We woke about 6:20am – but we had already docked in downtown Auckland, with two other cruise ships following us in. This is one of the better port locations as not only is is it a real port rather than a container terminal, but those enjoying the various tourism options only have to stroll to the ferry terminal (ferry boats in the photograph), the train station or the bus station or stroll up to the Sky tower.
All that remained for us was to take a pic or two, grab a quick bite from the buffet, empty the safe and say a few farewells en route to the atrium at 7:55am, staggering under the weight of Paula’s dolphin carving..
As before, we saw there was no queue so although we had specified an 8:25am disembarkation, we shook hand with dance teacher Paul and entertainment staffer Nicole and just walked straight off. Locating the baggage was easy and we simply headed to the taxi rank, loaded up and we were home at 8:25am, $40 lighter and looking at the miserable weather for the first time since the heavy shower in Singapore.
So that was, in Princess terminology, our 4th cruise with them, but in reality, just two lots of two. Once at home, the email hiccup was still around but magically, after an email and a call to my provider, things returned to normal.
All that remains now is a comparison of the Dawn Princess and the Diamond Princess as we look forward to an exciting 2012 (and 2013!) and I have already initiated a new blog... So, just one more episode of this marathon to go.
2 comments:
Well, where IS your new blog?
Check out the list to the left - first blog!
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