Saturday, March 19, 2011

Can now say we have cruised

We have now seen the Dawn Princess, our home for 53 nights in May. It was wonderful, except that Katie felt seasick most of the time. She was fine walking and eating but sitting wasn't very good......but at least we did discover that ginger does no good, dramamine does, but just sends her to sleep and lying down also helps! So needless to say she didn't venture out onto our balcony or look out at the view (rolling sea) unless we were stationary in Melbourne and Sydney harbours. Never mind, we will go the wrist band/doctor drugs route for her next time.
Our toothbrushes enjoying it out on the balcony door

We managed to find our way around the ship with the aid of the small map and the signs near the stairs/lifts advising what was on each deck! After seeing and tasting all the food I have decided we did the right thing by using the stairs and not the lifts, we will also do this in May......our deck is 11 and the dining is on 5, so a good excuse to walk off the desserts. I also enjoyed a walk around the promenade deck in the rain and wind while Katie had a lie down, I needed it after the icecream cones we had just devoured. And I will admit to losing my sense of direction a couple of times by thinking that I was facing the front of the ship (we had just done a loop of the Horizon Court buffet looking for a seat) which in fact I wasn't as Katie pointed out, and then she decided to test me a few times throughout the trip by asking,  "which way are we facing now?"  I'm sure I'll be fine come May!!!
Had to have a cocktail :)


A couple of things I thought I would try out before the big cruise  :- 
Note magnets on wall and Katie's legs not mine!
Using magnets on the walls was a great thing, I had bought some that were clips as well so they held paperwork and our lanyards. I also used 2 pegs on the bottom of the shower curtain, it didn't grab our legs at all but I didn't try it without to see if it would. The beds weren't as hard as I was expecting after reading many posts about them, but we will probably take our own pillows. Katie will be buying a Kindle after seeing how great mine was, we both love reading.

All in all (apart from seasickness) we both decided that we could see no reason at all not to absolutely love being on the Dawn Princess for nearly 2 months. Plenty to do when in ports and plenty to do (or not) while at sea.
Lifejacket drill
My shirt matches the life jacket


Atrium

More Atrium

More Atrium, it was impressive!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Cruise to Sydney


Only 4 days now  and Katie and I get to set foot aboard the Dawn Princess for a 2 night practice cruise from Sydney to Melbourne. This will be our first cruise and we get to check out the the same ship that we will call home for 53 days, hope we like it! I just looked at the weather for Melbourne to Sydney next week and it shows rain and some more rain. Never mind, we'll find plenty to do between the rain showers and then when we get to Sydney we can shop for cruise "things" . Then it's back to work to count down the days until I have 3 months off.............bliss!


Another random photo.....Australia Zoo 2009