Scott Barronton (00:00)
Welcome back to the Sunshine Travelers podcast, where we help you travel more and better. I'm Scott, and this week, Melissa and I are coming to you from aboard the Crown Princess, sailing along the coast of Australia. This journey's been a long time coming. We started in Jacksonville, Florida, then made our way to Los Angeles, across the Pacific, to Brisbane, and finally down to Hobart, Tasmania, where our adventure began.
Over the next three weeks, we'll travel north along Australia's eastern coast before crossing over to Indonesia, Malaysia, and ending our voyage in Singapore. For Melissa, those ports in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore will mark her first time visiting Asia, and for both of us, officially checks Australia off our list of continents. We've only just begun...
but this trip is already filled with memorable moments, from watching our ship arrive in Hobart, from our hotel room, to an unforgettable whale encounter in Eden.
Speaker 2 (01:05)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (01:08)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
Speaker 2 (01:16)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
Speaker 1 (01:25)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
Scott Barronton (01:33)
So Scott, getting to Hobart felt like a major accomplishment. It's not exactly an easy place to reach from Florida.
Jacksonville to Atlanta, Atlanta to LA, and then across the Pacific to Brisbane, and the one last flight south to Hobart, which I almost didn't leave enough connection time for at all. And so by the time we landed, we were definitely ready to catch our breath. It was about 36 hours straight of travel. And even though it didn't really, it kind of skipped over Thursday because we left on Wednesday.
and arrived in Australia on Friday. So it just, it feels like you missed a whole day.
Our flight to LA was also a little bit eventful as well. So I was sitting there and I had the aisle seat and guy got up middle of the flight and started heading back down the aisle. And then all of a sudden he just kind of fell down at my feet. He passed out right in the middle of the middle of the aisle. I've never had anything like that happen before. Yeah.
I don't know, so I pushed the button or just called for help. think there was a flight attendant close by. He got on the speaker and called for a doctor or a nurse that was on board. And he had some protocols that he did, but they definitely relied on that person's expertise to like keep taking vital signs. I felt like it was interesting. So you actually got up to give her your seat and went, sat somewhere else for a while. But since I was by the window,
And so he was actually communicating with somebody on the ground, giving information, getting information back and organizing. I think we were about an hour out. So organizing, that they would have paramedics when we arrived and stuff like that. So thankfully the guy seemed like he was okay. Cause that was a little nerve wracking when you first, you know, when somebody first like just goes down on a flight. hopefully he was.
ended up being okay, but yeah, that was quite an experience. Yeah, I felt bad for him because when we got there, they told everybody to stay in their seats so the paramedics could come on and take him off. And I think by that time he was feeling better. And so he was just like, no, let everybody off because like, they're going to miss their connections. And they're like, nope, we have to wait for the paramedics. Well, it took a while. And so I think he felt really conscious.
you know then, but hopefully he's okay. you know that everything checked out okay it was definitely scary when he just passed out and fell right at my feet. Of course I was panicking because he fell right onto my bad foot. But that's story for a different day.
Well, so the food on that flight though, I have to just comment that like that was some of the best airline food I think I've ever had. Yeah, so we had actually gotten the alert or the email or whatever from Delta. And so you can like pre make some selections. And so one of the options was to do a Shake Shack meal.
So that actually, I don't know, I guess I thought, that actually sounds like it would be pretty good to try. And it definitely was. Yeah, it was probably one of the best airline meals we've ever had. And I know a lot of times you've always said like with Delta, they put red peppers and everything. And I feel like they put cheese on everything. Yes, the burger had cheese on it, but like everything is filled with cheese. so that was definitely something that you have to pre-order. But if you ever have that opportunity.
That was great. And then once we did get to get off the flight, ⁓ I was super excited that we also, they have a Delta One lounge in LA. And because you had upgraded for us that flight into Delta One. And I'm so glad that you did. I think that after having that flight and kind of thinking through that,
Going forward, any time we probably have something, would you say over like a 10 hour flight? I think 10 hours is gonna kind of be our, and overnight especially, kind of see like, okay, what is this gonna take to be able to upgrade that? Whether it's points or a good travel deal or just whatever, because it just makes such a huge difference. I can't imagine that journey without that. So anyway, the Delta One Lounge.
was top of the line. mean, the food was, I don't know why they can't put that food on the airplane, but the food and the service and that. So if you ever are gonna do Delta One and have the opportunity
to fly out of airport where they have that, make sure you have enough time on your connection to enjoy that experience. Yeah, it was great. Had some really good sushi there at that airport. Yeah, it was all very fantastic and the service was top notch. Well, we did have one hiccup once we got to Brisbane. We had carried our luggage on board across all of those flights.
because we knew that we had a pretty tight turn once we got to Brisbane. And we had also learned that we were gonna have to take a shuttle from the international terminal to the domestic terminal after we cleared customs. So time was gonna be tight and we didn't know what going out of security, getting luggage and coming back in, we didn't know what that was gonna look like. And so we had carried everything on and...
That was a challenge, right? Because I've got crutches, I've got a knee scooter, I've got a camera case that we carry, I've got a backpack, and then Melissa, you had a small roller suitcase, as well as your e-bags backpack. So like, we did have quite a few things that we were taking on board. Yes, but we should clarify, because it made it, you just made it sound like you carried like 10 bags on.
It was a backpack for each of us and a roller bag for each of us because you could carry the backpack and I could carry the backpack. I could roll both of those bags and then just say, okay, this one's his if anybody gave us any weird looks or anything like that. But it is, I mean, it was a lot of luggage. We wouldn't have wanted to check, like you said, we wouldn't have wanted to check the camera. We were also a little worried about like, what if it doesn't get there? Because we're not spending any time in Brisbane.
Right? So are they going to then, get that to the ship? So we just needed to make sure that it was there. But we did have, so then we transferred, so that was all Delta purchased. And then we transferred to Virgin Australia because Delta doesn't operate. Like there was no other option to get to Hobart, but to buy a domestic flight. And on Virgin Australia, a checked bag was included. So we had decided
Okay, now we can each check one bag that we know that can go and we'll carry the other one on. So thankfully, because you had your scooter and the crutches and all that, she told us to go down to like the over-studge bag line. It looked like they were also funneling people with kids over there. So they kind of use that for families and things like that, because a couple of families went through. And after she checked in our bags, she looked at us and said, I need to weigh those carry-on bags.
And immediately she was like, these are too heavy. She was like, our policy is seven kilograms. That's like 15 pounds. Like I can't even imagine like my other, like my normal backpack that I carry being 15 kilograms. So basically it's just very, very different from the U.S. and even in Europe. People carry bags on in Europe. Now they have to be smaller, but you see a lot of people with small roller bags and things like that in Europe.
But here it's like based on weight. And so basically people didn't have anything. Small backpack, small purse, everybody checked everything. She mentioned to you that it was because that if it's heavier than seven kilograms and it falls on somebody, it could kill them. Yeah. She said if it falls on a kid, it could kill them. And I was like, well, then I'll make sure it doesn't fall on the kid. But, you know, it was a challenge because any of you out there who
have invested in camera gear and stuff like that. And if you've ever looked out the window and watched how they handle luggage, you don't want to see your thousands of dollars of camera gear flying through the air, even though I have it in a Pelican case. And I specifically bought this Pelican case because of its size. It's the right size dimensions for an international carry-on, except for the weight.
Right, and so the weight was the kicker there. Those are their policies. I argued as much as I could to try to keep my camera from going underneath. of fact, we took the camera body out of the case because I didn't want it being tossed around. Didn't want my lenses tossed around either, you know, we just, those were the policies and we had to operate within those rules.
Yeah, and she even commented, she was like, sir, people come to Australia all the time for photography. Like, we do this all the time. Like, was honestly no big deal. The challenge for us at this point was I typically do travel with an extra bag that I can unfold and put things in, but she had already taken that bag that that was in. And so I was just like, I just don't have.
have anything else? I mean come to find out because I mean because then she's like okay you know besides that we've got to get all of our lithium batteries out so because we have the camera gear and you know different pieces of cameras we have our laptops like we had to carry all that with us and I shouldn't have anything else to put that in so thankfully she went and found like a little shopper bag that somebody had a little zip-up tote that she would take to the grocery store and she was like you can have this free of charge thank you
So that was very nice. think there was a moment for them and for us, it was just kind of like a moment of panic, right? Like we have to tell them no, this is our policy, but we also- And the flight was closing. The flight was closing, right? So they actually had cut off, ⁓ if you are familiar with this, they cut off the time you can check in bags, and that actually had cut off between the time that we had done the first two bags.
And we finally, you she was like, okay, you're gonna have to check these other two. and so also at this point, we thought that the flight was boarding. Now we were too involved with our interactions with them to be checking, emails to see that it actually wasn't boarding at this point. So I do have to shout out to, know, despite the immediate kind of frustration. And yes, it was our fault. We just honestly had not ever encountered
situation where they weighed your carry-on. Right? you posted something on Instagram and some guy was like, why are you asking for sympathy? We weren't asking for sympathy. It's just we had never come across this before. And in this particular case, we were violating their policy and we were stressed because we needed to make that flight. And all of a sudden here's something, just
out of left field, we've traveled all over the world. I've taken that camera bag, you can even see from the stickers on it, right? I've taken that camera all over the world and I've never had this problem before, but all of a sudden with Virgin Australia, it's a problem. Yeah, well, and as a matter of fact, I even looked up, I think it's an Australia thing, because I also looked up their other big airline is Qantas, their other local airline, and they have the same policy. When I was checking,
they are going to have a new policy in 2026 and it's gonna go up by one kilogram. So eight kilograms. And then if you are part of their ⁓ elite status or whatever, you get two of those that are no more than seven kilograms. So it's not about being the 14 kilograms total, it's about the each bag weight. So I guess that is a major concern for them. It's something else. So anyway, just ⁓ kind of knowing and thinking.
that regardless of where you go, because like Scott mentioned, this is just not something that we have encountered. So we'll definitely be checking the weight for other flights that we have, you not only on this trip ⁓ on airlines that we have not flown before, but also in the future, just to make sure that we are prepared and have, another bag to put that in, no, for doing the prepay for the bag. So I will also say that they were very kind and did not
charge us for those other two bags either. And I think that was part of the part of it was just they needed to do it quickly and get this going. But but I think that was very kind of them as well. And then not only that, she then one of them who was helping us literally walked us through security to the front of the security line. Of course, we take our laptops out and all that and walked us all the way to the gate. And so I just felt like they went above and beyond, you know, at that point, a situation that could have been very frustrating for us.
Yeah. And then when we got to the gate, the flight was delayed. So yes, we were not late at all. They hadn't started boarding. So but anyway, so we had a chance to breathe. We wanted to share that story with you. we talk about travel and sometimes how there's little hiccups along the way. And this was one of them. But we made it and we got to Hobart. ⁓ Great town.
should say and somewhere that we would definitely recommend going back spending time everyone has told us that you need two to three weeks to see Tasmania and that like that is a consistent everybody saying that you need to spend like two to three weeks just in Tasmania
And so to give a little reference, we figured this out. Tasmania is the size of Florida. So I mean that makes sense because I mean Florida is so diverse and if you were going to visit all the places in Florida that we have not even visited, I mean think that would, you would definitely need that.
One other small hiccup that we had is that once we landed, we could not get our phones to work. So now we recently switched over from T-Mobile to Xfinity. so not then being able to call Uber or they had the taxis, but you could use this app. it worked out fine. They had a taxi line.
⁓ We had a guy who helped us. We had to have a little bit bigger taxi so that we could get the scooter and all the things in there, but it worked out fine. They take credit cards, Apple Pay, so that was super easy. And so thankfully that worked out fine and then we could chat with Xfinity and get that all sorted fairly quickly as well. So we stayed at the Tasman Hotel. It's part of Marriott's luxury collection. It was absolutely stunning. I booked it because it was right near the port. We have status with them.
and it's just an elegant modern hotel, but it does feel a little bit historical. graciously they upgraded our room. Now he said, unfortunately your room's not ready, but we wanted to upgrade your room because of our status, which doesn't always happen. So when they do that, it's nice to be able to take advantage of that. So we had to wait a little bit, but we were a little bit hungry.
as well, but the view of the harbor that they gave us, it was this panoramic room, which basically had floor to ceiling windows. The view was just unbelievable. Yeah, it right on the corner of the building it was up on the top floor. It looked out over the harbor there in Hobart and, just...
Everything about that room was spectacular. The bathroom was so nice and really high-end, felt very luxurious. The room itself was very spacious. And then you had those floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out. It was gorgeous. We were sitting there.
because it was kind of raining when we got to Hobart and so we weren't out and around and we were just tired from 36 hours of travel and also I had to work that evening and so we're sitting there in the room and I think I was actually on a work call and we saw the Crown Princess come in to the harbor and we were like, look there's our ship so it was neat seeing that. That was very neat seeing that
And I think sometimes, especially for us, when we have such a limited amount of time, like I think we, in other circumstances, would have been out and about trying to see things. But being, given the upgraded room and having such a view to actually be able to just sit there and enjoy it. Yeah, it was nice. It was actually, it was kind of helpful to have that little bit of downtime from the long flight.
So yeah, the other thing I wanted to point out about the hotel that I really appreciated and we didn't realize until we went to the market that we're going to tell you about is that The room amenities are actually all local products of the little soaps that they have. And I didn't realize this until I commented on it, but he was like, ⁓ if you noticed all of our mini bar.
They have a lot of local distillers and things like that. He said all those products except for one are everything local. And I just think that was really neat. It just goes a long way. They had a little welcome gift for us of some local wines, which we found out that we need to come back to their wine region as well. So I think that that added just a whole lot of personality to the hotel to have those local products.
Well, the next morning the skies just completely cleared,
It was bright blue skies, very crisp air, and perfect weather to get out and explore the Salamanca market. And that market was such a highlight. There were at least 100 or more stalls that lined the street, and you had the scent of roasted coffee and the food trucks that were there drifting through the air. And you just wandered through just one booth after another of all these different handmade products.
that the local artists were there selling. Yeah, it was just really neat. mean, you had produce, you had food trucks, you had local crafts. mean, so many distillers and wine makers and I mean, just anything that you could think of from clothing to jewelry to artwork. I mean, I can't even name all of the things.
And so we were very lucky that we actually hit it on a Saturday because that's when you know the market is like this. But then you also had the thousands of tourists from the ship. So the ship was for most people it was Hobart was just one port and a few people were getting on there. So most of the people it was a port day for them. So
all of those people roaming through the market and just soaking that in, getting their local crafts and souvenirs and stuff like that. what I loved about it is a lot of times when you go into these port towns all over the world, it's just stuff. That's the same things, the same vendors, but this was local.
and they don't have those shops. And what was even neat is that once we went to the terminal as well, it was like they also had a local craft market, maybe for everybody who didn't, want to go all the way to the Salamanca market. And I just appreciate that so much. it's not just the shops from everywhere that you can see anywhere else. So you just feel the pride, I think, that the Tasmanians have in the different things that they create.
We didn't get much because we have a long ways to go and of course all the things we already have but we did get a couple of surprises for the grandkids from the local market. Well definitely left us wanting more and even though our time in Tasmania was short it did give us a glimpse of a destination that we'd love to return to. Yeah Scott and I think just from what we saw they have such a pride in the food.
So obviously the local seafood, but at the hotel we got to have some of the local cheeses and the local honey and the local jam. And I know they do the local juices But they also are very, very strict, both when we got to Brisbane, but then especially when we landed also in Hobart, you can't bring in fruit, you can't bring in nuts,
they are even like, if you have shoes that have been soiled on a farm, because they don't want their environment to be contaminated with other pests and things like that, which would basically destroys their ecosystem here and their products. And we've even seen that recently with the spiders that have invaded in Georgia and around Atlanta that have just like...
feel like they've taken over everything and you don't see like the native spiders that used to be there and so I appreciate the fact that they're you know trying to be so careful with their environment here. Yeah it was funny when we got on the ship and we're listening to the morning announcements on TV every morning the cruise director even commented about how three times they came on and made a announcement about this being a biop...
area and they've got the dogs that roam around and sniff your luggage so if you're flying into Australia I would say Australia as a whole but definitely into we saw it in Brisbane and we saw it in Hobart don't bring foods don't bring any fruits don't bring any plants or anything like that because they're very serious about it
Well, let's move on to a little bit about getting on the ship because now our trip is starting in earnest. Yes. So one thing is if when you're getting on a cruise ship, when it's not like everybody getting on and off at the same place or when I guess because we were one of the few people who got on a bar, it was such a breeze. Like we literally just OK, check in. OK, get on. I mean, we did have a certain time.
but it was so fast and easy compared to like when we got on for our Alaska cruise in Vancouver because it was like thousands of people getting on. So that would be my first comment. Yeah, I think they told us there was 149 of us that got on the ship in Hobart and started our journey in Hobart. Yeah, so it was just super easy, but that was just interesting to do that because that was our first experience where we weren't getting on a ship with like everybody at the same time.
this time we're sailing in an inside cabin and that's a little bit different from how we usually travel we're not bougie. So we don't have the suite and stuff like that but we do usually try to have like an outside cabin with an ocean view or a veranda or something like that, but this time we're on the inside in
it's a really small room and we're going to be on the ship for three weeks straight so you know it's just really it's it's different yeah
So what was interesting about that is when we booked this back in June,
it was the only option that was left, which we were kind of surprised at, but it was, it was the only option, but it's forced us to get out and explore more of the ship. So we've been spending time in the lounges and the atrium. They have something they call the international cafe, which is probably my favorite spot on board. We've been able to sit by the window. You can have coffee and there's music and beverages. So we're trying to make good use of the coffee and drink packages we got along with.
our upgraded internet so that Scott can continue to work and then we can continue to work on things like this also while we're on the cruise.
So all of this has really been just a nice hub for people watching and grabbing a coffee or a snack between the different activities that we've enjoyed so far. Cause really it's been, you the weekend so far. And honestly, it's also been fun meeting new people along the way. So this afternoon we have, we met several couples from the Sydney area that will be getting off the ship tomorrow. And they just have kind of told us a little bit about, Sydney and different places that we should explore at some point.
just given us some different local perspectives about what to make sure that we see.
And it's also given us a chance to really compare Princess Cruises to our recent Holland America experiences. I think to me, Princess feels maybe a little bit more lively. there's a little bit more entertainment. the areas like where they have the music, where they do the shows, the theater, like...
those clubs where they would do like the trivia and stuff like that, they seem to be a little bit bigger. This is a bigger ship than, what we traveled on Holland America, but there's a lot of stuff going on.
⁓ all the time. of fact, Melissa even laughed yesterday because I had just gone through and favorited a few things on the app of stuff for us to pick and choose from that we might be interested in.
And she looked at it she was like, my god, you got us booked all afternoon. And wasn't the intention is to book up our time, but really just so that we could see all the different activities that we might want to choose from and go out and explore some. Yeah, and help us to give us like a compare and contrast too so that we can share that information. I'd also say that so far,
we'll see a hold, like the whole ship's gonna turn over almost tomorrow. I think they said 2,900 people are gonna join in Sydney, so that's 2,900 people get off, 2,900 people get on because it's a full ship. And I would say Princess Cruises still feels like a little bit of an older crowd. Definitely a lot of older people on the ship.
And that's not a bad thing. It really makes, what we're, what we're going for, it makes it more enjoyable not to have, you know, a bunch of kids and stuff like that, but...
What do you think? Yeah, I mean there's a handful of, you know, a handful of kids. It's also interesting is that everybody that we've run across is Australian.
for the most part, we talked to one couple and he said, no, we met a couple from or ⁓ a group or some, you know, from LA. We just haven't run across those or maybe some people from, Asia as well, but we just haven't run into any other, Americans where everybody is from Sydney or doing the Sydney to Sydney sailing. so far I would say also, so Holland America has a classic, almost an elegant atmosphere, calm and refined.
kind of focused on relaxation as well. I think both are great. They just have different styles of travelers and I think
for this cruise covering so many ports and countries and what we wanted to do, and I think we've mentioned this before,
this was the only cruise that really checked all those boxes for us. But I think it matches the excitement of a trip that's all about discovery. And so far we've enjoyed the diversity of activities. It's also kind of nice that we know that we have so long, I think, enjoy just the different aspects of it. I think if you do a seven day cruise, like it's rush, rush, rush to, do everything and maybe having
a seven day holiday vacation, whatever mindset is different from having the 21 days. I don't know that I could ever go back to a three or four day cruise. Like, I just feel like you'd be like...
What do you say? You don't even know where things are on the ship. like do everything. Yeah, it's taken us a long time to get used to, a different ship as well. So we've talked to a few people that have traveled on several Princess Cruises previously. One lady in particular, she shared that she feels like that this ship is ⁓ one of the oldest ones in the fleet. And I know that Princess Cruise Line has a new one that's just debuting as well. She also mentioned that in her opinion,
that it needs to be retired. We still think this is a beautiful ship ⁓ and they do...
everything like we've seen on other cruises right they're constantly painting or fixing things they were slacking the handrails on one of the decks when we got on so there's always constant maintenance obviously when things are at sea and you have that sea air and and water and stuff like that but yeah so far i mean we've really enjoyed it
Well today we've reached Eden and it's a small coastal town with about 3,100 residents. So when a cruise ship like ours arrives in, it really doubles the population of that town. And you can tell the moment that you step off the ship, everybody in town comes to kind of welcome you because this is a big part of their economy is the tourism.
Yeah, and so I think that's what is neat too, is that those, people that they have as greeters and the welcome center Princess Cruises chartered some buses because in Eden, kind of like their high street or their main town is up this big hill, which I think was great. But everybody is, from the town and they really are sincerely glad to have you there. And they have lots of people out to ⁓ welcome you and not all
say that about Hobart too, Scott, is the people working in that cruise terminal. I mean you can tell it's just like okay like we have this job when the cruise is in town and then it's kind of like a like a part-time they're like greeters and stuff like that which I think is really neat because you do feel more welcomed I think.
So in town, the first thing that we did in Eden, we took a small boat tour around the bay there, which is called Two-Fold Bay. And it actually turned out to be one of those experiences that I don't think that we will ever forget. So this is actually the last week, I think he said, basically the last week of their whale season. So the humpback whales are gonna be migrating from here down to Antarctica.
And so when we got on, they took us on basically, here's our different kind of landmarks and stuff like that. And he had talked to another boat that had seen some whales. But we ended up.
Two humpback whales appeared right next to our boat. And what was so cool about this is they literally stayed with us for about 45 minutes. I think he had in his mind, okay, there's another place that we might be able to go. But he basically didn't have the engines running and would just kind of let the boat turn and those two whales and we're just right there and would come even closer. And what was so interesting, and I think that they only went down basically one time.
like where they were completely submerged during that. The rest of the time you could see at least part of their body or you know they were blowing the the water up. So it was just absolutely a phenomenal experience to have the opportunity to sit there so close to them and watch them in the sunlight and just the water glistening off of them and get to see. And what was so cool is that water is so clear is that you could actually see that fin which has a white
part on it you could actually see it under the water which was just really really cool.
So this is just one of two excursions that we've booked through the cruise. And we booked it kind of last minute yesterday because we didn't find anything on Viator. But this was done through Sapphire Coastal Adventures. And if we would have known, we might could have looked them up and booked it directly through them or even once we got into port.
I'd say if you're more adventurous you can kind of you can try that If you're here in the high season, I wouldn't recommend it because I guarantee you they're really busy But it was a great trip worked out great for us and we were so glad that we had it booked
And I'd say that these are the kind of moments that make travel so special. You can go and plan for ports and excursions, but the most meaningful experiences are like this, the ones that you don't see coming. And to have that happen so early in our voyage, it's hard to imagine a better way that we could have started this adventure. Yeah, and one thing that I wanted to say is that when we were out there on the boat, you know, you're thinking, okay, well,
on this cruise and you're on this boat, but you just see things in a whole different way getting on the smaller boat and being able to kind of be out there and get closer to the shore and have them point out, this is this beach and this is this landmark and different things like that. It makes me think of, our time on the Amalfi Coast where I've always said since then, I wish that we would have, had the opportunity to get out in a boat and kind of see it, from the boat. So that was just what I was thinking.
you know, even before seeing the whales that I was glad that we that we did that.
So now we are off to Sydney, Australia tomorrow. We are excited to set our own eyes on this iconic city and on the Sydney Opera House that you always see. The people that we met this afternoon that are from Sydney, he suggested that we get up early and go out on the deck ⁓ or by a window or something and watch the ship go into port. He said it's just a phenomenal sailing into that
actually the port is right by the Sydney Opera House and so going into that Sydney Harbor on the ship said it's just really really phenomenal. Our plan is to do a hop-on hop-off bus tour so that we can really see all the iconic sites in Sydney. We don't have a ton of time and so I kind of still can't believe that we are in Australia honestly. For so long we've said we've been you know here and there but we've never been to Australia like that's kind of been our own no we haven't been to
Australia yet. So by the end of this trip not only can we say that but then I'll also be able to say I've been to all the continents except Antarctica so it still feels a little bit surreal to me I think.
From watching the Crown Princess sail into Hobart Harbor, from our room at the Tasman and the whales swimming beside our boat in Eden, this trip's already full of moments that remind us why we love to explore.
Over the next three weeks, we'll continue north from Australia to Indonesia to Malaysia and then finally Singapore and Hong Kong, crossing continents and collecting new stories along the way. And for us, this voyage isn't about slowing down.
It's about discovery, adventure, and celebrating another milestone to our journey to see the world, one continent at a time.
Speaker 1 (37:35)
That's a wrap on this episode. We hope it gave you some inspiration for your next adventure.
Speaker 2 (37:41)
If you enjoyed the show, we'd love for you to leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps others find us and keeps the travel conversations going.
Speaker 1 (37:50)
Don't forget to follow or subscribe so you never miss a new episode.
Speaker 2 (37:54)
and come hang out with us on Instagram or Facebook at Sunshine Travelers Podcast, that's Travelers with 1L.
Speaker 1 (38:00)
Most importantly, share this episode with a friend. You never know, they just might become your next great travel companion.
