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larryf@happy-wanderers.com
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Our Travel Adventures - Cruising Fulltime
Welcome to the Adventures of Larry and Connie Farquhar as we cruise fulltime around the world.
We're On Our Way!
Struggling at the Airport
Ready to Go!
It was a long flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia. We time traveled to the future, as we left late at night on Feb. 17th, flew for 15 hours, but arrived the morning of Feb. 19th! Since we arrived in the morning, we were concerned about what to do with our 6 cases of luggage! We didn't think the hotel would let us check-in this early, so we hoped they had a place to store our luggage while we explored the local area.
After getting a shuttle from the airport, we arrived at the hotel around 11:00am. They were very nice and found us an available room, allowing us to check-in 4 hours early. Great! After struggling with the large suitcases, we walked around the local area and did a bit of grocery shopping. We're allowed to bring on drinks, alcohol, and snacks into our cabin and wanted to start off right.
Villa Vie Odyssey
The next day, we caught an Uber to the cruise port near downtown Sydney. It was a bit exciting to finally have this happening! We arrived and there she was, the Villa Vie Odyssey docked and waiting for us. There were no crowds, but a few people were getting on and off. The ship sent a porter to us and handled all of our luggage. We boarded, visited guest services for our welcome packet and room key and were assigned a "guide" to get us started.
All went smooth, except our "guide" (who was a resident on the ship) didn't know much about our room, TV, or the Internet. She showed us to our room, then left. But that's okay, we figured it out.
We started to get settled, but our room was crowded with all of the luggage. After lunch, we started to unpack and find a place for everything. Luckily, it's all fitting in pretty good. Having the bed risers and storing luggage and extra stuff under the bed really helped!
Let the unpacking begin!
Sydney sign at the airport
Sydney skyline
Larry made our door sign
Pickleball court
Pool and 2 hot tubs
Woolworths USA is where we first met!
The Sydney Opera House
We spent the next day fine tuning the room and exploring the ship some more. Of course, I had to test the hot tub. All is good, but could be hotter. I notified guest services who opened a work order for the hot tubs. Connie started working on another craft and met several ladies on the ship. She's fitting right in, as she made a bunch of new friends playing Mahjong.
Drinks at the bar have been $5 each, which is a great price. Sodas are free, which I take a glass back to our cabin where I have my rum waiting. One of the things missing is an ice machine. I can go to the bar and ask for a glass of ice. Some people have a small ice machine in their cabin, but we just don't have room for it. We'll purchase a large tumbler soon to gather more ice.
As we're still getting settled in our cabin, we've already run into a couple small issues. First, we're provided a small refrigerator. However, it seems ours wasn't getting cold. Second, we're supposed to get a hair dryer in our cabin, ours was missing. Third, the shower drain wasn't draining properly, and water was coming back up the drain in the bathroom, flooding it with water. We reported these three issues to our guest services, and all three were taken care of within 4 hours. We even got a larger fridge with a small freezer. But we had to do some re-arranging in the cabin to make room for it. Overall, we're better off now. Guest services has been very friendly in handling our issues.
Our cabin is small. At first, we really thought it was small. But once we put everything away and stored the suitcases, it doesn't seem that small anymore. It's only 140 square feet. After living in a motorhome for 16 years, we're used to small spaces with the two of us. We still might re-arrange the beds later, but all is working fine now.
Lifeboat Drill
Connie's Safe
Currently, we're on day 4 of 5 days at sea, slowly cruising from Sydney, Australia to Tauranga, New Zealand. We'll be in New Zealand for 3 weeks, then return to Hobart (Tasmania), Australia and port hop the western ports of Australia for another month.
The other residents on the ship have been very welcoming and friendly. We're not getting as lost on the ship anymore and have started participating in some of the activities. The entire ship needs to go through a lifeboat drill monthly. We had our first drill and discovered my life jacket needed to be replaced.
Yesterday, my laptop computer bit the dust! There's something wrong with the electric charging port. After taking the laptop apart, I think it's dead. I'm hoping to purchase a new laptop in Wellington, New Zealand in a few days. I have hopes that I'll be able to recover my needed files from the dead laptop using the SSD drive. Wish me luck!
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Comments 8
Guest - Patti
on Wednesday, 25 February 2026 14:57
Guest - Patti
on Wednesday, 25 February 2026 14:59
Guest - Victoria Fink
on Wednesday, 25 February 2026 21:55
Larry Farquhar
on Thursday, 26 February 2026 13:51
Great Start!
Yep! We're enjoying the adventure and are slowly getting settled. Spent yesterday in Tauranga shopping for items for our cabin, and a new computer. Wouldn't you know, my laptop dies the 2nd day on the ship! But we're good again with a new laptop. Now I just need to try to recover and configure everything again.
Guest - Bill Joyce
(website)
on Thursday, 26 February 2026 05:30
Guest - Barbara Thomas
on Tuesday, 03 March 2026 13:03
Guest - John Reese
on Friday, 20 March 2026 08:17
Ahoy
I was going to use the title "You Ain't Shit" but that is Mr Rhodes' trademark...lol What a surprise finding out you switched to full-time cruising now. You have certainly made the most out of life since you retired many years ago. I went full-time retirement last November. It is a great feeling waking up in the morning knowing you get to decide yourself what to do the rest of the day. I wish you all the best as you start out on this new adventure! Btw, where are the budget spreadsheets so folks will know how much it costs to do this......
Larry Farquhar
on Friday, 20 March 2026 14:41
Great Hearing From You!
Hi John! It was great hearing from you. I think of you and Tim and the "good ole days" often. Send me an email so we can catch up. I've wondered how you and Tim were getting along in life. Click the 3 bars at the top-right of the website for my email address.
Posting expenses is an upcoming BLOG topic. We're having a great time. We arrived in Melbourne (again) yesterday. Off for a Wine and Cheese tour right now. Write me - Larry
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