Christmas Cruise - Day 1

We started the  day with a brisk walk from our hotel in Pitt Street down to Darling Harbour for breakfast.  It was lovely and quiet at 7am, and it seems we beat the 'rush hour' rush.  Jordan is quite adept at pushing the pram and cutting swathes through the crowds along the sidewalks of the CBD. I have take to just following behind him as it is the most efficient way to get anywhere! I tried pushing the pram for a while but I am not quite as fearless and found myself stopping and apologising a lot.

After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel to pack up our bags and get ready to head down to Circular Quay to board the ship. It took 30mins to get out of the Meriton! I think everyone was wanting to check out at 10am like us and we had to let 3 lifts go past because they were completely full and we wouldn't possibly have fit.  After we finally did get an elevator, we stopped on just about every floor on the way down (and we were on the 35th floor!), which took forever. At least the people in the lift with us were funny and we all had a good laugh at the situation.

Mum and I started walking down Pitt Street with Cooper in the pram to get to the Overseas Passenger Terminal and we ran into Liss.  Dad and Jordan had taken our luggage in a cab.  Once we got there, we thought we might just scope out the boarding process while we waited for the Quayles Snr and the Pyes.  We ended up meeting a floor supervisor who ushered us through the huge crowds straight to check in and security.  We still don't know whether  it was because of super cute Cooper, or because Mum and Dad are in a suite.  

We were all wearing our matching cruise shirts for a laugh and it turns out that the Quayles and Pyes were recognised by the check in staff because of them!  We were on the ship in only a matter of minutes, which was lovely.  Brent had been feeling unwell and said so on his medical form so he had to get checked out by a doctor before they could board. 

Eventually, all of us were together eating lunch at the buffet and waiting for our rooms to be available.  When ours was ready, we went and had a huge afternoon sleep.  Dinner was in the dining room while we sailed out of Sydney Harbour and was really nice.  We have a 10-seater table all together.  Cooper was so well behaved at dinner and the waiters loved him, as did our room attendant, Kaba.