A Tennessee Girl in Oz: The Spirit of Tasmania

Holly and I made a decision when we started planning our trip: we wanted to take the ferry over to Tasmania rather than fly. It was a little bit cheaper this way, but mainly, we were excited to travel this new way!

We had no idea what to expect when we pulled up to the ferry terminal, but neither of us were expecting the ferry to be as big as it was!

Just like everywhere else we've been this trip, there was a shortage of signs telling us where to go. So we questioningly rolled our suitcases up to the pier guard shack to ask, where a woman barely looked up at us - much less opened her window to hear our question - before waving us through. I guess she thought two girls who could barely manage their rolling luggage couldn't cause too much havoc.

The check-in process continued on in this weird, vague, casual vein. There seemed to be hardly any other passengers checking in and waiting to board - definitely less than 10, which made it feel a bit eery. The security checkpoint was a bit odd two: we heaved our suitcases up on a folding table and unzipped them so a guard could glance inside. Then we walked through a metal detector, and picked up our suitcases and other bags (which weren't even looked at) on the other side of the table. It was so unclear if the security check process was over, we had to ask.

No Internet for you!

If the check-in process was less impressive than we'd expected, the ship itself was more than we'd expected! Not that we had much to go on: I had a cruise ship and the Sydney ferries as my two extremes. And I guess I'd say the Spirit of Tasmania gracefully straddled the two. It had: two bars, a fine dining restaurant, a buffet, a small movie theater, lots of lounge areas, a gambling area, and a tourism desk.

Our room was pretty decent too. At least, it worked pretty well for two small people to share. I'm not sure how 4 people would be expected to fit in there.
We had a meander around the ship, got way lost, went to the gift shop, and them had a bit of dinner. They offered some Tasmania cheeses and wines at the bar, so we settled on that and had a perfect cruising snack!

Holly and I definitely seemed to be in the minority, both in terms of our dinner and our evening's agenda. We quickly realized that most of the passengers promptly claimed tables by the bar immediately after boarding and begin drinking seriously and watching rugby or cricket. And the majority seemed to be 60+. You might say we stuck out from the rest of the crowd.

We headed to bed soon after, since we were coming into port at 6 AM. Unfortunately, though, that did not mean we went peacefully to sleep. We reached the heads at about 10 PM, and from then on, the ship was tossing and crashing around. I'd fall asleep and be jolted awake by a big wave or crash from inside the ship. It was incredibly alarming and most definitely not conducive to seep. At some point in the night, Holly and I both loaded up on Dramamine so we could get at least a little rest.

Rough night notwithstanding, we left the ship smiling in the morning!