I loved the Melbourne ports. Have a wonderful time. You will see your koalas. Say hi to Carla.

I just went back and read all of these posts. I didn't realize that this was the NZ to Aus cruise. I'm glad you all are having a great time. Frank, we had that room too on one of our trips when we were upgraded! Mmm, learning how to make steak tartare...what a great prize!!! It sounds like a great trip. Frank and Jan, what tours have you been doing and what have you especially enjoyed?

Congrats to Fred on his GPT bingo win!! I bet I know the couple who will be sharing the luscious steak tartar lesson with you!!!

Melbourne ports were great. We did two full days of touring, our first was better went to a wonderful winery and got to see the Koalas up close and personal. Melbourne is really a great city..

FV

I am so enjoying all the news, if not the waves.

We have reasonable internet this afternoon, so I got by blog updated (without pictures) through Melbourne. Hopefully I can keep it more timely this segment.

Weather in Sydney this afternoon is blue skies with light wind after a little rain showers this morning.

We have been off the ship all day so haven't found any Kangaroos yet!

Hi Jan,

Looking forward to reading about your adventures!! Hopefully the ROOs are easier to spot now that you all are in a confined space for a day. :cool:

Finally decided it was time to get the blog uploaded and posted. This morning we are in Manila waiting for clearance. We all have to go through the theatre where they are using thermal cameras to make sure we are not sick. Very easy and not very time consuming at all. It will still take some time to clear the ship, however. Since we are in one day early, they were not able to have the immigration officers fly over to Malaysia and sail with us to Manila to do all the paperwork. The crew can't get off until midnight since all their paperwork was for tomorrow but most of them are already excited.

We are losing about 52 staff and gaining another 52 tomorrow as contracts are ending and beginning.

Enjoying all the roos and wish their segment wasn't so close to being over.

you must be having the time of your lives

I finally sat down and got the blog updated. This has been a great trip and having all the Kangaroos aboard has been a treat. We have made more friends in the group this time and are looking forward to sailing with any or all of them again!

We are continuing on without them. We were told today that the next segment, Beijing to Bangkok is full so guess we will have a lot of new people on board when we return from our overnight in Beijing.

We are about to dock in Xiamen, China and the weather has turned bad. It is raining and cold! We need Ngaire's weather luck today.

The ship is full and the passenger mix is a bit younger. There seem to be several smaller groups sailing together and so far they don't seem to mix. However, it is still early in this segment.

We had a great time in Shanghai. I got our blog updated through Shanghai so if you are interested there is more detail there.

Still missing the Roo's!!

Jan

Jan and Fred, we miss you too. I'm sorry we never got to have the second wine tasting in our Suite--how did the time go by so fast?? We've been home for four days and I'm finally beginning to feel like a human being again after a horrendous bout with jet lag resulting from our flight from Beijing. Hopefully we'll see you again soon on another cruise.

Thanks for checking in Jan. We miss you guys too!! Keep enjoying and sharing with us.

I didn't realize I hadn't posted my blog for several days. I had written it but forgot to post.

Yesterday was the first day we had sun, blue skies and at least a little heat..not too much though. The weather has been a bit gloomy since all the Roos left!

Sailing today towards Ho Chi Minh City. We realized today that we only have 30 more days on the ship....but then there is that 30 days more before we get home that has me thinking about what to ship home and what to take with us!

Jan

Me again...I've updated our blog through Bangkok.

Now we are on our last segment, so sad. The new passengers came on in Bangkok and we have about 550 passengers. Haven't seen a single face that even looks familiar.

Seas continue to be smooth and the weather hot and humid.

Jan

I've now read about half of your wonderful blog. Thank you so much! I know that is a bit of work, but so enjoyable for us!!

Thanks, Cindy. I'm a bit slow in updating it some days. I updated it yesterday through Phuket. We are about to dock in Madras India this morning. It is very, very hot!

The Indian Ocean gave us a terrific crossing. It was like a mirror most of the way with no wind and no waves and lots of sun and a bright new moon!

Not too many days left for us on the ship...but then we have the 30 day post-cruise adventure in Duabi, Oman and South Africa culminating with Roar III second section.

Jan

oh my! i was wondering how you were going to get home and then head for Africa. How silly of me, of course you are just staying on. What a fabulous trip of a lifetime. I am so sorry we will miss you in Africa. What stories you will have to share over a glass of wine with your group. Enjoy!

Finally, I got my blog updated and posted. My laptop has been giving some problems until I discovered that a small paper had got caught underneath it and had caused it to continue to overheat and turn itself off. Think I have that fixed now.

We are in Cochin, India after spending two days in Sri Lanka. I say two days because we had to miss Galle because of swells and weather that would not let us tender.

We really liked Sri Lanka and would go back there if we were ever again in this part of the world.

Jan, just caught up with your blog and enjoyed reading all about your adventures. So many of the excursions you've chosen were different than ones we've chosen so really enjoyed reading all about them.

Thanks for taking the time to take us along.

I have been following your blog as well, and have really enjoyed reading about your travel. Asia is one part of the world I haven't visited (except for Turkey), so that has been really interesting to me, esp your reports about Sri Lanka.

I am really behind but I posted an update yesterday. We are off the ship and onto our next30 day adventure. This resort, Al Maha Desert Resort about one hour out of Dubai is fantastic. The wildlife is not as extensive as Africa. BUt the scenary and the resort is fantastic. The food is the BEST we have had In over 110 days we have been gone. If anyone is coming to Dubai for more than a couple of days, you must come here.

Jan