August 31, 2025 • 41 mins
Facing the open ocean despite a lifelong fear of water and motion sickness wasn't exactly how I'd planned to celebrate turning 50. Yet there I was, boarding a cruise ship for the first time, determined to make this milestone birthday unforgettable.
My 10-day journey through the South Pacific became so much more than a holiday. It transformed into a personal voyage of conquering fears and embracing new experiences. After struggling through two days of debilitating seasickness (green apples and magnetic wristbands didn't stand a chance), I finally found my sea legs and discovered the joy of life at sea.
The birthday itself was magical, consisting of a couples massage, professional photos at sunset and a spectacular dinner at a celebrity chef restaurant. But the real gifts came in unexpected moments, snorkeling for the first time at Mystery Island, jumping from platforms into crystal-clear waters in Vanuatu to even summoning the courage to sing karaoke onboard because "nobody knows me, it's my 50th!"
Throughout this adventure, I discovered that cruising offers a perfect balance of exploration and relaxation. Each port brought new discoveries, while onboard activities from theme nights to gourmet dining experiences kept us thoroughly entertained. The ship became a place where time slowed down and we could simply enjoy being together, creating memories that will last far longer than any physical gift.
Whether you're considering your first cruise or looking for inspiration for celebrating your own milestone birthday, this episode offers honest insights, practical tips and hopefully, the encouragement to step outside your comfort zone. Because sometimes, our greatest adventures begin when we face our biggest fears.
Would love to hear about your own milestone celebrations or bucket list adventures! Share your stories or questions, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of the Everyday Warriors podcast.
Thanks for listening in!
Contact me directly at https://everydaywarriorspodcast.com.au or head to
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Music Credit: Cody Martin - Sunrise (first 26 episodes) then custom made for me.
Disclaimer: The views, opinions, and stories shared on this podcast are personal to the host and guests and are not intended to serve as professional advice or guidance. They reflect individual experiences and perspectives. While we strive to provide valuable insights and support, listeners are encouraged to seek professional advice for their specific situations. The host and production team are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Trudie Marie (00:01):
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and let's take this journeytogether.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Everyday Warriors podcast.
Today's episode is a solo onewith yours truly, and it's about
cruising into my 50th birthday.
Now I'm bringing this episodeto you because I've had many
(03:49):
friends and family and listenersask about my cruise for my 50th
and also curious about cruisingbecause they've never done it
themselves.
And for me, this was my firsttime as well, so I'm going to
give you a rundown on thatexperience.
Now, going back to the beginning, as to why I chose to go on a
cruise for my 50th, is that I'dhad parties at 18, at 21 and at
(04:13):
30.
For my 40th, I went on a familyholiday to Bali, and for my
50th I knew that my daughter wasgoing to be in Europe and my
son in Perth and decided that ifI couldn't celebrate with both
of them, I wouldn't celebratewith either.
So hubby and I decided to go ona holiday, kind of like a
(04:34):
second honeymoon.
Now, I had never done a cruisebefore and neither had hubby, so
that was one thing we decidedto tick off our bucket list.
The reason I had always beennervous about going on a cruise
is one, I'm afraid of open waterand of drowning, and two, I get
serious motion sickness, so itreally put me off of having to
(04:59):
experience that like on a cruise.
Initially, I booked a 10-daycruise with P&O which departed
from Sydney and was headed tothe South Pacific, namely to New
Caledonia and Vanuatu.
Now, sometime after booking mycruise, it changed over to
Carnival Cruise Line and,honestly, I had no real major
(05:20):
issues.
Everything was acknowledged andtransferred over.
Hubby and I both joined thefacebook groups and spoke with
various family and friends whohad cruised in the past to get
any tips and tricks and adviceon the essentials, and it was
really great finding out themain things we needed to know.
However, because of thechangeover with P&O and Carnival
(05:44):
, we had to ignore all theKarens because there was just so
much negativity that in orderto find out what we wanted to
know, you just had to siftthrough the complaints and the
misery.
Like it really wasn't very nice.
So in order for us to obviouslyget to Sydney from WA, it meant
(06:05):
that we had to leave Minganewon the Friday and drive to Perth
.
That was a bonus because I gotto have an early birthday
celebration with my family andthen we flew to Sydney on the
Saturday.
Now we were told, and in ourresearch found, that you never
fly into the port on the day ofembarkation, the reason being if
(06:27):
there is any cancellations ordelays with your flights, you
could literally miss your cruise.
So we flew into Sydney on thatnight.
We stayed in Barangaroo and wehad dinner at a beautiful
Brazilian barbecue down on KingStreet Wharf.
On the Sunday morning we wentfor breakfast before checking
(06:47):
out of the hotel and then got anUber to the overseas passenger
terminal.
Now, with any cruise it reallydepends on the port authority of
that city as to where youembark, and in Sydney there is
two.
There is Overseas PassengerTerminal and White Bay.
So we were lucky.
It was the OPT.
(07:09):
The customs and boardingprocedure was relatively simple.
We purchased faster to the fun,which is an extra in Carnival
Cruise Line, and it basicallymeans you get priority on
certain things.
So we were able to get into thepriority line to embark the
ship and once you go through,just like you would go through
(07:31):
an airport, you literally haveyour bags, go through security,
you have your passport checked,you have your boarding pass
there ready to go and everythingjust gets checked normally.
You then get onto the ship andthe first place you go to is
your muster point so that youcan be checked in there, and
(07:52):
then you don't get access toyour room until around one
o'clock.
The reason being is that thelast crews disembarked that
morning and then you'reembarking in the afternoon and
they have that limited time toget everything changed over and
ready.
So once you do get to your room,the best advice I can give, and
what we were given, is tounpack and settle in, so that
(08:15):
you can then just enjoy yourself.
And that's exactly what we did,because when you embark the
ship, your main luggage goeslike you would on a plane it
goes through luggage and thenyou carry with you your onboard
stuff, so you do need to carryaround your onboard stuff until
you get access to your room.
Otherwise, we just explored theship and started to get to know
(08:40):
where things were on the shipas a relation to which deck and
then which side of the shipstarboard or port and then
whether it was forward or aft,so that way you had a sense of
direction where you were on theship.
Once we did that, we then wentup to the main lido deck and the
upper decks so that we couldwatch the ship pull out.
(09:01):
And that's an incredibleexperience and why wouldn't you?
With Sydney Harbour sobeautiful despite the rain, it
was just magical standing up ondeck and watching the ship leave
.
Once that was done, we headeddown to get ready for dinner and
I booked one of the paidrestaurants for our first night
as a special treat and we wentto the Trattoria, which was
(09:25):
lovely and the food was amazing,until I got sick and I felt
really nauseous and wasn't ableto get through my dinner.
So the first night ended quiteshort and I was off to bed the
next morning.
I still felt quite nauseous andI was given the tip of eating
(09:47):
green apples.
That was the main thing.
That was going to sort of getyou through, apparently, and I
was also wearing the magneticsick bands and I was taking
Travacarm, which is a gingerbased travel sickness tablet.
I don't tend to take a lot of mymedications and so I didn't
really want to take anything.
I didn't need to.
However, I couldn't keepanything down.
(10:09):
I ended up in bed, which hubbythought was great because he
could go and explore the ship onhis own.
Uh.
Lunchtime I tried again.
I went and got medication fromguest services and nothing
stayed down again.
So I spent the afternoon eitherin bed or on our balcony trying
(10:29):
to get some fresh air, watchthe horizon line, try to get my
sea legs, and that wasn't great.
Hubby, meanwhile, was offhaving fun exploring the ship.
That afternoon or evening wewere supposed to have a photo
shoot, which I'd alreadypre-purchased, and the elegant
night theme night was on.
(10:52):
So we got dressed ready, optednot to have the injection,
instead take some moremedication for nausea, and
unfortunately I didn't keep thatdown either.
I missed dinner and I was backin bed.
(11:14):
Hubby had to go to dinner thefirst night on his own.
On the Tuesday morning I feltbetter.
The seas were a little calmer,but the nausea had started to
subside, so something somewherehad kicked in.
So we had breakfast and thenheaded up to the Lido deck just
to get some fresh air, relax andtry to feel like we were on
(11:37):
actual holidays.
It was there.
We met a couple who wereoriginally from Canada but now
live up on the Sunshine Coast,and they were amazing.
It turned out that Stacey and Iboth had birthdays on the same
day and were turning 50 together, and then her husband was going
to turn 50 a few days later,which just left my hubby as the
(12:01):
baby of the group, because hisbirthday is not until the end of
the year.
So we got chatting to them andhad some great conversations and
agreed to catch up later.
That afternoon we went to ahigh tea, which we had booked,
and that was beautiful.
We were given a range of sweetand savory pedifors with a glass
(12:23):
of sparkling tea and coffeescones.
It was beautiful and was wellworth the extra payment to do
that.
And then that night we had ourfirst dinner at one of the
restaurants and on the carnivaladventure, there are three
restaurants that you rotatethrough and, honestly, no
complaints from me.
(12:44):
Wednesday was my birthday and Iactually woke up feeling better.
I don't know whether it wasbecause we were in calmer waters
or whether it was because of mybirthday.
I wasn't going to let it ruinme, so I started the day with a
couple's massage with my husband, which was lovely, a great way
to relax.
(13:05):
We then went to the breakfastat the pantry.
Now the pantry is the mainbuffet and is open for breakfast
, lunch and dinner every singleday, so it's available for
everyone, whether you choose tohave dinner at the restaurants
or not.
From there, we just relaxedaround the ship.
So we went and explored becauseI felt like I'd missed out on
(13:26):
the first two days because I wasa little bit under the weather.
So we did that, and then I wentand had my hair done why not,
it's my 50th, let's look good.
And then we had arranged thesecond part of our photo shoot
at sunset.
Now, I had originally planned awhole outfit for my birthday.
(13:47):
However, the night of mybirthday turned out to be white
night, so hubby and I both woreour white night outfits and let
me tell you it was meant to be,because the photos were
spectacular and our photographer, malik, who was from Honduras,
shout out to him because he wasamazing.
He just made it so fun, socomfortable, and we had a great
(14:08):
time.
I had dinner that night atLuke's restaurant, which is Luke
Mangan, the Celebrity Chef'sRestaurant.
It's a contract taken over byCarnival from P&O for the time
being, and the dinner wasincredible.
It was well worth every cent wespent.
And after that we went fordrinks to celebrate with Stacey
(14:31):
and Pat, so Stacey and I couldhave a birthday drink together,
and we did that at Luke's Bar.
Over the course of the day Igot to speak to all my family,
whether it was phone calls, onFaceTime or text messages or
checking in with various friendsand family.
I felt like I had an incredible50th birthday.
(14:51):
On the Thursday it was our firstport of call, which was Mystery
Island, and we had to gettenders to the island and I was
really concerned because, withmy motion sickness, I was like I
don't want to be sick again.
But I actually found it okay,and this is where Faster to the
Fun comes into play again,because you get priority
(15:13):
disembarking off the ship to goashore.
So we got ashore and the firstthing we did was have or the
last part of our photo shootwith Malik, and that was a lot
of fun.
And then we went around andexplored some of the market
stalls that were set up, I gotmy hair braided, I had a photo
with an iguana mainly for myniece and then we had booked a
(15:37):
tour through the ship.
So it was a snorkeling tour, aswe were told that the best
snorkeling was on Mystery Island, and let me tell you they
didn't lie.
It was my very first timesnorkeling and it was absolutely
incredible.
I felt like I was Ariel in theLittle Mermaid.
We were taken about 500 metersoffshore and basically snorkeled
(16:00):
or swam into the shore and therange of coral and fish was just
outstanding.
I loved every second of it.
We were done there by aroundlunchtime and basically went
back on the tender to the shipand had lunch up at the pantry
and then spent the afternoon inthe adults area of the ship,
(16:23):
which was great because it wassuper quiet, because everyone
was on shore.
So that was great.
And then we went to dinner atAngelo's again.
So just the way things had beenbooked, with, obviously, us
having dinner at Luke's and theTrattoria.
We were back at Angelo's.
On the Friday we went to PortVilla, which is also in Vanu.
(16:45):
It was the first time a shiphad been back to the island
after the December earthquakes,so the locals were very excited
to have us back and this wasalso a tender into port, because
the access road from the portinto town is still closed after
the earthquake.
So they tended us in directlyinto town still closed after the
(17:07):
earthquake, so they tended usin directly into town.
I booked a private tour forthis location because I didn't
know what was going to happen,whether we would attend the port
or not and I went to thewaterfall and to the Blue Lagoon
and shopping.
So the waterfall was our firstpoint of call.
Stunning walk up to thewaterfall.
The waterfall is morehorizontal than vertical and
(17:28):
beautiful swimming hole at thebottom.
Turquoise clear waters and Ifirst time jumped off a rope
swing, which was a miserablefail because I have no upper
body strength to hold myself up,but it was fun.
And then I also jumped off thehigh platform into the water and
that was also a first for me.
So ticking off those firstsdespite being 50.
(17:52):
Our next place was the BlueLagoon and this was the place I
really wanted to go to the most.
However, I was a littledisappointed.
It seemed to be just aginormous swimming hole.
With so many people there itwas quite overwhelming, but the
(18:16):
couple we were with on our tourwe managed to go around and find
a small section of the lagoonthat was quiet and serene and
peaceful and we swam thereinstead.
So I felt much better doingthat.
Lunch was included on the tour.
That Lunch was included on thetour, so that was a barbecue and
we had that at the Blue Lagoonbefore heading back into town to
the duty-free shopping.
That is probably the bestduty-free shopping available on
the cruise and everybody seemedto be there, but hubby and I
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really weren't interested.
So we headed down to themarkets because I really wanted
to support the locals aftereight months of no tourists, and
we found plenty of littleknickknacks and stuff for not
only ourselves but for familyand friends as well.
When we got back to the ship, werelaxed again in the adults
only area of the pool.
(19:00):
Again, it was nice and quietand it was really quite a
relaxing day.
That night it was the islandnight theme night, so hubby and
I did dress up for that, whichwas a lot of fun.
We got to go and view ourphotos after doing the photo
shoot and let me tell you wewere absolutely amazed and loved
(19:23):
the quality of the photos.
Malik did such a good job andnormally we probably wouldn't
have spent the money we did topurchase some of the photos.
However, we hadn't hadprofessional photos since our
wedding.
We were on a holiday.
He took some beautiful shotsand we were like, why not?
So that was definitely worth it.
(19:44):
For dinner we went to the DragonLady, which was an Asian
infusion sort of restaurant.
It wasn't my favorite of allthe restaurants, but it was the
second one we got to go to inthe rotation.
On the Saturday we went toLeifu.
Now I had planned for this tobe a relaxing day.
(20:05):
I didn't plan any tours at thislocation.
We actually started the day onship having another massage,
which was great, and then it wasalso great getting the tender
off, because we didn't have toline up or queue.
It was literally walk down, geton the tender and be shipped
over to the shore, so that wasgreat.
(20:26):
Leifu, for me, was a little bitof a letdown.
The actual port itself wasn'tanything spectacular.
We found a little bar to havelunch at, chatted to some
couples there and then spent theafternoon snorkeling off the
beach, and the snorkeling againwas amazing.
I felt like I had a new leaf oflife.
(20:46):
I wanted to try this more, sohubby and I took turns using his
equipment to go snorkeling.
The only disappointing thingwas that we found out later we
should have been on the otherside of the jetty because that's
where the turtles and theclamshells were.
But you know what you live andyou learn, and I was just
appreciative of the experiencethat I had.
(21:06):
Anyway, that night, we decidedto dress in matchy matchy
outfits, which is quite commonon the cruise, and when we were
purchasing our island nighttheme outfits, we managed to
purchase another one.
So we were like, why not, let'sjust do this.
And then we went to dinner atWaterfront.
So we'd now completed the fullrotation of the restaurants, and
(21:30):
let me tell you, they were allamazing.
Like where else do you get athree-course dinner that you
don't even have to think aboutwhat you're going to eat?
And then we went to the paidshow, which is again a handover
from P&O to Carnival, which wasBlanc de Blanc, and it was an
adult only R-rated show.
(21:50):
That was a bundle of laughs.
While we were hesitant aboutgoing to the show to begin with,
it was actually Stacey and Patthat talked us into going.
We actually really enjoyed it.
On the Sunday, we went to Namia,and Namia was the first port we
actually went into.
Namia is a full working port,and you basically are on dock
(22:15):
and you walk off the shipstraight onto a bus that takes
you into town.
Unfortunately, though, sundayin Namia means that nearly
everything is closed, and themarkets were only open until
lunchtime, so hubby and Idecided to go to the markets,
have a look around and then headback to the ship for lunch,
before we went on the tour thatwe'd booked for the afternoon.
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Now we did a wine tasting slashsightseeing tour.
The sightseeing, and the guidewho did the sightseeing was
absolutely amazing.
Her French was impeccable, herEnglish was impeccable, she had
lots to say about Nemea and thehistory, and I found her really
quite entertaining.
(22:58):
We went to this place called nowforgive my French Notre Dame du
Pacifique, notre Dame duPacifique, and it's basically a
large statue of Mary with arosary set in a garden and
grotto with stations of thecross very religious area, but I
really appreciate it because Igrew up Roman Catholic, so I had
(23:20):
a lot of respect for that area.
And then we went to a lookout,which was incredible.
You got to see parts of Namia,which was great.
The wine tasting part of it,though, was a little bit of a
letdown.
We were literally taken to arestaurant, seated with three
glasses of wine and threecheeses to taste, with some
bread, and that was it.
(23:41):
There was no discussion aboutthe wine or the cheese or the
pairings.
It was basically eat, drink andthen we'll go and I was
bitterly disappointed with that,but it is what it is.
We had a great day out anyway.
Getting back to the ship, we hadto quickly change and get ready
(24:02):
for the chef's dinner, which wepurchased as a special event.
I actually wanted this on mybirthday, but it was already
booked out for my birthday, sowe did it on this night.
It's $167 per person for adegustation.
You are greeted by your waiterand the chef at a little cafe
and then you go into the mainrestaurant in a curtained area
(24:26):
there is only 14 of you, so it'sreally intimate.
And you start off withsparkling and five hors
d'oeuvres that you're seated andthey are.
It's almost like silver service.
It was incredible.
Like I was like, wow, if thisis only hors d'oeuvres, what's
dinner going to be like?
And then you're taken into thekitchen and we got to watch one
(24:47):
of the chefs make the famouscarnival chocolate lava cake.
So that was amazing.
And then, after that, you weretaken back to the restaurant
area for a full seven coursedegustation with both white wine
, red wine and dessert wine.
And let me tell, tell you,chef's kiss.
(25:08):
The food was incredible, theservice was incredible, the
presentation was incredible.
It was just a fabulous night.
What made it better was that weactually got to experience this
with Stacey and Pat, who we'dmet on the ship.
There was another group of sixand another two couples, and we
all had lots of laughs, lots ofconversations.
(25:28):
We had a group photo to finishand we thoroughly enjoyed it.
We then had to run quickly backto our room and get changed
again, because it was 80s nightdress up night and I was not
missing 80s night for anybody.
So we got into our costumes, wewent to head up to the Lido
deck but it was raining, so theyhad taken the party down to the
(25:52):
Adventure Hotel and we metStacey and Pat back at the bar
and had a fabulous time.
That was probably one of thehighlights of the theme nights,
because 80s night is always abarrel of laughs.
Hubby even got up and did anair guitar competition, which he
won, so it was super fun.
Monday was our first day at seaheading home, and we tried our
(26:18):
hand at bingo.
We went into the casino, wewent to a comedy show.
We kind of did lots of thingsthat day that we hadn't done on
all the other days, so that waskind of cool.
And then that night we haddinner again at the Trattoria
because hubby wanted to do thatso that I could experience it in
(26:38):
a different way.
Till I did the first night.
That was also an elegant night,so we were dressed up for that
dinner and let me tell you thesecond time round, it was really
enjoyable.
The tiramisu was divine and wefinished the night by having
drinks next door at the pianobar listening to some really bad
(26:59):
karaoke.
Actually, in saying karaoke, Idid that, I want to say on the
second night, on the Tuesdaynight, when I started to feel
better, I actually sung karaokemyself because I was like I'm on
a ship, nobody knows me, it'smy 50th, I'm gonna do another
thing.
And, yes, I sang karaoke at seaOn the Tuesday.
(27:24):
At sea, the first thing hubbyand I did was start to pack,
because I didn't want to leavethat to the last minute.
We were going to disembark andhead straight to the airport.
I needed to make sure we wereorganized, so just doing that
packing in the morning meant therest of the day we could just
relax and enjoy it.
We end up going to the jackpotbingo with Pat and Stacey and
(27:48):
then we had lunch on the Lidodeck at Luke's Burgers, which
was a lot of fun.
Uh, they had dancing that dayas well, so I got to do the
Macarena and the Nutbush and theCha Cha Slide, which was super
fun.
And then hubby and I had ourfinal dinner at Waterfront
restaurant before heading to theVoice of the Ocean final.
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So on various nights we hadattended the heats and then the
final of the Voice of the Ocean,which was basically, as it says
, a singing competition done inthe way of the voice.
We met up with Pat and Staceyagain in the marquee for the
final and then we went to ourlast lot of drinks at Luke's bar
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again and had the fancy smokycocktails that they serve.
So that was a lot of fun andfabulous way to kind of finish
the cruise.
On the Wednesday I got up superearly because I wanted to see
the sights of Sydney in theearly morning light, while it
was still dark, and see all thelights of the Opera House and
the Harbour Bridge and theSydney skyline.
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And it was well worth gettingup for we were one of the first
to be off the ship anddisembarking is relatively easy.
We opted to carry our casesbecause of our flight.
You can leave your cases outthe night before and then you
(29:15):
will collect them once off theship, just like you would if you
were getting off a plane.
However, we got off with ourluggage and first off the ship,
went, handed in our immigrationcard, just like if you were
flying back from international,and then got an Uber to the
airport.
We got our Uber super quick andit was fancy, it was a Mercedes
(29:37):
.
I said to hubby, wow, okay, butwhat we discovered is that the
gentleman who picked us up wasthe owner of a limousine company
.
He happened to pick up our faregoing out to the airport to
pick up none other than ChrisHemsworth from the airport, so
Chris Hemsworth sat in the sameseat I did just hours after me.
(29:59):
So that was kind of a funlittle way to finish our trip.
We sat in Virgin Lounge havingsome breakfast and some drinks,
waiting for our flight home andlanded safely back in Perth.
So overall it was a fabulousexperience and I will give you
(30:20):
my overall impressions ofcruising for the first time.
So the room we booked a balconyand I don't think I could have
done an internal room, like Ineeded to see the ocean and
especially if I'm on a cruise, Iwant to see the ocean, and it
was great to be able to go backand sit in the privacy of your
(30:42):
own room on the balcony, justfor some fresh air and some
space.
The crowds on the various partsof the ship can get a little
bit overwhelming, especiallywith my background, so it was
nice to have that.
The rooms are spacious for whatyou need.
I would recommend takinghanging shelves in the wardrobe
to have extra folding room foryour clothes, but you've got
(31:04):
plenty of room to put your casesin, especially if they fit
inside one another.
They stack up nice and neat.
There is easy enough room tomove around the room, so it was
a great idea.
If you've got the luxury ofbooking a suite, book a suite,
and if you have to book aninternal room, well, all I can
say is good luck.
(31:26):
The food for me.
I read so many complaints andheard so many people complain,
even while I was on the ship,about the quality of the food.
Carnival is a budget cruiseline, so you cannot expect
champagne food when you're on abeer budget, and for me, the
logic I went in with was that Idon't have to cook, I don't have
(31:49):
to think about what I have tocook and I don't have to clean
up.
I get to eat a three-coursemeal on most nights.
I get a full buffet forbreakfast and for dinner and I
can snack in between if I wantto.
So there is nothing to complainabout.
The paid restaurants which waswe attended all of them were
(32:10):
phenomenal and well worth theextra money if you want to spend
it, and the chef's dinner wasan absolute treat and is a
degustation I will remember fora long time, and it is well
worth the money for not only theexperience but the food and
service as well.
As far as drinks packages gowell, we were lucky enough to
(32:32):
book the non-alcoholic drinkpackage on P&O.
Unfortunately, carnival CruiseLines does not offer the same
value as far as the drinkspackages.
You either get soda and juicewith the non-alcoholic package,
or you get soda, juice andalcohol with the full package.
You do have to pay for extrassuch as bubble tea, tea and
(32:56):
coffee, energy drinks, thingslike that.
So it's entirely up to you.
We're not big drinkers, so wejust paid for alcohol as we
required and then enjoyed therest of the drinks package and
had our full values worth overthe 10 days.
Just bear in mind that when youdo buy the alcohol package, you
(33:18):
are paying the same price onthe days you're ashore.
So if you are not a big drinkerand you're not going to drink,
your money's worth at night whenyou get back on the ship, it
can be a bit of a letdown.
So just something to be mindfulof.
The activities on the ship arevaried and there's plenty of
(33:38):
them.
The only thing I would say onour particular cruise is that it
seemed that many overlapped, soyou had to choose what you were
doing and often had to miss outon something because it did
overlap.
So I didn't get to doeverything I wanted to do,
because there were times where Ihad to, yeah, pick one thing
over the other, but overallthere is something for everybody
(34:02):
, no matter what you want to do.
We also saw many people aroundthe ship actually taking board
games and cards and things likethat.
So you can spend time.
There is plenty of places tosit and play, catch up with
other people, do various thingsof your own choosing, if you
should want to do that.
The theme nights are optional,but they're a lot of fun and,
(34:28):
being our first cruise, wedecided to go all in and take
costumes for every theme nightand for those themes, and they
are just a lot of fun.
You get to enjoy watchingeverybody else dress up.
(34:51):
You have some fun with it andit's worth it for the experience
.
But again, it is truly optional.
In the future, I would probablyonly pick one or two of them
rather than do everything likewe did.
The staff were amazing.
We had no issues with any ofthe staff, although we did hear
(35:13):
stories of others havingproblems.
In my opinion, it comes down tothe way you are with those
people.
I see staff as equals.
They are there to make my lifeas enjoyable as possible while
I'm on the cruise and I will bekind and generous and respectful
(35:34):
towards them, and when you dothat, it is reciprocated back.
But I saw people beingcondescending and rude and
treating them almost likesubserviently and that's no way
to treat the people who arelooking after you on the cruise.
So my advice is be kind and youwill receive kind back.
(36:00):
And, yeah, just be respectfulto the people who are there to
do their job.
Our room stewards were fabulous.
They went over and above whatwas expected of them.
They set out the towelcharacters for us.
They decorated my room for mybirthday over and above what I
paid for.
They just made sure that wewere looked after our whole crew
(36:24):
.
So I really did love thataspect.
The story about the ducks Nowducks seem to be a thing on
cruises we found that out duringour research and you get to
either hide them or find them,or both.
And let me tell you, I tookducks aboard.
It was super fun seeing ifpeople had found them.
(36:46):
Like hubby and I would leavethem out in the morning and then
come back in the afternoon andsee if people had taken them.
But watching kids lie eyeslight up as they found a duck or
they magically appeared becauseI often left ducks or gave them
to parents to kind of leavemagically so that the kids can
find them.
That was a lot of fun.
So if you want to get involvedin the duck game, go ahead and
(37:08):
do it, because you will have funwith it.
Excursions on the ship we bookedtwo through the ship and one
privately, and we had one daywith no tour at all.
It is so worth it to see thesites if you've never been to
those locations before.
The only difference I can saywith private tours and ship
(37:30):
tours ships you will playslightly more.
However, you are guaranteed toone get off the ship early for
that tour.
You are also guaranteed to getback on the ship before it
leaves.
With private tours, you do soat your own risk, so it is just
one thing to be mindful of, butthe excursions are fabulous and
(37:52):
definitely well worth it if youwant to explore the different
locations you go to.
Overall, we've been asked wouldwe do it again?
And the short answer is yes, wewould.
We wouldn't rush to do it.
However, there are so manyother things and places that
hubby and I want to go and seeand explore that we are not
(38:14):
going to jump out and just booka back-to-back cruise.
I get why people do it on theeast coast.
For me, cruising on the eastcoast seems to be the Bali of
the west coast.
That's how they do theirholidays, but when you've got to
pay for accommodation andflights to get to the port, it's
just something that I wouldn'tjump to do again.
(38:34):
However, we have alreadystarted future planning and
seeing what other cruise linesare out there, what other
locations they go to and what wecould possibly do in the future
.
The other thing I would sayabout cruising is that if you
are a family with young childrenand I say young being under the
(38:55):
age of 10, I would second guessabout taking your family
Watching families of smallchildren, especially toddlers,
and young primary school agechildren that can't be left on
their own.
It really is.
It's like your home, doing thesame thing you would do at home,
just in a different location.
(39:16):
You wouldn't actually get toreally fully enjoy the
experience because you'reconstantly running around after
your children doing what youhave to do as an adult, or
children who are teenagers thatcan be left to fend for
themselves throughout the ship.
Then you would get to sit backand enjoy the experience for
what it is.
So it's definitely something Iwould say it's a couple's thing
(39:40):
to do.
I get why couples and olderpeople do it, because it is
great.
It's a great experience forjust kicking back, relaxing,
having everything done for you,not having to think about
anything, and just enjoy life.
So I can see the appeal ofcruising.
But that was my firstexperience of it.
(40:01):
I loved every moment of it,even despite I got seasick on
the first day.
But you know what?
That was an experience I had tohave and it is what it is, but
overall, I had an absolutephenomenal time cruising into my
50th birthday.
(40:22):
Thank you for tuning in to theEveryday Warriors podcast.
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(41:03):
And remember lead with love asyou live this one wild and
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This podcast is aboutcelebrating everyday warriors,
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Join me, your host, trudy Marie, as I sit down with inspiring
(00:27):
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And find your own path to newpossibilities.
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(00:48):
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(03:02):
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and let's take this journeytogether.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Everyday Warriors podcast.
Today's episode is a solo onewith yours truly, and it's about
cruising into my 50th birthday.
Now I'm bringing this episodeto you because I've had many
(03:49):
friends and family and listenersask about my cruise for my 50th
and also curious about cruisingbecause they've never done it
themselves.
And for me, this was my firsttime as well, so I'm going to
give you a rundown on thatexperience.
Now, going back to the beginning, as to why I chose to go on a
cruise for my 50th, is that I'dhad parties at 18, at 21 and at
(04:13):
30.
For my 40th, I went on a familyholiday to Bali, and for my
50th I knew that my daughter wasgoing to be in Europe and my
son in Perth and decided that ifI couldn't celebrate with both
of them, I wouldn't celebratewith either.
So hubby and I decided to go ona holiday, kind of like a
(04:34):
second honeymoon.
Now, I had never done a cruisebefore and neither had hubby, so
that was one thing we decidedto tick off our bucket list.
The reason I had always beennervous about going on a cruise
is one, I'm afraid of open waterand of drowning, and two, I get
serious motion sickness, so itreally put me off of having to
(04:59):
experience that like on a cruise.
Initially, I booked a 10-daycruise with P&O which departed
from Sydney and was headed tothe South Pacific, namely to New
Caledonia and Vanuatu.
Now, sometime after booking mycruise, it changed over to
Carnival Cruise Line and,honestly, I had no real major
(05:20):
issues.
Everything was acknowledged andtransferred over.
Hubby and I both joined thefacebook groups and spoke with
various family and friends whohad cruised in the past to get
any tips and tricks and adviceon the essentials, and it was
really great finding out themain things we needed to know.
However, because of thechangeover with P&O and Carnival
(05:44):
, we had to ignore all theKarens because there was just so
much negativity that in orderto find out what we wanted to
know, you just had to siftthrough the complaints and the
misery.
Like it really wasn't very nice.
So in order for us to obviouslyget to Sydney from WA, it meant
(06:05):
that we had to leave Minganewon the Friday and drive to Perth
.
That was a bonus because I gotto have an early birthday
celebration with my family andthen we flew to Sydney on the
Saturday.
Now we were told, and in ourresearch found, that you never
fly into the port on the day ofembarkation, the reason being if
(06:27):
there is any cancellations ordelays with your flights, you
could literally miss your cruise.
So we flew into Sydney on thatnight.
We stayed in Barangaroo and wehad dinner at a beautiful
Brazilian barbecue down on KingStreet Wharf.
On the Sunday morning we wentfor breakfast before checking
(06:47):
out of the hotel and then got anUber to the overseas passenger
terminal.
Now, with any cruise it reallydepends on the port authority of
that city as to where youembark, and in Sydney there is
two.
There is Overseas PassengerTerminal and White Bay.
So we were lucky.
It was the OPT.
(07:09):
The customs and boardingprocedure was relatively simple.
We purchased faster to the fun,which is an extra in Carnival
Cruise Line, and it basicallymeans you get priority on
certain things.
So we were able to get into thepriority line to embark the
ship and once you go through,just like you would go through
(07:31):
an airport, you literally haveyour bags, go through security,
you have your passport checked,you have your boarding pass
there ready to go and everythingjust gets checked normally.
You then get onto the ship andthe first place you go to is
your muster point so that youcan be checked in there, and
(07:52):
then you don't get access toyour room until around one
o'clock.
The reason being is that thelast crews disembarked that
morning and then you'reembarking in the afternoon and
they have that limited time toget everything changed over and
ready.
So once you do get to your room,the best advice I can give, and
what we were given, is tounpack and settle in, so that
(08:15):
you can then just enjoy yourself.
And that's exactly what we did,because when you embark the
ship, your main luggage goeslike you would on a plane it
goes through luggage and thenyou carry with you your onboard
stuff, so you do need to carryaround your onboard stuff until
you get access to your room.
Otherwise, we just explored theship and started to get to know
(08:40):
where things were on the shipas a relation to which deck and
then which side of the shipstarboard or port and then
whether it was forward or aft,so that way you had a sense of
direction where you were on theship.
Once we did that, we then wentup to the main lido deck and the
upper decks so that we couldwatch the ship pull out.
(09:01):
And that's an incredibleexperience and why wouldn't you?
With Sydney Harbour sobeautiful despite the rain, it
was just magical standing up ondeck and watching the ship leave
.
Once that was done, we headeddown to get ready for dinner and
I booked one of the paidrestaurants for our first night
as a special treat and we wentto the Trattoria, which was
(09:25):
lovely and the food was amazing,until I got sick and I felt
really nauseous and wasn't ableto get through my dinner.
So the first night ended quiteshort and I was off to bed the
next morning.
I still felt quite nauseous andI was given the tip of eating
(09:47):
green apples.
That was the main thing.
That was going to sort of getyou through, apparently, and I
was also wearing the magneticsick bands and I was taking
Travacarm, which is a gingerbased travel sickness tablet.
I don't tend to take a lot of mymedications and so I didn't
really want to take anything.
I didn't need to.
However, I couldn't keepanything down.
(10:09):
I ended up in bed, which hubbythought was great because he
could go and explore the ship onhis own.
Uh.
Lunchtime I tried again.
I went and got medication fromguest services and nothing
stayed down again.
So I spent the afternoon eitherin bed or on our balcony trying
(10:29):
to get some fresh air, watchthe horizon line, try to get my
sea legs, and that wasn't great.
Hubby, meanwhile, was offhaving fun exploring the ship.
That afternoon or evening wewere supposed to have a photo
shoot, which I'd alreadypre-purchased, and the elegant
night theme night was on.
(10:52):
So we got dressed ready, optednot to have the injection,
instead take some moremedication for nausea, and
unfortunately I didn't keep thatdown either.
I missed dinner and I was backin bed.
(11:14):
Hubby had to go to dinner thefirst night on his own.
On the Tuesday morning I feltbetter.
The seas were a little calmer,but the nausea had started to
subside, so something somewherehad kicked in.
So we had breakfast and thenheaded up to the Lido deck just
to get some fresh air, relax andtry to feel like we were on
(11:37):
actual holidays.
It was there.
We met a couple who wereoriginally from Canada but now
live up on the Sunshine Coast,and they were amazing.
It turned out that Stacey and Iboth had birthdays on the same
day and were turning 50 together, and then her husband was going
to turn 50 a few days later,which just left my hubby as the
(12:01):
baby of the group, because hisbirthday is not until the end of
the year.
So we got chatting to them andhad some great conversations and
agreed to catch up later.
That afternoon we went to ahigh tea, which we had booked,
and that was beautiful.
We were given a range of sweetand savory pedifors with a glass
(12:23):
of sparkling tea and coffeescones.
It was beautiful and was wellworth the extra payment to do
that.
And then that night we had ourfirst dinner at one of the
restaurants and on the carnivaladventure, there are three
restaurants that you rotatethrough and, honestly, no
complaints from me.
(12:44):
Wednesday was my birthday and Iactually woke up feeling better.
I don't know whether it wasbecause we were in calmer waters
or whether it was because of mybirthday.
I wasn't going to let it ruinme, so I started the day with a
couple's massage with my husband, which was lovely, a great way
to relax.
(13:05):
We then went to the breakfastat the pantry.
Now the pantry is the mainbuffet and is open for breakfast
, lunch and dinner every singleday, so it's available for
everyone, whether you choose tohave dinner at the restaurants
or not.
From there, we just relaxedaround the ship.
So we went and explored becauseI felt like I'd missed out on
(13:26):
the first two days because I wasa little bit under the weather.
So we did that, and then I wentand had my hair done why not,
it's my 50th, let's look good.
And then we had arranged thesecond part of our photo shoot
at sunset.
Now, I had originally planned awhole outfit for my birthday.
(13:47):
However, the night of mybirthday turned out to be white
night, so hubby and I both woreour white night outfits and let
me tell you it was meant to be,because the photos were
spectacular and our photographer, malik, who was from Honduras,
shout out to him because he wasamazing.
He just made it so fun, socomfortable, and we had a great
(14:08):
time.
I had dinner that night atLuke's restaurant, which is Luke
Mangan, the Celebrity Chef'sRestaurant.
It's a contract taken over byCarnival from P&O for the time
being, and the dinner wasincredible.
It was well worth every cent wespent.
And after that we went fordrinks to celebrate with Stacey
(14:31):
and Pat, so Stacey and I couldhave a birthday drink together,
and we did that at Luke's Bar.
Over the course of the day Igot to speak to all my family,
whether it was phone calls, onFaceTime or text messages or
checking in with various friendsand family.
I felt like I had an incredible50th birthday.
(14:51):
On the Thursday it was our firstport of call, which was Mystery
Island, and we had to gettenders to the island and I was
really concerned because, withmy motion sickness, I was like I
don't want to be sick again.
But I actually found it okay,and this is where Faster to the
Fun comes into play again,because you get priority
(15:13):
disembarking off the ship to goashore.
So we got ashore and the firstthing we did was have or the
last part of our photo shootwith Malik, and that was a lot
of fun.
And then we went around andexplored some of the market
stalls that were set up, I gotmy hair braided, I had a photo
with an iguana mainly for myniece and then we had booked a
(15:37):
tour through the ship.
So it was a snorkeling tour, aswe were told that the best
snorkeling was on Mystery Island, and let me tell you they
didn't lie.
It was my very first timesnorkeling and it was absolutely
incredible.
I felt like I was Ariel in theLittle Mermaid.
We were taken about 500 metersoffshore and basically snorkeled
(16:00):
or swam into the shore and therange of coral and fish was just
outstanding.
I loved every second of it.
We were done there by aroundlunchtime and basically went
back on the tender to the shipand had lunch up at the pantry
and then spent the afternoon inthe adults area of the ship,
(16:23):
which was great because it wassuper quiet, because everyone
was on shore.
So that was great.
And then we went to dinner atAngelo's again.
So just the way things had beenbooked, with, obviously, us
having dinner at Luke's and theTrattoria.
We were back at Angelo's.
On the Friday we went to PortVilla, which is also in Vanu.
(16:45):
It was the first time a shiphad been back to the island
after the December earthquakes,so the locals were very excited
to have us back and this wasalso a tender into port, because
the access road from the portinto town is still closed after
the earthquake.
So they tended us in directlyinto town still closed after the
(17:07):
earthquake, so they tended usin directly into town.
I booked a private tour forthis location because I didn't
know what was going to happen,whether we would attend the port
or not and I went to thewaterfall and to the Blue Lagoon
and shopping.
So the waterfall was our firstpoint of call.
Stunning walk up to thewaterfall.
The waterfall is morehorizontal than vertical and
(17:28):
beautiful swimming hole at thebottom.
Turquoise clear waters and Ifirst time jumped off a rope
swing, which was a miserablefail because I have no upper
body strength to hold myself up,but it was fun.
And then I also jumped off thehigh platform into the water and
that was also a first for me.
So ticking off those firstsdespite being 50.
(17:52):
Our next place was the BlueLagoon and this was the place I
really wanted to go to the most.
However, I was a littledisappointed.
It seemed to be just aginormous swimming hole.
With so many people there itwas quite overwhelming, but the
(18:16):
couple we were with on our tourwe managed to go around and find
a small section of the lagoonthat was quiet and serene and
peaceful and we swam thereinstead.
So I felt much better doingthat.
Lunch was included on the tour.
That Lunch was included on thetour, so that was a barbecue and
we had that at the Blue Lagoonbefore heading back into town to
the duty-free shopping.
That is probably the bestduty-free shopping available on
the cruise and everybody seemedto be there, but hubby and I
(18:39):
really weren't interested.
So we headed down to themarkets because I really wanted
to support the locals aftereight months of no tourists, and
we found plenty of littleknickknacks and stuff for not
only ourselves but for familyand friends as well.
When we got back to the ship, werelaxed again in the adults
only area of the pool.
(19:00):
Again, it was nice and quietand it was really quite a
relaxing day.
That night it was the islandnight theme night, so hubby and
I did dress up for that, whichwas a lot of fun.
We got to go and view ourphotos after doing the photo
shoot and let me tell you wewere absolutely amazed and loved
(19:23):
the quality of the photos.
Malik did such a good job andnormally we probably wouldn't
have spent the money we did topurchase some of the photos.
However, we hadn't hadprofessional photos since our
wedding.
We were on a holiday.
He took some beautiful shotsand we were like, why not?
So that was definitely worth it.
(19:44):
For dinner we went to the DragonLady, which was an Asian
infusion sort of restaurant.
It wasn't my favorite of allthe restaurants, but it was the
second one we got to go to inthe rotation.
On the Saturday we went toLeifu.
Now I had planned for this tobe a relaxing day.
(20:05):
I didn't plan any tours at thislocation.
We actually started the day onship having another massage,
which was great, and then it wasalso great getting the tender
off, because we didn't have toline up or queue.
It was literally walk down, geton the tender and be shipped
over to the shore, so that wasgreat.
(20:26):
Leifu, for me, was a little bitof a letdown.
The actual port itself wasn'tanything spectacular.
We found a little bar to havelunch at, chatted to some
couples there and then spent theafternoon snorkeling off the
beach, and the snorkeling againwas amazing.
I felt like I had a new leaf oflife.
(20:46):
I wanted to try this more, sohubby and I took turns using his
equipment to go snorkeling.
The only disappointing thingwas that we found out later we
should have been on the otherside of the jetty because that's
where the turtles and theclamshells were.
But you know what you live andyou learn, and I was just
appreciative of the experiencethat I had.
(21:06):
Anyway, that night, we decidedto dress in matchy matchy
outfits, which is quite commonon the cruise, and when we were
purchasing our island nighttheme outfits, we managed to
purchase another one.
So we were like, why not, let'sjust do this.
And then we went to dinner atWaterfront.
So we'd now completed the fullrotation of the restaurants, and
(21:30):
let me tell you, they were allamazing.
Like where else do you get athree-course dinner that you
don't even have to think aboutwhat you're going to eat?
And then we went to the paidshow, which is again a handover
from P&O to Carnival, which wasBlanc de Blanc, and it was an
adult only R-rated show.
(21:50):
That was a bundle of laughs.
While we were hesitant aboutgoing to the show to begin with,
it was actually Stacey and Patthat talked us into going.
We actually really enjoyed it.
On the Sunday, we went to Namia,and Namia was the first port we
actually went into.
Namia is a full working port,and you basically are on dock
(22:15):
and you walk off the shipstraight onto a bus that takes
you into town.
Unfortunately, though, sundayin Namia means that nearly
everything is closed, and themarkets were only open until
lunchtime, so hubby and Idecided to go to the markets,
have a look around and then headback to the ship for lunch,
before we went on the tour thatwe'd booked for the afternoon.
(22:37):
Now we did a wine tasting slashsightseeing tour.
The sightseeing, and the guidewho did the sightseeing was
absolutely amazing.
Her French was impeccable, herEnglish was impeccable, she had
lots to say about Nemea and thehistory, and I found her really
quite entertaining.
(22:58):
We went to this place called nowforgive my French Notre Dame du
Pacifique, notre Dame duPacifique, and it's basically a
large statue of Mary with arosary set in a garden and
grotto with stations of thecross very religious area, but I
really appreciate it because Igrew up Roman Catholic, so I had
(23:20):
a lot of respect for that area.
And then we went to a lookout,which was incredible.
You got to see parts of Namia,which was great.
The wine tasting part of it,though, was a little bit of a
letdown.
We were literally taken to arestaurant, seated with three
glasses of wine and threecheeses to taste, with some
bread, and that was it.
(23:41):
There was no discussion aboutthe wine or the cheese or the
pairings.
It was basically eat, drink andthen we'll go and I was
bitterly disappointed with that,but it is what it is.
We had a great day out anyway.
Getting back to the ship, we hadto quickly change and get ready
(24:02):
for the chef's dinner, which wepurchased as a special event.
I actually wanted this on mybirthday, but it was already
booked out for my birthday, sowe did it on this night.
It's $167 per person for adegustation.
You are greeted by your waiterand the chef at a little cafe
and then you go into the mainrestaurant in a curtained area
(24:26):
there is only 14 of you, so it'sreally intimate.
And you start off withsparkling and five hors
d'oeuvres that you're seated andthey are.
It's almost like silver service.
It was incredible.
Like I was like, wow, if thisis only hors d'oeuvres, what's
dinner going to be like?
And then you're taken into thekitchen and we got to watch one
(24:47):
of the chefs make the famouscarnival chocolate lava cake.
So that was amazing.
And then, after that, you weretaken back to the restaurant
area for a full seven coursedegustation with both white wine
, red wine and dessert wine.
And let me tell, tell you,chef's kiss.
(25:08):
The food was incredible, theservice was incredible, the
presentation was incredible.
It was just a fabulous night.
What made it better was that weactually got to experience this
with Stacey and Pat, who we'dmet on the ship.
There was another group of sixand another two couples, and we
all had lots of laughs, lots ofconversations.
(25:28):
We had a group photo to finishand we thoroughly enjoyed it.
We then had to run quickly backto our room and get changed
again, because it was 80s nightdress up night and I was not
missing 80s night for anybody.
So we got into our costumes, wewent to head up to the Lido
deck but it was raining, so theyhad taken the party down to the
(25:52):
Adventure Hotel and we metStacey and Pat back at the bar
and had a fabulous time.
That was probably one of thehighlights of the theme nights,
because 80s night is always abarrel of laughs.
Hubby even got up and did anair guitar competition, which he
won, so it was super fun.
Monday was our first day at seaheading home, and we tried our
(26:18):
hand at bingo.
We went into the casino, wewent to a comedy show.
We kind of did lots of thingsthat day that we hadn't done on
all the other days, so that waskind of cool.
And then that night we haddinner again at the Trattoria
because hubby wanted to do thatso that I could experience it in
(26:38):
a different way.
Till I did the first night.
That was also an elegant night,so we were dressed up for that
dinner and let me tell you thesecond time round, it was really
enjoyable.
The tiramisu was divine and wefinished the night by having
drinks next door at the pianobar listening to some really bad
(26:59):
karaoke.
Actually, in saying karaoke, Idid that, I want to say on the
second night, on the Tuesdaynight, when I started to feel
better, I actually sung karaokemyself because I was like I'm on
a ship, nobody knows me, it'smy 50th, I'm gonna do another
thing.
And, yes, I sang karaoke at seaOn the Tuesday.
(27:24):
At sea, the first thing hubbyand I did was start to pack,
because I didn't want to leavethat to the last minute.
We were going to disembark andhead straight to the airport.
I needed to make sure we wereorganized, so just doing that
packing in the morning meant therest of the day we could just
relax and enjoy it.
We end up going to the jackpotbingo with Pat and Stacey and
(27:48):
then we had lunch on the Lidodeck at Luke's Burgers, which
was a lot of fun.
Uh, they had dancing that dayas well, so I got to do the
Macarena and the Nutbush and theCha Cha Slide, which was super
fun.
And then hubby and I had ourfinal dinner at Waterfront
restaurant before heading to theVoice of the Ocean final.
(28:12):
So on various nights we hadattended the heats and then the
final of the Voice of the Ocean,which was basically, as it says
, a singing competition done inthe way of the voice.
We met up with Pat and Staceyagain in the marquee for the
final and then we went to ourlast lot of drinks at Luke's bar
(28:33):
again and had the fancy smokycocktails that they serve.
So that was a lot of fun andfabulous way to kind of finish
the cruise.
On the Wednesday I got up superearly because I wanted to see
the sights of Sydney in theearly morning light, while it
was still dark, and see all thelights of the Opera House and
the Harbour Bridge and theSydney skyline.
(28:55):
And it was well worth gettingup for we were one of the first
to be off the ship anddisembarking is relatively easy.
We opted to carry our casesbecause of our flight.
You can leave your cases outthe night before and then you
(29:15):
will collect them once off theship, just like you would if you
were getting off a plane.
However, we got off with ourluggage and first off the ship,
went, handed in our immigrationcard, just like if you were
flying back from international,and then got an Uber to the
airport.
We got our Uber super quick andit was fancy, it was a Mercedes
(29:37):
.
I said to hubby, wow, okay, butwhat we discovered is that the
gentleman who picked us up wasthe owner of a limousine company
.
He happened to pick up our faregoing out to the airport to
pick up none other than ChrisHemsworth from the airport, so
Chris Hemsworth sat in the sameseat I did just hours after me.
(29:59):
So that was kind of a funlittle way to finish our trip.
We sat in Virgin Lounge havingsome breakfast and some drinks,
waiting for our flight home andlanded safely back in Perth.
So overall it was a fabulousexperience and I will give you
(30:20):
my overall impressions ofcruising for the first time.
So the room we booked a balconyand I don't think I could have
done an internal room, like Ineeded to see the ocean and
especially if I'm on a cruise, Iwant to see the ocean, and it
was great to be able to go backand sit in the privacy of your
(30:42):
own room on the balcony, justfor some fresh air and some
space.
The crowds on the various partsof the ship can get a little
bit overwhelming, especiallywith my background, so it was
nice to have that.
The rooms are spacious for whatyou need.
I would recommend takinghanging shelves in the wardrobe
to have extra folding room foryour clothes, but you've got
(31:04):
plenty of room to put your casesin, especially if they fit
inside one another.
They stack up nice and neat.
There is easy enough room tomove around the room, so it was
a great idea.
If you've got the luxury ofbooking a suite, book a suite,
and if you have to book aninternal room, well, all I can
say is good luck.
(31:26):
The food for me.
I read so many complaints andheard so many people complain,
even while I was on the ship,about the quality of the food.
Carnival is a budget cruiseline, so you cannot expect
champagne food when you're on abeer budget, and for me, the
logic I went in with was that Idon't have to cook, I don't have
(31:49):
to think about what I have tocook and I don't have to clean
up.
I get to eat a three-coursemeal on most nights.
I get a full buffet forbreakfast and for dinner and I
can snack in between if I wantto.
So there is nothing to complainabout.
The paid restaurants which waswe attended all of them were
(32:10):
phenomenal and well worth theextra money if you want to spend
it, and the chef's dinner wasan absolute treat and is a
degustation I will remember fora long time, and it is well
worth the money for not only theexperience but the food and
service as well.
As far as drinks packages gowell, we were lucky enough to
(32:32):
book the non-alcoholic drinkpackage on P&O.
Unfortunately, carnival CruiseLines does not offer the same
value as far as the drinkspackages.
You either get soda and juicewith the non-alcoholic package,
or you get soda, juice andalcohol with the full package.
You do have to pay for extrassuch as bubble tea, tea and
(32:56):
coffee, energy drinks, thingslike that.
So it's entirely up to you.
We're not big drinkers, so wejust paid for alcohol as we
required and then enjoyed therest of the drinks package and
had our full values worth overthe 10 days.
Just bear in mind that when youdo buy the alcohol package, you
(33:18):
are paying the same price onthe days you're ashore.
So if you are not a big drinkerand you're not going to drink,
your money's worth at night whenyou get back on the ship, it
can be a bit of a letdown.
So just something to be mindfulof.
The activities on the ship arevaried and there's plenty of
(33:38):
them.
The only thing I would say onour particular cruise is that it
seemed that many overlapped, soyou had to choose what you were
doing and often had to miss outon something because it did
overlap.
So I didn't get to doeverything I wanted to do,
because there were times where Ihad to, yeah, pick one thing
over the other, but overallthere is something for everybody
(34:02):
, no matter what you want to do.
We also saw many people aroundthe ship actually taking board
games and cards and things likethat.
So you can spend time.
There is plenty of places tosit and play, catch up with
other people, do various thingsof your own choosing, if you
should want to do that.
The theme nights are optional,but they're a lot of fun and,
(34:28):
being our first cruise, wedecided to go all in and take
costumes for every theme nightand for those themes, and they
are just a lot of fun.
You get to enjoy watchingeverybody else dress up.
(34:51):
You have some fun with it andit's worth it for the experience
.
But again, it is truly optional.
In the future, I would probablyonly pick one or two of them
rather than do everything likewe did.
The staff were amazing.
We had no issues with any ofthe staff, although we did hear
(35:13):
stories of others havingproblems.
In my opinion, it comes down tothe way you are with those
people.
I see staff as equals.
They are there to make my lifeas enjoyable as possible while
I'm on the cruise and I will bekind and generous and respectful
(35:34):
towards them, and when you dothat, it is reciprocated back.
But I saw people beingcondescending and rude and
treating them almost likesubserviently and that's no way
to treat the people who arelooking after you on the cruise.
So my advice is be kind and youwill receive kind back.
(36:00):
And, yeah, just be respectfulto the people who are there to
do their job.
Our room stewards were fabulous.
They went over and above whatwas expected of them.
They set out the towelcharacters for us.
They decorated my room for mybirthday over and above what I
paid for.
They just made sure that wewere looked after our whole crew
(36:24):
.
So I really did love thataspect.
The story about the ducks Nowducks seem to be a thing on
cruises we found that out duringour research and you get to
either hide them or find them,or both.
And let me tell you, I tookducks aboard.
It was super fun seeing ifpeople had found them.
(36:46):
Like hubby and I would leavethem out in the morning and then
come back in the afternoon andsee if people had taken them.
But watching kids lie eyeslight up as they found a duck or
they magically appeared becauseI often left ducks or gave them
to parents to kind of leavemagically so that the kids can
find them.
That was a lot of fun.
So if you want to get involvedin the duck game, go ahead and
(37:08):
do it, because you will have funwith it.
Excursions on the ship we bookedtwo through the ship and one
privately, and we had one daywith no tour at all.
It is so worth it to see thesites if you've never been to
those locations before.
The only difference I can saywith private tours and ship
(37:30):
tours ships you will playslightly more.
However, you are guaranteed toone get off the ship early for
that tour.
You are also guaranteed to getback on the ship before it
leaves.
With private tours, you do soat your own risk, so it is just
one thing to be mindful of, butthe excursions are fabulous and
(37:52):
definitely well worth it if youwant to explore the different
locations you go to.
Overall, we've been asked wouldwe do it again?
And the short answer is yes, wewould.
We wouldn't rush to do it.
However, there are so manyother things and places that
hubby and I want to go and seeand explore that we are not
(38:14):
going to jump out and just booka back-to-back cruise.
I get why people do it on theeast coast.
For me, cruising on the eastcoast seems to be the Bali of
the west coast.
That's how they do theirholidays, but when you've got to
pay for accommodation andflights to get to the port, it's
just something that I wouldn'tjump to do again.
(38:34):
However, we have alreadystarted future planning and
seeing what other cruise linesare out there, what other
locations they go to and what wecould possibly do in the future
.
The other thing I would sayabout cruising is that if you
are a family with young childrenand I say young being under the
(38:55):
age of 10, I would second guessabout taking your family
Watching families of smallchildren, especially toddlers,
and young primary school agechildren that can't be left on
their own.
It really is.
It's like your home, doing thesame thing you would do at home,
just in a different location.
(39:16):
You wouldn't actually get toreally fully enjoy the
experience because you'reconstantly running around after
your children doing what youhave to do as an adult, or
children who are teenagers thatcan be left to fend for
themselves throughout the ship.
Then you would get to sit backand enjoy the experience for
what it is.
So it's definitely something Iwould say it's a couple's thing
(39:40):
to do.
I get why couples and olderpeople do it, because it is
great.
It's a great experience forjust kicking back, relaxing,
having everything done for you,not having to think about
anything, and just enjoy life.
So I can see the appeal ofcruising.
But that was my firstexperience of it.
(40:01):
I loved every moment of it,even despite I got seasick on
the first day.
But you know what?
That was an experience I had tohave and it is what it is, but
overall, I had an absolutephenomenal time cruising into my
50th birthday.
(40:22):
Thank you for tuning in to theEveryday Warriors podcast.
If you have an idea for afuture episode or a story you'd
like to share yourself, thenplease reach out and message me,
as I am always up for real, rawand authentic conversations
with other Everyday Warriors.
Also, be sure to subscribe sothat you can download all the
(40:43):
latest episodes as they arepublished and spread the word to
your family and friends andcolleagues so they can listen in
too.
If you're sharing on socialmedia, please be sure to tag me
so that I can personallyacknowledge you.
I'm always open to commentabout how these episodes have
resonated with you, the listener.
(41:03):
And remember lead with love asyou live this one wild and
precious life.
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