Vacation on the cruise ship

Dear all!

I hope you had a good start to a new, eventful year!

Since yesterday I'm back from a nice vacation on the cruise ship. It was a very interesting experience and we had fun moments, a few adventures and beautiful islands. But one thing at a time.

The vacation started in a hammer stretch limousine that took us to the port in Sydney. This was still part of the 21-year-old daughter's birthday present.

At the port, the ship was already waiting for us. I have never seen such a large ship so close before and was quite impressed. After checking in, we went to our rooms and enjoyed the view of the Opera House from our balcony.

I shared the room with Deepak, a colleague from the factory and a friend of the family. Then we went to the restaurant for dinner. A total of 3000 people were on the ship, including 900 employees. The ship had a lot to offer: On a total of 10 levels, it was never boring even on the days at sea. In addition to buffets galore, which were open all day in a flowing transition, there were 3 pools on the 9th deck, a mini golf park and a basketball court on deck 10, water slides (including a free fall slide that ran over the railing above the sea!), a fitness studio with whirlpool and sauna, a nightclub, various bars and two large halls with stages for evening shows such as comedy shows, hypnosis, rock shows, etc.

We spent the first two days at sea and besides sleeping in, sunbathing, water slides, the gym, relaxing, and eating, we didn't do much. On New Year's Eve, there were 3 beeps at midnight and the fireworks in Sydney were shown, and that was it.

Then came the first island: Noumea.

Beautiful. Many parks, impressive beaches, and mountains in the background. Also French supermarkets and cute houses. Unfortunately, it was a holiday and everything was closed. Nevertheless, we took a city tour and discovered beautiful spots.

The second stop was at Mystery Island, which apparently belongs to the cruise ship company.

The island is not inhabited because apparently, it is haunted at night. We were brought ashore by dinghies, which was very fun. The island was not particularly large, I walked around it once and in between, I went into the water at different places for snorkeling. That was very impressive, unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of the underwater world.

The third island was Maré, a sub-island of New Caledonia. It was very very hot there and unfortunately, nothing was within walking distance except for a market, and we just missed the last shuttle bus to the beach. Then I unpacked my French and approached a local with a car and so we finally got to the beach. It was very beautiful and had aquamarine blue water! There, too, I unpacked my snorkel but was a bit deterred after seeing a water snake and just enjoyed the water. On the way back, we were able to take the shuttle bus.

On the fourth and last day on the islands, we went ashore again, this time to Lifou. I definitely liked this island the best!

I could explore a lot on foot, such as the chapel from the 19th century.

The island was also big enough so that the mass of "spit out" cruise guests scattered a bit. We wandered around for 2 hours, discovered a beautiful spot of water that we had to ourselves, and jumped into the breathtaking cool water. We stayed there for a good hour.

After that, we had 3 days at sea until we arrived in Sydney again.

It was relaxing because we could sleep in, didn't have a fixed program (except for the daily hour in the gym :), and I usually only had the boys after dinner. However, I think it will be the only cruise in my life because I don't particularly like the type of travel, from the environmental impact to the attitude of most other passengers. And the image of this giant ship in the middle of beautiful islands is simply wrong in my opinion.

Nevertheless, I am very grateful to my host family for enriching me with this experience and I am excited to see what we will experience in the next three weeks. After that, my time with the family will be over and I will (again) go on a trip: First, I will travel for two weeks in Australia: Gold Coast, Melbourne, and Sydney. Then I will fly to Indonesia for 4 weeks. More detailed information will follow. I wish you all a nice week, enjoy the snow, we are expecting a heatwave this week, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees daily!

Take care and feel hugged!

Leyla :)