Getting excited – our next cruise starts tomorrow!
Ports of call: Brisbane Qld, Cairns Qld, Papua New Guinea, Darwin NT, Kimberley Coast(Scenic cruising), Broome WA, Geraldton WA, Fremantle WA.
We will have a couple of nights in Perth and then will be hiring a car to drive to the Margaret River for a further night.
Returning to Sydney on the Indian Pacific (train) across central Australia and then flying back to Brisbane.
15 Days, 8 ports. Should be fun, hope you will follow along!
Tuesday, 23 August – Whether or not you drive a Toyota, you will likely know Nagoya as its home city – and today we visited the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, a joint operation by Toyota Group companies. It was established at the site of the Headquarters Plant of the former Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Co. Ltd, where the group began.
Such an interesting display over a huge area, with a lot of interactive features so you understand how everything works. You could easily spend a day here. I thought it was really fascinating to see the robotics at work and we had to keep our eyes on the time.
Adjoining the automobile pavilion was the textile machinery pavilion. It houses the original loom invented in 1906 by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Group. There were also moving exhibits in this section too, but we spent so much of our time in the auto pavilion, we only had time for a quick look here.
If we ever visit Nagoya again, we will definitely go back to this museum, which surprised me as I had expected to feel bored looking at car parts!
We also visited Nagoya Castle. Much of it was destroyed during WWII and has since been rebuilt. We took the elevator to the 5th floor and took the stairs down where there was access to each floor with various replicas and artificats.
Next morning we arrived back in Yokohama, ready to depart for the airport and our trip home. Great cruise, beautiful ship. 10/10 go to the staff, entertainment, food and all the sights that we enjoyed. What more could you ask for?
Monday, 22 August – A sea day at last – time to relax and enjoy life on board the Diamond Princess. That’s what we love about cruising, you can choose to do nothing, or be busy all day.
I don’t know how anyone could say they were bored (onboard!) – just on this one day the following choices were available:
Zumba, stretch class, 5 different dance classes, shopping, movies, trivia, jewellery presentation, acupuncture talk, culinary demonstration, ukulele class, art seminar, towel folding demonstration, wine club, drawing class, bingo, Japanese language class, ice carving demonstration, shuffleboard tournament, carpet bowls, English language lesson, calligraphy class – and that was just what was on offer until afternoon tea time!!! Not forgetting to fit in lunch somewhere as well.
Is there time for a swim and spa, a walk around the deck, mini golf, the gym or to grab a book from the library? Go online in the Internet Centre or visit the Beauty Salon? aaahhhhhhh!!!!!!
Come evening, there is dinner of course, and all the entertainment starts up. The casino is in full swing, there are shows, cocktails, gameshows, dancing and music in every bar, club and lounge. Movies under the stars is something we enjoy – on a lovely evening watching a movie on a huge screen on the top deck under the stars, settled on deck chairs with pillow and rug and being waited on with popcorn and drinks – perfect!
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