Tigers may be one of the last animals on earth you would expect to meet on a cruise holiday, but an encounter with a white tiger proved a winner for a passenger on Sun Princess’ recent world cruise.
Sydney resident Ian Gregory, 70, came across the white tiger during an early morning excursion to Singapore Zoo, while travelling on the 104-night voyage.
“This particular tiger seemed quite reflective - he was walking around and then he got into the water and swam close to us … I felt he was swimming across to me,” Ian recalled.
A keen participant in Sun Princess’ world cruise photo competition, Ian was quick to capture the moment. His candid image proved the ultimate winner in the contest, which attracted entries from scores of passengers as they traversed the globe.
The win was a bonus for Ian and his wife Janice, with the Sydney couple enjoying their global odyssey so much they have already booked to travel on Princess Cruises’ 2013 world cruise from Australia.
In all, more than 4000 travellers, aged from nine to 92 years, joined Sun Princess for all or part of her 2012 world cruise, with almost 1000 passengers enjoying the full circumnavigation.
Departing from Sydney in May, passengers on the cruise celebrated 1196 birthdays and 473 anniversaries, consumed more than 24,000 dozen eggs, 25,000 kilograms of potatoes and 90,000 kilograms of chicken and meat.
The 77,000-tonne, 1990-passenger superliner glided back into Sydney late August after visiting more than 35 ports from the Baltic and the Middle East to the USA and the South Pacific.
Passengers ranked their visits to the Mediterranean the highest, while a favourite amongst everyone was an emotional call to Turkey’s Anzac Cove in June for a special commemorative service.
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