Days at sea

Hi all,

I didn’t end up having a chance to post in Sydney as boarding etc all happened so fast and my laptop was in my suitcase. That morning went relatively smoothly though. The weather was miserable again but we drove to Sydney Airport, parked our car and then caught the train to Circular Quay. Due to the weather being crap our options were limited, but we killed 2-3 hours wandering under cover or outside in the brief periods of no rain. We made the best of it. Eliza was not having a bar of a nap which was quite stressful, but we ended up able to board our ship an hour early with Gab and Mike, so once I board I took her to our room and she had a late and shorter nap. Whilst in Sydney though we made it around to the Opera House and Eliza enjoyed climbing the stairs.

Our ship is called ‘Anthem of the Seas’ and we are sailing for nine days with Royal Caribbean, stopping twice in Vanuatu and once in New Caledonia.

Cruising isn’t my usual holiday of choice as I love to be out and about exploring, but we thought it would be good to check out some places Eliza and I haven’t been (Rob has done this cruise before) and good to entertain Eliza. We are on board the ship with Rob’s parents, Gab and Mike. They are keen cruisers. This is Rob’s fourth cruise and my second, Rob and I went on one in the Caribbean right before Covid (I think I had Covid on the ship…!).

Sailing out of Sydney Harbour was pretty special. We had a great view of the bridge, opera house and harbour in general. It stopped raining too!!

For the three days since we have been having breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe, wandering around in the morning, having Eliza nap about 12.30pm and then usually having a swim in the afternoon before heading to dinner. We’ve checked out the surf machine, bean bag toss, dodgem cars, laser tag, pickleball (many arrogant Americans playing and acting like we are in the Olympics and not on a cruise, saying “we don’t want to play you” as we hadn’t played before. Ruuuuuude), pools, bars and the west end show ‘We Will Rock You’. We all keep alternating with Eliza for naps and for shows like that. Although we did take her to the first ten minutes on Saturday and she enjoyed it! The only disappointing thing is technically Eliza can only swim in this crap tiny toddler pool with water about 5cm deep. But I’ve found some ways around this so she’s had fun in some other pools too. 

Rob and I went to a specialist dinner last night at a restaurant called ‘Wonderland’ where all the food was made into textures you wouldn’t expect with lots of tricks and cool effects. Sadly something we ate didn’t agree with me though as I was then up most of the night really unwell. Luckily I’m doing better today.

Later tonight we are going to a magic show, and then tomorrow we dock in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox