This was my second trip to Tasmania, part of my 'see the roads that connect the capital cities' travels. But it's in my mind the proper one.
I last went to Tasmania on the Spirit of Tasmania in 2012. The trip was a little fraught with issues, mostly down to timing and driving; underestimating how much bends in roads and landscape of Tasmania added to the trip along with mis-planning a few things.

On this trip I was much more organised than I was in 2012.

Boarding the Spirit of Tasmania on Tuesday afternoon in October I was more prepared, but had also forgotten some things of how the boarding progressed. The last time I'd had to open up the bonnet of my car (a Jeep Wrangler, with its rubber catches plus internal release I always forgot existed), and they searched through its meagre boot space. This time, the security / quarantine, run by Wilson Security looked in the rear windows of my ute, looked in the back tray and the boxes within which only contained a 5L container of water and some methylated spirits (this is for my Trangia, which while I didn't intend to camp I like to carry with me, just in case, like the water). Neither of which was an issue for the security.
Rounding up to the actual check in box, albeit after a long queue is the slightly odd arrangement of the check in hut. There are two lanes, which part around the checkin hut in a Y fashion. Which means if you're on the right of the hut, you must deal with the people through the left hand window.
I guess that's fine if you're travelling with someone in the passenger seat, but I unfortunately was not, and did not recall the layout of this from my last adventure across Bass Strait.
But no matter, I pulled in as close as I could and they already had my boarding pass ready.
They did warn me that there was going to be a little bit of a wait. But it wasn't much more than half an hour, maybe 40 minutes. However they had opened the gates to begin queuing up early, so I didn't see it as a massive problem.

Actually getting into the ship, to park, now that was a bit of a wait, it seemed there was some problem parking the cars, and as I was not towing anything; I was directed into the bowels of the ship, down two ramps and into a dead end. While the adverts for the Spirit of Tasmania might show people driving on and then driving off, that's only I think if you're towing something awkward like a caravan. Anyone else you're directed down into the depths of the ship into every nook and cranny that they can fit you into.
The guy that was directing the cars however, he may have looked like the oldest crew there, but he wasn't amazing at directing the cars. If he'd just said 'get your car as close to the line nearest to the wall as possible' I and I presume the people in front of me would have done so. But all the motioning of turning his hands and 'left hand down', well, it took me a moment to process what they wanted me to do. I'm sure some people are used to this sort of direction, but I was not.

In the end I was parked on Deck 2; accessible via the blue lift / stairwell. I elected to walk up the stairs. Up the 4 decks to deck 8 where the cabins were located.

Because I had a day of driving the following day planned I had elected when I booked to book a "Deluxe Cabin", which promised a better level of comfort compared to the twin porthole room or the twin/bunk internal room. The latter of which I'd booked the last time I went across to Tasmania and had watched a bottle of water placed on a table vibrate off from the vibrations of ship's engines, something which I wished to avoid on this trip. I'd booked a twin porthole room for my return as I'd have less driving to do then.

The Deluxe Cabin is quite nice; a double bed, two portholes looking out over the bow of the ship; a moderately sized bathroom, not very cramped. The room also had a TV with all the broadcast TV channels and a fridge containing two bottles of Cape Grimm water, there was also a small coffee table and two chairs. The only thing the room was lacking was a kettle.

The rumble of of the exhausts cast in majgestic light

Food on board the Spirit of Tasmania has been greatly improved over the somewhat odd Leatherwood Restaurant that was on the boat the last time I sailed. The Leatherwood Restaurant you were required to go and visit basically as soon as you got on the boat in order to make a reservation, which you could only do with a cabin number or recliner number. Which meant if you were travelling over without one of those (and just hanging out around the ship for the 9+ hour crossing) you were excluded from booking and instead had to go to the other eating facilities on board that mostly served fried food.
This has been replaced with the TMK (Tasmanian Market Kitchen), which is essentially a fancy buffet. Grab a plate, select what you want. However there's also an entree of mussels and terrine, I tried the terrine (it was a little dry). There's then a selection of salads both light green or Greek salads and heavier potato and pasta salads. There is the various fried foods which I didn't pay much attention to, moving onto the roast; lamb and some form of chicken as well. There's roast potatoes and steamed vegetables. Plus desserts.
The lamb was fantastically tender, and carved fresh.

Retiring to bed, save for having purchased a cup of tea, I had a calm night's sleep, with nothing really to interfere with my sleep during the crossing. I woke as the Spirit of Tasmania was approaching the Spirit of Tasmania's dock on the Mersey River.