We have cruised more than 20 times on voyages ranging from five to 31 days. On several occasions whe have taken what is referred to as back-to-back cruises. In the Caribbean it is possible to take two successive cruises which have slightly different itineraries. On a couple of occasions we have taken short coastal cruises in combination with longer voyages. However, the cruise on which we are embarking is the most unusual of our experience.
We embark at Melbourne, Australia along with nearly 2,000 other travellers. Some, like us, will circumnavigate Australia and disembark at Melbourne while other will continue to New Zealand and back to Australia, disembarking at Sydney. This is typical of back-to-back cruises. Now, some passengers who embark in Melbourne will disembark two days later in Sydney and, of course, new passengers will replace those disembarking and will continue around Australia, to New Zealand and back to Sydney. Again, not particularly unusual.
For the unusual part, as it turns out, we will have passengers embarking in Brisbane, Darwin, Fremantle and Melbourne. I believe these travellers will disembark in Sydney after visiting New Zealand but it is unclear whether there will be passengers disembarking in Brisbane, Darwin and Fremantle although this certainly seems possible. The embarkations are clearly indicated on our itinerary but there is no mention of disembarkation. It is after arriving at Sydney for the second time the Dawn Princess ends its repetitive circumnavigation of Australia and begins the first segment of a world cruise which has Brisbane as its first and only Australian port. I am sure I will learn more during our segment of the cruise. I will update this topic later.
Only 27 days until we sail and our weather her appears to be on the change. After a monster of a snowstorm last Wednesday and a miserable driving day on Thursday temperatures have risen above freezing and remained there for two days of snow melt. Today I was able to access and remove most of the decorative Christmas lighting which I thought might have to remain in place until next Christmas. Looks like a few more melting days in our future, if the 14 day forecast turns out to be accurate. That should just about take us to departure day.
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