aussielozzie18

Zoey Rae is a beauty. Enjoy your first cuddles tomorrow.

A beautiful granddaughter. Congratulations @Lionesss and to Christina & Brandon. The most wonderful Christmas gift. What do you want Zoey to call you? My mum asked to be called Nana.

Only half way through Season 1. With only 6 episodes per season, I should be onto Season 2 soon.

Now we are off the ship, I am getting plenty of emails from Carnival for super cheap cruises on the Luminosa between now and the end of January. Unfortunately another flight to Brisbane this summer is not possible.

Sounds lovely. You certainly had the perfect conditions for making full use of your balcony.

Beautiful photos. I read that your BFF has quite the extensive property portfolio. Is that just her 17.75 million weekender for Fourth of July parties?

I love black and white family photos. Lovely that you had good weather for beach play whilst celebrating with your family.

Sounds like a very productive day and your baking sounds delicious. Love rum balls especially and the cookies you baked including the ones with raisins 😀 I missed our Christmas party this year due to cruising. After a delicious lunch like yours, they did axe throwing. Would love to try that. Asked the organiser if it will be at the same venue again. She said yes but next time she might organise laser skirmish. Haven’t done that either so keen.

Had an unusually cool (& windy) day weather wise in Sydney today. Yesterday, we had a morning kayaking tour booked in Manly but that got cancelled due to big swells (the Manly ferries were rock n rolling across the heads). The good news is the forecast for next Sunday (Christmas Day) is looking good. Sunny & 28C (84F). Perfect for sitting out on the deck and enjoying a Christmas lunch with family and going for a walk along and a swim at the beach after.

Started watching The White Lotus tonight (daughter was binge watching it during our cruise). A scene from season 1, episode 1 was obviously the inspiration for the “monopoly” cookies featured here recently….

Your SIL is talented. Love the rug.

@Momof3gurlz That tree is gorgeous when lit up at night. Lovely photo of you both.

Can’t answer your question but if this is on the Ovation, I was interested in this cruise because it was over a weekend. Eventually decided it was too expensive for just two nights and that we would need longer than 2 days to experience the Ovation for the first time.

Marcel looks very content. Didn’t know heated beds for cats was a thing.

My “kids” love the ugly sweater idea but being summer in Australia, they are not very practical. Son has worn them to Christmas parties and on Christmas morning but usually has to take them off within half an hour due to sweating. (though we are currently in a cold snap so maybe this Christmas they can actually be worn) Christmas rashies are far more practical here and they offer UPF 50+ sun protection.

People come up with such clever ideas. Our state art gallery, had a sale on prints of famous paintings recently. DH bought a Brett Whitely (Australian artist) poster sized print for $10. The framing will cost $750.

I just love how evenly spaced they all are from each other. Do they ever change positions or is that how they always position themselves on that bed?

Happy Birthday to your daughter @lenquixote66. I hope you all had a lovely time together celebrating her birthday.

I would say only 50% mask wearers on our cruise too. Pleased to hear you are negative. Certainly hasn’t been any mention of Covid on Luminosa in the online groups I am in. Lots of cheap deals for the rest of this season, if we lived in Brisbane I would book one. Enjoy your future cruises.

We both had an excellent cruise and whilst this was our first cruise with Luminosa, it won’t be our last. And since I seriously considered cancelling the cruise 2 weeks out due to increasing numbers of Covid cases on cruise ships in Australia, I am pleased to say one week after disembarking we are both still Covid free.

Had two sea days returning to Brisbane. We made the most of the gorgeous weather and enjoyed the Serenity deck, sunset bar and cocktails. One of the sea days, we passed Willis Island, the only inhabited island in the Coral sea. As we approached it, the Reef Pilot on board contacted one of the 4-6 scientists living year round on the island to give us a talk about Willis Island. Fascinating. At 9.30am & 9.30pm every day a weather balloon is released. This is done at the same time at similar scientific stations around the world. We watched from a distance as the weather balloon was released at 9.30am. The reef around Willis Island terms with ocean life included endangered turtles. It is also home to hundreds of terns and other birdlife. These birds swarmed over the top open deck of Luminosa all morning. Never seen anything like it before at sea.

So many beautiful sunsets in FNQ

Then it was time to leave the pontoon, board the Quicksilver boat & head back to port. Plenty of free cheese & crackers on offer, cold water and cordial and the paid bar which was very popular as we all enjoyed a relaxing 90 min return journey, passing the Luminosa on the way to the wharf. This was an expensive day tour with a lot of people (400+) but it was extremely well run with a lot of staff and it never felt crowded. Blessed with perfect weather that meant perfect snorkeling conditions , we are glad we did it.

After 2hrs, we hopped out. Helped ourselves to the buffet lunch - 10 mins before it closed - thankfully there was still plenty of food left - prawns, seafood medley, tasty salads and a couple of hot dishes. Watched the fish feeding, then joined the last submersible tour for the day. Start of the fish feeding. There was a lot more fish & people after this photo was taken. The submersible was a good option for those who can’t swim.

So, we were off the boat, in our stinger suits and snorkeling gear provided and into the water snorkeling within 15 mins. We snorkeled for 2hrs. Saw a lot of fish. A lot of very colourful fish. Being such a beautiful calm day, the water clarity was amazing. So clear. Lots of big banks of coral (not sure if that is the correct term). That’s where we spotted all the big fish but you would often find yourself snorkeling through large schools of smaller fish. Daughter absolutely loved it. I enjoyed it but was disappointed that the coral was quite dull. There were a few pockets of bright coral but not many. In hindsight, we wish we had booked a paid guided snorkel tour as we would have loved to have seen a turtle and maybe we would have seen brighter coral? The snorkeling was still very enjoyable though.