The final bits and pieces of our paper work have been issued and this includes our luggage tags. I've printed everything we need out now just have to wait until January for our cruise, 48 days and counting!
The luggage tags are attached to your suitcase which you then drop off at the dock and they later appear at your cabin. Apparently we will be able to track them using the RC App. (update: this wasn't available) The tags have our deck and cabin number on it and I've printed our names onto them. We should be able to drop our bags off early, from 8am I think, which is great because then we can go for a leisurely walk and have brekky without having to drag our suitcases with us. Although, we may have breakfast before getting to the dock. Haven't decided yet. Our hotel isn't walking distance so we can have a relaxing morning then check out and catch the train down to Circular Quay. As our boarding time is 11.30am we don't need to be at the OPT early although we're SO excited to see the ship we just might be!
The Ovation of the Seas is now in Australian waters and has just left Adelaide heading for Hobart (I think) and then onto Sydney. By the sounds of it there are going to be a lot of people around Sydney Harbour to see her come in. She is the biggest ship ever to come out to Australia and I can't believe we'll be going on her!
I've had another look through the tours the ship has available for each of our stops but don't think we'll book any of them. They're all quite expensive, for us anyway, and I'm sure we'll be fine doing our own thing. We normally do anyway. The only time we've booked a tour was on the Dawn Princess when we did a tour on Isle of Pines and at Lifou. They were just short tours, about 1-1 1/2 hours and were approx $50ea. As we'd been to these islands before we though it would be nice to see further afield. None of the tours for this cruise are cheap, the cheapest is a walking tour which we can do ourselves for free anyway.
The final thing I have to do for our trip is to organise the transport to and from Sydney. I've been checking out the flights and think I'll have to book soon as I'm sure the longer I leave it the more expensive they'll get. Mum's planning on catching the train down (she gets a free trip being an old person) and then flying home (saves her sitting on a train for 8 hours!) and I'll just fly both ways. Probably Tiger Air down and Virgin back but it all depends on price! I'll just keep checking Webjet :-)
I think I'll also booked my car into the airport parking as they've currently got a special on which works out to be about $7/day in their covered parking which is cheap. This will save having to get someone, probably my sister, drop me off and pick me up.
48 days!!!
