March 2, 2008
This morning we woke up to a much nicer day weather-wise. We had our last home-made breakfast and, as usual, Karen did a fantastic job of putting together a meal. We washed the last of our dirty laundry on the washer & dryer included in the suite/efficiency apt. As excited as we are to be getting on our cruise, it was with some degree of sadness that we packed up our bags and checked out of the hotel. We really liked New Zealand!!! We took a taxi to the wharf since we didn’t feel like dragging four suitcases, a backpack, and a laptop briefcase the four blocks to the ship. They checked the bags curbside (yay!) and we went in for customs and immigrations clearance. It was painless and quick. I wanted to go back and sightsee some more after dropping off our stuff, but the immigration officer told us that since he was processing out exit paperwork we would not be allowed off the ship… Once we were onboard they told us we could exit the ship as transit passengers and get back onboard without a problem. We got the stateroom attendant to open the cabin for us early so we could drop off the carry-ons and then we took off for a final bit of sightseeing. Today we walked to Victoria Park and Victoria Market. The park was undergoing renovation of its fields so it wasn’t much to look at. On the way to the park we passed by a waterfront residential area full of apartment buildings. They were very neat and clean and laid out in a very appealing design with lots of green and open common areas. Victoria Market is an open-air market with small shops and stalls where lots of souvenirs, arts and crafts, jewelry, and food are found. My first impression was “Hey – it’s a flea market!” Soon, however, it became apparent that it was a little more upscale than that. We wound up doing quite a bit of shopping in the couple of hours we were there. We had to be back onboard by 5PM so we headed back to the ship and made it back with plenty of time to spare. We were hungry so we headed to the buffet. I won’t bore you with specifics this time but remember – cruise ship food is usually pretty good and this was no exception. We explored the ship some and I found the place where I’m going to be doing most of my reading, relaxing, listening to music, and watching movies on my iPhone: sun deck 14. Go ahead and google it (Celebrity Mercury Sun Deck 14). We found the spa and Karen signed up for her 5-massage package and for our cruise-long Thalassotherapy program. I plan of going to the gym at least every sea day, actually working out, and then soaking in the warm salt-water pools after. Karen keeps trying to get me to buy a 3-massage spa package. I’m starting to give in. As required on all cruises, we had an emergency drill before sailing and I guess everyone made it because at 6:30PM we cast the lines off and departed Auckland. After the drill we found Ed & Christine’s suite and headed to a small sail-away meet & greet with the other members of the Cruise Critic web site that made this cruise. It seems that Karen and I are fairly well below the average age of the passengers in this cruise. We had a couple of drinks and headed to the forward deck to watch the sail-away. After a quick change we headed for the Welcome Aboard show and enjoyed it. We headed for the restaurant for our dinner but got delayed doing some liqueur tasting. We wound up buying 2 bottles of Amarulla (great stuff) and a bottle of Limoncello (also great) to take home. They were also having a75% off sale on souvenir shirts so we just couldn’t pass up a good deal. We met our friends for dinner since we are seated at the same table. The other two seats were taken up by Paul and Angela, a very nice retired english couple from Atlanta who are on their 34th cruise. It is now almost midnight and we have big plans for our day tomorrow in Tauranga. I’ll fill you in on details about that and about our cabin then.
TTFN
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