Final days at sea

FRIDAY 6th TO SUNDAY 8th MARCH

Hi all for one last time on this trip,

Our last two days have been spent at sea making our way back to Sydney. The first day was a bit overcast at times so we spent the morning playing air hockey and Rob joined in a game of laser tag. Then Rob took Eliza for her nap and I read by the pool. By this time it was sunny and quite nice looking out the window in the indoor pool area I sat in. Then we took Eliza in the pool. At night the wait staff did a parade and a dance, and Eliza and I followed them. She has gotten so good at running on the cruise!! After dinner, Eliza ran around like a maniac near the bar we were sitting in and had a grand old time putting a pink shawl of Gab’s over her head!!

On Saturday we went and played some pickleball again like earlier in the cruise. We lucked out and played some fellow Aussies from Tamworth who, like us, just wanted to have a hit and have fun. We enjoyed it a lot more than playing the Americans that took it too seriously earlier in the cruise, and actually played way better and had some great rallies as a result. Mike also played a game with Rob too.

I did Eliza’s nap Saturday and then we took her into the pool. It was a nice sunny day so it was great being outside. To get around the silly pool/nappies rule we once again sat on the ledge of the main pool and splashed around which she loved. She enjoyed people watching and the cooler water. Gab and Mike then looked after her while Rob and I went swimming and read our books.

Tonight at dinner Eliza was so cute with our waiter Saif who has been our head waiter for dinner the entire cruise. She has developed a really special friendship with he and Ayu, our assistant waiter, over the last week. Tonight she kept running up to Saif and giving him a hug once I had cleaned her up. It was so beautiful seeing how happy she was to see him and Ayu each night, waving at them and giving them cuddles. She made friends with all the people at adjacent tables too of course, my gorgeous, friendly smiley girl!! Saif and Ayu were fantastic waiters and made it so easy for us with Eliza. Instead of a kids meal they let us pick an appropriate adult meal for her each night (eg shepherds pie, spaghetti bolognaise etc) and would then bring us steamed veggies and strawberries. She had a ball. Saif also folded her lots of origami animals which she loved too.

Speaking of animals, something else Eliza has had a lot of fun with is finding and being given ducks on the cruise. People hide rubber ducks and kids go searching for them. For really little kids like Eliza, staff often give the ducks out too. We kept our favourite two but would play with the others and then hide them again for someone else to enjoy. I reckon she’s had about 30 ducks pass through her hands over the course of the cruise!!!

On a completely different note, I kept hearing announcements saying “alpha alpha alpha” followed by a location. I asked Rob and it turns out it’s a medical emergency page. Rob said it’s actually quite common for older people to die on cruises and the ship has a morgue. How morbid! It makes sense though. I had never really thought about it properly.

We enjoyed our final dinner and then afterwards Rob and I packed up in our room while Gab and Mike had Eliza. Finally before bed, Rob and I took Eliza to the arcade and played a driving game. She’s obsessed with steering wheels at the moment so she sat on my knee and throughly enjoyed driving the animated car into some walls and getting frustrated at me if I tried to intervene too much!!

On Sunday morning we docked back in Sydney around 3am. We got up at 6.30am and had a quick final breakfast in the Windjammer before grabbing our last bits and pieces from our room and heading to disembark.

Once off there were replacement buses for the airport train, a huge pain as Eliza also couldn’t get in an uber without a car seat. The others took our luggage in an uber and Eliza and I got a light rail and then a bus which added on nearly an hour. Lucky we had a buffer.

Now I am waiting at the airport (by myself, which feels really weird!) to fly home to Melbourne in time for the footy tonight to see my beloved pies play St Kilda. I’m so excited!! Rob and Eliza are driving home with Gab and Mike and staying in Albury tonight.

I’ve had a good time overall, seeing some parts of NSW and then seeing two new places on the cruise, spending great time with Rob and Eliza. Cruising is definitely not my preferred holiday style, as I get itchy feet and restless easily. I like to be out exploring and I’ve never been very good at sitting around or taking it easy. I like to hit the ground running and see and learn as much as possible, and having one day somewhere doesn’t really mean you get to visit properly. Having said that, I feel like if Australia was a bit closer to some of the South Pacific countries this would be a great holiday as you’d have some days at sea but not too many, and more days in new places, like we did when we cruised the Caribbean in 2020. When Eliza is older I think it would be a great holiday too as there would be so many more activities she could access. It was pretty infuriating that we had to pay full price for her and yet she wasn’t allowed in any pool except the tiny crap toddler one (technically - glad we found ways to get around it. I don’t tolerate stupid rules very well since Covid!!). I wouldn’t come again with a child that isn’t toilet trained as a result. I was also really surprised there was no little kid playground or playground in general. But as I said, I’ve had a good time overall.

I’m very much looking forward to our next adventure which is Rob, Eliza and I going to Koh Samui and Singapore in seven weeks time. See you there!!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox