This blog is considerably shorter than any of my
previous blogs, but it doesn’t mean that this particular holiday was any less
memorable for us. As this cruise sort of came upon us unexpectedly, courtesy of
a random phone from a Cruiseabout representative with an unreal offer, we now
think of it as fate. Fate because we
hadn’t anticipated the stress that would follow John’s mother’s death in
December, as well some other issues that made this a particularly difficult
beginning to 2016. We were therefore
determined to use it as a total and utter chill-out holiday…and that is exactly
what it turned out to be.
As the ‘Legend of the Seas’ was departing from
Brisbane, our holiday began from the moment we woke up on the morning of
Thursday 24th March. A
leisurely breakfast, a last minute check of the house to make sure that all was
secure and we hopped into the car and drove to Portside Parking. After handing in the keys it was about a five
minute walk to the terminal building and a very easy and speedy embarkation
process.
We found our balcony cabin, 6616, and dropped off
our backpacks and then proceeded to have a wander around the ship to check it
all out. We were hoping to be able to
wave Bon Voyage to Olivia and Oscar, but unfortunately Ang got caught in
traffic and they didn’t make it to the dockside by the time we set sail. We were more upset for our poor little Olivia
as we knew that she would be sad, so we sent her a photo of us waving to her
instead…
We happily sat out on our balcony for the journey
down the Brisbane River and out to sea
before unpacking and setting up our
‘home’ for the next 10 days and then getting ready for dinner. We scored big time for our dinner
seating. We were allocated a wonderful
table for two in the Romeo and Juliet dining room and this was to be our table
for the duration of the cruise. Our two
wonderful waiters, Oldrin and Huijuan, made us feel as if we were dining in an
exclusive restaurant each night, and the quality of the meals was
brilliant.
As we didn’t fancy going to a show on our first
night, we opted to sit out on our balcony and enjoy the full moon on the water…
When we were not on the ship reading, eating,
sleeping, sitting on the balcony and taking in the passing view or watching
movies on my laptop, we were enjoying the islands that we stopped at…
Champagne Bay, on the island of Espiritu
Santo, Vanuatu
for the first of our glorious ocean swims
Vila, Vanuatu
where we wandered the town and explored
the shops
Lifou in the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia
Mystery Island, Vanuatu
no longer a mystery, but a magical place
with the most pristine beach of all
The ship also anchored off Mare, New Caledonia, but
we opted not to go ashore as we had heard that there was absolutely nothing at
the port, and if we wanted to go for a swim we would need to catch a bus to the
other side of the island. We didn’t
think we could have topped the other magnificent swims we had enjoyed on the
previous islands so we just hung out on the (much quieter) ship.
Apart from our absolutely amazing swims, our
happiest memories will be of sitting on our verandah…during the day taking in
the pristine blue waters with clear blue skies and at night with a cuppa
looking up at the myriad of stars in the sky.
A truly wonderful holiday.
