aussielozzie18

We had ship shore tours on both tender days, so didn’t need to use this system but pleased to read that the tender ticket system operated well.

Once we got back to Airlie a beach wharf there was a long queue to join the shuttles back to the ship. They were alternating the ship’s small tenders with the big Reef Magic. Thankfully we were lucky to get the Reef Magic. I think it was that night we had Mexican themed dinner in the MDR. It was the only night I thought to screenshot the MDR dinner menus. It was the only night I thought to take a photo of the MDR menus.

Last time I was in Airlie, I did the ‘Scenic Sailing’ excursion which was 7.5hrs and was a relaxing day of sailing on a lovely old style yacht and snorkeling off the yacht in the Whitsundays. This time around with daughter, decided to do the Ocean Rafting Tour. High speed motor-raft trip with a small group of fellow cruisers and a very energetic host, speeding out through the Whitsunday passage to Hook island. We anchored, put on our stinger suits & snorkeling gear supplied by the tour company and had a hour of snorkeling which we thoroughly enjoyed. Then we anchored at a beach. Had lunch and swam off the beach. This was a very enjoyable half day tour. Only negative with this tour is that there are no toilets. Toilets are at the wharf at Airlie before you leave and return to the Wharf after a 4hr+ tour.

6am in the morning - still in bed….

Airlie Beach is a tender port. Instead of the ship’s small tenders, they were using the large reef sightseeing boats like ‘Reef Magic’ to take us from the ship to Airlie Beach wharf. We had a booked a ship tour as we wanted to go snorkeling and felt it was safer, time wise to go via the ships tour. With Carnival Australia ship tours, you cannot book in advance. You can only book once on board. Confusing thing was their website before the cruise had several tours listed as “sold out”. Apparently it’s a glitch in their computer system.

Our first port of call was Airlie Beach. We had a beautiful day forecast and calm seas. Was awake early and up on the open top deck for the sail in. The open top deck was popular for early morning walkers. There is a much smaller running track here too which you can see in the above photo.

Music: Piano bar. Song requests by Paul at the Piano this was around the corner from our restaurant so we usually stopped in here for a while. He was good and had a good crowd but Got a bit repetitive towards the end of the cruise. House band - we usually stopped to listen for a while after we left the theatre early. Lead female singer had a great voice. Comedians - wanted to go - but kept missing them or arriving when the doors were shut - definitely needed the app reminder.

We didn’t go to the theatre. There were a few productions on but they just didn’t interest us. We usually left after 10mins. Trivia was fun. In a big space and very popular. We went to the “Friends” trivia. 20 questions. Two cruisers separately got the full 20. Tiebreaker question. A lady from the US with a Friends tattoo won. A carnival medal. There are other trivia sessions on but we kept forgetting. Towards the end of the cruise, we realised that if you “liked” an event on the Hub app, it sent you a reminder 15 mins before. No paper planners on your beds on the night before anymore. It’s all on the App and very easy to navigate.

The other time was for movies under a the stars. Unfortunately the movies started at 9.30pm and the chairs weren’t particularly comfy. That was a problem when you were trying to watch Baz Luhrman’s ‘Elvis’ and it goes for 2 1/2hrs..,I only lasted til 20.30pm. When I told DH, he said the last hour is the best part!

Only went to the main pool twice. Once was for Conga for kids. The Carnival charity where you buy a $20 t-shirt and all funds raised go to a QLD children’s hospital. The CD & other staff will sign your tshirt and then a group conga line and Macarena dance by everyone. Lots of fun for a good cause.

Meanwhile daughter loved the Serenity deck & pool. Lifeguard always on duty and despite being busy, always enough room to the pool to cool off. Needed shoes though to walk from lounger to pool. Deck was hot. Towels were available nearby from a staff member on towel duty. You had to give to room number to the staff member on duty when taken & returned. On port days, you could NOT take these off the ship. Plain blue towels were available right near the gangway (often you had to wait for them) as you disembarked on port days.

After cooking demo, I discovered my favourite spot on the ship - the sunset bar above the Serenity Deck. This had comfy individual woven chairs with cushions and double chairs and tables that could be moved - so you could decide whether you wanted to be in the sun or not and could be grouped depending on the size of your party. Umbrellas and side tables and a small bar with friendly bar staff. I worked my way through the cocktail menu here.

At 11.30am Fahrenheit (specialty) restaurant was running a cooking demo. I had been to something similar on Spirit so was keen. Got there early (it’s very popular). Two chefs + one staff member on a mic as an “interpreter”. Entree, main and dessert are cooked. A menu with instructions for each dish is provided as well as a sample of each dish as the chef is cooking/preparing it is served individually by waiters to everyone in the audience. It runs for 30mins, it free and you don’t have to book.

Day 1 - Daughter headed to the deck loungers by the Serenity pool. Serenity pool is adults only. Surrounded by plenty of loungers in the sun (always a few available) and Pods around the outer edges. Never saw any pods free except on our boarding day. I explored the ship. It had a tiny library near guest services. Small amount of decent books there. Half with Carnival stickers. Half had obviously been donated by my fellow cruisers after they finished reading them, so a few new releases. One of the shops had Guess handbags at 30% off and Pandora jewellery including the popular cruise ship charm. The Carnival shop was separate - stocked lego and Carnival logo gear but nothing Luminosa specific. Shop selling watches, perfumes and duty free liquor (once we passed Willis Island). Liquor stock looked limited to me. Java Blue Cafe was popular for those wanting their paid coffee fix and individual cakes/biscuits/muffins.

Internet - we both decided we wanted a break from the internet so we didn’t buy the internet package before boarding but we still needed to keep in touch. Carnival offer “Chat” through their Hub app for a flat rate of $8 each. This worked great for when we were both at separate places around the ship and needed to msg each other or even when in our separate cabins..,. On the eve of our second last sea day, daughter was desperate for some internet though so she was able to buy 24hrs of internet for $38.00. We could share it, she just needed to log out first. Worked really well.

Breakfast - we had in MDR on 3 occasions. It was more brunch for us - around 10.30am. First time was great. Food was superb. Second time food was good but drink service was slow. We gave up waiting for my tea. Third time we went, was later at 11am and it was obvious that my dish had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while, everything was dried out. After that we just went to the Lido Buffet. Had no problems getting a table. I enjoyed their bagels with butter & jam but the self toasters were very slow so just had to be patient. Thankfully there was always a toaster available. Lunch - I liked the BBQ buffet on the open deck next to the Serenity pool. BBQ meats & salads. Daughter loved the pizza place inside the Lido Buffet. She enjoyed the pizza slices as a late night snack. Or if you were feeling lazy, you could get delivered to your cabin for $9.

After dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard show in the theatre. That was pretty cheesy and the CD was telling dad jokes. Then they pulled two couples out of the audience to play a game that involved one of the couples being blindfolded. At this point the ship was doing a bit of rock roll - and they had to walk from one side of the stage to the other blindfolded and doing something silly. Kudos to the participants for staying upright! It was fun to watch and the two couples got well rewarded with decent prizes for their efforts. There was a performance on stage after that by the ship’s singers & dancers but that didn’t appeal to us. Ship had a decent size casino. Some nights it was quiet. Some nights it was busy.

For dinner we choose - your time dining - mainly because we had a couple of full day port tours booked and didn’t want to be locked into same dining time each night. Your time dining worked really well for us. We loved the Carnival Hub app for making reservations in the late afternoon. Daughter would make booking request on the app and link me to the booking request. We would both receive a request confirmation back advising how long the wait was. 5 nights out of 7, the wait was 10 minutes or less. After 10mins, we would get a msg on the app that our table was confirmed and advised our table number. We just had to click confirm. Then we had 10 mins to get to the dining room. At the dining room entrance, no queue. Just show our confirmation and we were shown straight to our table - Table of 2. We had a different table & different waiters every night but they all were friendly and very efficient. The nightly menu you could see on the app in the morning. The menu changed each day (there were a few staples always available). There was also a QR code on the table to scan for the menu/bar menu once seated. We had the 3 courses every night. Food was hot & tasty. I tried something different every night in each course. Daughter had Carnival melting chocolate cake for dessert every single night. On boarding night & the night before departure, the wait time on the app was 40mins. We were happy to relax on our balconies so the wait didn’t bother us. We thought the MDR (Vela Restaurant) was lovely. Open & spacious, nice decor and a decent gap between the tables of 2. One night we had the waiters dancing and then all the guests had to do the Macarena that was fun. One night of elegant dining, on arriving at the MDR, we were seated in one of the small speciality restaurants venues next door. Loved the decor and we loved being in there for a change of setting.

We went to the sail away party near next to the main pool. Short but fun. The went to the top open deck and watched whilst the Captain manoeuvred the ship out from the wharf. I love it when you feel and see that manoeuvring. However, it made my daughter queasy.

Maybe a staff member or passenger saw her go in and threw in the life ring - as we are told to do, to help with locating the person overboard. Absolutely tragedy. My heart goes out to her family.

Tragic. We had a person go overboard on our very first cruise.

Yes, leave the tux behind. We had 2 elegant nights in 7 days. Didn’t see anyone wearing a tux.

So cute. Should be a where’s Molly book with illustrations from your village.

Last story from the cruise. The only port tour I did by myself was the stretch Hummer tour. It started at 3pm. Towards the end of the tour, I sent a photo to daughter from Palm Cove. DD: You are in Palm Cove? Me: Yep. It’s beautiful DD: What time will you be back? All aboard closes soon. Me: Yes I know but ship will wait for me. DD: Is anyone else from the ship? Me: No. Just me. DD: Please don’t be late Me: Should be fine as long as the Hummer doesn’t break down like it did in the morning tour… DD: OMG 10mins later…. Me: Don’t worry. This is a SHIP excursion. We are all from the ship. It won’t leave without us.. DD: OMG. Thank goodness! I have just been trying to work out what to do if you got left behind and how to get you from Cairns to Port Douglas…. Daughter is always doing jokes so it was fun to get her going for once 😀 Me after 3 champagnes from the open bar. Photo taken by our driver.

We also had Conga for Kids on board. Buy a t-shirt for $20 with all funds going to a Children’s hospital in Queensland. Told DD I was doing this. She wasnt interested but was happy for me to buy her a t-shirt. At midday, I sent her a msg and said the Conga line is about to start. She said Omg you are doing a Conga line? (She thought it was just buying a t-shirt) She left her pool deck and came down to the main pool deck to not only film me in a conga line but then we all did the Macarena. Again seeing middle aged mum doing the Macarena in public had her stitches. Then she uploaded the video to her friends group and they loved it 😀