Cooktown

A view of the outdoor market at Port Douglas yesterday...

Port Douglas is small...and yesterday was HOT! We docked next to a small shopping mall, which was a pleasant walk through en route to the outside market beyond it where we got the full blast of the heat. Many tents were set up, displaying jewelry, soaps, hand carved wooden items, clothing, purses, fruit, plants, etc. Of course there were a couple of massage booths, but even that wasn’t appealing in the heat. What was delightful was a large cup of fresh squeezed chunky pineapple juice...yummm. We were entertained by the colorful birds in the trees over our heads, talking and flitting from limb to limb. And of course Dick quickly became bored with the shopping and headed back to the mall to sit and at least enjoy the cool while I made a purchase for our girls.
Our onboard ship pilot was on the tender with us back to the ship, so we questioned him as to why our ship didn’t dock at the port in Cairns...and we got the straight skinny on that. The locals thought the Rhapsody was too large to dock there, although the Legend is the same class of ship and it docked just fine. Our captain called for a meeting with the local harbour folks, and they came onboard for the cap to ‘splain a few things. The upshot is that we’ll pick up the Cairns harbour pilot to come onboard and watch while we dock at another port so that he can see how smoothly our ship handles. The locals lose out on a lot of revenue when the ship has to tender, as folks have the tendency to only go ashore once and don’t get off/on the ship, therefore spending less. Our pilot suggested that those ports requiring tendering will be bypassed in the future, thereby losing ALL revenue! We learned that we have to tender in Brisbane simply because the cruise terminal is on the WRONG side of a bridge that we can’t go under. They think it is too cost prohibitive to move the terminal. Here’s your sign....duh!

I love reading all the comments, so keep’em coming! Bee, I know you’ll have a good time on the Splendor. Look forward to reading all about your cruise. I haven’t had any cake on this cruise, but I’ve had some great creme brulee..last night’s was labeled "BBB" which stood for Banana Bailey Brulee...yummm...lovely combination! Life is good!!!