Day 1 - Goodbye Auckland

Well the day has come and yet again a 4 degree start.  Plenty of locals heading out fishing, but certainly not us.  Breakfasted out at our local and then the final checklist completed.   Shuttle arrived ahead of time but that in itself was almost a matter of concern as I saw him  heading back past our place going the wrong way.  Turned out that he was just filling in time and enjoying the scenery.

We made it to the wharf some 15 minutes ahead of official boarding time and dare I say it, we bypassed the largish queue and were on board a little after 2.00 pm.  Surprised to meet our cabin steward and find that our bags were already in our stateroom.   All good so far.  Felt a little peckish, so up to the Horizon Court for a snack and on the way up met Louise & George from Whangarei who were with us on the 2015 World Cruise.  If that wasn't enough, heading to a table to eat lunch and who do we spy but Margaret & Roger from Whangamata, who were our table-mates on the 2016 Circle Pacific.  They had already met up with our other table-mates from the same cruise, Margit & Jim when checking in.  Small, small world of cruising.

After lunch we finally unpacked and then off to the safety drill, where we also come across 3 other couples from either or both the WC or CP.  Who knows how many other Kiwis are lurking, let alone the Aussies joining next week.  As a sideline, there are apparently 150 passengers on the current cruise who are continuing on.  One thing is for sure, the Sea Princess feels like a comfortable slipper (or some other familiar object).

As we already knew, we are not calling into the Bay of Islands tomorrow, due to the bad weather expected.   At least we got credit back for missing the port (plus port fees as well), which is much more generous than our previous cruises.  We also have lanyards, WC 2018 pins, WC 2018 pen set, backpack with an insulated compartment and a tote bag.  But wait, there's more - after dinner there was the famous blue Princess convenience bag (so we are all bagged out).  To readers from WC 2015, yes "Hutch" is back 😁😁

Dinner was open sitting, so we haven't met our new table companions yet but we know that none of the previously mentioned are at our table..  We cast off just a bit after 9.00 and are currently sailing very slowly towards Rangitoto.  Unfortunately we have been told that the smooth seas etc which we are currently experiencing will not last into the morning.  Very comfybed, new light fittings, big screen TV (but nothing worth watching), so that is Day 1.  Tomorrow is the first of many, many sea days but Vivian has spied Bridge in the afternoon and I just have to attend Hutch's lectures.