Touching Down for A Cruise in Adelaide

 

A view of Adelaide from the air

 

I officially take back all my snarky comments about the angled beds in Qantas’ business class. I slept like a log for most of the 14-hour Los Angeles-to-Sydney flight, which is helping the jet lag significantly. Oh, and the PJs they handed out onboard probably helped, too, even though they’re huge on me. (I’m not even five feet tall, and they gave me a large. Can’t complain, because they’re wonderfully comfortable, but still…I look pretty ridiculous.)

Getting lots of sleep certainly helped keep me calm when we landed, ‘cause even early in the morning, getting through customs and quarantine at Sydney Airport takes a surprising amount of time. Happily, Qantas handed out express cards to get us through a bit faster (if we met certain criteria), so that made things easier. Still, the one good thing about early-morning landings is the relative ease of clearing customs; no idea why it took so long this morning.

Another thing to know about Sydney Airport: Even among the same airline, domestic and international departures are at different terminals. This means that if, like me, you arrive on an international flight, you have to clear security and re-check luggage in the international terminal, and then take a shuttle over to the domestic terminal. Be sure to leave your clients enough time to do that if booking them a connecting flight via Sydney.

 

An exterior shot of the Murray Princess cruise ship

 

I was met at the Adelaide Airport by Robbi Cooter-Tims of the South Australian Tourism Commission and Len Whittaker from Captain Cook Cruises, who drove me about 90 minutes or so outside of Adelaide to the Murray River, where I’ll be spending the night on the Murray Princess. My stateroom is small, but comfortably cozy, and most importantly, the shower was nice and hot. After more than 24 hours to get here, a hot shower was sorely needed.

 

A cozy room on the Murray Princess