March 28, 2019 - Disembarkation - Thursday, Day 81

March 28, 2019 - Disembarkation - Thursday, Day 81

We were scheduled to leave the ship between 8:15 and 8:45. promptly at 8:15 we were called. We bid farewell to the cruise director and hotel manager as we walked off for the last time. 

In the terminal we had to be seen by immigration since we were reentering Australia from Papua New Guinea. Australia has strict laws about bringing food, wood, plants and shells into the country. We had been warned that the inspection might take some time. You may recall that we experienced a complete luggage inspection on arrival in Perth 3 months ago. We were prepared for the worst. What we got was 4 questions and a stamp of approval. The worst part was that the agent’s computer crashed and we had to wait while he rebooted it.

Now it was on to the luggage hall. Wow, was this organized. The bags were in neat rows by disembarkation group. ours were together. As I gathered the bags I discovered that the new bag had lost a wheel. It is a 4 wheeled spinner so it was still possible to roll it. My guess is that a port worker, not a crew member, was responsible. We did not have time to do anything about it. We had to get to the airport for our flight to Sydney. A very nice lady port attendant helped us get our bags to the taxi line. We had to wait for a van since our luggage would not fit into the small trunks of the regular taxis. 

Half an hour later we were at the Virgin Australia airport check in. A very gracious attendant helped us use the check in kiosk. We noticed some opening of the zipper on the new bag, so she put it into a heavy duty plastic bag in case it opened all the way. This would save all of the contents. Then she taped the daylights out of the bag. It was then placed in a tray for its ride through the luggage system.

For boarding the plane passengers in rows 15 and higher had to go down the stairs to the ground level and then board the plane using the stairs up to the rear entrance. We were in row 17 so we got to “enjoy”this. The 90 minute flight was great. The service was pleasant and personal. This was a very nice experience.

In Sydney we gathered our luggage and I got a cart for $2 Australian. We went to the taxi lane where the controller saw our bags and directed us to the large vehicle queue. There was no one else in this line. We were in our van in just a few minutes. 10 minutes later we were at the Quality Hotel near the airport in Wolli Creek.

Check in was going smoothly until I was told that our upgraded room was on the first floor not the ground floor and there was no lift. I pointed to our luggage waiting outside. He immediately got us a room on the ground floor. I had asked for this in the comments on the reservation form. Katie from the front desk helped with our luggage, and we settled into a very nice room.

After cleaning up we went for a walk. It was 4:00 and the sun would set at 6:30. We had time. a block from the hotel was a very nice little park. We walked through it and across a busy thoroughfare. A few blocks more and we were at a local Chinatown. There were many restaurants and shops situated on the ground floor of several condo towers. We checked the menus, but we decided that we had had just about enough Asian cuisine.

The fellow who checked us in had mentioned that there was a Woolworth near the Chinatown. Woolworth in Australia is a food store chain. We made our way to it inhales that they would have a deli department. We were hoping for a hot roast chicken. Sure enough they had them. We bought the chicken and some chips for a decadent last supper in our room.