I’m back home from our 10-day cruise aboard the Carnival Splendor! I wrote these posts along the way, usually at night before going to bed, so they’re written as though I’m still on the ship. I’m just a little behind on actually posting them, since we had limited internet while we were away. If you missed them, you can catch up starting with Day 1.
Land ahoy!!! Oh, wait. Not quite yet.
This morning we woke up hoping to see land as we neared the tip of New Zealand, but it was not to be. When I looked out the window, I was greeted with choppy seas again. But most excitingly, a patch of blue sky! Woohoo!
For breakfast we were back in the buffet, but the boys buttered me up with a coffee from the cafe, which we took back to the cabin. I can confirm the coffee from JavaBlue Café was good. I can’t do the horrible watery stuff that’s free from the machines, but I’m happy to pay for good coffee.
L and I went back and chilled for a bit in the cabin while D went to the gym. It’s been really nice just hanging with L, both of us reading and relaxing. I’m up to book 2 for the trip, and I’m making much more progress than I thought. I’m very grateful for my Kindle, and for loading way more books on it than I thought I would need.
Eventually though, L asked to go to Kids Club, so I went to my favourite activity – music trivia! The rest of the family joined us, with my sister and sister-in-law tying with a few other groups for the win! Unfortunately, they didn’t win the tie-breaker, so we’ll just say they were an equal second.
It was really fun sitting in the theatre listening to everyone sing along to the Final Countdown.
D and I decided to go for a wander, to explore some of the smaller food kiosks near the adults-only area. It turned out there’d been some heavy showers, which had covered the deck in a fair bit of water. Some staff were in the process of squeegeeing it off, but we were able to get around to the deli another way. We had a look at the menu, mouths watering, planning to come back later.
Just as we returned to the room, an announcement came over the speakers. We found out that the planned stop in Napier tomorrow will be a no-go due to the swell and the winds. Instead, we’ll be going to Tauranga a day earlier, and spending two days in Auckland instead of one. They said we had a 3.5m swell and 35-knot winds. It was too dangerous to go into the bay and use tenders to get to shore.
I was relieved we hadn’t booked anything in, so we weren’t stressing trying to rearrange things. Anyone who had booked shore excursions through Carnival either had them rearranged or refunded, and it seems to have been pretty hassle-free, so that’s good. (Edit – originally I had this in yesterday’s post because I thought I got my days wrong, whoops).
So even though the news was a little disappointing, we had a new towel animal waiting for us! Yay!
To kill some time before we picked up L for lunch, D and I decided we would go put some money in the pokies (slot machines). We aren’t big gamblers, but decided we would use whatever cash we found in our wallets. Between us we only had $40, and it lasted us about 15 minutes, so not so bad. I got free spins pretty quickly, but it didn’t pay much. I cashed out with $15 remaining, and D cashed out with $20 so that he came out even.
While we were there, I discovered a sports bar that I hadn’t seen yet.
As we headed to the lifts to collect L, I discovered they were teaching the Thriller dance down in the lobby! I watched over the balcony, and then joined along, much to D’s dismay. I managed to learn a few steps before he made me keep going. Sad panda… a few years ago I had “learn Thriller” as one of my 52s, and I never got it done. On a related note, the boat is Halloween-themed, and it’s been super fun.
We collected L, then went for burgers for lunch. The boys really love Guy’s Burger Joint, and while it’s only day 4, I’ve lost count of how many burgers they’ve eaten already. D is notoriously hard to please food-wise (comes with the territory of being so good in the kitchen I suppose), so it’s wild to me to see him compliment something so frequently.
Then, of course, the follow-up ice cream. L recorded a video describing a very detailed explanation of how to make the “world’s best ice cream”, which is essentially a ton of soft serve, a ton of sauce, mix it together, and eat it. Aka sugar with sugar and eat. I was still licking my wounds from my sugar hangover the day before and was trying to restrict myself to just dessert after dinner, so I passed on the soft serve.
While we were eating lunch, we also saw Poppy up on the big screen!
After lunch, we helped ourselves to the free games cabinet, and taught L how to play Cluedo, one of my all-time favourite board games. D won the game.
Then it was my turn to head up for a gym session. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking, but I decided I would walk on the treadmill.
In choppy seas.
Genius.
Needless to say I spent a 30-min sesh holding on so I didn’t fall off the side. Apparently no one else wanted to tempt seasickness, because the gym was pretty empty. Especially the cardio area.
After the gym I showered, and then we headed up to the Kids Club, where they’d organised a trick-or-treat event for the kids.
We met my sister and sister-in-law, collected L, and then we made our way around the boat following a map with clues to different locations. The trick was that they had written the wrong location names at each spot, which confused me greatly for a while, because I kept thinking we were at the wrong spot. Cheeky!
At the end, the kids all ended up at the kids disco area (normally reserved for teens) to collect certificates, play some trivia, and have a dance party. L wasn’t really into it, so we ended up leaving after a few minutes.
Then suddenly, BLUE SKIES!! We raced up to the top to take a look, only to find we could also see land! It was pretty exciting.
We dropped off L’s goodies back at the cabin, and then headed to the restaurant for dinner. Tonight’s choices:
- Entree: Camembert tartlets
- Main: Penne pasta with slow-cooked beef
- Dessert: Carrot cake
L got the best, most gooey chocolate lava cake we’d seen so far. I’m learning that every time I don’t order the chocolate lava cake, I regret it. I’m a victim of my own FOMO, because I want to try all the things! My sister-in-law is 4 from 4 on the lava cake, we’ll see if she can last the whole cruise!
After dinner, it was time for the show we’d been most excited about – Damien Leith! He’s an Irish-Australian singer who became popular thanks to Australian Idol. But to rave about how incredible his voice is, his version of ‘Crying’ impressed Roy Orbison’s wife, Barbara Orbison, and she ended up executive producing his Roy Orbison tribute album. What an honour.
His voice was amazing, the songs were great, and he was very funny. It was a great show, and we really enjoyed it.
Now, we’re all back in the cabin, and it’s time for… You guessed it, more laundry. And then bed.
We get to walk on land tomorrow!! Very exciting after so many days at sea. I’m really curious to see if I’ll get the “sea legs” or not!
