Melbourne Cup Cruise 2016 Carnival Spirit: Fwd: Day One

Day One - Embarkation Day

After a late night we had an early morning departure as a our designated boarding time was 11.30am to 12md. Unfortunately or fortunately there was track work being carried out so the trains were replaced with buses. This meant that the usual 2.50hr train journey was reduced to 2.20hrs in the bus. Out 8.30 departure got us to Circular Quay by 11.40am. There was a massive line up of people waiting to board but fortunate the officials removed all early boarders (most had boarding times later in the day and apparently Carnival adhere to the boarding times printed on your boarding pass.... not like Princes!) from the line which meant that we were on the ship by midday.

Once on board we headed to our cabin to off load our hand luggage but unfortunately the hallways to the cabins were locked until 1.30pm. I assume this is to give the staff adequate time to refit and clean the cabins before the new passengers are let loose!

No problem really for us as we did a tour of the ship as we have not been on this ship before. We then headed for lunch before returning to our cabin to unpack and be on deck for our 4pm spillway.

I must say the architecture and decor of this ship is very different to what we are used to.

The buffet is very large with lots of seating. The food is spread out in various locations offering a good variety from burgers, pizzas, Mexican, Asian, fruit, gourmet desserts, specialty coffee self serve machine, soft serve ice cream and much more. You couldn't possibly go hungry or not find anything that you didn't like.

We settled ourselves in a pod at the back on the starboard side which was great for sailaway. I must say I like these pods... They are so comfortable and give you some protection from the wind. With a nice cold bottle of wine we were in prime viewing area to take in the Bridge and Opera House as we cruised out of Circular Quay and headed for the Heads.

Tonight we had booked into Nouveau the specialty dining restaurant which has a cover charge of $45 each... The menu is similar to the Steak House on Princess which has a cover charge of $25 each. The dining are for Nouveau has it's own up market dining area which is better than the Steak House that just partitions off part of the Horizons Buffet area. With all things considered I prefer the Princess Steak House experience.

After dinner we checked out the bars on the ship which there are plenty and all were packed and pumping. Loved the band in the Red Frog Pub.

All in all a good start to our cruise.