Our Last Mariner Days at Sea

The showers were appropriate since it rained on our parade – uhm cruise plans – but it has rained on everyone in the world. Life will not be the same for anyone over the next 2-6 months!

From the day we were suppose to land in Esperance to our rush for Perth, most passengers attempted to stuff and fill every suitcase and little bag to the gills in preparation for disembarkation. Since many of us were going from house to ship… then ship to house whether we started in Miami or San Francisco, small bags abounded. Now what to do with that stuff to send home? They gave everyone the ability to send four bags home each via a baggage forward service. We sent 7 and from what I’ve read from other passengers even after 9 days they are still in Perth. Freight is suppose to be flying but maybe not bags. We hope they arrive by the time we get home most likely in June!

We had no clue at first whether our disembarkation day would be Tuesday the 17th when we were allowed to berth after arriving and anchoring in the harbor on Monday the 16th, or maybe Wednesday the 18th or Thursday the 19th as those were our scheduled days. The Queen Elizabeth 2 had all its passengers leave on the 16th. So our day would be the 17th. Oh joy!

None of the passengers or crew on either our ship or the QE2 had any virus issues as we had all been self contained since Sydney in early March. Since our trajectory was around the southern part of Australia as as was theirs and there were no cases at that time none of us could have been exposed or we would have already shown symptoms. We also had a good six days with no interactions with any other humans off the boat. We were happy to not spread Covid around Perth regardless. We prayed none of us would pick it up from the locals but at the time all cases in Perth were from the Princess cruise ship passengers coming home to Australia. There is still only one death in Western Australia and that patient was on the Diamond Princess in Japan.

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Scenes from our last night including our very last canapes. Still don’t know why we had canapes and why are they not called appetizers? Those little egg rolls could have been the demise of me staying the course on my weight. They were delicious. Shameer must have saved those tux buttons for the last night and Larkin got a great photo of the little penguins on his shirt. We pray we get to enjoy Shameer again on another Regent cruise. He was delightful and we want to meet his 4 year old daughter and wife back in India.

Gail and Russell Lee were going to join us in Western Australia so Gail could get over a cold. Nunzio and Sienna were our social hosts and Nunzio was our Italian teacher! Nunzio and Sienna are traveling with the crew back to the states via Honolulu for refuel then to Los Angeles. We are hoping since the crew will be virus free that they are allowed off the ship in Los Angeles but if the USA is anything like Australia, only Aussies can get off the ship or those with the virus taken to a hospital. They are turning ships around here in Australia but at least they are allowed to refuel. Australia mostly spread their virus via ships that were infected and letting those Aussies in with no quarantine. They are quarantining the most recent ones in Perth now on Rottnest Island. Couldn’t be a better place! We visited and will show photos in the next blog!

Our last meal…sadness…but the most crowded huggy meal yet. None were infected so there was nothing to share but LOVE and hugs. Ben had to head home for family and business. Gail and Russell found out on Thursday night that borders were closing so they booked a quick flight in economy plus and headed home. Their sons are in Silicon Valley and in a hot bed of the virus. They mentioned the flights was much better than they hoped. Russell slept, Gail didn’t. They are now home in the foothills of California – in isolation.

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The boat in the harbor with us that you can see in the distance was The World. It was totally empty. No clue as to why. We saw it a few days later on our way to Rottnest and it was still there sitting empty.

The bottom photo shows the entire farewell the crew gave us as we departed. They helped us with our luggage. They clapped and they gave wonderful hugs. The captain told us that it was even more grand at the end of a completed world cruise. It was overwhelming. I tried to video the walk but missed once again on taking a video. Instead I spent time giving hugs to all different crew members. We boarded our blue bus and headed to the Marriott.

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Part of the passengers went to the Ritz on the waterfront. They may have enjoyed that location better but we enjoyed ours just fine thank you. The Crown Towers was suppose to take all of us but didn’t want cruise passengers. The Crown, I hear, was mostly a ghost town as it caters to Chinese tourists and gambling. It is very close for mainland China people to hop a plane down. No Chinese to be seen other than the locals.

We had two days at the Marriott before we moved on Thursday the 19th to a two bath 2 bedroom down Hay Street. Every meal in the Marriott was chatting with other passengers and staying our distance from other guests and workers. Ben flew out the first night and arrived into Atlanta probably by early Thursday. Others on Delta were cancelled and scrambling for flights. Qantas announced cancelling all international flights and about 40% of in country flights. Western and Southern Australia shut down to outsiders last week. They are keeping us safe!

My mom is happy we are safe in Australia. She was not expecting us until the 4th of June. We think maybe June? They have also closed off states here in Australia so there is no travel unless you want an intermediate 14 days in the nearest hotel if you cross a border. We were glad we were here in Western Australia which is such an amazing and beautiful part of the world. Can we travel to see Uluru or other incredible geological sites? NO – but the sunsets over the Indian ocean have been delightful.

Michael and I have decided to buy mostly local or at least Australian wines and writing about them each evening. Now I have to figure out how to do those blogs. Food is plentiful. Toilet paper, bleach and other paper products and hand sanitizers are scarce the typical empty shelves for those products. Italian – I saw a few bags of dried pasta but mostly empty shelves. However Mexican and Indian options are plentiful. Wine has gone from 6 bottles a person per day to 3 bottles a day. Doesn’t mean you can’t go down the street and buy at every wine shop! We did that today…

Everyone keeps their distances. When you rent a car you are not suppose to drive at night due to kangaroos…no restaurants are open and we are cooking in so no problem. We wonder why American car rentals let you you drive at night? We’ve hit more than our share of deer at night – or even during the day! Michael almost hit a kangaroo yesterday in the middle of the day and that roo wasn’t small!

More on Western Australia in the next blog!