Day 5 - December 19th - Brisbane

The ship arrived about 6am and was moored on the starboard side.  Our first port of call. In the past, we have boarded in Sydney and enjoyed Melbourne and Hobart en-route to NZ but by boarding in Auckland, three days at sea before Brisbane and four back to Port Chalmers, with scenic cruising in Fjordland for a day.
This was the first time we’d been to the new Brisbane cruise terminal and few seem to have a good word for it.

Modern it may be, but just a shed miles from anywhere.  We rang our friends who said they’d be arriving between 9:30 and 10:00 but the impression was that they wanted everyone off the ship by then for the zero count. We tagged on to those departing and had to queue to hand in our arrival cards which no doubt will just go into a waste bin somewhere.

There is a Coca cola machine and snack dispenser inside, then there was a coffee cart outside, but there appeared to be very little outdoor seating as people were perched on concrete walls awaiting their transport.  A good job it was bright and sunny.

As it isn’t a port where there are cruise ships in nearly every day, I doubt there’ll will be any demand for businesses setting up in the vicinity of the port either. However, for transit passengers there was a complimentary coach laid on to the DFO shopping outlet which is fairly close to the airport. That is where we were heading.

Although Brett hates shopping, he put up with us again and I bought two Rodd & Gunn polo shirts for $110 (3 for $99 last time) and filled my $33 box at the Lindt shop - ($28 last time). Overall, we found prices more expensive than previously.

A ginger beer and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich at Coffee Club – they were advertising a turkey sandwich, but had run out of turkey.

Across then to Dan Murphy’s and I just grabbed a 2 litre cask of tawny port for about $12. (A mall glass on the ship is about $8.75 I think).  We hadn’t intended opening the cask, which was perhaps as well as it was confiscated back at the terminal anyway. In the past we have managed to get a bottle of port on board but the ship’ screw member wasn’t having a bar of it.  As far as I can gather, you can’t take spirits or beer on board, but there is nothing in writing that I have seen that bans fortified wine or cider.

Obviously those embarking at Brisbane had been delayed as we were stuck behind them at X-Ray, so returning to the ship wasn’t really very quick.

We had an early dinner with a good table of eight. I felt a little off colour, but nothing more than that, so we watched a film on the cabin TV.

Tomorrow, I’ll bite the bullet and pay for a day’s internet.