DAY 62 DAY 50 SERENITY

Before dinner last night there was a Mardi Gras Dixieland Dance Party at the Crystal Plaza.

The Plaza was decorated for the party.

These are the Waterside Dining Room Menus.

With a late arrival back to the ship from touring we decided to have dinner in our room from Waterside.

We had three courses; Appetizer of Slow Cooked Salon for Keith and soup for Anne Marie, Dinner Salads, and Entree of Grouper for Keith and Prime Rib for Anne Marie.   Jaison organized the meal for us.

The evening entertainment featured two showings of the production show; Icons In Concert.

We slept well as we sailed to Dunedin, New Zealand.

After a workout at the Fitness Center and breakfast in our room we got ready for this next port-of-call

​Sunrise.

Todays stop at Dunedin, New Zealand is our last stop in New Zealand as part of World Cruise 2020.  From Dunedin we will sail Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sounds as we make our way to Hobard, Australia. We last visited Dunedin in 2015. 

Almost 125,000 residents live in Dunedin.  This city is located in Southeastern New Zealand.  Its name means Edinburgh in Gaelic and it has retained its Scottish heritage and roots.  As one walks the city they will see Victorian and Edwardian buildings.  
 
The most photographed building in New Zealand is supposedly the railway station.

Major Attractions Include:

Dunedin Railway Station which operates a railway line and tourist trains.  First train began operating in 1979.

Toitu Otago Settlers Museum founded 1898 and is New Zealand's oldest history museum with emphasis on Dunedin.

Otago Museum which is a natural science museum open in 1968.

Speights Brewery was founded in 1876 and is a well known brand making brews lager, ale, draught style, triple hop pilsner and low-carb beer.

The town is located about 25 minutes from the Cruise Ship Terminal and shuttles provided transportation to and from the town.

At 9:45 AM Captain Birger made a ship-board announcement for everyone on board that due to severe weather we will not cross the Tasman Sea at the original time and we will get into the Fjords later than planned.  Hobart has been cancelled.  The Captain noted we will still get into Sydney as planned so no worries there.  Captain said they are working to finalize details and will have another update at 5:00 PM this evening and a letter will also go to everyone's stateroom tonight. Obviously this means the World Cruise Shoreside Event at Hobart for those on the full World Cruise won't happen.

In the end the most important thing is the safety of guests, crew and ship.   We have crossed the Tasman sea many times and as recently as last year and know how rough it can be so with a major storm we are fortunate that we can take an alternative route and be out of harms way.

Learned at  lunch that we will arrive to Sydney one day early and will anchor there with tender service (leased tenders) taking guests to and from Sydney.   Later that evening we will dock.  

All in all great news and most importantly to keep everyone safe.

Ironically, Anne Marie had an appointment with the hair stylist on the day we were crossing the Tasman Sea.  As we walked this morning we thought this might not be a good day for it and an hour before the announcement from Captain Birger she moved the appointment up to this afternoon.  

Enjoyed a lovely afternoon on-board Serenity.  This included lunch at Marketplace followed by Paddle Tennis  for Keith, the hair appointment for Anne Marie along with another walk.

Following is the Daily Reflections Program.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith