This day marks the end of the 30-day cruise on the Carnival Luminosa, but not the end of the TP1 – we still have 2 nights in Brisbane and the trip back to Florida (which I am NOT looking forward to).
Disembarkation was relatively smooth, especially in light of the fact that Carnival has never docked here before and Brisbane is not a major cruise destination. We got up early (4am – more on this below), packed our bags then had breakfast on board, said farewell to both the ship and the friends we met during the month of cruising. We took a taxi into Brisbane, to the Ibis Styles Hotel, and checked into our room by 10:30am.
I was, I thought, prepared for the 220V electricity in Australia but I was wrong – Australia uses a different 220V socket than Spain. So my first task was to find an adapter. I asked the front desk at the hotel but they had nothing. They suggested Target, just down the street. Went to Target, no adapter. They suggested another store in the same, large 5-story mall. Nope, none there either. I was then directed to JB HiFi in another nearby mall and they had an adapter. But I realized, belatedly that the adapter I had gotten in Spain was not, in fact, a 220V-to-110V transformer, so I felt uncomfortable plugging my lapton into it for fear of blowing it up. Consequently, I avoided using the laptop for 2 days while I continued to look for a transformer (which I never found). That accounts, in part, for the delay in posting to the blog (I am 4 days behind). I eventually concluded that I didn’t need a transformer for the laptop (I recalled using the adapter in Spain without setting the laptop on fire) and, with some trepidation, tried it and found that it worked fine.
The shopping trip, though not very successful, did give me a chance to learn about downtown Brisbane. It is a lovely town with pedestrian malls and some nice public art.
As for waking at 4am… that was an unfortunate accident. I used my phone to set an alarm for 6am. But my phone was on Indonesia time – 2 hours earlier than Brisbane time. So I set it for 4am Indonesia time which was 6am Brisbane time. But the phone automatically updated while we slept and went off, as directed, at 4am. But Brisbane time. The fact that it was dark then should have been a clue. But we rose, got ready for the day, packed the bags and only when that was all done did I realize that it was 5:30am and not 7:30am. So we went back to sleep for an hour. After I apologized to Marlene for waking her too early.
Ah, the complexities of life that result from time zone changes…
I don’t know if the time zone changes were responsible, but we had another problem to deal with when I returned from the adapter hunt: Marlene could not find her jewelry. We searched the bags. Not there. We thought back to the packing and I recalled distinctly that she had moved the bag containing the jewelry from her suitcase to a backpack, to save weight in the suitcase (which we knew, instinctively, was pushing the 50lb airline limit). But the bag was not in the backpack which also contained 6 cans of Pepsi and an insulated container of medicine that had to remain chilled. I had put the medicine in the minifridge when we got into the room, before I went shopping, and she had put the Pepsi in the minifridge while I was out.
Anyway, we could not find the jewelry and became convinced that, somehow, we had left it on the ship. We spent an hour trying to figure out how to notify the Luminosa that we may have left the jewelry bag on board. I found a way to file a lost item claim online and did so. But Marlene wanted to try to reach the ship by phone and went down to enlist the front desk in assisting in that task. While she was out I got a Pepsi from the minifridge – I needed a drink of some kind – and found the bag of jewelry on the shelf below the sodas.
Yeah, chilled jewelry.
Anyway, Marlene explained that she thought the bag contained the medicine which I had already put in the fridge.
Disaster averted. But it was a rough start to the morning and it tainted the entire day. The entire beautiful day. I went to lunch with Maureen and Dottie but Marlene said she wasn’t hungry. We had some wonderful fish and chips at Irish Murphy’s, an Irish pub on the corner of the hotel’s block. And a heavenly pint of Kilkenny Red Ale. We ate lunch while listening to some Irish music. A fine lunch. But without Marlene.
When I got back to the hotel Marlene was gone. And didn’t return for several hours. She was a bit miffed at me for going to lunch without her (though she was invited) and decided to explore the city on her own.
I went out, too, and got some lovely shots of a beautiful city at night. I also ventured into the Treasury Casino and was amazed to find penny slot machines which actually let me make a 1-cent bet. I bet a bit more than that and did well for a while, but ended down $10 Australian (about $7 US).
We never did have dinner that night but had more or less made up by the time the lights were turned out