Review - Carnival Luminosa - Great Barrier Reef

[aussielozzie18]

We live in Sydney.  This is the first time we have flown interstate for a cruise.  Couldn’t resist the cheap rates on offer for Luminosa and the fact that a GBR cruise is only 7 days from Brisbane was an appeal too (less time off work/less impact of Covid).

Myself and young adult daughter.  I originally booked myself a solo balcony cabin.  Then daughter said she would love to join me, so at those cheap rates, I booked a solo adjacent balcony cabin.

 

My cruise since Covid was 3 days on the Coral Princess.  Precovid, I enjoyed cruises in Royal Carribbean, Carnival Spirit & Holland America.

[aussielozzie18]

We flew up the day before with Jetstar.  Thankfully there were no issues (aka cancellations…).  On arrival at Brisbane we decided the easiest option was to jump in a taxi and there were a few waiting.  $30 from airport to our motel - Kingsford Smith Motel - choose this one based on recommendations here.

 

View leaving Sydney and approaching Brisbane 

 

 

[aussielozzie18]

We arrived at Kingsford Smith Motel early.  We expected to drop off our luggage and go for a wander until check in but the wonderful lady at reception said your room is available now (we are talking just after midday).  I had originally booked a King just for me.  When daughter decided to join me they were booked out.  I asked if I could add a rollaway bed to our room.  Instead she offered us a room with two singles.  Perfect!

And because we booked direct, we got a free bottle of wine (I choose Rose) and there were welcome chocolates.  Room was very modern.

 

 

[joejoe 59]

Looking forward to your ship review. We have always had a great stay at Kingsford smith hotel, always so clean & comfy.

[aussielozzie18]

5 hours ago, joejoe 59 said:

Looking forward to your ship review. We have always had a great stay at Kingsford smith hotel, always so clean & comfy.

I think it may have been your recommendation.  If so, thanks.  Beds were a dream.  We loved them so much we took a photo of the mattress brand.

Rooms were very clean & modern & the front desk service was excellent.

[joejoe 59]

17 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

I think it may have been your recommendation.  If so, thanks.  Beds were a dream.  We loved them so much we took a photo of the mattress brand.

Rooms were very clean & modern & the front desk service was excellent.

Yes I think I might have.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[aussielozzie18]

We liked the area around the motel.  Portside Wharf was a short walk away.  It had bottle shop, a couple of cafes & restaurants, a supermarket and a cinema. 
The supermarket had a deli and coffee shop with seating, so grabbed a light lunch of pastries and coffee.

 

For dinner, staff at the motel recommended Eat Street, which she felt would particularly appeal to my daughter. Approx. 20 min flat walk from our motel.

 

Located on the water’s edge, this eating precinct had a $5pp entry fee and consisted of many casual eateries and bars located in an open space with stages for musical performers, roaming entertainers and plenty of fairy lights and illuminated installations for photo ops.  Very very popular and there was plenty of food choice of the casual variety.  

 

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by aussielozzie18

[aussielozzie18]

View of sunset from where we ate at Eat Street.

 

After an excellent nights sleep in extremely comfy beds (we actually took a photo of the mattress brand), we headed out for breakfast.  Cafe was a short walk away and recommended by motel staff. Very tasty food.

 

 

 

Then walked back to motel, for our free shuttle to the new Brisbane cruise terminal.

[aussielozzie18]

We had an excellent stay at the Kingsford Smith Motel and wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again if cruising out of Brisbane.  
 

At 11am, we joined two other  friendly cruise couples staying at the motel and hopped in the motel’s clean air conditioned van for the 20min ride out to the cruise port.

 

 

[aussielozzie18]

We dropped off our luggage and took a seat outside with everyone else.  The was a coffee cart doing a roaring trade in the outside area.
 

My boarding time was at 12 and my daughters was at 12.30.

Carnival were ahead of schedule with boarding although they were very strict with keeping to your boarding time.  I thought my daughter might be able to check in  with me but that was a firm no, so I just waited a bit with her until her time was called.

 

the 12.30 boarding time was called at 11.20am so Carnival were an hour ahead of schedule.

 

We had done the RAT test with photo ID the afternoon before.  We hadn’t done the verifly app but had all our paperwork ready.  Didn’t take note of the time of the time we boarded but it was a very quick process.

[aussielozzie18]

Having had a big breakfast, we didn’t need lunch on boarding, so headed to the pods on the Serenity deck to wait for our rooms to be ready.  It was windy out there and Carnival staff came along and turned around the pods to secure them to the rails.  So I knew we were in for a bumpy night cruising out of Brisbane…..

 

 

[aussielozzie18]

The muster drill, involved going to the Muster location on the outside deck, watching a life jacket demonstration by staff, when you arrived and that was it. You didn’t need to wait for every else in the muster group to turn up like you did precovid.  The staff member did the life jacket demo for just daughter & I and then we were signed off.

Edited December 10, 2022 by aussielozzie18

[aussielozzie18]

Rooms were available at 1.30pm.

Deck 7 balcony cabins. I chose the cabins (not guarantees) Daughter had adjacent but not connected balcony cabin. Very happy with our cabins.  Comfortable bed, good shower pressure, good location.

Our cabins weren’t connecting but after looking at our balconies we thought the partition between the two could be opened.

 Room steward said he needed approval from higher up -  which we easily obtained from guest services.  It was done whilst we were at dinner.

Having access to our combined balcony was great.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by aussielozzie18

[aussielozzie18]

We then went for a wander around the ship.  We liked the layout.  Easy to get around.  Plenty of places to sit both indoor & outdoor.

Daughter checked out the gym.  It was better than expected for her.  Same machines as her  gym but slightly older models.  She signed up for classes.  Individual classes $20 each or 3 for $49.  
She signed up for cycle & boots classes.  Only two of them with the instructor each time.  Instructor was good but class room was west facing &not air conditioned and daughter struggled in the FNQ heat.

[Cruisers47]

3 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

We had an excellent stay at the Kingsford Smith Motel and wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again if cruising out of Brisbane.  
 

At 11am, we joined two other  friendly cruise couples staying at the motel and hopped in the motel’s clean air conditioned van for the 20min ride out to the cruise port.

 

 

Thanks for the information…,I have just booked this motel for our cruise in February.   Appreciate your help.

 

eileen

[Cruisers47]

Is it easy to get a taxi from Brisbane airport to the Model in Hamilton 

 

thanks

 

Eileen

[subaru94]

27 minutes ago, Cruisers47 said:

Is it easy to get a taxi from Brisbane airport to the Model in Hamilton 

 

thanks

 

Eileen

We also stayed at the Kingsford Smith Motel, lovely people who run the motel and the room was lovely,  it was very easy to catch a taxi from airport to motel I think it cost us $35.

[aussielozzie18]

37 minutes ago, Cruisers47 said:

Is it easy to get a taxi from Brisbane airport to the Model in Hamilton 

 

thanks

 

Eileen

Yes.  Stepped out of the airport.  To the taxi rank.  No wait.  $30

[arxcards]

16 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

We liked the area around the motel.  Portside Wharf was a short walk away.  It had bottle shop, a couple of cafes & restaurants, a supermarket and a cinema. 
The supermarket had a deli and coffee shop with seating, so grabbed a light lunch of pastries and coffee.

 

For dinner, staff at the motel recommended Eat Street, which she felt would particularly appeal to my daughter. Approx. 20 min flat walk from our motel.

 

Located on the water’s edge, this eating precinct had a $5pp entry fee and consisted of many casual eateries and bars located in an open space with stages for musical performers, roaming entertainers and plenty of fairy lights and illuminated installations for photo ops.  Very very popular and there was plenty of food choice of the casual variety.  

 

 

 

 

There is also a City Cat wharf not far from Northshore Eat Street, and a zip up from Bretts Wharf would save your legs if you needed to take it easy.

 

It has been a while since we have dined there. It was only starting to be developed and had a park plus a couple of eateries. Looks awesome.

[aussielozzie18]

Knew about Brett’s Wharf but not citycat.  Thanks for the info.

[Hunter69]

Thanx Loz, looking forward to more of your Adventure.

 

[aussielozzie18]

We went to the sail away party near next to the main pool.  Short but fun.  The went to the top open deck and watched whilst the Captain manoeuvred the ship out from the wharf.   I love it when you feel and see that manoeuvring.  However, it made my daughter queasy.

[aussielozzie18]

For dinner we choose - your time dining - mainly because we had a couple of full day port tours booked and didn’t want to be locked into same dining time each night.

Your time dining worked really well for us.  We loved the Carnival Hub app for making reservations in the late afternoon.

Daughter would make booking request on the app and link me to the booking request.  We would both receive a request confirmation back advising how long the wait was.  5 nights out of 7, the wait was 10 minutes or less. After 10mins, we would get a msg on the app that our table was confirmed and advised our table number.  We just had to click confirm.  Then we had 10 mins to get to the dining room.

At the dining room entrance, no queue.  Just show our confirmation and we were shown straight to our table - Table of 2.  

We had a different table & different waiters every night but they all were friendly and very efficient.

 

The nightly menu you could see on the app in the morning.  The menu changed each day (there were a few staples always available). There was also a QR code on the table to scan for the menu/bar menu once seated.

 

We had the 3 courses every night.  Food was hot & tasty.  I tried something different every night in each course.  Daughter had Carnival melting chocolate cake for dessert every single night.

 

On boarding night & the night before departure, the wait time on the app was 40mins.  We were happy to relax on our balconies so the wait didn’t bother us.

 

We thought the MDR (Vela Restaurant) was lovely.  Open & spacious, nice decor and a decent gap between the tables of 2.

 

One night we had the waiters dancing and then all the guests had to do the Macarena that was fun.

 

One night of elegant dining, on arriving at the MDR, we were seated in one of the small speciality restaurants venues next door.  Loved the decor and we loved being in there for a change of setting.

[aussielozzie18]

After dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard show in the theatre.  That was pretty cheesy and the CD was telling dad jokes.  Then they pulled two couples out of the audience to play a game that involved one of the couples being blindfolded.  At this point the ship was doing a bit of rock roll - and they had to walk from one side of the stage to the other blindfolded and doing something silly.  Kudos to the participants for staying upright!   It was fun to watch and the two couples got well rewarded with decent prizes for their efforts.

There was a performance on stage after that by the ship’s singers & dancers but that didn’t appeal to us.  
Ship had a decent size casino.  Some nights it was quiet.  Some nights it was busy.  

[aussielozzie18]

Breakfast - we had in MDR on 3 occasions.  It was more brunch for us - around 10.30am.  First time was great.  Food was superb.  Second time food was good but drink service was slow. We gave up waiting for my tea.

Third time we went, was later at 11am and it was obvious that my dish had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while, everything was dried out.  After that we just went to the Lido Buffet.  Had no problems getting a table.  I enjoyed their bagels with butter & jam but the self toasters were very slow so just had to be patient.  Thankfully there was always a toaster available.

Lunch - I liked the BBQ buffet on the open deck next to the Serenity pool.  BBQ meats & salads.

Daughter loved the pizza place inside the Lido Buffet.  She enjoyed the pizza slices as a late night snack.  Or if you were feeling lazy, you could get delivered to your cabin for $9.