Fremantle, Western Australia

Day 51 Tuesday 10th March 2020

Fremantle, Western Australia

Our arrival to Australia has brought several challenges to everyone who is sailing on to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. This cruise is an International one which officially concludes in Fremantle. Humph. All passengers, yes ALL passengers are required by Australian Customs and Immigration to present their luggage and passports for inspection at the cruise terminal in Fremantle. Humph. That means packing our suitcases and leaving them outside our cabin door before 11pm the night before. Humph. Then those who are lucky enough to be sailing onto the eastern states have the luxury of having their luggage returned to their cabins for them to unpack!  In our case we just unpacked one case each and left the other packed. Our toiletries and other bits and bobs which we intend binning before finally disembarking in Adelaide all came along for the short ride off the ship then back on again.

Then to add salt to our wounds, Princess will only hand over our duty free grog the night before our disembarkation in Adelaide. They are worried we might start drinking the alcohol when on board. Of course we wouldn’t do that!

I had met a lovely couple on a previous cruise who live in Perth and were going to take us out on a winery tour for our day here. I explained our dilemma of not knowing what time we would actually be free. John, my friend also explained he had arrived home on the weekend from UK after a 20 hour flight and had picked up a cold and cough from the aeroplane’s air-conditioning but was concerned it may be the dreaded Corona Virus. He had a test on Sunday but as at 3.30 pm on Tuesday, still hadn’t received the results.  The upshot from this is we did not meet up and have post phoned our reunion for another date.

800 passengers from the original 2000 are still on board the Sun Princess and will disembark in various eastern states. 1200 passengers arrived from various countries around the world and states in Australia. The cruise is now a 14 cruise to Sydney from Fremantle. There is a report that Princess is taking more stringent measures to screen any passenger who display fever flu-like symptoms. In tomorrow’s papers a report that a passenger who arrived from an overseas country displayed these symptoms and was not granted permission to board. His luggage had to be sterilised before handled and given back.

It is a relief to know that Princess is taking measures to protect the crew and passengers. The entrance to the Horizon Court has been partially blocked off making it impossible for anyone to enter without first washing their hands. I tell you now there were a few disgruntled passengers who did not take to washing their hands, even to re-enter again after their first selection.

DH and I caught the free shuttle bus to the railway station in Fremantle. From there we walked along the main street where I bought and posted a birthday card after enjoying an iced coffee in the historic mall. It was a pretty uneventful day after spending a hectic morning with our luggage.

We now have a new Captain who replaced Diego Perra who was supposed to fly home to Italy. Though I am not sure what he will be doing as all of Italy is quarantined due to the Corona Virus.

We have heard Princess has 5 cruise ships out of service due to the Corona Virus, several future cruises have changed or cancelled a lot of ports. We have 2 cruises booked in October then again in February next year and are seriously considering we may not go. Touch wood, we have arrived back in Australia virus free but has a new passenger embarked in Fremantle with an unsuspected case?

We had a late sail away. The reason given was a delay in loading the ship’s supplies. The ship is now on a mission to make-up time to arrive in Albany on schedule.