Welcome from David and Lyn.

The format of our site is in three parts:

1. Blog server - our day-to-day travel blogs (this website)
2. Photo server - some of our key photos
3. YouTube channel - our videos (many linked directly from our blogs)

The site includes hundreds of searchable travel blogs. Some of our longer trips are listed below. 

General travel

• Bridge cams - Princess
• Unofficial Travel Awards
• Equator Crossings
• International Date Line

About

• David
• The Thalassophile (lover of the sea)
• The Musician - Uke resources
• The Presenter
• The Photographer
• The Ham (VK4DCP) - Ham resources
• The Vexillophile (flags)
• Lyn
• Countries visited: #1 to #25 | #26 to #50 | #51 to #75 | #76 to #100 | #101+
• Summary of cruises - Pre COVID-19 / Post COVID-19 

Thank you for visiting our website.

Best regards

David and Lyn
e-mail: brizzy@outlook.com.au

Cruise countdown

2026 European Odyssey River Cruising - Blog Starting Page

2027 Fiji Cruise - Blog Starting Page

2027 Circle Pacific Cruise - Blog Starting Page

Links to major adventures
2025 Pacific North America Cruise Blog - Apr 2025 to June 2025 Cruise #1 - Sydney to LA Repositioning Cruise #2 - Pacific Wine Country Rocky Mountaineer - Discovery Circle Cruise #3 - Voyage of Glaciers (Northbound) Cruise #4 - Voyage of Glaciers (Southbound)
2024 - World Cruise on the Coral Princess Blog - Apr 2024 to Aug 2024 Photos Segment #1: Sydney to Tangier - 35 Days Segment #2: Tangier to Dover (via Baltic) - 21 Days Segment #3: Dover to New York - 18 Days Segment #4: New York to Brisbane - 38 Days
2020 – Indian Ocean & South Africa Odyssey + Southern Australia Explorer Blog - Jan 2020 to Mar 2020 Photos
2019 - Hawaii, Tahiti and South Pacific cruise on the Sea Princess
Blog - Aug 2019 to Oct 2019 Photos
2018 - World Cruise on the Sea Princess
Blog - Jun 2018 to Sept 2018
Photos Segment #1: Brisbane to Dubai - 19 Days Segment #2: Dubai to London - 30 Days Segment #3: London to New York - 20 Days Segment #4: New York to Brisbane - 37 Days
2017 - Cherry Blossom cruise (a.k.a. China - Japan cruise)
Blog - March 2017 to April 2017 Photos
2016 - World Cruise on the Sea Princess
Blog - May 2016 to Aug 2016
Photos Segment #1: Sydney to Dubai – 20 Days Segment #2: Dubai to London – 35 Days Segment #3: London to New York – 11 Days Segment #4: New York to Sydney – 38 Days Home Leg: Sydney to Brisbane – 2 Days
2015 - Hawaii, Tahiti and South Pacific cruise on the Sun Princess
Blog - Jul. 2015 to Aug. 2015 Photos
2014 - South East Asia on the MV Voyager
Blog - Feb. 2014 to Mar. 2014
Photos Leg #1 Treasures of Asia Leg #2 Colours of the Indian Ocean
2012 - Caribbean cruise on the MV Voyager
Blog (by Lyn) - Nov 2012 to Jan 2013
Photos (by David and Lyn) Leg #1 Voyage to the Caribbean Leg #2 Caribbean Gems Leg #3 A Tapestry of Central America
2011 – Far East cruise on the MV Discovery
Blog (by David) - Dec 2011 to Feb 2012
Photos (by David) Leg #1 Treasures of the Orient and Vietnam Leg #2 Empires of the Sun Leg #3 South East Asia and Australia
2010 - Caribbean cruise on the MV Discovery
Blog (by David) - Nov 2010 to Jan 2011
Photos (by David)  Leg #1 Discovery of the New World Leg #2 Colonial Trails of the Caribbean Leg #3 Tales of the Old Spanish Main
2009 - Grand Voyage of Discovery from Mumbai (India) to London on the MV Discovery
Blog (by David) - Mar 2009 to May 2009
Photos (by David) Leg #1 India and The Persian Gulf Leg #2 Red Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Leg #3 Black Sea, Turkey and Greek Isles Leg #4 European - mainly the Mediterranean

03 March 2026 - Springwood, Logan
A small group today.

20 January 2026 - Springwood, Logan
Another catch up. No photos from today.

Tuesday, 21 October 2025 - Springwood, Logan / Brisbane
Another lovely get-together. A few couldn't make it, but still a great turn-out. Still talking about the 2027 Circle Pacific cruise that most of us are booked on.

Monday, 23 December 2024 - Springwood, Logan / Brisbane
We finally got to another of these wonderful get-togethers. Great turn-out with a lot of great people. So good to catch up with them again especially after all these years since WC18.

The talk today was about various upcoming cruises, especially the 2027 Circle Pacific cruise (still over 900 days away). It seems a good many people have cancelled their WC25 and WC26 cruises (including us).

Tuesday, 10 October 2023 – Springwood, Logan / Brisbane
Today we had an excellent catch-up with around 20 people at the Lions Club in Springfield. It was a much larger group than the June 2023 get together (sorry, no photos from June).

Of course our discussions were all about cruising with a few people recently finishing this year’s world cruise (WC23). There was also a lot of discussion about the upcoming 2024 and 2025 World Cruises (WC24 and WC25) with many people booked and the excitement building.

In many ways these catch ups are becoming pseudo WC24 and WC25 get togethers – which is wonderful. So much so that a half dozen people have created and joined a private social media group for WC24 planning and around a dozen doing the same for WC25 planning.

Thursday, 25 November 2021 - Springwood, Logan / Brisbane
Great catch up with around 20 wonderful people. Hard to believe it's been 1,161 days since we disembarked the ship. Lots of talk about future cruising with many booked on the 2023 or 2024 world cruises. Thank you Alison for organising and these photos:

Tuesday, 22 June 2021 - Springwood, Logan / Brisbane
A very good turn-out of 21 people for today's get together. It's been three years since the 2018 World Cruise and we are still catching up with these lovely people.

Friday, 01 Nov. 2019 - Springwood, Logan / Brisbane
Another fabulous catch up at the Lions Club in Springwood with around 23 people attending. So many wonderful people - it's like a big happy family.

Friday, 26 July 2019 - Springwood, Logan / Brisbane
It was a wonderful catch up with around 30 people today.  We caught up on the past 12 months and heard about the many awesome future adventures that people are planning.

Thanks Alison and Phillip for organising. Look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Saturday, 10 Nov 2018 - Sandgate, Brisbane
Around 40 people attended the first Brisbane post-cruise get-together in the Northern suburbs of Brisbane. A wonderful way to catch-up with the many friends we had made on the cruise. Unfortunately, no photos from today.

Friday, 26 Oct 2018 - Labrador, Gold Coast
John and Jan organised a post cruise catch-up on the Gold Coast attended by around 14 people. We also had a special guest, the World Cruise's Cruise Director Corey - who was in town for his birthday celebrations.

Reference:

• Photos of these get-togethers
• Blogs: Pre & Post Cruise Meet Ups

Previous (Brisbane)  | 2018 - World Cruise | The End!

Brisbane to Brisbane (14 Nights)

Other key links:

• 2026 New Zealand Cruise Photos

This trip is on the Crown Princess. Open a new tab of the current ship's bridge cam.

Reference:

Past New Zealand cruise: Coral Princess, 05-19 Dec 2022

Friday, 27 Feb - Sunday 01 Mar 2026 - At sea

Most Traveled Guests Luncheon - 27 Feb 2026
We received an invitation from Captain Petar Lesic to a lunch held in Sabatini's:
"We are thrilled to have you back and delighted to let you know that you are a Most Traveled Guest on this sailing. With this prestige, it is my pleasure to invite you to an exclusive luncheon, hosted by myself and the senior officers onboard."

A fabulous four course lunch and wine with the 40 most traveled guests and senior staff. We celebrated 611 days cruising with Princess ... the cutoff was 455 days, putting us on table four of seven. Table one had the Captain, and we had the pleasure of being hosted by Ewen, the Hotel Services Engineer.

The total days combined for the 40 guests was 24,850 or 68 years.


Captain's Circle Cocktail Party - 27 Feb 2026
That evening we attended the Captain's Circle Cocktail Party in Club Fusion for Platinum and Elite members. It's always interesting to hear the member numbers for this cruise:

White: 900 (28%)
Gold: 691 (22%)
Ruby: 386 (12%)
Platinum: 704 (22%)
Elite: 480 (15%)
Total: 3,161 (103% occupancy)

The youngest guest on this cruise was 1 year old and the oldest was 96 years.

The most travelled guests for this cruise: 1st at 2,357 days, 2nd at 1,435 days and 3rd at 913 days.


Dinner - 27 Feb 2026
Dinner was at our usual table in the Michaelangelo Dining Room. Today was special as it was our waiter's birthday. The Restaurant Manager was keen to surprise Kadek and we were a key part of the plan. The Manager had a cake waiting in another area and once we got the nod, we sat Kadek down at our table with a "very serious" food complaint (much to his horror). Soon we were surrounded by staff and we all sang happy birthday ... twice.

Monday, 02 March 2026 - Brisbane
The Crown Princess sailed into Brisbane at 7am, we were off the ship at 10am and on our way home by 10:30am.

The weather has been fantastic, and sailing through the three Sounds was pretty special.

We’ve had the same excellent wait staff (Kadek and Elmer) at Michaelangelo for dinner every night. The sommelier (Roopak) was also very obliging with some lovely wines. The food has also been very good. Thanks guys for making this cruise so much more enjoyable.

We have stayed away from Horizon Court Buffet as much as possible. It's nickname of "the pig pen" is justified on these shorter cruises.

Lyn was unwell for the last couple of days, things that can't be helped.

Overall, a fabulous cruise.

For more photos / album slideshow:

Reference:

Previous | 2026 - New Zealand Cruise | The End!

Thursday, 26 Feb. 2026
Fiordland is the largest National Park in New Zealand and one of the largest in the world. It has been recognised as one of the world's foremost natural landscapes through its inclusion in Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.

Dusky Sound & Breaksea Sound
Our first scenic cruise was around Resolution Island on our port side ... we entered Dusky Sound at 9am. The weather was overcast, but thankfully no rain. Seals were spotted on the starboard side (our side). From Dusky Sound we turned north into Acheron Passage and then to port again into Breaksea Sound before returning to the Tasman Sea.

Doubtful Sound & Thompson Sound
We sailed into Doubtful Sound at noon, then into Thompson Sound. This time we cruised around Secretary Island on our port side. Still overcast with the Sounds becoming narrower and the mountains higher … some reaching over 1,000m.

Milford Sound
The sun finally came out as we entered Milford Sound at 4:45pm. This enhanced the scenery and created rainbow flickers on some of the larger waterfalls. As an added bonus, the high rainfall the previous week ensured all waterfalls were running.

When we reached the end of the Sound, the Captain was so pleased with the weather that he did an extra 360 degree turn (540 degrees in total) ... much to the surprise of the NZ Ranger who provided the commentary.

Due to the good weather, we were able to sail through all three planned areas. Apparently, this doesn’t happen very often. During David's previous NZ cruise, they only visited Milford and Dusky Sounds.

During the cooler past, glaciers carved many deep fiords, the most famous (and most visited) of which is Milford Sound / Piopiotahi. Other notable fiords include Doubtful Sound / Patea and Tamatea / Dusky Sound. The retreat of the glaciers after the ice age left behind U-shaped valleys with sheer cliffs and as a result Fiordland's coast is steep and crenellated, with some of the 15 fiords reaching as far as 40 km inland.
Source: Wikipedia

Dusky Sound
One of the most complex of the many fiords on this coast, it is also the largest at 40 km in length and eight kilometres wide at its widest point. To the north of its mouth is the large Resolution Island, whose Five Fingers Peninsula shelters the mouth of the sound from the northwest; along the east coast of the island, Acheron Passage connects Dusky Sound with Breaksea Sound, to the north.

Several large islands lie in the sound, notably Anchor Island, Long Island, and Cooper Island. The Seaforth River is the largest of many small rivers and creeks which flow into the sound.

At its mouth, the sound is wide, and is bordered by the Five Fingers Peninsula to the north and by South Cape and Fannin Bay in the south. The south Island's westernmost point, West Cape lies less than 10 km south of the sound's mouth. Immediately inside the sound's mouth lies the large Anchor Island and numerous small islets, among them the Seal, Petrel, and Many Island groups. Immediately to the southeast of Anchor Island lies the smaller Indian Island.

To the east of Anchor Island, the sound narrows to about five kilometres and splits into two broad channels, separated by the aptly named Long Island, which stretches for some 15 km in length but is only around 2000 metres wide at its widest point. The narrower of the two channels, Cook Channel, lies to the south of Long Island; Bowen Channel lies to the north. Bowen Channel links with Acheron Passage, a north–south channel which separates Resolution Island from the mainland and links with Breaksea Sound to the north.
Source: Wikipedia 

 

Breaksea Sound
Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound is a small fiord on the southwestern coast of South Island, New Zealand in the Tasman Sea. Breaksea Island in Fiordland National Park lies at its entrance. In the 1850s, early settlers Henry Hirst and John Watts-Russell explored the area for flat land suitable for sheep farming, but they were unsuccessful.

 

Thompson Sound
The fiord is connected at its farthest extent with Pendulo Reach, part of Doubtful Sound / Patea, and between them Thompson and Doubtful Sounds form the non-Tasman Sea coast of Secretary Island. It is 21 kilometres in length.

Source: Wikipedia

Milford Sound
Milford Sound is a fiord in the south west of New Zealand's South Island within Fiordland National Park, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) Marine Reserve, and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. It has been judged the world's top travel destination in an international survey (the 2008 Travelers' Choice Destinations Awards by TripAdvisor) and is acclaimed as New Zealand's most famous tourist destination. Rudyard Kipling had previously called it the eighth Wonder of the World.
Source: Wikipedia

Reference:

• Past cruise blog: 09 Dec. 2022
• Wikipedia: Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
• Wikitravel: Fiordland National Park, New Zealand

Previous | 2026 - New Zealand Cruise | Next