This day marks the end of the 30-day cruise on the Carnival Luminosa, but not the end of the TP1 – we still have 2 nights in Brisbane and the trip back to Florida (which I am NOT looking forward to).

Disembarkation was relatively smooth, especially in light of the fact that Carnival has never docked here before and Brisbane is not a major cruise destination. We got up early (4am – more on this below), packed our bags then had breakfast on board, said farewell to both the ship and the friends we met during the month of cruising. We took a taxi into Brisbane, to the Ibis Styles Hotel, and checked into our room by 10:30am.

I was, I thought, prepared for the 220V electricity in Australia but I was wrong – Australia uses a different 220V socket than Spain. So my first task was to find an adapter. I asked the front desk at the hotel but they had nothing. They suggested Target, just down the street. Went to Target, no adapter. They suggested another store in the same, large 5-story mall. Nope, none there either. I was then directed to JB HiFi in another nearby mall and they had an adapter. But I realized, belatedly that the adapter I had gotten in Spain was not, in fact, a 220V-to-110V transformer, so I felt uncomfortable plugging my lapton into it for fear of blowing it up. Consequently, I avoided using the laptop for 2 days while I continued to look for a transformer (which I never found). That accounts, in part, for the delay in posting to the blog (I am 4 days behind). I eventually concluded that I didn’t need a transformer for the laptop (I recalled using the adapter in Spain without setting the laptop on fire) and, with some trepidation, tried it and found that it worked fine.

The shopping trip, though not very successful, did give me a chance to learn about downtown Brisbane. It is a lovely town with pedestrian malls and some nice public art.

As for waking at 4am… that was an unfortunate accident. I used my phone to set an alarm for 6am. But my phone was on Indonesia time – 2 hours earlier than Brisbane time. So I set it for 4am Indonesia time which was 6am Brisbane time. But the phone automatically updated while we slept and went off, as directed, at 4am. But Brisbane time. The fact that it was dark then should have been a clue. But we rose, got ready for the day, packed the bags and only when that was all done did I realize that it was 5:30am and not 7:30am. So we went back to sleep for an hour. After I apologized to Marlene for waking her too early.

Ah, the complexities of life that result from time zone changes…

I don’t know if the time zone changes were responsible, but we had another problem to deal with when I returned from the adapter hunt: Marlene could not find her jewelry. We searched the bags. Not there. We thought back to the packing and I recalled distinctly that she had moved the bag containing the jewelry from her suitcase to a backpack, to save weight in the suitcase (which we knew, instinctively, was pushing the 50lb airline limit). But the bag was not in the backpack which also contained 6 cans of Pepsi and an insulated container of medicine that had to remain chilled. I had put the medicine in the minifridge when we got into the room, before I went shopping, and she had put the Pepsi in the minifridge while I was out.

Anyway, we could not find the jewelry and became convinced that, somehow, we had left it on the ship. We spent an hour trying to figure out how to notify the Luminosa that we may have left the jewelry bag on board. I found a way to file a lost item claim online and did so. But Marlene wanted to try to reach the ship by phone and went down to enlist the front desk in assisting in that task. While she was out I got a Pepsi from the minifridge – I needed a drink of some kind – and found the bag of jewelry on the shelf below the sodas.

Yeah, chilled jewelry.

Anyway, Marlene explained that she thought the bag contained the medicine which I had already put in the fridge.

Disaster averted. But it was a rough start to the morning and it tainted the entire day. The entire beautiful day. I went to lunch with Maureen and Dottie but Marlene said she wasn’t hungry. We had some wonderful fish and chips at Irish Murphy’s, an Irish pub on the corner of the hotel’s block. And a heavenly pint of Kilkenny Red Ale. We ate lunch while listening to some Irish music. A fine lunch. But without Marlene.

When I got back to the hotel Marlene was gone. And didn’t return for several hours. She was a bit miffed at me for going to lunch without her (though she was invited) and decided to explore the city on her own.

I went out, too, and got some lovely shots of a beautiful city at night. I also ventured into the Treasury Casino and was amazed to find penny slot machines which actually let me make a 1-cent bet. I bet a bit more than that and did well for a while, but ended down $10 Australian (about $7 US).

We never did have dinner that night but had more or less made up by the time the lights were turned out

This was the last full day aboard the Carnival Luminosa. After breakfast I attended a couple of trivia contests where I did poorly. I made one final attempt to break my losing streak in the casino and failed – lost $30 (down $590 with one small bonus in $430 in losses). I should have just stayed out of the casino this last week on board. The machines just ate my money.

At lunch we saw the passenger who gives gifts to the crew. He has given out hundreds – maybe even thousands – of dollars in gifts and cash to the crew. In the afternoon we attended the crew talent show where crew members who are not part of the regular entertainment staff get a chance to show their skills. They were all terrific. The surprise was an operetta duet with Captain Binacchi and Mikka, one of the “fun crew,” who demonstrated a fine soprano voice. Very impressive.

Most of the rest of the day was spent saying goodbye to friends we met on the ship. In the evening we attended the final show – three mediocre comedians.

Our penultimate sea day. I only mention that because I love the word “penultimate.”

We started the day in the casino where things went just fine for Marlene but went from bad to worse for me. I kept thinking that I was due for a bonus that I never got. I lost $110 (down $560 with 1 small bonus in the last $400 in losses).

After breakfast we played cards and I won one game. We played right through lunch, then I blogged, catching up through Day 28. Dinner was formal with some fine filet mignon. We danced after dinner.

A quiet penultimate day. We did get a towel animal. We haven’t gotten many because we didn’t ask the cabin attendant to make up the room most days.

As Day 28 started, we passed by Thursday Island at the very northern tip of Australia and turned south, hugging the shore through the Great Barrier Reef. It was odd – and a little disconcerting – to be sailing so close to land, often between the mainland and coral islands. It was also disconcerting that the depth of the sea was no longer reported on the cruise map, which made me wonder just how shallow the water was in this area.

The day was cloudy but the seas were smooth.

We started the day in the casino where I lost yet another $40 (down $450). But at least this time I got a small bonus ($40) which I immediately lost, then lost more. Not a good stretch at the casino. Marlene, on the other hand, was on a winning streak. She is losing, but probably losing less than me. On this particular day she got several nice bonuses and was up over $200 for the day.

Between breakfast and lunch we played cards with Debbie (Maureen and Dottie declined our offer to play). Debbie won both games.

After lunch we toured the ship’s galley – a first for me. It is, not surprisingly, HUGE as it prepares roughly 10,000 meals every day.

I blogged in the afternoon. Dinner (chicken parm) was very good. The show was “Hot 80s Rock” and included all of the regular show entertainers plus the Luminosa Rockband. Great music.

We sailed through very shallow (less than 100 feet in some places) water between Australia and New Guinea. I had no idea that the ocean was this shallow in this area. Nor that the countries were so close – maybe 80 miles apart. I guess I am learning geography while we cruise.

After breakfast we played cards. But we didn’t finish the second game as Maureen was annoyed that Marlene and I had a little spat – she started to chide me for playing slowly. But it was a difficult hand and in any case I didn’t think I was playing any slower than she played when she had a difficult hand. But Maureen didn’t want to be party to the spat and quit the game.

After lunch I read a bit, then attended the party for Platinum and Diamond guests (these are the highest designations that Carnival has, based on days sailed on Carnival ships). I am only Gold, but Marlene is Platinum so I was able to attend as her plus-one. It is basically a chance to hobnob with senior officers – including the Captain – but does offer free drinks. LOTS of free drinks. Marlene had two and I had four.

After the party we played the slots for an hour and my bad luck continued – I lost $40 (down$410). I believe I have gone 3 days (and about $180 in losses) without a bonus. Or even free spins. The “one-armed bandits are really living up to their name.

Dinner was good but the evening show – a musician who played about 7 different instruments – wasn’t very interesting.

Another day on smooth seas. After breakfast we had to line up to retrieve our passports. I had lost my “receipt” (just a piece of paper with my name on it) so I had to sign the ship’s copy TWICE – once to acknowledge receipt of the passport and once to declare that I had misplaced my “receipt.” Why a piece of paper with my name on it was better proof that I owned the passport than simply opening the passport and matching my face… I have no idea. Seems pretty idiotic to me.

After lunch we played cards, then went to dinner (see a pattern here?). Marlene posed for some photos after dinner, then we went to the evening show – a hypnotist. He got about 25 people to come up on stage to make fools of themselves. Marlene was one of those 25 but she didn’t last long – he figured out pretty quickly that he wouldn’t be able to hypnotize her and asked her to return to her seat. Others quickly followed, leaving about a dozen people that continued on, supposedly in a deep hypnotic state. But some of them – most notably two young men – were clearly faking it. Others were a bit more believable, but I have my doubts that any were truly hypnotized; they were just willing to dance like ballet dancers, shiver from imagined cold and generally act foolish.

A bit of dancing, then we spent some time in the casino to finish the day. I should have just gone to bed as I lost $90 (down $370).

Another beautiful day at sea. This time in the Banda Sea. Yeah. I had never heard of it either, but it is the name of a large body of water near Indonesia.

We started the day in the casino. Marlene won a bunch – she is nearly even now – but I lost $50, down $280 over the 25 days. Not bad.

After breakfast I did one round of trivia, doing poorly, then while Marlene and the others played cards I blogged, catching up through Day 24. That took me to lunch where I ate a hamburger (very good) while watching the King Neptune festivities – a celebration of crossing the equator. King Neptune and his wife (played by Ivan and Oscar, two of the entertainment staff) passed judgment on a variety of cruise officials. All were convicted of “crimes” such as waking us too early and eating all the ice cream and were made to suffer the indignity of kissing a fish and being pelted with eggs and other foodstuffs. At the end the cruise director, Simon, also got pelted and the captain was tossed into the pool. All pretty funny.

After lunch we played cards and I won one game. Dinner was terrific once again. Ribeye roast this time. We danced a bit, then sat for the late show – a revue of Frankie Valli hits by December ’63. Very entertaining.

No casino before breakfast as the casino is closed when the ship is docked. So we had breakfast then went ashore.

Indonesia is a very large country – over 250 million people. But it is a third world county. Bitung is definitely a third world city. The sidewalks are crumbling (some manhole covers are missing and an unwary pedestrian could easily fall in) and the buildings – even the banks – are decrepit.

We wandered, vaguely in search of a statue that I had heard of. We didn’t find it. We did find the venue for a pitbull event and the “miniature Eiffel Tower”.

We found a little shopping mall where we (or, more accurately, Marlene) spent almost an hour shopping. We also found a church where a group of children, in costume, begged for photos with us.

Everywhere we went we seemed to be a sensation. Families approached us on the street and asked for photos. Young children – most of whom could speak at least rudimentary English – approached us to engage in conversations. I expected that these encounters would deteriorate into solicitations for money, but while the children certainly would have accepted if I had offered, they never asked. We found a church and did get a simple solicitation from a young man who approached us to get our signature in a guest book, but he did not persist when we refused to give him money.

We visited on a Sunday and, I learned later, on a holiday that was the equivalent of our Thanksgiving Day. Bitung is a predominantly Christian city, unlike the rest of Indonesia which is predominantly Muslim. The shops that were open were all Muslim-owned. In the afternoon there was a huge parade with thousands of mostly young children, all dressed in red (like the church group we had encountered earlier).

The Indonesian currency – the rupiah – is interesting. I always thought the Japanese yen was tiny (150 yen per dollar) but the rupiah is 100 times tinier – 15,000 rupiah per dollar. When we returned to the cruise terminal I bought a large bottle of beer for 60,000 rupiah – about $4. The beer was pretty good. Worth every rupiah.

It was obvious that we were something of a sensation to Bitung residents but I didn’t learn until I had reboarded the ship that the Luminosa was the first cruise ship that had docked there in 15 years. And many of the residents of Bitung had never met an American. We were objects of wonder and fascination. If you want to feel special, visit Bitung.

When the ship left there were hundreds of Bitung residents on the shore, waving lit cell phones. Very touching. It is far from a beautiful city, but the way the people there treated us was beautiful.

I attempted to blog, using the T-Mobile service, but was unable to do so.

After dinner we visited the casino where I lost $30 (down $230), then attended the “80’s Pop to the Max” show by the Luminosa entertainers. Very good.

We crossed the equator just before midnight. A number of people – including me – were crowded around the buffet TV, watching for the latitude to go to 00:00:00 but we were disappointed – it went from 00:00:01 N to 00:00:05 S. But we did cross and are now in the southern hemisphere.

The original itinerary had us arriving in Bitung on Day 24. But because we skipped the Philippines, we arrived in Indonesia around 4 pm on Day 23. More on that early arrival later.

Marlene and I again started the day in the casino. The slots were unforgiving this time. I lost $50 (down $200 for the cruise). Then we had breakfast, played some cards and had lunch before arriving in Bitung.

We originally planned to stay on the ship in Bitung, partly because it didn’t look very interesting and partly because Indonesia charges $35 for a visa. But we were informed that EVERYONE would be charged for the visa (which annoyed both of us greatly but our annoyance didn’t change anything). We didn’t file the visa application, but the Carnival staff filed it for us. So, having already paid for a visa we decided that we should at least go ashore.

But we were never given an actual visa and Carnival had already taken our passports (apparently to simplify the processing of the visa applications by Indonesian officials), so what, exactly, was going to happen when we went ashore? Carnival was not clear on this and we got about 4 different views from other passengers. Also, I could not find the simple piece of paper that i was given when my passport was taken. This slip of paper stated that I did not have a visa and would not be disembarking in Indonesia. So, filled with unanswered questions, I went down to the Guest Services desk. The conversation there went something like this:

Me, displaying Marlene’s slip of paper: What is the purpose of this paper? Is it needed to go ashore?

GSA (Guest Services Attendant): Just keep it with you. They might ask for it.

Me: Who is “they”? I can’t find mine.

CSA: Oh. Well, don’t worry about it.

Me: But what is it for? Do I need to get a replacement?

CSA: It is just a receipt for your passport.

Me (puzzled): But you took EVERYONE’s passport. Why would I need a receipt? I don’t think there is any question that you have it.

CSA (struggling for a response): Well, don’t worry about it.

Me: Ok. When do I get my visa? I was told that you would contact me about the visa.

CSA: You get the visa when you go ashore.

Me: Really? The visa that I need to go ashore will be given to me when I go ashore?

CSI (struggling again): Well, yes. Don’t worry about it.

This idiotic exchange did not comfort me, but I decided that I should take her advice and not worry about it.

We also had to fill out custom declaration forms (simple and easy) and were advised to take them with us when we went ashore. So, after dinner, we decided to venture forth and see if we could figure out how this mysterious process of obtaining a visa worked. We disembarked and walked to the cruise terminal. Customs officials met us there and took the declarations. But no visa was given to me and it was unclear if I would need a second customs declaration to exit the ship a second time (which we were planning on doing the next day). So I asked the customs official what would happen then. His answer: Just tell them that you already turned in your customs form.

Huh? Really? Just tell the customs people that we had already turned in my customs declaration? Obviously, we could have skipped the customs forms and just lied about turning them in. Crazy process. Completely idiotic.

And I never got an actual visa. There was no immigration check on shore.

We got some nice night photos of both the Luminosa and a smaller ferry. Then we reboarded the ship and went to the evening show, a very nice one by mentalist/magician Drew Thomas.

As with Azar, Drew baffled me. The highlight was asking a passenger to think of a musician or musical group. He asked the passenger if the name of the musician or group he was thinking of contained an M, an I and a C and the passenger said yes. He then said “Mick Jagger?” and the passenger shook his head. He seemed embarrassed that he had guessed wrong and asked the passenger what he was thinking of and he said “Metallica.” Upon which Drew took off his jacket, unbuttoned his shirt and displayed the Metallica t-shirt that he was wearing. Baffling.

We ended the day with a toast using our mango plum liqueur. It was the anniversary of the day we met.