Monday, December 5, 2011 – Happy Birthday Mommy!!
Today is my (Nikki) mom’s birthday and we send our best wishes to her for a wonderful day and fantastic year. We love you.
This morning we organized our things then grabbed a taxi to take us to Darling Harbour to board our home for the next 2 weeks, the ms Volendam. Once we went through all the required checking-in, customs, security, etc., we boarded the ship and dropped our carry-ons off at our room. They were offering a Mariner’s lunch in the dining room, so we took part in that then headed off to explore the ship. Since we boarded at noon and wouldn’t leave the harbor until 6, we took the time to unpack and get settled in the room so we could put our suitcases and bags away. When we were ready to leave the harbor, we went up to the top deck for some spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was quite an exciting experience to cruise under the Harbour Bridge and see the small amount of clearance between the top of the ship and the bottom of the bridge! When we passed the Opera House, our captain made a special announcement that the prior captain had just retired and was standing outside the Opera House watching our cruise ship pass by. As we passed the Opera House, the horn was sounded seven times in his honor – it was quite the sendoff for him!
We had our first dinner in the formal dining room that night and enjoyed our meal. Our dinner guests at the table were from Chula Vista and we spent the meal getting to know one another.
After dinner, we spent some time in the Crow’s Nest, which is below the navigation bridge where the captain sits, so it has great views of the ocean ahead of us. The Crow’s Nest also is the main area of entertainment during the evenings. The first night we experienced quite a bit of rocking and rolling on the ship due to the rough seas from the rainy and windy weather. It was a bit difficult to get used to and I didn’t sleep too well the first night, unfortunately. We took advantage of the tablets the front desk was handing out and didn’t have any issues with sea-sickness, thankfully.
No comments:
Post a Comment