Last-minute cruise for Sandy

Dramas at work resulted in a large number of us having to work way more than normal hours from around mid-April to late June - long days and long weeks. Since I've been working four-day weeks for a while now in an attempt to plan for a slightly more successful future retirement, I found myself on more than one occasion thinking I really needed to get away for a bit.

So, on 2 July I booked a cruise from Sydney to Moreton Island and back, on the Carnival Splendor, leaving on 3 August and returning on 7 August.  I'm writing this up on 2 August - I'll be leaving for Sydney later today.  EDIT: and later than I expected.  While I was writing this post, Qantas sent me one of their 'volunteer to change your flight or you might be voluntold' messages, so now instead of leaving CBR at 3:25pm I'm leaving at 5:10pm.  This isn't a drama; my real concern is that it mightn't be the end of the flight changes - will just have to wait and see!

Paul isn't coming on this cruise - he doesn't really like the Carnival ships all that much, which is a bit disappointing because I really like the Splendor.  Although it's really just little things - for example if you ask me what I like about the Splendor the first answer would probably be that after breakfast I can go downstairs to the Juice and Java Cafe on deck 5 and get a fresh squeezed orange juice.  It is not cheap but it is definitely squeezed fresh right there, and a really nice way to finish off breakfast.  And the next thing would be that if you get a cabin on deck 9, you can be a really short walk from the buffet, but still have a cabin in a quiet location.  And one thing we do both agree on - along with almost everyone else that has ever tried it - is that the $77 you spend on a meal at the Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse is likely the best $77 you'll spend onboard.  I'm booked there on Tuesday night and in preparation I won't be having any lunch!

Anyway, I don't expect to write up much about this cruise because I plan to do almost nothing.  Yesterday I loaded up my Kindle with another 16 books and I expect to spend much of my time lazing on the bed and reading, occasionally looking out over the ocean.  Although I have paid to go on a short excursion which involves getting off a perfectly good big ship to go on a tiny little boat to look at some ships that were deliberately sunk.  I won't be diving or anything like that - we just get to look at them from above and supposedly to also feed some fish. 

 

Another holiday posting fail!

 Yet again I didn't do any posts during our recent holiday, but here's a bit of an overview.

First we went to Brisbane and saw the Edinburgh Military Tattoo on Saturday night.  Brisbane in February is always a risk of evening rain and the night before our show it rained quite heavily.  The night of our show there was a bit of rain but we were quite okay in the end.  Overall the show was good, although to be honest I'd still have preferred to see it actually in Edinburgh.  That's not going to happen though.

Then, off to Sydney on the Sunday.  Discovered a really good Chinese restaurant - no idea how we've never noticed it before since we've walked right past it numerous times on previous stays.  It's the Silk Cafe and Restaurant and as I said, really good food and great service.  I suspect we'll be going there again!

Off to the OPT on Monday for the cruise.  Paid an exorbitant amount for a late checkout from the hotel - when I booked the room it was going to be their usual $60 but then it went up to $100 without warning.  However, when you've got a 1:30 check-in to the cruise, it's far more comfortable to hang out in the hotel until lunch time than to try to find somewhere comfortable to sit near the OPT.  The only really comfortable places near the OPT are restaurants for lunch, and once you start looking at their prices the $100 late check-out fee is a winner :-)

Really don't have a lot to say about the cruise, apart from the fact that if we do cruise on the Carnival Splendor again (which is pretty unlikely) I wouldn't try to get an aft balcony cabin.  As on most ships these cabins are among the more expensive balconies.  We prefer our balcony to be covered, and on the Splendor the only covered aft balconies are the ones where we were - on deck 8 - and although it was a convenient location I had a lot of trouble with a vague smell of diesel fumes for the first few nights.  

There was a very active Facebook group for this particular cruise and it was really interesting to see the different experiences people had.  One person for example was saying that it was taking up to 20 minutes for the water in their shower to heat up each morning, but most people weren't having that problem (ours was very hot almost instantly).  Someone else was finding it almost impossible to connect to the ship's internet - which to be fair would be infuriating given the amount you pay for it - but again, most of the rest of us weren't having any trouble.

As far as shore excursions go - well, we only went on two which were both shuttles - into Wellington and Christchurch.  The Wellington one was more than a bit annoying.  Up to a few years before Covid, you could walk off the cruise ship in Wellington and take the short walk into the city.  However, the last few times we stopped at Wellington you weren't permitted to walk off the dock and instead they ran a free shuttle into the city.  This time, they were offering this paid shore excursion which was clearly just the same shuttle.  But what they didn't admit until it was too late to change it was that the port rules have changed, and you can once again walk off the dock and into the city.  Clearly an attempt to drag money out of people based on inadequate information, and as I said, more than a bit annoying. 

One of the high points on the Splendor - one of their coffee bars does fresh fruit juice - i.e. you can watch them put the oranges etc. into the blender - which is something you can't always get on a cruise ship.  And although $9.50 is a bit excessive for an orange juice the size of a coffee cup, I drank many of them :-) 

Another high point was that somehow we got two bags of laundry done for $25 each and I've no idea how.  Carnival sometimes has a 'one bag for $25' special but there was no such offer advertised this time.  I fully expected to pay the usual outrageous prices - they pretty much equate to the prices if you send something off to a hotel laundry - so to get two bags for $25 was unexpected.  Although having said this, a quick Google indicates that this might now be their standard "Wash and Fold" offering for guest laundry and if so it's a pretty good deal (even though it doesn't include ironing but that's okay because my clothes have forgotten what it's like to be ironed!). 

Overall, it was a pretty standard Carnival cruise.  The service was pretty good, but as usual lots of little things that made it not quite as enjoyable as some other (and to be fair more expensive) cruise lines.  My position on Carnival cruises is the same as our position for P&O - the only reason we'll choose Carnival is if it's the only option (e.g. as it was for a cruise for Paul's 70th birthday), or if I really want to go on a cruise and it's noticeably cheaper than any other options (i.e. as for this cruise!) or if they're going somewhere special - which is the case for our July 2027 cruise from Auckland to Norfolk Island.  It's not that Carnival is terrible, it's just that mostly Princess or Royal Caribbean or Celebrity will have a better offer for a reasonably better price.  

Needless to say, both Paul and I have arrived home sick - for a change, not COVID but Paul in particular is quite unwell.  Hopefully we'll both be well enough to go on the next cruise, since it's only 10 days until we're due to leave.  And hopefully that one is short enough that we won't get sick again! 

 

 

 

 

Catch-up time

Paul's Birthday Cruise September 2025

Completely missed posting about Paul's birthday cruise, so if I want to remember that I'm going to have to trawl through Facebook.

 

Train trip Adelaide to Brisbane - Australia Day Weekend 2026

This is just a general review of the trip.

Flight to Adelaide went well, and my room was ready for check-in when I got to the hotel even though I arrived hours before normal check-in time.   

Next morning (Friday) - check-in time for the train was between 8am and 9am.   I was a bit concerned about how long it might take to get out of the hotel, because one of the lifts is out of action and it had been taking a while for a lift to show up.  And, there was a huge cycling event on in Adelaide, so lots of people bringing their cycles up and down in the limited lift space.  And I had no idea how long it would take for a taxi to arrive.  So, I left my room about 6:25am.  Of course, a lift with space available for me and my suitcase arrived instantly, check-out took about 30 seconds, and then I used the app to call a taxi which took less than two minutes to arrive.  Needless to say I was at the station very early - but quite a few people were already there and they were booking us in, so all good.  They offer free off-train experiences at each stop, and you have to pre-book the one you want and a second preference, but I got all my first preferences.

First stop was later on the same day - at Stawell, with the plan being for us to take tours of the Grampians.  Unfortunately - and this became a bit of a theme - we had been held up and were running a couple of hours late.  And the major impact was on my tour which couldn't go as far into the mountains as planned.  However we did get to see Hall's Gap which was interesting, and they also drove around and showed us the sights of Stawell.

Saturday morning's stop was in Yass, where we were bussed to Canberra.  Everyone was taken first to a nice meal at Old Parliament House aka the Museum of Australian Democracy, before going our separate ways for our tours.  Unfortunately again we were running about 2 hours late and so our tour had to miss the 'Old Parliament House' tour and we only got to see the National Portrait Gallery.  In the end I'd probably have preferred to go through the Old Parliament House and give the Portrait Gallery a miss. Anyway, after the tour was over they took us to Goulburn where the train had moved while we were away, and then we were off again.

Sunday's stop was in Coff's Harbour where we weren't running late.  My tour was just a visit to the Harbourside Markets - interesting, and I purchased a few things.  But it was really hot and humid, and there wasn't really enough to take up 2 hours of sight-seeing.  Anyway, back on the train then for the last leg into Brisbane.  The train arrived at Acacia Ridge on time at around 5:30pm, then they bussed us into the city.  The train can't go into Roma Street or Central because it would have far too much impact on the local train traffic, particularly since neither station is anywhere near long enough for the train.

Overall good things:

Staff are enormously helpful

Coffee was great

Food was good - I've never had a two-course breakfast before! 

All drinks included and they did have cider as well as a good range of other drinks - for example I had a nice gin and tonic at one point.

Off-train experiences were exceptionally well organised given the network delays to the train's schedule.

Not so good things

Some people mightn't care about these but for others they could be deal breakers.  I for example wouldn't take Paul on a trip like this unless we were prepared to pay for Platinum class cabins

Single cabins are tiny.  I knew they'd be small and I had even seen pictures but nothing prepared me for just how tiny they were.  And I think for couples in Gold class, the double Gold class cabins probably didn't provide any more room per person than the single ones. 

No in-room fridge in any cabin class

No choice of cabin number

You don't get to pick your dining time and sometimes it's very late

No readily available snacks 

The single cabins don't have an en-suite - they have a basin with running water, but showers and toilets are at the end of the cabin.  I knew about this and it turned out fine - I never had to wait for a shower or for a toilet.  But other people weren't quite so thrilled.

 

More holiday updates

Before today, the 'upcoming holidays' list talked about us going to Europe in 2026. But we've decided not to; it's so much hard work dragging suitcases around, it's a long tiring flight each way even if you splurge on business class fares and even if you have a break along the way, and to be absolutely honest, I've taken fright just a little as to the political situation.  I was never scared of Putin possibly invading Europe until the USA turned on the rest of us - they're now threatening to invade Canada and Greenland (and of course has already done this to Venezuela) and the chances of some 67-year old Australian stuck in Europe in the middle of such dramas didn't thrill me at all.  So, we're staying closer to home - we're just in the process of booking a "28-Day Japan & Southeast Asia Grand Adventure" cruise in early 2027, starting and finishing in Singapore.