The Cruise - Part 1

Kaelan was a bit "over it" before we'd even started.

We'll, we're back and we're alive and well, so you know that this story has a happy ending (of sorts). On 10th January, we went on a cruise. My sister Maree and her family came too as did my parents. Our holidays have always had a bit of a "National Lampoon Vacation" feel to them and this one was no exception. The last great Bollard Family Vacation...

So where did we go? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Perhaps we should start with "Where were you supposed to go?". The cruise was supposed to go to two places in New Caledonia and also to Mystery Island. We figured that with a professional captain like you'd expect on a P&O cruise, we'd arrive at our destination without drama. We figured wrong.

Warning Signs

As you know, no Vacation movie starts with the Griswald family already on vacation. There's always warning signs first - and we had lots.

First there was a massive stuff-up with the travel agent, who needed to be paid in full by a certain deadline. Joanne experienced an internet banking issue (she forgot to click OK on the second confirmation screen) and the payment didn't go through. We were contacted with only hours to spare before the deadline. We had the funds ready, so all we had to do was wire them through - but then the travel agent told us that electronic transmission was too slow for them and we had to pay in cash.

Of course, by this time our original payment had already been processed, so we had to pay twice. Then pay fees to try to get the payment reversed. It took months (and lots of calls and badgering) to get that money back and it stretched our already strained budget to the max. It's fair to say that we ended up unintentionally dieting before the cruise.

Then there were all the issues around passports but I just don't have the space here to cover them suffice to say that everything has to be written in triplicate, signed front and back, witnessed by unrelated persons of varying levels of qualification and the gatekeeper process is protected by a team of pedantic vultures. At one point we got turned away because our children hadn't signed their own passports. They can't even print their names clearly yet!

Preparation

Then there was cruise preparation. We had a few disagreements while packing but that's fairly normal for us. What we didn't expect was to find ourselves suddenly having to deal with a "dying freezer" on the afternoon before the cruise. Suddenly all our preparations went out the window and our hopes of leaving an unsmelly bin went with them.

We couldn't figure out why our freezer chose that exact moment to pack it in but since it was full (and it's a big upright freezer), we had to get rid of a lot of stuff. In the end, we figured out that the freezer hadn't died, it was just that the kids hadn't shut the door after getting an ice block out the night before. (Grrrr).

Getting on the Boat

We prepared the boys well in advance and both received the same solemn advice about not climbing the rails, plus of course the "training video"; Speed 2: Cruise Control (which they both knew was fictitious).

Everything went well until we got to the terminal but then Kaelan started crying and wouldn't be reassured. When it came to the actual line to get on he turned and ran in the opposite direction. Joanne decided to give chase and there was a not-so-merry game of tag in the terminal. It sounds awful and it was but truth be told it was at least a little funny to watch.

He was still crying in our first photos which nevertheless turned out well - and he was still crying as we climbed onboard.

Approaching the Bridge and the Sydney Opera House

Things improved slightly as we walked past some of the food and the cakes and bread-sculptures caught his attention but he was still a little sad when we got to our room. It was Tristan who changed the mood by excitedly running around the room switching everything on and opening all the doors. That was an amazing icebreaker but unfortunately Tristan never actually stopped opening and closing everything and switching things on and off. Eight days later it was becoming rather wearisome.

Within about 20 minutes though, all was forgotten as Kaelan joined in the fun. Then they discovered "kid's club", their semi-permanent base of operations.

We went and got some food from their bistro and then before we could start eating it, the announcement came over; "we're going to start with an emergency siren, a move to evacuation points and a life-jacket drill". Great... I thought. We'd only just gotten him settled.

Thankfully, Kaelan was only mildly freaked by the sounds and the pantomine disaster. Tristan however was ready for the real deal.

Fortunately, Kaelan made it through the session without regression.

Getting out of Sydney was an awesome and amazing experience. Apart from my bridge walk, I've never seen the underside of the bridge quite so closely. I'm not quite sure if I want to get much closer to it.

There was a bit of a gasp from the crowd onboard when the top of the funnel narrowly (and I mean "narrowly") missed the bridge.

Yep, that ladder at the top of the funnel almost "scraped" by.

It was also fun to see that a cruise boat stops ALL traffic in the harbor. Circular Quay ground to a standstill as we passed.

It took a while to get out of the harbour and there were some amazing sights along the way. I kept up a (probably dull) commentary with the kids, explaining about shipwreak locations, Sydney's defensive capabilities, reefs, bouys and other such boyish things.

We stayed on deck until we were outside the heads.

Next we had dinner and then the kids went up to the "really windy spot" (the bow).

That "windy spot" really was a bit windy.

The kids love the bow it and would have visited it every single day were it not for the fact that the ship's crew closed it later that night and didn't reopen it for more than a couple of hours during our entire trip. Thanks Guys! Really thoughtful.

Stay tuned, there's more to come..