12.10.16

Cruising the Carnival Way

And just like that our four night cruise came to an end. But you can't really complain when you wake up to this view, can you?

 On the day that we checked in to our first  cruise ever, a Facebook memory came up - HA! It's good to know that the kids knew then, who to talk to for our NEEDS and WANTS. 

While it was short, it was sweet enough to give us an idea if cruising will work for us. We found the last minute deal through www.ozcruising.com. Having heard how family friendly carnival cruises are, we decided to go with them. I was also curious. Many years ago, I used to write about this particular cruise line for a subcontractor for a meager couple of cents per a number of words. So I was quite familiar with them in theory from all my Google searches,  but it never occurred to me that I will actually see it for myself.
It was interesting that a couple of days before sailing, we received a call that instead of the time we booked for check in, we will sail much earlier than scheduled; and then again, that instead of going to Mooloolaba, we were cruising to Moreton Island. It didn't bother us as we haven't been to both places anyway. And as long as the sun was waiting for us, it was not a problem at all. So instead of the planned 3-3:30 check in, we were there at 12:30. By that time we had been munching on nuts and fruits so the kids were getting hungry for something else. We had them wait for a bit knowing that lunch will be served.

And  so it was. With so many choices. And great quality meals. Over the course of the cruise, there were burgers, Mexican, barbeque, a sit down three course meal, buffet, 24 hour pizza and ice cream, juice coffee and tea included. There were also sushi, chinese, fine dining, bubbles and drink mixes for extra fee.

Activities on Board
Camp Ocean. This is the kids club from 2 years old. Our favourites went to the 6-8 age group and had fun activities that went with it. It was a free drop off from 10- 2:45 then 6:30 - 9:45. Child minding was also available from 10-1am for a fee.

Concerts. We went to two 80s concerts on different nights without the kids and loved the shows. It was both exciting, fun, full on production.

There were also movies and comedy shows. Guests can spend time at the gym or swimming. The kids braved the swimming pool construction after breakfast one morning but ended up playing around as the water was not heated and too cold for them. There was also massage spa and salon for a fee.

Island Day
There were lots of tours that we could have booked from the ship but we opted against it. As it turned out, we made the right decision because all the kids wanted was play and swim by the beach.
tagalooma,moreton island


 

Will we go for another cruise? Absolutely! It was probably one of our best holidays as we didn't have to do much, there was a huge variety of activities and services on offer and all we had to do was show up and enjoy.
On a serious and unrelated note, I vaguely remember someone saying that the Christian life is not a cruiseship and having just been to one, I think I finally got to experientially understand what it means. At some points during the cruise, we found ourselves stuffed. There was one night that I had a drink of coffee and then tea in order to get rid of that overly full feeling even after we skipped dinner. It was not a very nice feeling.
If all we do as Christians is fill ourselves up without going out and making connections, ministering to other and praying, we will find ourselves stuffed and we could get sick. And it is the worst feeling. As a family,we are very aware as grateful as we will always be for blessings we experience, it is almost always,best shared.

What we love about the cruise -
*having everything organised and all we had to do was dress up and show up
*having  time everyday to catch up and chat by ourselves and not  having to worry about the kids
*lots of  friendly  Filipino crews - when i answered the post cruise survey, I noticed that hospitality was a priority. i think without bias that they picked the right people for the job
*kids and young families have plenty of things to do
*island day was very organised
*quality food served at every meal

What we learned -
*bring some cash and open an account for on board expenses
*booking  onshore activities are great,but with young  kids, we had to play by ear. Best to see how you go and not plan too many activities
*shops and services have sales towards the end of the cruise so you may want to look out for those
*we got asked to stop for photo ops and for the most part we were happy to oblige. It was then sold to us at a steep price.Because we did not spend much,we may have gotten a little carried away and splurge.

We did catch the "cruise bug" and have since been on the lookout for our next trip.