Part of the fun when entering an elevator, you never know what scene will be visible in the goggles.
Full moon tonight, perfectly placed as to light up the ocean as it was midday.
The trip is finally almost over. At 5am we have entered the Sydney channel. It’s a spectacular sunrise.
If you recall your history, Sydney was originally a prison outpost for the UK. In the picture below you’ll see the first prison. What is messed up is the first prisoners were forced to build the prison then later live within it. No one ever escaped from this rock.
Now this is a tourist destination.
With the birth in view the sailing is nearly over. Tie the ropes up then deboard.
Lesson on why you never book early flights post-cruises. Below, you’ll see a group of people waiting to deboard. Many of these folks have 10 or 11am flights. Early deboarding was to have started at 6:30am. This morning Australian Customs did not clear our vessel until 9:45am. Folks were freaking out, some ended up having to pay big bucks to rebook a new flight home. Lesson learned – never fly earlier than 1pm.
So many people are trying to get off to get early flights that the line goes from the front of the ship (earlier photo) to the rear (photo below), around the aft and along the opposite side of the ship.
Sydney is a massive airport. If you’ve been to any of the large airports in Europe you know how large they can be and how many people queue up waiting to get their bags dropped.
Love this machine. Put your bag on the first belt where it’s weighed, second step allows the gate agent to tag the bag, third step puts it towards the plane. Agents don’t get hurt throwing bags around.
Delta must not pay much for gate fees. This map can take you 3 hours to navigate.
One of the coolest tv walls I’ve seen. In total, it’s likely 50-60 yards long.
Ah Customs. Of that 3 hour map transit time, more than an hour will be spent here.
After you clear that queue, immediately you’re entered into their airport security line. Another hour will be spent here.
After those two huge lines you get to the main airport terminal. It’s large and beautiful.
They know their customers. This is the last chance they can sell high-end products to Chinese customers before returning home. Even though Australia is expensive, buying items here is still drastically cheaper than if they try to buy in China.
Only the highest shops line is area.
Make it past the shops and you’ll find the coolest McDonald’s. With real estate being at a premium they needed to get creative. As a result they placed their refrigerator and storage on the bottom level and put their cooks above it. Technology comes in to help fulfill orders.
You can see the team members upstairs making lunches.
When food is completed it’s bagged and a robot system takes over.
Bagged meals are send down this robotic arm.
Soda is also automated. From the order kiosk, select your drink size, if you want ice or not, pick a flavor and the robot does the rest.There is food for anyone in the airport. Sushi your choice? Yup, got that.
Time to board the 300-passenger flight back to LA. By 6am the US sunrise is in view. Time to return back to reality.
