All of a sudden it's January - more than a month since my last update and the New Zealand cruise is now next week! No idea where the time has gone.
The post-Christmas trip to Sydney went well, although shopping in the city on Boxing Day was just insane! And, I've finally seen the orthopaedic surgeon and he hopes that a few month's worth of physiotherapy will fix my ankle :-(
Anyway, while we were in Sydney, Adam and I wandered (well, he wandered - I hobbled!) down to Circular Quay to see the Carnival Spirit - the ship Paul and I are going on for that next cruise. It's pretty much just your standard cruise ship from the outside, but I gather it's far more Las Vegas on the inside than some others - I guess I'll see for myself soon!
We booked a balcony guarantee cabin - this means that at least you're going to get their lowest grade of balcony cabin, and they get to pick the actual one you get. By the time we booked, the lowest grade was all they had available anyway, and in the end, that's what we've been allocated to. Our cabin is on a nice low deck and around the middle of the ship - these are all good things. The reason for the low grade is that it's obstructed view - in this case, we'll be able to see outwards towards the horizon with no trouble, but if we try to look down, pretty much all we'll see is the top of a lifeboat or tender. I don't have a problem with that - it's a balcony cabin on a cruise ship, so it's all good!
There's still an outside chance that we mightn't go at all. The cruise before ours leaves Sydney tomorrow, and as with all cruises, Carnival has overbooked. However, they've apparently misjudged a bit on their estimates of the number of people who will cancel at the last minute, so they're currently phoning around offering people some pretty good incentives to pull out - basically another equivalent cruise of your choice for free, plus a full refund of the fares for this one. I'd be hard pressed to refuse that offer, anniversary or not! - two cruises for the price of one!
Given the extraordinary amount of planning that had to go into our last holiday, I'm getting anxious about the almost non-existent planning for this one. I just keep telling myself that it really doesn't need that much planning - as long as we get to Sydney with our passports, credit card and some clothes, it will all be ok :-)
However, I really do need to do some packing, so that's enough catching up - off to track down a suitcase or two!
