Cruisin' (Part 1)

I LOVE cruising! Yes yes I have only been on two cruises BUT…I will be going on more in the near future. Technically I guess the trip from England to Australia on the Castel Felice in 1967 counts as a cruise so we'll call it three cruises then.
Cruising is the ultimate in relaxing and having everything done for you. Someone makes the bed every morning, turns down the covers every evening, and leaves a choccy on the pillow. Someone cooks every meal for you, with a variety of eating spots, and a variety of foods available. Someone clears away the dirty dishes and then washes them (you never see any of the cooking or cleaning going on…it's like magic…). Someone makes all the different cocktails you could ever want to drink and there's heaps of entertaining things to do every day and night!!!! Oh and apparently some cruises stop at interesting places that you can leave the ship and go and visit for awhile.

The cruise HR and I just completed was a four day trip from Brisbane to Airlie Beach and back. We've been to Airlie Beach before so we didn't see the need to leave the ship at all.

We organised the cruise earlier this year and counted down the months, weeks, days, hours even the minutes. We were one of four couples from The Mausoleum to sail away (it's always fun to have friends to hang with). The beautiful Pacific Dawn (formerly Regal Princess from the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy), part of the P&O Fleet, was the ship to take us away!!! (Take me away P&O was an advertising jingle back in the day). I love the gorgeous curves and old worldliness of her interior decor (go google images of her).

On our previous cruise we had booked a Balcony room, this time we went with the Mini Suite. There are a few advantages to a Mini Suite including; priority boarding, bigger room, lots of perks (canapes and champagne in room), fresh fruit daily, a bath in the bathroom and priority disembarkation to name a few. Mini Suites have balconies too. Only issue is that the Mini Suites are below the Lido deck where all the parties and nightlife go on, makes a hell of a racket at night if you're staying in or wanting an early night.
Other than that I think a Mini Suite is a damned good option!!
Time for a post cruise cocktail……part 2 coming up soon.