Wednesday 15 June 2016

The Stunning Ship I Very Nearly DIDN'T Board

 
When you email someone at least half a dozen times to remind them to do something, you would generally expect that they will remember right?

Right!

Unless we are talking about me...

I was invited last weekend to spend the day on board the recently refurbished and insanely gorgeous Sun Princess - a 261 metre long cruise liner that belongs to the Princess Cruises Fleet, and the only thing I was asked to remember was to bring something that is - you know - only absolutely necessary for you to pass through customs and get on board the ship... my passport!

As I pulled into a prize parking spot less than a 5 minute walk away from the terminal, I congratulated myself on arriving early enough to take my time and maybe even grab a luxurious coffee before I had to meet our guide.

And then I remembered....

CRAP... my passport.

My passport that was sitting at least a 45 minute drive away on my desk next to my computer... the very place where I had left it to remind me not to forget it.

Yeah that worked well huh?!

One completely panicked phone called to my hubby and a month full of promises later, and my passport was on its way to me and I was driving back across the bridge to meet him.

"Drive carefully" I said to him after thanking him profusely for his selfless Saturday morning act.

"But can you, like you know.... drive the really fast kind of carefully please" I encouraged.

9 minutes before I was due to board we were driving across the harbour bridge and our lovely and very patient guide was on the phone following my progress.

We made it... all be it 5 minutes late and I along with some fellow bloggers made our way onboard.



OK first thing I have to tell you is that I have never been on a cruise ship before.

I get sea sick and I am somewhat paranoid what with me being the klutz that I am, that I would somehow manage to trip and fall overboard.

Ha... like we are talking about some little ferry boat that I could possibly fall over the railing or something.

Let's get one thing straight - this ship is big. 

HUGE.

In fact when she was launched back in 1995 she was THE world's largest cruise ship.




To give you an idea, it is 12 storeys high, has 975 staterooms, 4 swimming pools, a casino, nightclubs, a beauty and health spa and a gym AND it holds 2010 passengers and 924 crew.

That's a shipload of people to feed. (sorry bad play on words)

In fact 40 tonnes of food and drink; 10,000 bottles of wine and champagne, 10,000 cans of soft drink, 2500 litres of milk, 2400 bottles of water, 25,000 eggs, 500kg of bacon, 1.4t of chicken, 500kg of lettuce, 1.3t of rice and 375kg of coffee are consumed every 7 days.

Holy batballs huh?!



Lucky guests have a 24 hour choice of places to dine including dining room, a steakhouse, a seafood bar, a dining area with a Court dining area with Italian style Amuleto cafe, an international Cafe, a hamburger and hot dog grill, a New Zealand Natural Ice Cream outlet and the fabulous new SHARE restaurant by Curtis Stone... which we were there to sample.

Lucky US.

Ok so Share has been designed to encourage guests to connect with each other on their holiday and share food and memories over a meal and yep - the food is pretty darn memorable.

The food.

OMG the food!

I have never felt quite so full and fat in my whole life... ok apart from that one time I tried to out eat my brother at the oyster bar of our local yacht club.

This is just some of the food we tasted. Seriously... just some of it! (sorry the photos aren't that great thanks to the ambient mood lighting and the fact that I was too busy stuffing my face to pull out my big fancy camera)



Not bad huh?!

OK, so bellies full, what better way is there to end a meal than with some chocolate... but you guys - we're not talking after dinner mints here. 

Nope we were treated to a luxurious chocolate scrub and a massage in the Lotus, the ship's very own spa and beauty centre.



I never want chocolate any other way again.

We were of course given a tour of the ship's staterooms and I'm gonna say... they go alright (ha! Understatement!)

Let's just say that one who has a fear of being on a boat in the ocean could very easily forget one's fear when one has views from their cabin like this...



So am I up for a cruising holiday yet?

Mmmm... possibly, maybe, still deciding.

That said, I would sure as hell happily spend another day on board this beautiful ship.

If you are feeling a little tempted to sail off into the sunset on this beautiful liner, then head over to the Sun Princess website to check out her itinerary and dates.

Oh... and don't forget your passport yeah?!

Have you been on a Cruise?
Where did you go?
Were you scared before you left?

I was invited onboard the Sun Princess as a guest to experience some of the ship's features. I was not paid to write this post and all opinions totally belong to me.