Tag Archives: Adelaide

Back to normal life…?

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I’m excited, I’m so excited that you wouldn’t believe just how excited I am! Want to why I’m excited? I’ll tell you whether you want to know or not… I’m excited because cruise ships and cruising have finally come back to Australia! Now, hand up who’s now excited with that news!

That’s some exciting news right? Well it’s exciting if you’re addicted to cruising and you’ve missed being on a cruise ship or seeing them docked in a port near you.

Living in Adelaide, South Australia, I live under a 30 minute drive to the cruise ship terminal here. I love seeing the different cruise ships in port for the day. I hope that the passengers who are on various shore excursions or doing their own thing in seeing what Adelaide has to offer, they are enjoying their day here as well.

We have shopping, fabulous restaurants, the Malls Balls in Rundle Mall, beautiful beaches, the Adelaide Hills, chocolate makers, wineries, art galleries, museums, in fact there’s something here for everyone. The weather is pretty good as well.

Currently here in Australia, we have 2 cruise ships based here, P&O have the Pacific Explorer, based in Sydney, New South Wales and doing cruises and Princess Cruises have the Coral Princess, based in Brisbane and doing cruises.

After not having cruise ships in Australian waters for 2 years due to the coronavirus pandemic which caused cruise ships to stop cruising, I’m glad to see them coming back.

If anyone has read previous posts in this blog, you would have seen that I have a cruise booked for December 2023 on the Grand Princess and just between you and me, I’m a little bit excited by that too.

The last cruise I was on was in November 2019 around the South Pacific Islands and Fiji, just before the world learned about the coronavirus and the world had to stop.

Life and the world is slowly returning to normal, or a new normal, with this virus still around but it’s a good feeling to feel as though it is returning and I’m still excited.

Until next time

Kaye

Just a cruise note…

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On my 2 cruises that I’ve done now, I would carry around several small notebook and a pen with me on the ship or while on shore excursions, so I can take note of the things I want to remember while on the cruise. This way I have detailed notes of all the things that I want to remember in my small notebooks.

I generally during a quiet time will find somewhere on the ship, in a public place and sit there and write my memories down before I forget the things I want to remember.

I write down the funny things I’ve seen and heard, I write the names of crew members who have gone above and beyond to make sure that I’m having a good time on my holiday (handy for the compliment cards from the Passenger Services Desk on the ship and the survey at the end of the cruise), I write down the informative things, the amusing things, the entertaining things, the highlights of the cruise, about the wonderful people I have met and conversed with.

I like going back to my notebooks and rereading what I have written and remembering those moments.

On my last cruise from Adelaide, South Australia to Fiji and return back in November 2019, I could be found on the Lido Deck scribbling away in my notebook, or in the Explorer’s Lounge, or on the Promenade Deck.

Writing notes at various times during the day or the evening during some down time helps me to remember a cruise, as does taking photos and video’s on my phone.

On my first cruise back in 2018, going from Adelaide, South Australia to New Zealand, on that cruise I had taken so many photos that the friend I was travelling with, jokingly called me “a Japanese tourist” lol. Funny how she wanted half the photos I had taken so she could print them off for herself lol.

The next cruise for next year, December 2023 from Adelaide, South Australia to New Zealand, as it’s going to be a Christmas and New Year’s cruise, I was considering getting the internet package on the ship and do some live videos while on the cruise, especially on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve but for this cruise, yes, I will be bringing along a pack of small notebooks to write my memories in.

However you remember your cruises, I hope you look back on the memories and smile as you remember the crew members who made your cruise enjoyable along with the memories you made on your cruises.

Until Next Time

Kaye

Cruising in a new world…

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Well, on the morning of Saturday 22 January 2022, as I listened to radio and heard Phil Hoffmann, the boss of one of the biggest tourism companies here in Adelaide, South Australia, telling everyone regarding their latest deals, during his regular radio spot, mention a cruise from Adelaide to New Zealand, my ears pricked up to listen.

He mentioned a cruise happening in December 2023, from Adelaide, South Australia to New Zealand and return, which will be sailing Christmas and New Year before returning back to Australia, for 19 nights.

Over at a friend’s house over an hour later, as she’s my cruising buddy as well, I mentioned if she was interested. Stupid question by the way lol. I got on the Phil Hoffmann Travel website to check out the cruise in detail and liked what I saw with both the price and the itinerary. On the PHT website, there is a feature where you can chat live and after talking with a guy from PHT Travel with the chat feature of the site, a cruise was booked. Or as I jokingly say, “accidentally booked” lol. Accidentally on purpose.

The cruise is leaving Adelaide on the 16th December 2023 and returning 1st January 2024, 19 nights with ports including Port Lincoln and KI, on board the Grand Princess, sister ship to the both the Golden Princess and the Star Princess cruise ships.

Both the Golden Princess and the Star Princess are no longer Princess ships as they were both previously sold to P&O Australia and have since been renamed. It leaves the Grand Princess, the oldest of the 3 sister ships being the last of the 3 still with Princess Cruises.

I don’t know if this cruise will go ahead. I hope it will as December 2023 is just under 2 years away. Hopefully cruising has resumed here in Australia by then and New Zealand has reopened their borders again. With the world as it currently is, the world is an unpredictable place because of covid and all it’s variants.

I hope that by the time December 2023 arrives, the world is more settled and used to the new normal we have to live now. Time will tell.

All I know is this, the reasons for my booking this cruise is I want something to look forward to. I want to feel as though life is returning to a new normal because it will never be the same as it was before the pandemic. I want to go back onto a cruise ship.

For those who think that they will never get back onto a cruise ship because of covid and the thoughts of cruise ships being huge Petri dishes floating on the water, I just want to say this – cruise ships are continuously by the crews and this was going on even before the pandemic. It’s the people who get onto the cruise ships who need to not board ships while sick and those who fail to regularly wash their hands.

I also know from experience after doing 2 long cruises as a passenger, that a cruise ship simply cannot allow passengers to get off the ship without permission from the authorities of the port and the countries laws they are in at that moment, which include health authorities, customs and immigration.

I know that cruising will include being double vaccinated and having boosters, wearing face masks, washing hands frequently or hand sanitising, covid tests before boarding a cruise ship and other measures but if they keep me safe and those on the same ship as me safe, I’m going to do it without complaint.

Bring on the cruise in December 2023

Until next time

Kaye

Not before the right time…

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Anyone who knows me knows just how much I love cruising on a cruise ship.

Okay, there have only been 2 cruises but they have been long, international cruises lasting longer than 15 days each.

The first cruise was a 17 night cruise from my home port of Adelaide, Australia and cruising to New Zealand and the second cruise was a cruise from my home port of Adelaide, Australia again but this time it was for 18 nights going to Fiji and the South Pacific.

These cruises were before anyone had heard of a coronavirus, covid-19, covid, a pandemic, whatever you want to call it. They were in a time where we could enjoy life, we could enjoy being with the people we love or our mates. It was during a time when we were still able to enjoy life before a pandemic turned it all around and prevented us from living life as before.

On Facebook, I am a member of a few cruising forums and at present I am following the travels of those on board the Majestic Princess as they go to Alaska.

The Majestic Princess is sailing with 65% capacity of travellers and all passengers have to be vaccinated against covid-19.

I’m reading posts the passengers are posting as they cruise on the Majestic and seeing through their eyes what cruising is now like during covid times. It’s a lot the same as before but Princess Cruises have implemented a covid safe plan as well to keep everyone safe and ensure that everyone is obeying the changes in cruising.

These people do look as they are having a fabulous time though on their posts. Their information they are providing is being used by many who have cruises booked and want to discover how cruising will be different for them.

Yes, I will go on another cruise but I want to ensure that it is safe as these passengers and crew are currently “testing” the new processes introduced out of necessity for covid safe cruising. I want to ensure that I am going to be safe, along with all the other passengers and crew who will be on board the same ship as I am.

So far, it seems that the ship is cleaned even more than it was before and these ships are cleaned constantly. The buffet is no longer self serve as crew will put the food you ask for on your plate themselves. There is the wearing of face masks in places on board where social distancing is not guaranteed.

All in all, if the changes made keep people safe, if everyone plays their part to keep fellow passengers and crew safe, it is worth the effort and making the changes will benefit everyone.

Yes, one day when cruising is back because I don’t want to book a cruise to have it cancelled, I will be on the next ship from my home port and on another long cruise somewhere.

Until next time

Kaye

Cruise memories…

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On this day 3 years ago, January 8 2018, I boarded a cruise ship for my very first cruise and that is when my love affair with cruising really began in earnest.

The ship? The Golden Princess from Adelaide, Australia, my home port, to New Zealand and back again to Adelaide, Australia. The Golden Princess was my home away from home for the next 17 nights and I loved every second of my very first cruise. When it became time to disembark, I was thinking of all the ways that I could stowaway on the ship, that is how much I loved my first cruise.

When I became a member on one of the popular cruise sites, a member on that site remarked, “Welcome to the start of your cruise addiction”. How right they were! I’m well and truly hooked and I hope there is no cure for this addiction.

That cruise, I called it the “Go hard or stay home cruise” as 17 nights for a first cruise is pretty hard core, especially if you don’t know whether or not you are actually going to enjoy cruising or not.

Stepping onto the ship that first time was like stepping into another world because once it’s you on board a ship out in the middle of nowhere as there’s nothing but ocean surrounding the ship with no land in sight, it is definitely like being in another world. You also get caught up in the life on the ship where you can do as much or as little as you want, you actually forget that there is a world out beyond the ship and living the ship life.

My second cruise was called the “Go even harder or stay home cruise” as that was in November 2019 and it was for 18 nights going from Adelaide, Australia to Fiji and back again on the Golden Princess. I loved every second of my time on my first cruise on the Golden Princess and I fell in love with the ship, that I had to return on her. The Golden Princess had also been in dry dock in Singapore during the month of April 2018 and got a makeover in some of the public areas and so the second cruise on the Golden Princess was to see what changes had been made. It was fun playing “spot the difference”. (Now she’s been sold to P&O Australia and will become The Pacific Adventure when cruising returns to Australia.)

As a Pisces, this fish loves to cruise… why swim when you can get on a ship, right? Lol

On both my cruises, I met wonderful and interesting people, I explored lands I had never been to, I had fun and adventure on board the ship and with the locals I met during shore excursions.

When things return to normal, or whatever the new normal will be, I will be back cruising again. Cruising is my happy time. Being on a cruise ship is my happy place. I’ll just give the cruise lines and the passengers on the ships a few cruises to fine tune whatever covid safe restrictions and protocols they will have in place to ensure everyone’s safety before I board a cruise ship again but I will be on one.

Until I am able to get on another cruise ship, I’ll look at the photos and videos from both my cruises and relive some wonderful memories.

Until next time

Kaye