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Dawn Princess World Cruise Journal
The Dawn Princess quietly slipped out of Sydney, Australia four days ago with 2000 passengers (and about half as many staff) onboard to begin it’s 104 day World Cruise.
As one of the 2000 passengers, I happily stood sipping champagne around the poolside on the Riviera Deck as the large 44,193 ton Dawn Princess was gently manoeuvred out of Wharf 8 in Sydney’s Darling Harbour late Friday evening and headed out to sea. Two hours earlier, the rains had come down, but as the ship moved out, the rain, thankfully, stopped.
Four days later, we are still at sea, heading up the coast of east Australia on the way to Darwin, Australia. We should be there on Thursday, which gives everyone plenty of time to get their sea legs and discover all the activities and facilities that the Dawn Princess has to offers.
Spread out over nine levels, the Dawn Princess has everything that a land based resort has and more. There’s swimming pools, spas, a gym, sports courts, cafes, restaurants, a formal dining room, a nightclub, shops, theaters, library, casino, an internet café, and beauty salons to visit. There are activities, lectures, lessons in bridge and dance, movies, and arts and crafts to participate in.
Then there’s the Promenade Deck, reminiscent of the bygone era of ocean cruising, not only allows those looking for exercise to do laps around the ship – apparently three laps equal 1 kilometer – but also has plenty of comfortable deck chairs to lounge on.
It’s a hive of activity. But still, for those who simply want to grab a good book and settle in for a spell, there are plenty of lounges and atriums to hid away in.
(photos by Liz Lewis)
6 Comments
Thanks for the photos and commentary. My father, John Wolfe, is on the ship with you. Say hello if you happen to meet him. I look forward to reading more about the cruise.
John Wolfe
Hi, John,
Glad yoiur enjoying the posts. Haven’t run across your Dad yet as far as I konw but with 2000 passengers, it’s possible that we might never meet. Hope he’s having a great time. It’s an interesting life on a cruise ship
im looking @ the bridge cam and it looks like the ship didnt call into luxor
was there a problem
Hi Patricia,
The ship has got a engine problem of some sort (electrical I think) which resulted in us not moving for a while. Sadly, we ended up behind schedule and some residual problem remains so we weren’t able to stop at Safaga and go to Luxor. Needless to say, many disappointed passengers. We are due to go through Suez tomorrow and then on to Port Said where I think they will be working on the engine prob.
well bridge cam dosnt lie – now bridge cam says you are heading for athens missing out on turkey ports – so will you return to turkey after athens or stay in atherns 4days before going on to venice
Hi John, the bridge cam was right. We detoured to Athens out of schedule as there is apparently a a public strike organized in Athens for the day we were meant to be there. So it was Athens yesterday, Kusadasi today, Istanbul tomorrow, then Anzac Cove, and Santorini on Tuesday.