Kylie, Chloe and I enjoyed lunch with Wendy and Sienna, then hopped on the Manly Ferry heading for Circular Quay.
On arrival, we dragged our luggage from the ferry terminal to the International terminal, which surprisingly wasn’t too hard.
Silvia was flying from Cairns that morning and catching the ship’s shuttle bus from the airport. The plane was delayed that morning in Cairns due to a computer glitch so we are all lucky that Silvia made it at all!
Silvia wasn’t arriving until late in the afternoon so the three of us hung around the International terminal and watched the world go by.
Once Silvia arrived we had to go through customs, which was very painless compared to airport customs.
And then we walked across the gangway and we were on the ship! And then we were off to try and find our rooms.
Peter and Kylie shared a room (see video below).
And Silvia and Chloe shared a room. Silvia and Chloe hit the jackpot with a very large bathroom compared to ours!
Both our rooms had balconies and the balconies were joined and we could converse around the screen if we wanted to. We had what is called an ‘obstructed view’ from our balconies meaning that the lifeboats were attached to our balconies.
We next had to muster in our designated evacuation area in case the ship started to sink we would know where to go.
Once this was over we wandered around familiarising ourselves with the ship and what was on each deck.
I was actually quite impressed with the ship’s decor, which I think was Art Nouveau (more photos on this later).
The outside spaces on the ship were very good too. Pools and some slides for the kids, which Peter & Chloe tried the next day.
We left the dock at 6pm and we watched the sun set over Sydney Harbour.
Our time for dinner in the dining room was 7:45pm every night and the food and the service from the staff were great!
Kylie had a chocolate martini with dinner.
Our first towel animal when we got back to our room was, I think, a seal?
Tips
Having never been on a cruise before we were cruise virgins!
We took on board with us bottles of Kombucha which they allowed through Customs. So if you wanted to take your own juice or similar you probably can. Just make sure you check the cruise line’s guidelines for such things.
We decided not to pay for internet use. Which was great not to be connected but a pain when we needed to transfer extra money to bank cards.
Make sure you have budgeted for enough cash to cover unexpected expenses.
If you want to sign up for the ship excursions you need to get onto the ship early or book online before you go. We got there very late in the afternoon and everything was pretty much booked up already and there was still a very long line at the desk.
If you have any dietary requirements email the cruise line in advance and advice them. They are very accommodating and we had no problem with the food being gluten-free.
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