Golden Princess - April 2016 - Post 1

On April 4th I rejoined Golden Princess for her repositioning voyage to Hong Kong, disembarking on April 27th. The ship is basing out of Taipei, Taiwan for the northern summer before she relocates back to Melbourne next November. As I always find with Princess, I had a great cruise with excellent service and very good food. I was also pleased to be able to perform a magnetic compass adjustment during the voyage.

My very comfortable cabin.

The start of another great day on board.

One of the show lounges.

The very affable and capable Captain Sagani and me.

 Sydney 6/4

Brisbane 8/4

Golden Princess' size means she needs to berth at the Hamilton Island container wharf, across the river from Brisbane airport.

Late afternoon sailing.

Transiting Torres Strait 11/4

  Darwin 13/4

 

Golden Princess - April 2016 - Post 2

The Captain (R), Staff Captain (L) and me on the bridge to discuss an upcoming magnetic compass adjustment at Benoa.

Benoa, Indonesia 16/4

This is the port for Denpasar, Bali.

The Italian deck cadet, on his last voyage before he qualifies as a deck officer was an observer while I performed the adjustment.

The last group of passengers on tour returning to the ship.

Singapore 19/4

Early morning arrival.

Alongside with sistership Sun Princess. She had just completed a two week dry-dock and was about to sail for Fremantle via Malacca Straits ports. I took this from the public deck of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

I stayed in the Oriental Hotel for a few months in 1994 when I was working on a computer project for Mobil Asia Pacific with a friend of mine, Hartley Farmer. In those days, this hotel was on the waterfront.

One of the impressive things about Singapore is that country's ability to complete ongoing huge infrastructure projects in short time-frames. Within the next five years or so, all these container wharves and terminal will be re-located to near Jurong and this area redeveloped.

Part of the ground floor of the massive Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Mobil Asia Pacific's office that Hartley and I worked in was in this building just off Orchard Road.

As a member of the Athenaeum Club in Melbourne, I was able to visit this reciprocal club, The Tanglin Club while in Singapore. It's a very comfortable establishment and next time I stay in Singapore, this is where I'll stay.

Whenever in Singapore, I always visit Raffles Hotel for a few Tiger beers in the Long Bar.

Sun Princess about to sail.

Our turn to sail.

Late afternoon sailing from Singapore is always a great time for a few drinks on deck.

Golden Princess - April 2016 - Post 3

Ko Samui, Thailand 21/4

Another tender port.

 

Giving one of the emergency boats a run.

Not much in the township, bit of a dump.

I just had a few beers and a couple of curries in one of the restaurants here.

Laem Chabang, Thailand 22/4

This is the port for Bangkok and Pattaya and is a very busy cargo port.

Sister ship Sapphire Princess berthing just ahead of us.

Sunrise over the port.

On the wharf.

View from the nightclub.

Sapphire Princess sailed just before us.