Pacific Jewel - Friday 26 August, 2016

ALL ABOARD! The day of our PNG cruise has arrived. Cold but no rain. Embarkation is for around 12.30pm so our morning is nice and relaxed. Our check out time was 11am so we thought we'd venture outside with the first stop being Coles at the World Square for some cold and flu tablets and throat lozenges! Gah, not a great way to start our holiday. I grabbed some fruit and dad had ordered egg and bacon rolls at a cafe just down from Coles for them. We enjoyed our brekky and then dad headed off to find the immigration department to get his re-entry visa sorted. On his way back to the hotel dad passed the grand opening of Krispy Kremes where they were giving out FREE donuts which dad didn't get!!

Brekky time

We checked out of the Travelodge and then made our way to Museum Station to get the train over to Circular Quay. Easy walk except the station doesn't have any lifts or escalators so it was a bit of a struggle with our suitcases, helping us work up an appetite for our first lunch on board the Jewel!

Pacific Jewel docked at the OPT waiting for us

Funny story - when you leave the station you scan your opal card and the gates open to let you walk through. Mum must have been a bit slow walking through, she made it but her suitcase didn't! The gates closed with her on one side and her bag on the other. So funny. I was too slow for a photo!! Luckily a nice man rescued her suitcase for her and lifted it up over the gate. ha ha

Thankfully the Jewel was docked at the OPT :-) so we headed over there and dropped our suitcases off and grabbed the forms we needed to fill out before boarding. The usual immigration departure form and the health form - were we sick? no not us.

Waiting for our number to be called in the OPT

After filling out our forms we headed into the OPT and followed the staff instructions. We had about a 10-15 minute wait, they hadn't started boarding yet, before they started calling our numbers. These we received when we walked into the terminal. We had number 3. They start with VIP and suites and then go in numerical order. Once our number was called we head to immigration, and thankfully dad's visa was all in order, and then onto the check in desks. This didn't take long at all, maybe 5-10 minutes and we were at the desk getting out photo taken and our cruise card. Our cruise has almost started!


After this part we headed to the scanners which took a bit longer. They have two going and generally the only reason there are hold ups is when people don't listen to the instructions. Once through we made our way to the gangplank and arrived on deck 7 just one up from where our cabin was. 6143 here we come!

Almost on board

Our bags were waiting at the end of the corridor so we grabbed them and made our way for our cabin. We were starboard forward outside. Our cabin steward Joannes or Jo for short introduced himself and then we unpacked our suitcases, had a quick freshen up and headed for the...........................Pantry. This is what was formerly known as the buffet. I hadn't seen this before but mum and dad had been on the Jewel after it had it's refit last June so they knew what to expect.

Cabin 6143 - Triple

Love the Pantry. Gorgeous design and the set up seems to work really well. The hardest part is deciding what to have. There a numerous station, similar to a food court but much nicer looking, Indian, Chinese, Fish n Chips, Roast, Sandwiches, Soups and Salads, Mexican and the Dessert stand.

Chicken Snizzy Roll

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pud

After lunch we had a wander around the ship, tried to get our bearings so we didn't get too lost every day. We worked out that if we used the stairs closest to our cabin we came out at the Lido or Dome and if we walked either down deck 6 or 7 and headed up those stairs (or lift) we popped up in the Pantry. These were good if the weather was a bit iffy.

We found a table and ordered our drinks ready for sailaway. Bye Sydney we'll see you in 10 days!

We had a relatively quiet evening so after we'd sailed out of the heads and headed north we had our dinner in the Pantry, a warming bowl of cauliflower soup and a yummy (as always) bread roll and crashed out in our cabin. 

Party animals we are not!