What a smooth boarding process! Augers well for a great trip. The UBER arrived on time and with plenty of room for passengers and luggage. Had no traffic holdups and had a mature Aussie driver with loads of stories, who kept us entertained for the trip.
He delivered us right alongside the Carnival Splendor and the port authority and ship staff combined to make the all-aboard seamless and pleasant. Basically we strolled through - answered a few questions, had a photo taken, had passes scanned, put our carryon through the scanner - and we were on within 10 minutes. Reported to our Muster Station and were early for lunch!!! Of course we were.
Can't believe we scored a perfect covered deck table with views of the Opera House for our first meal on board. Plenty of food and drink choices and in absolutely no hurry to move on.
The staterooms opened right on time at 1.30 and our balcony cabin was spacious and conveniently located near the lifts. The luggage hadn't arrived but that didn't matter, we knew it would eventually.
Ventured back to join the throngs outside - listened to some music, took up some space on the dance floor in the lobby and used the afternoon to explore lots of nooks and crannies. First impressions- lots of people, very wide age range, not many children (think we have spotted three), definite queues for everything , very noisy.
We joined the majority of the passengers on board for the #Sail Away. And yes, perched high up on Deck 10 we had sweeping views of the absolutely stunning backdrop provided by Sydney Harbour and The Heads. Even had a couple of spouting whales to join the flotilla that was making up the farewell party.
Predictably... the man and his map
Plenty to see and do! Not the least of which was to get the HUB app working and finesse the booking, planning and account access and to connect to the ship's WiFi. Had some housekeeping to do in picking up the wine vouchers. There is no alcohol package on offer on this ship - just a wine bundle offer.
We were in the hunt for a drink and found what we thought was a quiet spot in the Alchemy Bar. Soon realised we were at a mixers event for singles ..... moved next door to the Piano Bar ... only to discover an LGBTQ event was scheduled for there. Think we might need to read the fine print a little more carefully in order to find our tribe.
I did put in a call to @Mum to describe the scene in the Harbour and to get her tip for the Cup. She had just drawn number 14, #Half Yours in the sweep at the nursing home. Her advice verbatim was "Don't back it. It's the only Australian bred horse in the race. Even if it started now, it wouldn't beat another runner home." As a predictably defiant child, I told @Mac - "That means it is a sure thing and I am going to be on it."
Met up for champagne toasts to a successful #Sail Away hosted by @LoRi and somehow, wrangled the bookings to get a table for 6 in the #Black Pearl. We were right in the mix of things adjacent to the serving station. It was noisy and rushed but we did have front row seats for the entertainment which was accompanied by extremely vigorous napkin waving.
Had a little laugh because there were platform pillars all through the restaurant. Our waiters, who morphed into the entertainment by donning "carnivale jackets," jumped up on these tables to do their thing. I really think she has only done it once in public at the comedy show in Vegas, but it did make me think of the #Fab5's very own @NaughyOne - made me laugh!
Headed out to the multi level theatre, #TheSpectacular for what we thought was a first 9 pm show. Um.No. it was an introduction by the very enthusiastic cruise director @Lizzie to her team and some of the upcoming events. Our group of 6 were walkouts.
Definitely had some unpacking and stateroom organisation to complete and retired for the evening with absolutely no plans or structure for our first day at sea tomorrow. With one exception ... i did have early morning NFL to tune into.
Doof, doof doof ... hmmm. There is a vibration of sound from music from somewhere on the ship that was the hypnotic background for sleep.
PS Empathy shot. A girl's got to do a little unpacking.
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