P & O Cruise - 14 October - 21 October 2018
Monday was our first full day on the cruise. When we woke up that morning, we found out that we had left Brisbane nine hours late due to high winds. The captain made up the time between 11pm on Sunday night and 8am Tuesday when we arrived at our first port, Airlie Beach. Our other two ports of call on this cruise were Yorkey’s Knob (near Cairns) and Port Douglas. We didn’t get off at any of the ports as we have been to all of them before and the weather was so humid that it would not have been enjoyable walking around those towns.
So, our days on the ship were basically the same. We started each day having breakfast in the dining room - we really enjoyed being taken care of by the lovely crew on board. Although the breakfast menu was the same each day, there was enough of a variety to enjoy something different most days. We had a choice of various egg dishes (omelettes, poached eggs, etc.), big breakfasts (eggs, sausages, bacon, hash brown), pancakes, French toast, cereal, yogurt and fruit. After breakfast, we took our books down to one of the atriums and read or did puzzles. We ate lunch in the dining room on sea days and in the cafeteria-style restaurant on port days (they close the dining room when the ship is in port). After lunch, we played trivia and then just relaxed the rest of the time until dinner time, which was again in the dining room.
On the first day of the cruise, we asked a couple of ladies if they were playing trivia (they had two spare seats at their table). They said they would give it a go and we had such a nice time with them, Margaret and Glennis, that we continued playing with them throughout the cruise. We didn’t do very well in answering the questions correctly, but we had a lot of fun talking and laughing with them which is what it’s all about for us.
When we booked the cruise, the travel agency had a special going on which included each of us receiving $85 of onboard credit along with a P & O beach bag filled with P & O items (towel, lanyard, hat, socks). Early in the cruise, we tried a virgin pina colada which was pretty ordinary, so we didn’t try any other drinks on the cruise. Next, we tried a ‘thick’ shake made with premium ice-cream which tasted nice, but was not what we think of as ‘thick’, so we didn’t have any more of those, either. Next, we tried some fancy cakes (carrot cake, mudcake, blueberry cheesecake) which were really nice. We also tried some of the premium ice-cream in a waffle cone and they were delicious. The premium hot chocolate was tasty and we enjoyed a few of those in the evenings. Between purchasing these various treats, we were able to use up a lot of our onboard credit.
One morning, our room stewards left us some vouchers for the beauty salon, so Dad and I took advantage of the discounts - Dad got a haircut and I got a pedicure. It was nice to be pampered on the ship without having to pay a premium price for the services (paying the difference in cost for these two treats used up the rest of our onboard credit).
Our room stewards, Arjun (from India) and Jodelito (from the Phillipines), were wonderful - they took such great care of our room, making it up twice a day. Three times they left towel animals on our bed (elephant, monkey, penguin) which were cute and other days they left a nice chocolate on our bed.
We only went to a few of the nightly entertainment shows. The first night, they had a variety of performers to give us a taste of what was to come on the cruise. The P & O Singers and Dancers were pretty good as were the magician and comedian. We didn’t go on Monday and Tuesday evenings as the shows were too late. Wednesday night’s entertainment was a game show featuring some of the cruiselings (that’s what P & O called us cruisers). They had eight people up on stage who had basically a karaoke competition where the contestants had to fill in the missing words of the popular karaoke songs. It was quite fun to watch. The prize was a short cruise on P & O. Thursday was a return of the magician we had seen on the first night - his name is 'Johnny Balance' and he mainly did card tricks, but he added a lot of humour to his show and was a lot of fun to watch. Friday's show was featuring the P & O Singers and Dancers and was called 'Let's Misbehave' and was a show of jazz music which I am not that fond of.
We celebrated our 39th anniversary on the ship and our cabin stewards placed a sign on the door and then left us a surprise (see photos below) on our bed - such a sweet thing to do for us.
Lights from the first show - quite a spectacle
The P & O Singers and Dancers
Our cabin (we had an oceanview - Cabin #9214) was really nice - fairly roomy with a comfortable mattress on the bed and comfy pillows - on the bed here is an elephant towel animal
Our first port, Airlie Beach
A tender taking passengers in to Airlie Beach
Me standing on the deck of the ship with Airlie Beach in the distance
Dad with our desserts we purchased in Charlie's on deck 5 (my mudcake and Dad's carrot cake)
Dad standing on the deck with Yorkey's Knob (our second port) in the distance
Monkey towel animal left on our bed when Arjun and Judelito made up our cabin
My lovely purple nail polish from my pedicure on the ship
The Marquee Theatre where the evening entertainment shows were held
Dad standing on the deck with Port Douglas (our third port) in the distance
Sign our cabin stewards left on our cabin door to celebrate our anniversary - it reads: 'Better Together - Happy Anniversary'
Two swans (made out of towels) kissing each other and making a heart shape with their necks (this was the cute surprise waiting for us on our bed (from our cabin stewards)
Penguin towel animal left on our bed from our cabin stewards
Dad and I sitting beside the swan towel animals
Our penguin, monkey and swan towel animals we put on our dresser/desk in our cabin
On our last day at sea, there was a 'Towel Animal Parade' where some of the cabin stewards showed off their towel animal making skills - above is an octopus
A shark
A camel
A seahorse
A kangaroo with a joey in its pouch
A koala
A giraffe
A crocodile
Joey (on the right), one of the entertainment crew, asking our room steward, Arjun, where he was from, how long he had worked for P & O and what towel animal he had created
Arjun had made a monkey towel animal and had attached it to a zipline from the top balcony to the main stage - unfortunately, the monkey did not want to come down (he got stuck along the rope)
Jodelito (our other cabin steward) showing his spider towel animal
One cabin steward used a lot of towels to create our ship, the P & O Jewel - it was pretty amazing
Our trivia team: Dad and me in the back and Glennis and Margaret in the front
We had a very long day today: we woke up at 6:30am as we had to get out of our cabin by 7am. After having a nice breakfast in the dining room, we disembarked from the ship and took an Uber to the airport. We arrived at the airport around 9am and flight was not scheduled to leave until 4:30pm. We spent our time playing on our computers, looking for running shoes for Dad at the DFO (Duty Free Outlet) mall next to the airport and eating lunch. At 3pm, the airport stopped operations for about 40 minutes because a thunderstorm came across the airport. So, all arrivals and departures were delayed until the storm passed. Some flights actually had to be rerouted to other airports. When operations resumed, there were a number of flight delays and cancellations. Thankfully, our flight was only delayed and we eventually got onboard at 4:30pm. After a bit of a bumpy climb-out through the clouds and another bumpy descent, we landed in Hervey Bay and were soon on our way home in our airport shuttle. We are very happy to be home and in our own bed.
Dad and I discussed how we felt the cruise went and although the service was impeccable, we were less than impressed with some of the food quality and all of the added extra costs which are included in the fare on other cruise lines. We have decided that unless the deal was super cheap, we would likely not sail on P & O again.
