Carnival Spirit - 3rd Sea Day

We always checked out the Funtime to see what was happening each day

Lunch in the Empire Restaurant

Lunch with a view

Chocolate Eclair - oh my goodness!

The pods and Green Thunder!

Yes, yes I did!

Sea day so we decided on lunch in the Empire Restaurant. My sister wasn't feeling too well, a little sea sickness maybe? Popped an Avomine and all was well. The food was amazing (pumpkin ravioli, fish n chips and hamburgers) and the dessert (chocolate eclair) was BIG but so yummy.

Swimming, reading and podding was the order of the day. The Green Thunder was high on the boys list - they loved it! It was closed when the weather was too windy, as was the putt putt and basketball court.

The lido was such a great place to sit in the evening as it was quite sheltered, there's a retractable roof over one of the pool areas. We had our predinner drinks up here. It also meant the boys could go in the pool and spa. It was generally quiet from around 5.30pm as I think many people had the early dinner sitting so the boys made the most of the near empty pool. It was also handy for them to get a drink for the drinks machine and possibly some nibbles from inside the buffet. Not that we needed any food before dinner!

I wasn't overly hungry tonight so only wanted a small meal. Of course I was still going to have three course but three smaller course, that was the plan anyway. The entree started off well with a couple of chicken satay sticks but them when I got my main, well it wasn't small! It was delicious though! The waiter brought out my meal, I had an indian style curry, and I thought ok a bit bigger than I need but I don't have to eat it all. But wait, there's more. He then brought over another plate with even more food on it! Good grief! Glad I said I wasn't very hungry, ha ha.

Just a small meal for me tonight

Another fabulous showtime by Dessi and her team and we were ready for bed!

Carnival Spirit - 2nd Port, Mystery Island

Another beautiful day on Mystery Island was awaiting us. We have been so lucky with the weather as I have read that some ships had to miss Mystery due to the weather and not being able to safely use the tenders. That would be so disappointing as it is such a lovely place to visit.

Lido - a quiet place to have breakfast

On the tender about to head over to Mystery Island

It's a quick tender trip over to the island and after we got our tender numbers from the Lido it didn't take very long at all to be called and on our way! The boys have their backpacks with all their gear, we are ready!

Made it to Mystery - now to find a place to set up camp

As you can imagine it does get a bit busy when the island is so small and nearly 2,500 people turn up so finding a nice spot in the shade can take some time. Luckily it's a lovely beach to walk along so we just wandered a bit until we found somewhere nice to dump our stuff and head for the water.

Found a spot and we can even see our ship

The boys did a bit of exploring along the beach before heading into the water.

Lots of little crabs around

Even teddy got to come to Mystery! He's not a fan of sand so stayed in the bag.

The ships photographer was walking up and down the beach taking photos of the passengers. He came over and took some of the boys which we thought would be really nice and possibly even buy them. Unfortunately the photographer wasn't that good. We thought he had position the boys so you could see the beach and the Spirit in the background, nope. We didn't bother buying any as we had photos that were just as good.

The boys swam out to a pontoon and did some diving and jumping.

Mister 13 was getting a bit grumpy - I think he was hungry and dreaming of his toasted sandwich

We did a lap around the island, which takes 20-30 minutes, before making our way back to the tender and the ship. We walked through the markets first and bought a couple of beer holders for the men at home. We're so thoughtful.

No queue for the tender

The pizza bar was calling us when we got back onto the ship so what's a girl to do! Pizza, pasta and the band on the lido - we love cruising! We sat there for most of the afternoon.

After the band had finished we popped down to our cabins for a quick freshen up and change of clothes and headed down to deck 2 for drinkies. Caribbean night tonight. Hawaiian shirts optional! The waiter always gave mister 8 a puzzle sheet at the start of dinner which he liked doing and kept him distracted from the thought of showtime. He wasn't a fan of showtime because where our table was put us right in the middle of it and Dessi thought he was sooooo cute! She would always come up behind him and put her arms around him. Mister 8 would wrap his legs around the table leg to make sure she could pick him up! Ha ha.

Another spectacular meal - banana split for dessert, of course!

Carnival Spirit - 1st Port, Noumea

Due to the size of the Carnival Spirit we docked at the Container Terminal which just means we have to catch a shuttle bus into town. It's only about 5 minutes just not quite as convenient as being at the Cruise Terminal. Having no plans for the day we didn't need to rush, like we ever do, so had a nice relaxed start to the day. Once the ship has docked the Noumean welcoming party do a few dances for us and then it's time to get ready for the day.

Brekky on the Lido in Noumea

And we've docked

From Deck 8 down to Deck A to the gangway

It's a bit of a walk down to the gangway of course you can take the lift but with all the food we've been eating it's the stairs for us. The boys were thrilled! We were off the ship at about 9.30am and in the cruise terminal shopping at 9.40am so pretty speedy.

Markets at the Cruise Terminal

After checking out the upstairs market we decided to do a bit of walking around Noumea, again the boys were thrilled. They love walking. The only plan we had was to visit the Casino supermarket and get a few Noumean nibblies. Seeing as we didn't have any tours booked and we had been here before with the boys we didn't stay off the ship long and were back on a few hours later.

Walking the streets of Noumea

We pretty much had the lido to ourselves so the boys made the most of the empty pool so did mum and I, it was hot.

After all that sun and swimming we'd worked up and appetite so could wait for dinner, pretty much like every night! We had a drink down on deck 2 before heading in to the Empire for dinner.

Carnival Spirit - 2nd Sea Day

Looking toward the main Atrium

Washing the windows

Ice cream time! Mum thinking, Where's mine?

We had another relaxing day at see. Reading, eating, walking, lazing, eating..... I had a bung eye so spent most of the afternoon in my cabin trying to rest it. Puffy eyes is not a good look! Mister 13 got me some ice to try and get the puffiness now and some icecream to make me feel better :-) It helped.

Dinner was in the Empire Restaurant which is always great. Hard to complain about being waited on and not having to cook or wash up! Love it.

Prawn Cocktail for Entree, double serve!

The amazing light in the Empire Restaurant

You will never starve on a cruise!

I wasn't actually feeling very hungry so thought I'd order something small, when they bring out a plate with 3 dishes and rice and then say, wait there's more I realised their small and my small was a tad different. I did give it a red hot go as it was DELISH!

We had our first stop tomorrow - Noumea!

Towel Critter - possibly a kangaroo??

Carnival Spirit - 1st Sea Day

Mister 13

All days begin with coffee and mister 13 had said he would get me a cuppa every morning to have in the cabin - yes please! Our cabin was near the rear stairs that lead straight into the buffet (right at the 24hr pizza place!) so the thought was there but it only lasted a day. The novelty wore off and sleeping in was mister 13's preference. I don't blame him! We sat outside on the Lido for our breakfast, it was generally much quieter than inside in the La Player Grille (the buffet) - you could have sworn that some people hadn't eaten for days!!

The Nouvea roof (this is the 'pay for' restaurant)

My gorgeous sister at the cooking demonstration in the Nouvea

Sea days are always very relaxed, do what you want basically. We always check out the Funtimes and see what grabs our attention, food tasting - we're in! We went to this the first time we were on the Spirit (May 2013) and surprisingly it was exactly the same! The food was still delicious but I would have thought they'd do different meals after 2 years.

After dinner, we usually left the restaurant around 9-9.15pm there was the main show in the Pharoah's Lounge. They have 2 each night one at 7.30pm and one at 9.30pm. We decided to go to tonights show as it was an illusionist and thought mister 8 might enjoy it. Mum and mister 13 went back to their cabins.

The show was good but a bit more 'vegas' than we realised it was going to be. The dancing girls had very small outfits on, quite eye opening for an 8 year old - his first 'girly' show ;-) The shows go for about 45 minutes. The Pharoah's Lounge is set out over decks 2, 3 and 4 but you have to check where you are sitting as some of the seats don't have very good views.

After the show we headed back to our cabins for some shut eye,



Drinks:

Mouku NZ Sav Blanc - 750ml, $35 or $9 per glass
Mocktails - $6 (In order of yumminess: Peach, Mango, Banana, Strawberry)
Soft Drink - $2.25 to $2.75 (it seemed to depend on which bar you went to)
Ginger Beer - $3.50

Notes:

the cookies at the buffet were very morish, especially the chocolate chip!

the hot drinks machine on the starboard side often only gave you half a cup

the apple and orange juice are removed from the drinks machine (on the Lido) at 9am

Carnival Spirit - January 7, 2015. Embarkation Day!

Another cruise, another bargain! Happy days! 12 nights on the Carnival Spirit heading to the Pacific Islands and Fiji - YAY!!

This time there are 5 of us and we are all EXCITED!!! Except for the first part of the trip, the overnight train from Wauchope, blah.

Wauchope Station for the 12.41am train

Arrival time at Central Station is 7.00am our check in time for the cruise is 12.30pm but we are able to drop off our luggage at 8.30am. After catching a train to Circular Quay we headed to the closest Maccas and had breakfast and a BIG coffee - it was a long train trip.

Our ship the Carnival Spirit docked at the OPT (Overseas Passenger Terminal)

Brekky time!

We did a bit of exploring around Sydney, saw a few of the people from Sunrise, visited Parliament House and the State Library but all we really wanted to do was get on the ship and have a nap - we were tired! My eyes were playing up as well - that's what I get for wearing my contacts for too long and overnight. They took almost 5 days to get back to normal. I was looking a treat!

Centrepoint Tower

Inside the State Library

From the Opera House forecourt

Check in was smooth, just like last time, and we were in our cabins by 12.45pm. We had 3 twin cabins, inside on deck 8. Two were next to each other and the 3rd was down the hall at the other end of the ship, closer to the front - Starboard side (the right!). The boys (8 and 13) were sharing cabins with me and my sister (I had mister 13) and mum got a cabin to herself as miss 15 wasn't able to make it. (She had better plans!). After freshening up a bit we headed up to the buffet, which was just above us, and had some lunch.

Glorious day with beautiful views - what a wonderful way to start our holiday! We've been on the Spirit before, back in May 2013, so didn't go for too much of a wander around. We were all a bit tired so decided we'd just relax, head back to our rooms and unpack our bags, have a refreshing shower and then head back to Deck 9 (only one floor up!) to the Lido and settle in for sailaway!

We left pretty much on time but about 20 minutes in, we hadn't gotten very far, we had to stop as a passenger was unwell and had to be taken from the ship. Poor thing although we did hear that they rejoined in Noumea so it couldn't have been too serious. Sailing out of Sydney Harbour is so lovely - what a beautiful harbour, we're so lucky!

Our dinner booking was for 7.45pm in the Empire Restaurant - this is the main restaurant on the Spirit. We had this booking every night on Deck 2. Deck 3 is the Anytime diners. 7.45pm couldn't come fast enough for us, we were tired! Our waiters, Wini and friends, were fabulous right from the start! So spoilt - this is one of the (many) reasons we LOVE cruising!

Our empty chair :-( We miss you miss 15.

Chicken Schnitzel - off course!

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake - still as yummy as we remember!

We headed straight for our cabins after dinner, sleep was on the agenda! We had a little friend waiting for us, it ended up being a nightly occurance. We also received our Fun Times and a chocolate!