Wednesday marked the first of three sea days as we began our journey back to Sydney. The slower routine continued, although the weather had clearly turned. Following the forecast we’d heard in the Bay of Islands, a strong south-easterly set in overnight. We kept the balcony door slightly open, but the wind was howling. The swell was running at around three to four metres, and whitecaps stretched from the ship all the way to the horizon.
Modern cruise ships handle these conditions well. The stabilisers limit the roll, but you can still feel the movement and watch the horizon rise and fall as we cruised steadily at around 14 knots on a direct heading for Sydney.
After a pleasant morning of reading and taking things slowly, we headed upstairs to look at lunch options. Crown Grill was hosting a specialty lunch called The Crab Shack. The name made me think of the old comedy series My Name Is Earl, but there was nothing casual about the pricing. At $38 per person for a three-course seafood lunch, and not included in our Princess Premier package, we decided to give it a miss. Neither of us is eating huge meals these days, and it felt like too much food and too much cost for what we wanted.
Instead, we headed to Gigi’s Pizzeria and shared a seafood pizza, which hit the spot nicely.
It was also the first day of the third Ashes Test in Adelaide, so I grabbed my iPad and managed to get a signal using a VPN to watch Channel 7 from Sydney. Officially VPNs aren’t supported onboard, but with a bit of persistence I got it working.
I took the iPad down to Princess Live where Let’s Quiz Again was starting. We sat with Bob, Carol, Andy and Jodie. It’s fair to say Andy and I had one eye, and sometimes both eyes, on the cricket, with one ear half-listening to the quiz. The session felt rushed. Progressive trivia was scheduled immediately afterward, the room was packed, and Denzel, our host, has a habit of letting things run long.
Partway through the quiz, Carol left to grab seats for progressive trivia. A little later, Andy, Jodie, Mardi and I followed to make sure we didn’t miss the start. Bob stayed behind to tally our score. I turned the cricket off and focused on progressive trivia, only to discover that Donovan, our host, was having a rough afternoon. His answer sheets had disappeared, the questions had vanished from his computer, and the earlier quiz had run overtime. To avoid disadvantaging any teams, he announced that today’s progressive trivia round would be for fun only and wouldn’t count toward the overall scores. He did promise to reveal the leaderboard at the end.
Not long after we arrived, Bob caught up with us and let us know we’d actually won the earlier quiz. That meant tracking down Denzel later for our prize, as Bob had rushed out to make sure he didn’t miss progressive trivia.
The “for fun” progressive trivia questions were fairly easy and we answered most of them correctly, even though they wouldn’t count. At the end, Donovan revealed the leaderboard. There were 11 teams sitting on scores of 58 out of 60 or higher, including us. With two rounds still to go, one on Thursday and the final on Friday, we’re very much in contention.
After trivia, we headed back to our room so I could watch a bit more cricket. On the way, we stopped at the gelato bar and picked up a couple of scoops of gelato and a slice of red velvet cake to enjoy in the room. I watched the cricket, while Mardi read, worked on puzzles and watched a few videos.
We headed back out around 6.00pm for another trivia session, this time a Famous Landmarks quiz at Princess Live. Images of iconic places flashed up on the screen: Stonehenge, Niagara Falls, Loch Ness and more. We were right on form and scored a perfect 20 out of 20, winning the quiz. That made it our second bottle of champagne. The six of us agreed we’d save both bottles and celebrate properly after the final round of progressive trivia, assuming we do well there too.
After that win, we went to dinner at The Catch by Rudi. It was our third visit. As the menu doesn’t change, we’ve now sampled most of what’s on offer. Mardi had the seafood linguine, and I ordered their version of surf and turf, called Sea and Shore. The food was good, but the service was very slow. We waited close to 30 minutes for our mains, despite not ordering entrees or desserts. A couple sitting next to us were in the same situation, although unlike us, they sat in silence scrolling their phones rather than talking. It was an odd contrast.
After dinner we returned briefly to Princess Live for a game show called Top, Middle or Bottom. An audience member selects a square on a grid, with a progress arrow, bombs or questions hidden behind each one. It dragged on a bit and the questions were very simple, so after about half an hour we decided to move on.
We headed to the casino. My earlier visits this cruise hadn’t been very successful. I enjoy shooting craps, but only when there’s energy at the table. This time it was flat, and against my better judgement I decided to shoot anyway. I quickly lost $100. With no atmosphere and no engagement, we moved on.
Roulette treated us much better. Over the course of an hour or so, I won back everything we’d lost since the start of the cruise, around $300, and we cashed out ahead by about $125. We finished the night with a bit of fun on the poker machines. Founding Feathers was busy, but we eventually found a seat and played for about half an hour. Starting with $50 and finishing with $50, after bouncing between $30 and $70, felt like a win. It’s not really about the money anyway. The animated chickens alone are worth the entertainment.
We called it a night knowing we were roughly break-even overall, with two nights still to go. Plenty of time for a little more fun before we reach Sydney.
