Cruise Time 5 July 2013
We have been building up to this day for almost a year now. Our first big liner cruise, and we are sharing it with Ben and Carly and their families. (Pat and Laura decided they didn’t want to join us and in the end Laura had her first Marathon run up at the Gold Coast the weekend we left-more on that later)
We all met out at Adelaide Airport at around 4:30pm on Friday.
Everyone was very excited. We eventually loaded up onto our plane at 5:45, the flight was running a bit late, and we had a fast flight to Sydney, 1hr 20 mins, with the aid of a 300km/hr tail wind.
Our luggage came out in good time and we all packed into our ‘Maxi-taxi’ and made our way into town to the Sydney Harbour Youth Hostel, our home for the night. Once we had settled into our rooms, most of us made it up to the roof terrace and took in the lights of Sydney. The terrace gave us views from the Harbour Bridge, around to the Sydney Opera House and the city. It’s a million dollar view at probably the best value for money accommodation in Sydney.
In the morning we all checked out and put all our luggage, and there is LOTS of it, into storage lockers. Our plan for the morning was pretty simple, first up was brunch then Carly and Kieran, Ella and Ethan were meeting up with Kieran’s brother Tom and his family, while Ben and Sarah, along with Dante, Tessa and Sophia were going to explore the Quay area (their first time in Sydney together), and Pat was coming into town to have brunch with us.
Pat met us at the hostel, then we all walked down into the Rocks and straight into a cafe for brunch. When we were all done, Deb decided to go with Ben and his family so I could spend a bit of time with Pat, (I love the way Deb looks after me like that 🙂 ).
We all went our separate ways, everyone having a fun morning doing their thing. I had a great time with Pat, I don’t get to see him very often and I just tried to soak up all I could. But all good things have to end (so they say) and Pat had to get going, so we said our good byes and he headed off back to the Northern Beaches, and I made my way down to Circular Quay to catch up with Deb.
We had a Maxi Taxi booked for 2pm to take us, well our luggage really, down to the boat. Come 1:50pm we were all their except for Carly, Kieran, Ella aand Ethan. Apparently Kieran had been roped into a busking act, and he was holding a rope that was supporting a guy juggling flaming stuff!!! and he couldn’t get away! I did suggest that if he told the guy he had to go and just let go of the rope he would understand, but K didn’t think that was a good idea. Kieran and Tom ran up the hill in record time and helped load the Taxi, and I do mean load it up, and took the short drive down to the Passenger Terminal in the Quay.
We are cruising with the Carnival Line on the Spirit, it’s a HUGE boat/ship.
After filling in our departure cards and attaching all our labels to our luggage we started boarding, first through luggage drop, then ‘Hotel’ check-in, then immigration and finally onto the boat, or is that ship?, and into our staterooms.
Deb and I have a suite at the very back of the ship on level 5 Port side Corner of the ship. We have a fantastic balcony and decided then that this was where we wanted to be when we sailed out of the Harbour. Everyone else agreed it would be a good spot to start our holiday.
So after a bit of settling in we all headed up to the Lido Deck for a bite to eat and then a bit of a look around the ship. Deb and I both agreed that we would give the ‘dining experience’ on the Lido a miss for the rest of the cruise, it just didn’t do it for us.
After doing the safety briefing we all met back at our room. The city and harbour are truly amazing at night. We are very lucky to to be able to do these things together.
The ship sailed at 6:30pm and we stayed outside on our balcony until about 7, drinking champagne and enjoying the moment until we all decided it was time to eat. Our dinner time was 5:30 to 7:30, so we were pushing it. I can’t believe that they managed to serve us a 3 course meal in 1/2 hr, and have us out by 7:35, so the next sitting could come in at 7:45. Following dinner we all headed back to our rooms, it had been a pretty hectic sort of day and the thought of kicking back and relaxing was too big a temptation for all of us.
Sunday 7 July 2013 At Sea on the Carnival Spirit.
We had a great nights sleeps and woke around 6:30am to find a message on our phone from Carly, she was already up and at the gym. I think we both groaned and rolled over, LOL. But Sarah had taken up the invite.
We went up for breakfast at 8am, we couldn’t see any of the others so we went in by ourselves and were put at a table with 2 other couples, one from Hay and the other from Brisbane. After we finished Deb spotted the others and we went over to see them and planned the day out. The children all decided to do there own thing in the morning, Ella , Ethan and Sophia went to kids club, Dante and Tessa played mini golf, while Ben, Sarah and Carly and Kieran went to Serenity, the Adults only hideaway on Deck 9. We decided to play bridge, but since it didn’t start until 10am, we had a bit of an exploration of the ship, just to see where everything was and get a feel for it all. At 10 we went to play Bridge, but no one showed up , including no Director (well 5 did but that wasn’t enough), so I decided to give the gym a whirl and Deb had a quiet morning in our room.
We all met up again for lunch on Deck 2, in the Empire dining room.
The plan for the afternoon was that Kieran was going to try and get into a Cocktail making contest, Ben wanted to get into a TexasHold’em Poker Tournament. So we all went off our separate ways. Kieran couldn’t get into the Cocktail comp, it was already full, Ben got into the poker game, he did well finishing 3rd, with the top two taking home the $
We had a quiet afternoon. I watched Ben at the poker for a while and then went back to our cabin to find Deb and Ella lying on the bed, Deb reading and Ella playing games on my tablet. I lied down and read for a while and next thing I woke up and found a note from Deb saying they had gone for High Tea. 🙂 Apparently I was letting a few zzzzzzz’s escape when they left!! It’s great to be relaxed.
Back to Laura and the Gold Coast Marathon. Laura has been training for this event for a long time and had set herself a goal of completing it in 4hrs, I thought just completing it was a worthy goal!! I am so proud of my girl, she did her first full marathon run in 3hr 52 mins 58 secs. I think she is enjoying the ‘after party’ now 🙂
And it looks like Carly has discovered cocktails by a pool somewhere onboard!! LOL.
After dinner we went to a Childrens show, Juggling Penguins and Magic. A Kiwi busker with an upgraded show. And yes, he did juggle penguins before you ask. 🙂
After that the kids took their kids to bed and we went to an adults only Comedy show. It was sort of a poormans Billy Connelly, he did a pretty good impersonation, but there’s nothing like the real deal. From there we went to a piano bar and a night club (where the girls were enjoying themselves before eventually calling it a night. The end of our first full day at sea.
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Good blog Greg, great to know that you are all
Having such a good time.
Love and hugs to you all from the two of us
Enjoyed your blog heaps, very informative, thanks Greg it’s so lovely to hear about your family ocean adventures – Thankyou lots of love to you all xo