3 Times a Charm

I am going to jump around a little in the order of these posts, keep everyone guessing!
So the 3rd cruise I went on was actually the 1st cruise with my now hubby. Funny story, we had actually booked this cruise with my Sister and brother in law, but my sister fell pregnant and had to cancel so we cruised on our own, what an experience. This cruise was our first big trip together and was the most days we had consecutively spent together (eeeek).
The cruise departed in December 2013 between Christmas and New Year. This time my parents actually offered to drive us to the ship, instead of meeting us there to wave us off (check out my previous post here where this happened haha).
We boarded the ship at about noon, and thankfully didn't have to wait too long until we could "have fun", according to hubby you cannot "have fun" until you are able to get to your cabin to drop off your carry on luggage, further fun is then had after the mandatory muster drill at roughly 5pm. Both of these milestones are exciting and show you are one step closer to setting sail.

On the first night at dinner we met an older couple, Murray and Joan both seemed nice enough but were at least 65, I made a joke about how you always know who likes you after the first dinner as people sometimes ask the restaurant manager to switch tables and funnily enough we turned up for dinner on the second night and Murray and Joan were nowhere to be seen hahahaha and we dined alone, still missing 2 other table mates. The third night rolled around, which was NYE, hubby got down on bended knee on our tiny balcony to propose to me, I have never grabbed at a piece of jewelry so fast in my life, not only because I was excited but because I was worried that hubby would drop it off the balcony. We lovingly walked to dinner and finally got to meet our new table mates that had been seasick for the first two days. They were a lovely couple from Newcastle (Andrew and Sonia) whom we are still Facebook friends with and let each other know when we have a cruise planned to see if we can align!

The first 3 days of this journey were sea days, and according to most people we spoke to it was very choppy. We didn't notice, which makes me think we are made for cruising. The first 'port' was scenic cruising through the sounds in the south island of New Zealand, Doubtful, Dusky and Misty Sound - absolutely stunning piece of scenic cruising. The only downside for this for us was, this was very early New Years Day, so we were bleary eyed and bushy tailed at 6am on a very chilly New Years Day. The following ports were all just as lovely, we visited Dunedin (Cadbury factory and a lovely train station), Wellington (Windy, windy, windy and a disappointing bucket fountain), Tauranga (Beautiful Volcano to walk up or around), Akaroa (supposed to be our first tendering experience but it was too Windy, so we missed this port 😞 ), Bay of Islands (Our first tendering experience, we were first off the boat and first back on the tender, we went for a quick walk and then wanted to have the ship to ourselves) and Auckland (just a city, very similar to Sydney but not as beautiful in my opinion). Then there were 2 further sea days for the journey back to Sydney.

The ship was magnificent and much larger than any ship I had previously been on (but have been on 2 bigger now!). Really gave an insight in to the golden ages of cruising, I personally think that Radiance of the Seas is a great cruise for this experience. I also am of the opinion that an older clientele like this ship and its itinerary.

This cruise experience ultimately reiterated my love for cruising, and gave hubby a passion for it. We were so happy with our new combined love for cruising, that we managed to book our wedding for January 2015 on Voyager of the Seas whilst we were onboard (on the ships old WIFI haha).

Feel free to post any questions you have 😊