving it on February 19, so another newsletter is in order.  I started working on it, well, them, the talk and the Newsletter.  It’s getting a tad intense, with the good ports coming up.  The good news of the day is that my caregiver and her charge are finally getting an accessible cabin at the changeover in Sydney.  It’s a nice big one, too, a Queen’s Suite.  I checked it on the deck plan.  Wonder if they get to go to the Queen’s Grill?

On February 16, I delivered Newsletter No 9 to let people know about my Hong Kong talk and as a last call for the RPYC lunch.  I also had my HK handouts printed for review.  I have been working hard updating the talk and handout, since it was last used in 2016.  Working on HK caused me to smarten up and book myself in to the Grand Hyatt in Wanchai.  Why would I stay in Kai Tak?  This will mean I can be in the middle of things and have dinner in Wanchai or Causeway Bay and Dim Sum at One Harbour road the next day.  Oh, yes!

I really enjoyed dinner tonight with three of my favorite people on board.  I wanted them to meet each other because I just thought it would work, and it did – in spades.  Now we’ll be going to The Verandah together sometime soon.  We’re losing yet another hour tonight and it’s beginning to take its toll, so I went to bed early.  Tomorrow is a big day.

Early On February 17, 2024 we docked in Fremantle for Perth, Western Australia  Getting 12 people from two ships together to go on an outing is a lot like herding cats.  The smarter the people are, the harder it is, because they second guess you.  Luckily I had a point person on the Volendam who kept that group together because I was having enough trouble on the QM2, with only 2 people besides myself.  They were afraid to turn on cellular roaming for texting, so when we were all at Stairway B, but on different decks, we couldn’t get together – until we did.  I want you all to know, I have a 3-country, 2-phone plan from T-Mobile and did not even tell them I was traveling.  I only use the phone for texting, never a call, and my February bill was up 51 cents.  When I am home, the bill is $45.37 and it was $45.88.  Get that plan and have no fear.   I text like mad on cellular roaming, whenever I am in port and I use WhatsApp on the ship’s WiFi, just to be sure it’s free.  I had a couple of WhatsApp phone calls last month, too.  No charge.

Once we were off the ships and in the Terminal, we could see each other but couldn’t get to each other until we had actually exited the Terminal into the fresh air.  We divided ourselves into three Uber groups and had enough Uber Apps to cover.  The Ubers were about half the price of taxis.  That’s not true everywhere but we did check in this case, FYI.  It was a pretty ride through the town of Fremantle and along the Swan River to the Royal Perth Yacht Club.  The Club Manager came out to greet us and gave us a little tour. 

That was followed by an excellent pub lunch, the usual stuff but well executed and accompanied by four bottles of good Western Australia Wine: Castle Rock Skywalk Reisling, Howard Park Flint Rock Chardonnay, Mazza Tempranillo, and Howard Park Miamup Cabernet Sauvignon, with tasting notes.  These people were running a regatta, so they did their homework in advance and submitted it for our consideration.  We gave it an A+.  What we were really enjoying was each others’ company and the fact that we could meet like this half way around the world.  There’s something very special there.

We bought some RPCYC logo merchandise for bragging rights, and to remember the day.  Then we got one of the old members to take us to “The Bond Room” and tell us the story of their keeled over America’s Cup (see 2023).  We got into a surprisingly technical discussion on the new America’s Cup boats and “foiling”.  I had to look it up when I got back to WiFi.  It’s worth your time.  Google “America’s Cup foiling” and be amazed.  It was time.  We found three more Ubers to take us back to Fremantle, as ships do sail, even when we’re having fun.  We asked ours to give us the scenic route and we had water to our left, just about all the way. 

There was a half hour to spare before Volendam’s all aboard, so Lynann Barnes and just I spent it in the terminal catching up.  That, too, was fun.  We each boarded our respective ships and I went to sailaway and had pizza or pasta at the Chef’s Table.  I was too tired to record which.