Rollin', rollin' rollin' on a river, and a highway or two.

[NSWP]

9 hours ago, lyndarra said:

Mannum is where Murray Princess cruises from.

Nice little town is Mannum.

[MicCanberra]

that is where I will be boarding in October for my Princess cruise.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Proud Mary Embarkation

 

We boarded the Proud Mary around 7pm. We had been allocated a cabin on the middle deck, essentially the main deck with the dining room/lounge at the forward end. Most of the cabins are on the lower deck but there are also a few on the top deck.

 

 

The cabin is very small but had good storage. Two units, one with drawers below, tea/coffee makings on top and cupboards above. There was a luggage rack with hanging space above it (not quite high enough for trousers), and more cupboards above that. There was also a small "desk" and stool near the door. The bathroom is very squeezy. Shower at one end, toilet at the other, and an overlarge vanity in the middle.

 

While DH took the car to the garaging facility I did the unpacking. I'm really glad I chose to take several small soft bags instead of a wheelie bag. There is very little space to store bags, no room under the beds, just space under the drawers, but plenty of space for our bags as they squished up nicely.

 

Everyone gathered in the dining room for pre-dinner drinks. Unfortunately there was one group who were late arriving in Adelaide so supper was delayed. 

 

While we were getting to know some of our fellow cruisers the Captain, Dave, came up to us and asked us if we'd mind moving cabins as there was someone with mobility problems who needed to be in a cabin on the main deck. Arrgh! But of course we said yes, we'd be OK with that, and they did give us a bottle of very nice house brand sparkling wine.

 

Supper was very tasty chicken lasagna, followed by a cheese platter. Between courses we raced off to our original cabin and quickly repacked everything except our hanging items which they could move as is. We went back to the dining room to enjoy the cheese and another glass of bubbly. Then we headed up to our new cabin.

 

 

Oh dear! This one is even smaller than the first. Only one set of cupboards and the hanging space is only about 20cms. Bag storage is less as well but that didn't worry us. We managed to get everything stowed away and crashed into bed. One thing that is good is double power sockets on each side of the bed so we can keep our phones and Kindles charged.

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by OzKiwiJJ

[MicCanberra]

Nice work, especially nice of you in giving up your cabin for a bottle of sparkling, hopefully the other guests and crew appreciate it and show a bit more gratitude along the way.

[mr walker]

Yes sure to be some positive karma from your giving up your cabin for others.

 

Looking forward to reading of your cruise, as we are still interested in something similar. ENJOY!

[OzKiwiJJ]

40 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Nice work, especially nice of you in giving up your cabin for a bottle of sparkling, hopefully the other guests and crew appreciate it and show a bit more gratitude along the way.

We've been thanked many times and that is all we need.

 

Anyway the advantage of the top deck cabin is that we have the "big verandah" - a large section of the deck aft is open deck with chairs and small tables. Covered in the middle but open around the sides so you can choose sun or shade to sit in.

[possum52]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We've been thanked many times and that is all we need.

 

Anyway the advantage of the top deck cabin is that we have the "big verandah" - a large section of the deck aft is open deck with chairs and small tables. Covered in the middle but open around the sides so you can choose sun or shade to sit in.

That sounds a great bonus for giving up your cabin. 
 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, possum52 said:

That sounds a great bonus for giving up your cabin. 
 

Leigh

We have to share the big verandah though. 🤣

[OzKiwiJJ]

Proud Mary Day 1.

 

We slept well. The bed is firm but comfortable. I woke shortly before the alarm went off, thanks to a very noisy flock of birds swirling around the boat. I'm not sure what they were as they'd gone by the time I got my glasses on. I found out later on they were short billed corellas. 

 

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato and a croissant. During breakfast we cruised up the river to Mannum where we docked for a while, right behind the Murray Princess who will be following us up the river.

 

 

Proud Mary has its own bus which joins us at regular intervals to take us on excursions. Michael, the driver, is also an ecologist and very knowlegable about the local flora and fauna, and the various towns and localities we visited. Michael always puts out the red carpet for us. 

 

 

We were taken on a very interesting tour of Mannum, seeing many different aspects of the town and it's links to the river. We saw a very unusual "garden", some very expensive riverside houses, and some lovely old buildings.

 

 

We stopped for a short while at the lookout where we got magnificent views over the river then wound our way back into town to the local museum which covers both the history of the town and of the paddlesteamers and other boats that provided early transport links on the river.  See next post for these photos.

 

Unfortunately we had to deal with a minor issue back home by phone so didn't get to spend much time at the museum. We enjoyed a pleasant walk back through the town rather than getting the bus back.

 

We carried on up the river as lunch was served, a delicious pork medallion with cauliflower puree, green beans and an interesting sauce.

 

 

After lunch we headed back to our cabin for a siesta, then sat outside our cabin in the late afternoon sun for a while.

 

Dinner was an Australiana theme - kangaroo, barramundi, and a lamington. Delicious.

 

 

 

After dinner we went wombat spotting. We headed out to an area where there were a number of wombat burrows. It took a while before we spotted the first one but saw four in total. Michael was spotlighting them from the bus. Apparently they don't mind the light but don't like the sound of the bus much, although they should be used to it by now, it visits them once a week.

 

 

We also saw a few kangaroos, who obviously didn't like the spotlight as they either hopped quickly behind a bush or turned their backs to us and stuck their bums in the air!

 

It was quite late when we got back to the boat, so we went straight to bed. We were on shore power this time so it was incredibly peaceful.

 

[Blackduck59]

Looks like a great trip so far Julie. The Murray Princess looks a fair bit larger than the Proud Mary. I hope you have adapted to the small cabin. Good deed to make the switch.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Views from the Mannum Lookout, from upstream moving around to downstream.

 

 

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

Looks like a great trip so far Julie. The Murray Princess looks a fair bit larger than the Proud Mary. I hope you have adapted to the small cabin. Good deed to make the switch.

Yes, I think the Murray Princess takes about 140 passengers whereas Proud Mary takes 40. I think there are 37 on our cruise.

[MicCanberra]

A bit of a difference in size.

[lyndarra]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Proud Mary Day 1.

 

We slept well. The bed is firm but comfortable. I woke shortly before the alarm went off, thanks to a very noisy flock of birds swirling around the boat. I'm not sure what they were as they'd gone by the time I got my glasses on. I found out later on they were short billed corellas. 

 

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato and a croissant. During breakfast we cruised up the river to Mannum where we docked for a while, right behind the Murray Princess who will be following us up the river.

 

 

Proud Mary has its own bus which joins us at regular intervals to take us on excursions. Michael, the driver, is also an ecologist and very knowlegable about the local flora and fauna, and the various towns and localities we visited. Michael always puts out the red carpet for us. 

 

 

We were taken on a very interesting tour of Mannum, seeing many different aspects of the town and it's links to the river. We saw a very unusual "garden", some very expensive riverside houses, and some lovely old buildings.

 

 

We stopped for a short while at the lookout where we got magnificent views over the river then wound our way back into town to the local museum which covers both the history of the town and of the paddlesteamers and other boats that provided early transport links on the river.  See next post for these photos.

 

Unfortunately we had to deal with a minor issue back home by phone so didn't get to spend much time at the museum. We enjoyed a pleasant walk back through the town rather than getting the bus back.

 

We carried on up the river as lunch was served, a delicious pork medallion with cauliflower puree, green beans and an interesting sauce.

 

 

After lunch we headed back to our cabin for a siesta, then sat outside our cabin in the late afternoon sun for a while.

 

Dinner was an Australiana theme - kangaroo, barramundi, and a lamington. Delicious.

 

 

 

After dinner we went wombat spotting. We headed out to an area where there were a number of wombat burrows. It took a while before we spotted the first one but saw four in total. Michael was spotlighting them from the bus. Apparently they don't mind the light but don't like the sound of the bus much, although they should be used to it by now, it visits them once a week.

 

 

We also saw a few kangaroos, who obviously didn't like the spotlight as they either hopped quickly behind a bush or turned their backs to us and stuck their bums in the air!

 

It was quite late when we got back to the boat, so we went straight to bed. We were on shore power this time so it was incredibly peaceful.

 

It's not the spotlight the kangaroos mind, its the bang! that follows.😟

[NSWP]

Great that the guide/ coach driver put the red carpet out, a la Graham on RCI. Gut would be impressed. Great blog, great trip. The cuisine looks very good, would do me. How much is a 🍷 of wine?

Edited February 23, 2021 by NSWP

[NSWP]

Casting my mind back, I do recollect we did a day cruise on the Proud Mary, some 10 yrs ago, enroute on a road trip, Batemans bay to Adelaide. We stayed a night in Mannum. I remember it was a lunch cruise and the pax on the 5 day cruise were off for the day somewhere and us day trippers came on.  I remember we could not see the cabins as pax had their stuff in there, fair enough.
 

Julie might experience the same. Julie great pics, however I note small food portions, if one was a big eater, might struggle to fill ones gut?

[MicCanberra]

It is hard to fill GUT with any amount. 😛

[getting older slowly]

So far looks great....only thing is set menu  for BH... it would good if had a choice of two.......

 

Nice part of the river.  we had done a couple of house boat trips from Mannum up stream... just the two of us....   had a great time..

 

So glad you are enjoying it.....   

 

question what are wine prices like ???

 

Cheers Don

[OzKiwiJJ]

Wine prices range from $5.00 to $7.50 per glass. $22 to $40 for a bottle, but most are at the lower end of that price range.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Here's the full drinks list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

14 hours ago, NSWP said:

Casting my mind back, I do recollect we did a day cruise on the Proud Mary, some 10 yrs ago, enroute on a road trip, Batemans bay to Adelaide. We stayed a night in Mannum. I remember it was a lunch cruise and the pax on the 5 day cruise were off for the day somewhere and us day trippers came on.  I remember we could not see the cabins as pax had their stuff in there, fair enough.
 

Julie might experience the same. Julie great pics, however I note small food portions, if one was a big eater, might struggle to fill ones gut?

I don't think they'd be allowed to do that at the moment. It didn't happen on our first stop at Mannum.

 

The portions are a decent size but not huge. Breakfast certainly isn't anywhere near the size of your big brekkie photo. Still, we don't go hungry. The biscuit jar is always full.

[OzKiwiJJ]

According to the itineraries quite a few of the meals would normally be buffets but the Covid restrictions mean they can't do that, they don't have the crew or space for someone to serve from a buffet.

 

There are only six crew members onboard:

- The captain who doubles as cruise director.

- The engineer who also backs up the captain on the helm.

- Two chefs who double as deck hands.

- Two bar tenders / waitresses who, I think, also service the cabins.

 

They all work very hard.

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the drinks lists

[mr walker]

33 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Wine prices range from $5.00 to $7.50 per glass. $22 to $40 for a bottle, but most are at the lower end of that price range.

Those drink prices look pretty reasonable - wish some of the 'regular' cruise-lines had similar prices ☹️

Just thinking how it's ironic that $A has climbed to almost US80c at a time when we cannot be cruising, as on RC ships I would be drinking more to save more as Uncle Les would say!

[MMDown Under]

20 minutes ago, mr walker said:

Those drink prices look pretty reasonable - wish some of the 'regular' cruise-lines had similar prices ☹️

Just thinking how it's ironic that $A has climbed to almost US80c at a time when we cannot be cruising, as on RC ships I would be drinking more to save more as Uncle Les would say!

Agree the strengthening Aussie $ adds insult to injury!