Wow ..... these last few weeks have been rushing past & now the reality is sinking in. Yes this time in 2 weeks Mike & I will be onboard Diamond Princess, looking forward to spending the next 14 days of rest & relaxation! No cooking or cleaning & minimal washing.
After a few phone calls, I finally had confirmation from our Travel Agent this morning that our documents have arrived (he discovered them in the drawer during our conversation)! Must confess I am not entirely happy with our booking process through this company. The first person we dealt with left a few weeks ago & told us we would be contacted by another staff member. That didn't happen as I had to chase him up on 2 occasions. I think I upset the apple cart when I informed them we could make substantial savings on our 17 day land tour of NZ by booking directly with a NZ T/A. They made no attempt to source a better price so we went ahead & booked ourselves saving almost $1200 per double. Exactly the same tour and company, so not sure why so expensive here. I realise the Aussie $ is performing much better than the NZ $ ($1Au = $1.27NZ) but not to the extent of our savings.
As much as I am looking forward to browsing our documents (nothing like the feel of real paper :) it is currently around 37C here in Bathurst (Central West NSW), so we have completed our chores, closed up the house and turned on the AirCon ready to watch the cricket. Too hot to be out collecting the cruise paperwork! For the uninitiated the 3rd test between Australia & South Africa begins in Perth, WA today.
The packing process is underway. Spare beds have become collection points for all those little extras we might forget at the last minute. Lists have been compiled and clothes sorted. Basically we could leave tomorrow if we had to. We have our little travel scale ready to check our completed suitcase weight. Because we are being driven from home to the ship (thanks Sarah & Ruby) we are not concerned with excess weight. However, because we will be spending 18 days touring NZ following this cruise & flying home from Christchurch, we really need to be careful about what we pick up along the way. We are flying back to Sydney with Emirates & have a generous 30kg each luggage allowance, however our coach for our tour only allows 1 x 20kg suitcase each plus a small carry on. So ....... therein lies a problem. I wonder if those coach drivers would notice a few extra kgs :)
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