ladyoftherib
November 3rd, 2007, 07:43 PM
Ok, well, I have woken up on a drizzly Sydney Sunday after crashing at 8:30pm last night. How did I manage 7 nights in a row, staying up till around 1pm? (I had an early night on night 8 - 11:30pm!)
Our expectations:
Eve: always wanted to cruise.. would I be disappointed?
Peter: NEVER wanted to cruise... how would I cope with the boredom?
Answers:
Eve: everything I dreamed it would be
Peter: wacko... I am a convert, ready to spread the message 'cruising is fabulous'.
................................................
Won't go into the daily nitty gritty, will try and highlight good v a few bad things.
................................................
FOOD
Plenty of it, one so-so dinner out of all the meals we took. We had a 'kids cruise free' cruise, so the fact it was out of school holidays meant absolutely nothing, may as well have been holidays. Anway, that meant the buffet area for breakfast and lunches was, to us, a disaster, no go, war zone!!!!!!!! (We have done our time at buffets and other kid intensive areas... now our darlings are in their 20s, we did not want to spend our holiday with other people's darlings). And perhaps that is why on some cruises people get ill from colds etc.. lots of the little ones running around, sneezing and coughing open mouthed.. yuk!
So, we had breakfast and lunch each day in the Bordeaux dining room, and I highly recommend this way of eating, as the food is freshly cooked, at a nice hot temperature for the hot dishes and presented well. Breakfasts included an excellent choice of cereals, hot dishes, fruit dishes, 2 types of pancakes, french toast (not recommended unless you want to become an instant diabetic.. sugar and butter loaded!), egg dishes, juices, and so on. Lunches were three courses, and we thoroughly enjoyed each lunch.
The dinner seating was the same each night. The first night we were last on our table of 10, and it was very quiet initially after the initial hallos were said. However, as we were still in Smugglers at 2pm the following morning with 2 other couples from our table, you can tell things quickly improved on our table! I don't know how the seating was arranged, but we lucked out sitting with Wendy, Dave, Rosie and Ross... Four courses each night .... heaven for me who doesn't like cooking much (we had a casserole for dinner last night.. looked nothing like we had eaten for the past 8 days!)
And don't forget afternoon tea.. the scones were delicious!
STAFF
Our cabin stewards, Probanto and Firman, were efficient, pleasant and unobtrusive. Our dinner waitress Teresa was lovely and efficient, with a beaming smile. Our dinner drinks waiter was not as good, but that was a minor hiccup.
ENTERTAINMENT
Where do I start? The shows were fabulous, the young dancers/singers full of energy and talent. Demo was hysterical.... his humour bordering on not politically correct, which all 6 of us enjoyed. Perfect Match, Marriage Match, Pop Idol.. lots of fun. I cannot remember the last time I spent 8 days in a row, laughing most of the time!
We enjoyed Trivia, although I was miffed that one table of 4 won every game except for one! Someone at one game informed us that she saw that foursome take out Trivial Pursuit each day from the library and go through many cards.. hmmm! They ended up with numerous hats, t-shirts, coasters and magnets.. how many t-shirts and hats can 4 people wear!! (Feel better now that is off my chest!)
We also went to dancing classes, the movies, making things, bingo etc etc. The good thing was that there was enough to keep everyone busy and if I wanted to do something and Peter another, off we went, rendezvousing for at mealtime!!!!!! Some days I did things alone, some days with Wendy, Trivia all 6 of us, etc etc and some afternoons I lay on a deckchair on a side deck (child free zone) and read my book or just looked at the ocean.
Heavens, that is enough for this one thread, I think.. typist's cramp!!
Will do a post on shore trips, shore excursions and anything else that pops into my head sometime over the next few days.
Our expectations:
Eve: always wanted to cruise.. would I be disappointed?
Peter: NEVER wanted to cruise... how would I cope with the boredom?
Answers:
Eve: everything I dreamed it would be
Peter: wacko... I am a convert, ready to spread the message 'cruising is fabulous'.
................................................
Won't go into the daily nitty gritty, will try and highlight good v a few bad things.
................................................
FOOD
Plenty of it, one so-so dinner out of all the meals we took. We had a 'kids cruise free' cruise, so the fact it was out of school holidays meant absolutely nothing, may as well have been holidays. Anway, that meant the buffet area for breakfast and lunches was, to us, a disaster, no go, war zone!!!!!!!! (We have done our time at buffets and other kid intensive areas... now our darlings are in their 20s, we did not want to spend our holiday with other people's darlings). And perhaps that is why on some cruises people get ill from colds etc.. lots of the little ones running around, sneezing and coughing open mouthed.. yuk!
So, we had breakfast and lunch each day in the Bordeaux dining room, and I highly recommend this way of eating, as the food is freshly cooked, at a nice hot temperature for the hot dishes and presented well. Breakfasts included an excellent choice of cereals, hot dishes, fruit dishes, 2 types of pancakes, french toast (not recommended unless you want to become an instant diabetic.. sugar and butter loaded!), egg dishes, juices, and so on. Lunches were three courses, and we thoroughly enjoyed each lunch.
The dinner seating was the same each night. The first night we were last on our table of 10, and it was very quiet initially after the initial hallos were said. However, as we were still in Smugglers at 2pm the following morning with 2 other couples from our table, you can tell things quickly improved on our table! I don't know how the seating was arranged, but we lucked out sitting with Wendy, Dave, Rosie and Ross... Four courses each night .... heaven for me who doesn't like cooking much (we had a casserole for dinner last night.. looked nothing like we had eaten for the past 8 days!)
And don't forget afternoon tea.. the scones were delicious!
STAFF
Our cabin stewards, Probanto and Firman, were efficient, pleasant and unobtrusive. Our dinner waitress Teresa was lovely and efficient, with a beaming smile. Our dinner drinks waiter was not as good, but that was a minor hiccup.
ENTERTAINMENT
Where do I start? The shows were fabulous, the young dancers/singers full of energy and talent. Demo was hysterical.... his humour bordering on not politically correct, which all 6 of us enjoyed. Perfect Match, Marriage Match, Pop Idol.. lots of fun. I cannot remember the last time I spent 8 days in a row, laughing most of the time!
We enjoyed Trivia, although I was miffed that one table of 4 won every game except for one! Someone at one game informed us that she saw that foursome take out Trivial Pursuit each day from the library and go through many cards.. hmmm! They ended up with numerous hats, t-shirts, coasters and magnets.. how many t-shirts and hats can 4 people wear!! (Feel better now that is off my chest!)
We also went to dancing classes, the movies, making things, bingo etc etc. The good thing was that there was enough to keep everyone busy and if I wanted to do something and Peter another, off we went, rendezvousing for at mealtime!!!!!! Some days I did things alone, some days with Wendy, Trivia all 6 of us, etc etc and some afternoons I lay on a deckchair on a side deck (child free zone) and read my book or just looked at the ocean.
Heavens, that is enough for this one thread, I think.. typist's cramp!!
Will do a post on shore trips, shore excursions and anything else that pops into my head sometime over the next few days.