Crown Princess Postcard #9 – Adelaide, Australia

Welcome to Adelaide

We arrived at Adelaide on schedule at just before 7:00 but getting ashore became a bit of an issue. This was a maiden call to this port for Crown Princess and nobody had checked the width of the gang plank. The one at the cruise terminal was too wide for the ship so we had to wait for them to come up with a workaround which delayed everyone getting ashore. Lots of head scratching and discussion about how to get around this problem, the gangplank was actually in place at one point but deemed unsafe to use so down it came only to be repositioned. At 8:30 the captain made a public announcement over the PA informing us our departure had been delayed by an hour even though at this point the gang plank was still firmly rooted to the quayside. Eventually, at 8:50 the gang plank was officially opened and we could get off and start to enjoy the day.

The gangplank fiasco

The ship was docked at Adelaide Outer Harbour which is around 18 miles to Adelaide CBD so with nothing coming up that interested us there, we had made the decision to go to Port Adelaide and do a Heritage Walk ( link here) and although there were a couple of options for getting there, the train station was heaving due to everyone getting off at the same time so we got a taxi. Port Adelaide was once a thriving port and commercial center from the mid 1800’s up until 1970 and there are lots of older buildings remaining that were crucial to it’s heyday. I downloaded a map and itinerary while in the UK so it was just a case of following the route around and finding the places of interest. It wasn’t the longest self guided walk we have ever done but we had fun navigating our way around.

I had anticipated there being more to do in Port Adelaide but we quickly ran out of options for places to visit so decided to get to the railway station and get the train into Adelaide itself but the next train was cancelled and the following one wasn’t for another 70 minutes so we decided to go back, have a couple of drinks then try the Southern Australian Maritime Museum.

The Bond & Free Sores 1857 Now the Southern Australian Maritime Museum

To our surprise, the museum was actually quite interesting, lots of items, details and photos documenting the migration to Australia from the rest of the world through the ages.

By the time we had finished, there wasn’t really enough time to have another go at Adelaide so we caught a packed train back to the Outer Harbour which took 30 minutes and all five carriages were packed with fellow cruise passengers travelling the 6 mile journey so the locals must hate it when a ship is in port as it probably overruns their public transport system.

After grabbing a bite to eat we spent the remainder of the afternoon sat in the sun and enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t windy.

Sail away was delayed this evening with two no shows, after waiting for 30 minutes and still nothing we set sail for Albany.

We also visited the theatre for the first time on the recommendation of some fellow diners. It was a comedy duo with acoustic guitars called Scared Weird Little Guys who played around with popular tunes giving them a new twist. Very funny and great fun to watch.

Two sea days back to back now so more eating and drinking to be done 😁

Fitbit Steps 18,143

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