We got to sleep in this morning as our only commitment for today was joining our booked cruise for a 5:00 pm departure this afternoon. So, after breakfast and arranging for a late checkout, we struck out on our last little excursion.

There was only one more place we wanted to experience in Sydney before we left Australia and that was The Rocks, a neighbourhood of historic buildings and laneways in the shadow of Sydney Harbour Bridge. There’s the open-air Rocks Market, some of Sydney’s oldest pubs and many upscale restaurants with harbour views. This is where you’ll find the Museum of Contemporary Art. As well, there’s a busy harbourfront promenade and the Overseas Passenger Terminal for cruise ships is located across from the Sydney Opera House. Under the bridge is the Dawes Point Battery park with some really nice harbour views.

It was an easy 15-minute walk from our hotel. We spent a couple of hours of leisurely wandering with no destination in mind. It was a really nice way to end our very hectic 10 days of touring the eastern coast of Australia from Sydney to Cairns.

        
      
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It was finally time to head back to the hotel to check out and again, call an Uber ride to get us to the White Bay Cruise Terminal. After about a 20-minute drive, we arrived to a very hectic cruise terminal. Inside, the lineup for check in reminded me of the lineups for some of the rides at Disney World in Florida. Hundreds of people.

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Although it seemed daunting when we joined the queue, our turn to check in only took about 15 minutes or so. One of the saving graces was when you entered the terminal, porters immediately took your luggage and labeled all your bags. From check in it was through security and onto the ship. I’m always impressed with how efficiently cruise lines can process two thousand guests in a matter of a couple of hours.

Our ship was the Holland America MS Noordam. The ship was christened in 2006 and is a member of Holland America Line's Vista class. The Noordam is 936 ft in length, 106 ft wide, has 11 passenger decks and a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h). Capacity is 1,916 passengers and 800 crew. Our stateroom 7138, was on the 7th deck at the stern of the ship.

    
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Our ship left the White Bay Cruise Terminal in Sydney at 5:00 pm.