Carnival Spirit - And we're back

Another fabulous cruise over and what a wonderful time we had, I just wish they didn't arrive back in Sydney Harbour so early!

The beautiful Pacific Pearl followed us in. Our last cruise was on this ship, I thought it was the best P&O ship although, having said that, I love all the cruise ships I've been on! I just thought the Pearl was set out really well, apart maybe for the Plantation Buffet (but I never really had an issue, just my cruise buddy (mum) found it a bit busy and not laid out very well).

The Pacific Pearl following are footsteps

The Pearl heading for White Bay

Seeing as I got up so early to catch some final happy snaps there weren't many people out and about yet - I think they were the smart ones!

The wonderful coffee machine

Back at Circular Quay

Final danishes of the cruise (plus a delicious chocolate muffin!)

The Pastry Station also known as The Sweet Spot

And we're back

In Suva we bought some wooden 'weapons' which we had to hand in when we got back to the ship. They give you a receipt and advise that you can collect your things on debark morning from 6.30am onwards. I popped down there (it was deck 2 in the Conference Room - near the restaurant) and collected our goodies. There were a myriad of items waiting to be collected including irons and power boards (these had been taken off people on the morning we first boarded the ship as they aren't allowed on board) One of the power boards I saw had about 10 plugs, no wonder they didn't allow that in the cabin - fire hazard or what!!

Bye cabin 8245, we will miss you!!

I had a wonderful time on the cruise with my mum, sister and 2 nephews. I wasn't feeling 100% but when you're on holiday with your family, being spoilt, relaxing, eating, doing what you want, it makes feeling unwell not so bad at all. My roomy, mister 13, was a delight (most of the time! ha ha) and I'd share with him again any day (hint hint). We liked our cabin and loved where it was, so close to the Lido and buffet but with no noise coming from above (my sister did hear some music one night when there was the Bathrobe Bash on in the serenity but nothing bothersome). Having the cabin on deck 8 was so handy for the kids as they could easily pop back to the cabin to either change into or out of their swimmers, nip up stairs for their lunch (mister 13 was known at the toasted sandwich place - the 'Deli') he didn't even need to say his order, the guy knew as soon as he saw him. Now that's great service!

We spent a lot of our time up on deck 9 (Lido) either by the pool or in a pod when we could find one. It's a great space, it could get busy and noisy at times but it was during school holidays and it is one of the best spots on the ship!

We love the Spirit (have been on her twice now) and we would love to go on her again but we would also LOVE to go on the Legend, hopefully sooner rather than later.

There are always so many amazing bargain cruise being advertised I am sure we'll be doing another cruise before too long. Pacific Dawn to PNG anyone????

Heading off the Spirit - we chose self assist

Part way through the cruise you receive a debarkation form to fill out where you advise approx time you want to leave and if you're going to take your own luggage off the ship or leave it out the night before we're due back in Sydney. We had a few days to fill it out as they had requested to have your form back to reception by Wednesday - as we had 5 of us and 3 cabins we put us all on the one form to make sure we all got the same debark time. We chose the late debark as we weren't in any rush (we never are). After filling in the form we completely forgot about it and didn't hand it in! It was on the Friday we remembered, oopsie - it didn't matter too much as we were taking our own bags off so it was just the time. We were given 8.05am - a bit earlier than we'd hoped but not too bad. I think we ended up heading off at around 8.15am. They do call your number (this is written on your debark form they leave in your cabin - we were O) when it is time for you to leave. Everything seemed to be running pretty smoothly and before we knew it, we were off the ship. boohoo

Docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal

Almost off

And we are off - bye Carnival Spirit

 This photo is always much better when we're just about to board! I can't believe how fast our 12 nights went, are you sure they didn't cut out cruise short??

Sydney CBD

We went to a Coles in town and bought our lunch from there, just pre-made sandwiches,wraps and salads and a few nibblies. Cheaper than the train and it also gave us something to do! We did see a couple of people in Coles wandering around with their cruise cards still on, wishful thinking maybe!

On the XPT back to Wauchope

The main drawback sailing from Sydney is getting to Sydney. Each cruise we've done we've caught the XPT and it doesn't get any funner! For the moment the kids travel free as does old lady mum (don't tell her I wrote that!) so the price for all of us isn't too bad. The length of the trip is the main problem. I do not like the overnight trip at all as I can never sleep so am a zombie that whole day! The price we pay for cruising, ha ha. It is easy catching the train at least and docking at the OPT means we can just hop on a train at Circular Quay (a 5 min walk from the ship) to Central and then check our luggage in. The train leaves at 11.41am so it gives us plenty of time to get there after getting off the ship and then some time to head into town to get some lunch and look at the sights (if we can be bothered, we generally can't).