Last night in the dining room the four regulars were joined by two empty chairs and two ladies, one from Essex, England and the other from all places our destination today Newcastle, NSW. Plenty of lively chatter so it promises to be a fun table. I just wish the chairs would let their hair down a little.
We were alongside at just before we eight this morning in a commercial area of the port of Newcastle. It is a very busy port with lots of container ships sailing in and out of the channel. Because of the commercial element there was a free shuttle into town and the journey time was a good 15 minutes
After the bus dropped us off we decided to do some walking and headed in the direction of Nobbys Point and Fort Scratchley to get a panoramic view looking back to the ship.
We spotted some bad weather making it’s way in so quickly headed back to find some shelter and only just made it as the skies opened. It rained for about 45 minutes and it was heavy too.
We took cover in a coffee shop while the weather did it’s thing. When we were able to continue we carried back on into town and browsed the shops for a while before returning to the ship.
Had the weather been better we would probably have done more walking but it always looked as if the weather could change at any moment and we weren’t really prepared for today’s torrential downpour. Newcastle is a charming little town and doesn’t seem to have been too commercialised by the large chains. Everyone we met was super friendly and all the shuttle buses had a volunteer guide onboard to help you get the best out of your visit. I got the impression the locals would really love to see some more ships visiting and we were told the preparations are well under way for the port to get it’s own cruise terminal. A lot of other ports could learn loads from these guys, no pestering just good old information to help make your visit worthwhile.
Once back onboard we had a spot of lunch before sitting out in a sheltered area to do some reading and in my case a snooze. The rain returned at 3:30 but at least somewhere it couldn’t prevent us from doing what we were doing.
There has been much talk about Celebrity’s new ship and to signify the revealing of lots of details all the sun beds had been turned out to face the sea.
There will be a special presentation in the theatre tonight at 7:00 which we may or may not go to.