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Many people ask me where home is. My mail goes to California, and that’s where my family is, but I only spend a couple of weeks there before I take off traveling or getting back on the ship. The ship is where I unpack my bags and put things in drawers. This contract, I’d have to say Cairns was the closest thing to an Australian home (on land). We went there frequently, we docked right in town so I could easily come and go from the ship, and we more often than not sailed away late so we had a lot of time to spend there. It has a mall with lots of shops (including a Kmart AND a target- both of which are better in the US), grocery stores, pharmacies and lots of things to do. It’s my Tauranga of New Zealand, or my St Thomas or Curacao of the Caribbean.
Our first time in Cairns I had my adventure swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, which I told you about in the post ‘Coral Princess Returns to Service’.
Our second time (the first time I actually got to see the city), I taught Zumba in the morning, showered and then looked for someone to hang out with. Luckily I ran into Daiana, the Senior Production Manager. She was meeting up with Dusan (also in production) and they were heading toward a vegan burger place. That sounded perfect to me. I had worked with Dusan on the Caribbean Princess but we hadn’t had much time to hang out. We ended up having such a great day. We found the burger place, which was fantastic, then we stumbled into an Irish bar (which we ended up revisiting on later stops) and then we stumbled across a brewery. Dusan decided we needed to try everything they had on tap so he ordered us three flights.
There was a huge variety, and lots of fruity options (which are my favorite). There were a couple of portraits on the wall of a man with a big mustache and a lady with blonde hair. We asked our server what the story was, and she told us that it they were Sam and Linda – the founders of the brewery. By then we all agreed that it would be a great idea to get matching t-shirts with Sam and Linda on them. We would wear them to the crew bar, which would inevitably become a topic of conversation.
We didn’t realize the tradition that we had put into place. Every time we came to Cairns we had to visit Sam and Linda.
We often stumbled on some other crew members there. It became a regular meeting spot. It’s just a few blocks from the ship, has great food and wifi. I particularly enjoyed that it was ALWAYS referred to as Sam and Linda’s, in spite of the fact that the brewery was called Sauce. When new crew members tried to find Sam and Linda’s on their own, they often got confused. If anyone accidentally referred to the brewery as Sauce, they were corrected. By the end, many more of our friends had matching t shirts (and we even saw them being worn by guests!).
We also started going to Gilligan’s – a backpacker’s hostel with a pool and cheap drinks. As winter turned into Summer, Gilligan’s became more like a club. I was less interested in stopping there, but a lot of other people loved it.
One time Gilligan’s had a guest DJ. He even let our favorite DJ – DJ Daddy Douche Douche take over.
I think my favorite day in Cairns might have been the day we discovered Gilligan’s. After getting breakfast at the Warf (briefly referenced below), getting supplies at the mall, coming back for Cambusa (it was usually at noon while we were in Cairns – we eventually started calling it Cairnsbusa. Cambusa is when we can get flats of water, and a limited amount of hard alcohol by the bottle) and then making our regular stop at Sam and Lindas. We had a group chat of about 15 members- mostly people from Entertainment with a few special guests. On the ship, WhatsApp is free to use for crew whether we purchase internet or not, which is a great way to always be able to keep in touch with friends and family. But Bri had lost her phone, so we were using Facebook Messenger. We figured out that we could change the names of the members of the group to nicknames. The rule was that you couldn’t make up your own nickname but anyone else could change it. We had so much fun coming up with the nicknames and updating them as funny things happened. Most nicknames came from a particularly defining characteristic or phrase someone said. A few nicknames came from someone hating a word – that word became their nickname just to get a reaction out of them. A lot of the nicknames came from things that happened after everyone finished work. I was usually in bed by then, hence my nickname became ‘Kelly Needs to Come to More Parties.’ Then, a few hours later I met someone from the ship, they asked my name and I said, ‘Hi, I’m Kelly’ and he said ‘Hi Candy.’ The next thing I knew my nickname had changed to ‘Candy Needs to Come to More Parties.’ Vicky still calls me Candy in honor of my nickname. My favorites are Safari Princess (more on that in a later post), Mr I pho king should be a close contact rn, Trevor & Dalton Poppins pants and Motor City Cosplayer.
That day as we migrated from place to place everyone in the group showed up at one point or another. It was like an epic party that couldn’t have been planned if we’d tried. All the energies aligned and we had a great day hanging out.
One day at dinner someone mentioned skydiving. I said sign me up! I loved skydiving in Tauranga, New Zealand, and as soon as I touched the ground, I signed up to go again. Unfortunately, the world shut down so I wasn’t able to keep that booking. I decided going in Australia could make up for that. We usually arrived in Cairns at 10am (the latest jumps were at 9am), but there was one time when we inexplicably arrived at 11:30pm the night before. Bri, Georgie, Rob and I signed up to meet at 7:45. Georgie and Bri hadn’t gone before. Rob ended up cancelling at the last minute so it was just the three of us. I opted out of the photo package because, at a distance, it all looks the same and then I could save a couple $100. I’m not great with numbers but I think this jump was higher than the one I did in Tauranga. We flew up in a slightly bigger plane and the ride up seemed much shorter. Georgie was the most nervous. She got the cutest guide, which we all agreed was the best decision the universe could have made that day. Georgie jumped first (I think we all knew that she needed to go first before seeing anyone else fall out the side). I went next and then Bri. It was so cool to see Cairns from so high up. I could see the ship and the water where the boat I had taken to go snorkeling left from. I could see the city. It was surrounded by green and more water—I had no idea!
We landed in a field, and again, as soon as I landed I wanted to sign up for another one. Georgie and Bri were as blissed out as I was.
After the jump we went to my favorite breakfast place in Carins – the Warf, right by the ship. Walking back, we crossed paths with the Hotel General Manager (our boss’ boss’ boss’ boss) and I think she thought we had been out all night.
This place had great breakfast, as well as iced coffee with ice cream (with a shot if I’ve just jumped out of a plane).
On our last day in Cairns, we took care of some business in the morning and then took a taxi to what we thought was Fairy Falls – which I insisted on miscalling Fairy Floss. It was a short, paved walk, slightly uphill along a stream speckled with waterfalls. We went swimming and Bri jumped off the cliff. I’ve learned my lesson- I like jumping out of planes, but I don’t like jumping off cliffs into the water. It reminded me so much of the adventures I’d had in Vanuatu and climbing through the jungle with Georgie in Papeete, except this one was much more accessible. It was nice to have an extra adventure rather than spending the whole day at Sam and Linda’s (we did end up there before all aboard though).
I had to run back to the ship to do trivia quickly, but then there was still time before all aboard. I met up with Bri and Stacey and found a drink with the same name as our most intriguing water shuttle ticket group.
Instead of ordering, we decided that we should go back to our favorite spot one last time. Sure enough, we ran into the members of The Sound, the Party band. I sent a picture to Dusan to let him know that the tradition continued.
