Tuesday. 6th November 2018

Port Vila, Vanuato and Melbourne Cup Day

The Aria arrived at the myriad of market stalls already set up on the wharf. We had  fine and sunny conditions again to walk around the main township and enjoy the Lagoon Cruise in the afternoon. 

First challenge once disembarking the ship was to get through the maze of stalls to the gates outside the wharf without buying anything until our return. Once outside we negotiated with a driver who drove us the 2-3 kilometres into the main street and outside one of several Duty Free shops. This is where our shopping became serious!. 

I have found Port Vila to have the best selection and prices for alcohol and perfume in all my travels. The ship offers to match the prices if a photo is taken of the item on shore in Vila but the selection is not always there on the ship.  Also I presume, because of the low duty free prices, a lot of the alcohol sold on board is priced competitively.

The 'gals' wandered from shop to shop, stocking up on tipples to take home. The bottles are sent to the ship and held in the hold until the morning of disembarkation in Brisbane. On the Princess lines passengers are delivered the bottles on the last night of the cruise and I wander if procedures had altered to prevent passengers drinking maybe an extra bottle of their duty free allowance before landing. 

We walked into a jewelry shop for the cool air conditioning and a look at their wares whilst enjoying the cool when I spotted a hand blown glass vase. It wasn't Italian Marano but just as good. Well, a sale proceeded and then I had the challenge of getting it home. First of the challenges had to be through the ship's security...bummer it couldn't get through the security scanner so an officer had to open the box to see if everything was safe, legal and secure. This then caused the challenge of repacking and making the parcel transportable. Thanks to the help of Kaye, my cabin mate, extra tape from the reception,  we were able to pack and I could carry it though from the ship to the airport, then it could travel on the lane back to Adelaide. Though Virgin Airlines charged me $70 for the excess 'bag', I think I came home with a 'bargain'.

I couldn't resist having these little creatures with me for a photo 'shoot'.

Some of the gals enjoying a soft drink in one of the cafes in the main street before going back to the ship.

Lagoon Beauties

A local young local beauty, isn't she gorgorous!

When we arived at the Waterfront Restaurant a giant Melbourne Cup cake had been placed in the foyer to celebrate the famous horse race. Some of the gals had taken out a sweep ticket which the ship's casino happily sold to any punter. A couple of the girls were sucessful with their purchase.

Our Melbourne Cup style