The day starts out with so much promise, but goes terribly wrong! Dick is up early and watches the Queen Victoria dock at Circular Quay. She is on her 2009 around the world voyage.
We have breakfast and get the luggage ready to transfer to the ship. Check out time is 10:00AM and we can only get a late checkout of 11:00AM even though the hotel is almost empty and we only want the room till noon when we can go to the ship. This is another big, black mark on the Australian tourist industry along with the inattention to detail in the non-worldwide chains. Our previous stay at the Sydney Harbor Marriott was very nice. There were no surprises and when we told them our flight left at 3PM, we were quickly granted a 1PM check out which made the transfer so easy.
We have breakfast and get the luggage ready to transfer to the ship. Check out time is 10:00AM and we can only get a late checkout of 11:00AM even though the hotel is almost empty and we only want the room till noon when we can go to the ship. This is another big, black mark on the Australian tourist industry along with the inattention to detail in the non-worldwide chains. Our previous stay at the Sydney Harbor Marriott was very nice. There were no surprises and when we told them our flight left at 3PM, we were quickly granted a 1PM check out which made the transfer so easy.Oh well, we have an hour that we have to be out of the room before we can transfer to the ship. We decide to go ahead and store the luggage with the hotel and check out around 10:00AM with the idea of walking around a bit and checking out a couple of things of interest. It is not so much hot as it is humid and the stores and cafes are very poorly air-conditioned, if at all. Well, Carolyn has an asthma attack so we get a cab to take us back to the hotel to get the luggage and then to take us to the ship. The cabbie is not using his A/C and has the windows rolled up. After asking three times he finally turns on the A/C. We collect the luggage and head to the pier.
Actually, it is not too far from the hotel to Darling Harbor, so we arrive at the dock about 11:45AM. We are glad to see they are checking people in and we take the luggage to the drop off place and head back through an interminable maze that is a check in facility set for several thousand people but with only 80 people boarding at this port. We drop off the carry-on luggage and head to the main dining room for lunch and have a great tasting hamburger!
Carolyn is feeling better after lunch and begins to unpack. She immediately realizes the computer case is missing. Needless to say, we panic and start retracing our steps. The last time it was seem was near the luggage drop off as we arranged the carry-on luggage. The security assures us it is with the luggage to be delivered, but by 4:00PM all our luggage has been delivered to the cabin and both the security and the purser start the lost luggage paper work with the hope that it will show up during the night.
There is a pall hanging over us, especially Dick, so much so that we don’t even remember what we had for dinner! We spend the evening trying to figure out what we have lost!
The Tahitian Princess sets sail from Sydney at 10:00PM. As we go under the Harbor Bridge she blast her horn about five times!
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