CRUISING WITH P & O

In some ways our day one really started on Friday the first when we left home to fly to Brisbane..

At the airport ready to fly

We were super excited as we waited for our flight.  We had been counting down the days until today for the last four months....

 Very excited

We stayed with our good friends Ian and Kathy with whom we were going on the cruise with.  We were all pretty excited and spent time chatting and planning when we got home,  once again looking at the count down of time we had left before cruising time…

I think it was nearly midnight by the time we got to bed…

Saturday morning we woke fairly early…. Think the adrenalin was running,  we finished packing and labels all our suitcases with the tags that P & O had given us…

Sarah, Colin and Willow joined us for breakfast at Ian and Kathy’s  Ian and Kathy had two of their children and four of their grandchildren join us as well….

Their daughter   She was dropping us off to Portside…   We then filled out all our medical forms and were told we wouldn’t need to board until 12 noon.    Melody arrived at 10am. We arrived at 11am and dropped off our luggage.

Unloading our luggage at the terminal

The holiday is about to begin..

We had to drop off all our suitcases.  There were thousands of them... I wondered how they would ever get them all on board...

Suitcases dropped off at the baggabe collection area.

Our first glimpse of the ship

Not long before we board now...

Viewing the ship from the viewling platform at Portside

We decided to go for a walk around Portside and go up to the viewing platform to see the boat.  It seems that we weren’t the only ones doing this, and everyone seemed excited and eager to chat.

We had a good look at the boat and took some photos and then headed back to the boarding lounge.   The whole process of booking in, going through customs and actually boarding the boat took a couple of hours…

We actually arrived on the boat, about half an hour before sailing time.  It didn’t really give us time to have a good look around.  Our cabin is lovely…. Much bigger than I thought it would be, even scoring a kingside bed……

 

Large kingsize bed... much bigger than I expected...

Desk to sit at...

Lovely large window to look out...

Much larger than I though....  more like a motel room.

We met our cabin service steward, who showed us around our room, and explained to us the safety procedures.  He also informed us that we would need to go through a  safety drill which included putting on our life jackets and this was scheduled to happen at 1.30pm.

Trying on our lifevests during the safety drill

We had about ten minutes to go so decided to unpack our suitcases and get our cabin set up.  We finished this just as the alarms went off which meant we had to head up to Deck 7 for the safety drill.

Once this was over we meet up with Ian and Kathy whose cabin is on the otherside of the ship  We were feeling a little peckish as it seemed a long time since breakfast….so we headed upstairs to the Plantation Restaurant where we had a quick lunch.

Once we had eaten, we joined the Sailaway Party up on Deck 12 and 14, to sail down the Brisbane River.  Lots of dancing, lots of music,  people in the pool,  all on the big screen,  lots of booze…

On deck for the Sailaway Party

Enjoying the fresh air and the excitment of sailing

Farewell Australia

We got some lovely photos of the Gateway and we went underneath it.    The music was pretty loud so we decided to head back to the back of the boat and sit in the peace and quiet and enjoy the view and company of our friends….

 

Sailing under the gateway

Gateway in the background...

We sat here until we headed through the mouth of the Brisbane River and then headed for a cuppa at the Plantation Restaurant again…  we probably sent a good hour here.  Ian and Kathy went back to their cabin to finish their unpacking…whilst we made a final call to our parents and kids….

The Sailaway Party on Deck 12

Welcome Aboard the P & O Pacific Dawn

Leaving the Gateway behind...

It was hard to believe that we were finally on the cruise and we were finally sailing….

We met Ian and Kathy back at their room, and then went for a bit of a tour of the boat…. We headed up to the Waterfront Restaurant to try and book a table for dinner and then headed down towards the Atrium to check it out. 

This is the very centre of the ship and on our deck...

it was beautifully lit up...

Looking from Deck 7 down to the Atrium..

Standing on the main staircase in the Atrium

Steve checking out some of the shopping on board...

 By this time it was well after 5pm and we realized that their was a laser show in the Atrium at 5.30pm so decided to sit and wait for it and watch it. 

Laser show in the Atrium on our first night.

This was the start of some wonderful entertainment on board

It was pretty impressive.

Enjoying just one of the many wonderful shows we saw onboard...

After it was over we headed back to our cabin to get ready for dinner…  We joined Ian and Kathy and this other couple from Perth for dinner at the restaurant.  The meal was fantasic.  Only small servings, but plenty.  It was a three course meal, with entrée, mains and desert. 

After we left here we headed back up to the Plantation Restaurant where we had coffee, tea and more desert…..

At 9pm we headed off to the Marquee where we attended the first of the many shows that are held each evening on board.  It was really good with some singers, dancers, circus acts and a magician…

This finished about 10.30pm, so we decided to head back to our cabins and call it a night since we have had a couple of really late nights and early mornings…

Bring on the fun again tomorrow….