It started very early Saturday morning but we were both full of beans with excitement. The beans very quickly faded and I felt like I needed a nap before we had even landed in Brisbane. If I had known boarding the ship was going to be a painful process of line after line after line after line then I probably would have have taken the chance...rookie mistake! We finally made it onto the ship by about 1pm and there was so much to explore. We first found our room, not without an awkward moment of me trying to get into the wrong room and complaining the room key didn't work. Life lesson number one, no matter how tried and keen to dump your luggage, always check the room number instead of guessing. In my defence I had all the numbers right, just in the wrong order....ooops. It was then off to a compulsory safety talk and we even got to learn how to put on our life jackets!
Time to explore! Before we boarded we were given a lot of information including a map with a treasure hunt game where we had to find 10 different places on the ship and get a stamp at each. If you got all stamps you could then go into the draw for a raffle. We thought it was a good way to find some key places on the ship including the shops, the restaurants & the spa and maybe we could start our trip off with a win. Karma was on my side and bam! They pulled my name out of the box. Sadly not as exciting as the spa voucher the guy behind me won, but a hat, a teddy, a stubby holder and a few other token things from the gift shop, I'll take that win. It turned out karma was on our side as we continued to win a number of things on board including a reasonable amount at bingo (one of our favourite afternoon activities), some money at the casino (we may have lost all this again by the end of the trip) a cruise DVD and a few other smaller less exciting things including a P&O winners bag from my quoits victory! I thought my luck may carry over when I was back on land, but no sadly I did not win $50 million at powerball this week.
There was so much to see and do we didn't really know where to start so we decided to take a little break and enjoy the boat sailing away from Brisbane while sipping on a cocktail. I could very easily get used to this lifestyle. All this exploring took it out of us and before we knew it we were both starving hungry.
The eating options included on the ship was the buffet, a restaurant, a grill and 2 other restaurants you could pay to go to. We headed straight to the buffet for night one. There was such a range of food including cold meats and salads, hot options such as casseroles and then a carvery as well. Not to mention the dessert section! The biggest trap with the buffet was that you had no idea what was coming so you often took something just incase nothing better was in front of you, before you know you are eating a meal big enough for 2 people at least. We didn't eat at the buffet often for this very reason. We ended up eating most of our meals in the restaurant that was included free of charge. You were seated in a first come, first serve system and could be seated on a table of up to 12 other people. The service was exceptional and the menu was not only extensive but changed every day over the week. You could order as much as you wanted and it was expected you had entree, main and dessert every meal. I certainly commend them for the amount of food they turn over every meal with very little fuss or mistakes, and the quality of food was very good. They were a well oiled machine in that kitchen!
For all of those people that told us we wouldn't even know we were on a boat, you were very wrong! Admittedly the crew said it was one of the worst they had been on in the last 6 months but trust me we definitely knew we were on a ship. We struggled to walk in a straight line most places we went but thankfully we discovered neither of us got sea sick. After two days at sea it was a very nice feeling to put these feet on dry land. We had 3 docks while we were away, two in New Caledonia and one in Vanuatu. I haven't talked much about the weather yet and sadly it wasn't as warm as we had expected. Don't get me wrong, it was much warmer than here and I was very happy to pull the shorts out but I was definitely not out sun baking. Vanuatu was an exception to this and it was beautiful weather. We don't have much time when we dock so at New Caledonia we decided to just wander around and explore on our own. We did get some snorkeling in at one stop but it was very windy and raining so we didn't do too much. We did however take full advantage of the weather in Vanuatu and went on a shore tour to see the beautiful Cascade Falls. Everywhere you looked you could see green rainforest until we made it to base off the falls. We were able to climb up through the falls, with the assistance of the oh so natural ropes drilled into the stones. After the trek we were given some fresh fruits including passionfruit, pineapple and grapefruit. It still amazes me the significant difference having fresh produce makes, it was the perfect shore day.
Before we knew it we were on our way back to Brisbane. We decided to treat ourselves for the last few sea days including a trip to the spa and a visit to the celebrity restaurant on board, Salt Grill by Luke Mangan. After spending a lot of time sharing tables with other people, although we met some lovely people, it was nice to have a table with just the two of us. The food we had was exceptional and well worth the $50 for three courses, I have no doubt you would have paid much more for this on shore. I decided on tempura prawns, barramundi and gooey chocolate & honeycomb tart. It was the perfect way to spend our last night on board. Overall it was really exciting to do something different for a holiday and I would recommend you give it a try if you are up for something different.
There are many more things I could talk about, for example the entertainment, I haven't talked about this at all!! But if you made it this far without either falling asleep or giving up, well done, I will not put you through anymore pain & jealousy!! I think I will leave it there for now and catch you up on my first and busy week at home for next time. Except I do have one very exciting thing to share. When I returned home I got a brand new little nephew..ok so technically he is Dylan's nephew but I am definitely claiming him! Such a little cutie and I was lucky enough to get some cuddles this week. As for the rest of the week, I'll keep you in suspense xxx
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