Embarking the Majestic Princess at Sydney, Tuesday 26 March 2019

The previous evening, we hosted friends Felicia and Nick, and Felicia’s parents, as well as our house sitter, Isaac, to wood-fired homemade pizzas. Felicia offered to drive us to Maitland station the next morning, but Nick turned up instead. We were at the station a little earlier than expected, just after 8:00 am. We caught an earlier train, and consequently had to wait a while at Newcastle Interchange for our express train to Sydney. We changed trains again at Central and alighted at Circular Quay. We had our first glimpse of the Majestic Princess at the International Passenger Terminal as the train pulled into the station. Our scheduled boarding time was 1:15 pm, and we were 25 minutes early. Despite receiving multiple messages requesting us to avoid being early, we were welcomed into the processing system, and we entered our stateroom on board at 1:25 pm. The process was much smoother than last year when we cruised on the Sun Princess.

Our stateroom (fancy name for a cabin) has a balcony with two chairs and a small table. It is quite private. What an upgrade from the interior room we had on the Sun Princess! By this time, the clouds had gone, and it was a beautiful, clear day—Sydney looked glorious!

We were just too late for lunch in the dining room, so we were recommended to go to the buffet, which is called Marketplace. We found this to be rather confusing, and although were starving as we had not eaten all day, very little food looked enticing. We eventually filled our plates with a seafood rice dish. Later, we found grilled vegies and beef skewers, which would have been a little more interesting. Ian washed his rice down with a Corona, which made him a little happier.

While checking out the Atrium, we came across Trish and David, who are also members of U3A Maitland. They have come cruising with friends Peter and Christina. We arranged to meet up for an early dinner in the dining room.

Dinner was lovely—three courses with waiter service. We watched the Majestic Princess cast off and head down the harbour from our dining table. The others went to an early show after dinner, but Katie and I walked around the ship and checked out the impressive indoor and outdoor gyms. We had an early night after a long day. We are now cruising!