Skigoofy

Day 6 Continued
I did it! North Star wasn’t scary. And I am terrified of heights. It felt very secure inside. And there is a place in the middle to stand if you get scared. But, I was right at the window with everyone else! 


Dinner at CK followed...
Fennel Soup

Hamachi Crudo

Sesame Crusted Tuna and Grilled Veal Chop combo. A little bit of both entrees. 


Grilled Chicken Breast

Saffron Linguini 

Dulce de Leche Creme Brûlée 

Chocolate & Berries Sundae

Matcha Cake

Spectra’s Cabaret was the show of the night. We had wonderful reserved seats in the third row center. It was very loud. How loud is it? So loud that we hear it in our room 8720 since we are right above Two70. So being right inside Two70 was crazy loud. I think that maybe I needed a few more drinks before the show to fully appreciate it. It was different for sure. The dancing and athleticism of the cast was entertaining to watch. The singing wasn’t the best to be honest. The Harmony sisters were a little off. I’m glad that I saw the show, but really don’t have the desire to see it again. Ever. 


Day 7 will be St Lucia. No excursions planned. Our only plans for the day are  Flowrider at 4PM and Chops Dinner at 530PM. Super Bowl will be shown at Two70, the pub, and outside pool deck. We’ll see where the day takes us. 

Day 5 - Sint Maarten 
After room service breakfast, we headed out for a shore excursion: St Maarten Beach Rendezvous. This included a bus ride to Kim Sha beach, the use of a lounge chair, and lunch. It was $5 extra for a beach umbrella, which was totally worth it. 



Lunch tickets were provided for the Greenhouse Restaurant. The choices were baked grouper in creole sauce, bang bang shrimp sandwich, beef kebab, chicken in lemon sauce. Here are photos of the grouper and shrimp sandwich: 


 


After getting back on the ship, we quickly got ready for dinner at Jamie’s Italian. 
Our waiter told us that he has been working for RCI for 11 years in specialty dining. That’s pretty amazing! We’re trying to be smarter about our choices, so the Tagliatelle Bolognese and Penne Carbonara are smaller portions. Still couldn’t finish everything. Had to split a dessert: tiramisu. 









After dinner we stopped at the Bionic Bar for a cherry coke for our son. It’s become a bit of a thing. ? Show tonight was a ventriloquist. I’m pretty sure that we saw his show on DCL. Really funny. 


 
Day 6 is Antigua. We have another excursion planned: Catamaran Sail, Snorkel, and Beach Cruise. North Star is reserved again at 5 PM. Followed by dinner at CK. Spectra Cabaret at 830PM. 

Even though I miss the ship already, it's good to be home.
 
We really missed the dogs and it looks like they missed us!

Shout out to "Big Daddy" 
 
This guy was amazing in both aquatheater shows.
 
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Those are for everyone at beach club. The towels were very nice too.
 
Cabana came with 8 or so of them and we had 8 more delivered since the mother in law was cold and taking them all 

Getting use out of that slide. Dont care how windy or cold the water is!
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Mini fridge had lots of goodies. Only the champagne on the top was extra.

 
There was also a water cooler that lifted up.

I took pics of everything lol, just haven't had time to post everything... damn voom is still slow.

I spotted a couple of the divers from fine line . Really cool people. Yeah that's a chicken sammich in my hand. Felt pretty chonky next to them

My in law from florida freezing in 75 degree weather:

 
Me:

Jet skis are life guards patroling the area. No guests on skis  over here

The entire beach club area is very accessible. Cement or wooden paths to every area.
 
Sand wheel chairs, ramps, and the pool is accessible too.
 

Last few for now

It's a raft you can hang on or sit on.
 
Here are some pics of the beach club.

They are moving with the water but only so much. Seems like they are floating to me.
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Today is the day!!!   Here are a couple teasers... more pics of area and menu once I'm back on the ship.
 
 
Holy crap tho lol

We have come to the determination that we are cruise people.
 
This entire trip has been amazing. The staff has been wonderful, the experiences have been great, and the memories will last. Very sad it's almost over!
 
Today I got some alone time on the suite deck to unwind, we toured the bridge, saw the hideaway heist show (another amazing show!!), got dressed up for formal night, and the kid got sick a bit at the main dining room... I don't blame her lobster night made me want to yack too(good thing we had a great lunch at CK!).
 
I recognized a few people in the audience from the Columbus musical. It's odd they seem to want to deny they are in the shows but then gush a bit at compliments. The guy was impressed that I knew he was the main shark, my daughter got a kick out of the one girl when I said I knew she was a cheeseburger. 
 

Factoid: There are some 3 million rivets used in the making of the Eiffel Tower, whereas there were 6 million rivets used to make Sydney Harbour Bridge. Ergo, SHB is twice as rivetting as the Eiffel Tower! Ba-dum, pisshhhh.

Back down to the ship I could see boarding was beginning.   


The cruise terminal has no waiting area inside so appointment times are strictly enforced.  Once the ship is ready to board they’ll open the doors and start looking for early appointment times.

With the new expedited arrival feature boarding is pretty quick and pretty much a non-stop flow through check in, Australian immigration and finally security.
To give you an idea how my timing went this morning, this next picture was at 10:15am as I walked towards the Pylon to start my climb.

This next picture was at 11:41am after I had cleared security and was on the gangway about to walk on the ship.

And with that the cruise can finally begin!

Some views from the top of the pylon:



Granted today is a little hazy so with better conditions the views would be even better. 
There is a small gift shop and some displays that provide facts about the bridge.   There is also a small theater running a video on a loop that talks to the construction and history of the bridge. 

Back down walking off the bridge for the last time:

Once down off the bridge and walking towards the ship on surface streets you can see the lower support sections where the bridge climbers begins the trek towards the arch.

After dropping my luggage around 9:45am I headed back to the bridge!
This time with my backpack full of my camera gear again and I immediately noticed the albatross around my neck on the hike up.   I had a free pass to the Pylon Climb and time to kill before boarding so... 

The Pylon Lookout is found on the first Pylon walking up the bridge from Sydney.  It opens 10am to 5pm and normally costs $19 AUD for adults.

More stairs, a total of 200 to reach the top.  No lift. 

Part of the way up the stairs get wider.






More bridge climbers.

While not as stunning as the sunrise yesterday, this will do.





Security walking the bridge.

My ship has arrived.  Phew.  The cruise can commence.


Distinct haze in the air today that wasn't present yesterday or the day before.


That haze isn't clouds or smog.  It's that smokey.


You can't see it in this picture as well as you can see it live but there is a haze in the air and the distinct smell of bushfires that grew stronger as the morning came to life.

Looking back towards my breakfast venue and hotel in the distance.

Looking down the street towards the cruise terminal in the far distance.

A short walk in the other direction leads to this staircase.  It's early but other than some security here and there it's just me other than that shady character in the bottom left of this picture.

Up the stairs and over to the next staircase where the bridge stairs are found across the road.  Did I mention I exceeded my stair count on this cruise and it's only day 1 of the cruise?  Pro tip:  Bring comfortable walking shoes.

Looking back towards my hotel and the city behind it.

That teenie weenie character through the pylon is security so it seems to be safe even at this early hour.


Well lit walkway across the bridge even at night.

A hint of sunrise starting to appear in the sky.

Looking promising but not quite the same as the morning before.  

That's when I realized that faint scent was becoming stronger.  I couldn't place it before, now it's unmistakably the smell of bushfire in the air.

Soon enough I spotted a ship coming into view.

I was hoping for a repeat of yesterday's sunrise but given the circumstances this will do just fine.

Before bed I wanted to see what the rooftop pool area of my hotel would look like at night.  Not bad.

Near the Circular Quay train station is a street car station.


Some of these street cars are surprisingly long.  

Circular Quay is also the hub of a lot of ferry traffic.


The Rooster:


The venues near the Sydney Opera House were surprisingly busy.

Walking out to the end of the Opera House yields a nearly side on view of the bridge.

With that it was getting late and time to head back towards my hotel.


I wanted to get some sleep so I could be out on the bridge hoping for another brilliant sunrise and the arrival of Ovation early in the morning.

The Lunar Lanterns marking the animal signs of the lunar zodiac located around Circular Quay.

The tongue is animated, moving up and down.





There were also some dragons running around.