Hailzmick

I have cruised the South Pacific four times, (all on Royal ships, Radiance of the seas and Rhapsody) & we have always found new and fun things to do. We have three more South Pacific cruises booked for early next year, two on Legend of the Seas and one on Voyager.

There's so many things that change the dynamic of your cruise.

The number one thing for us is meeting new people. For us, that makes our cruise. Also different room types and of course the ship itself, with the Cruise Director and Activities Manager.

We did two cruises this May/June in the Mediterianian for three weeks total and it was FULL ON! (But absolutely amazing!!!!)

We love the relaxed atmosphere to of a cruise to the South Pacific. Grabbing a towel, sunscreen and you're ready for your day on land!

Absolutely loving this!!! You can deffo tell you're an Aussie- it's lovely to read! (I'm from Melbz!)

I'm on Legend in January with the girls and then again with the husband in April, (with another cruise in March on Voyager). Can't wait to read more! :-)

Please please please tell us more about the ship and if you have any spare time, maybe even pics of all around the ship? (Lucky it's small, lol!)

Hailey.

We just saved nearly $1000 on a sale... I'm pretty happy as that's more than 30% total.

If you booked a balcony, it would have saved you 50% EACH as it was a free upgrade too! (We got JS).

An amazing sale just started in Aus- 50% off second person PLUS balcony for an OV price. Saving more than $1,500 on most sailings! (I've been checking prices daily).

The only thing is- in Aus, if you rebook you lose your deposit. We're going with a JS as we will be diamond after that sailing so we're only saving $900 (-$400 deposit, so saving $500) but better than nothing!

Sometimes sales can be real... SOMETIMES! You just have to do a lot of research. :-)

What a great experience in Athens. Honestly though- I'll never do another cruise excursion again after doing price excursions in tiny groups!

We went back to the ship and went to the future cruise area. We decided to book a cruise to New Zealand.

At 8pm, we had dinner booked for Chops. Unfortunately we had talked up Chops way too much... Vision definately spoilt us! Our waiter told us we were wrong when we told Steph and Jeff they could pic anything off the menu, like in the MDR... but on Vision, you could have 10 mains if you really wanted to- the choices were unlimited, which is great because the choice is so hard.

The food was very different, (not just how it was presented)- I could honestly only give our meal 6/10 and that was being nice!!! Our waiter was super nice. He was from Turkey and we told him that we had just been to Turkey and how much we loved it!

Dinner finished at 11pm and we missed the Love and Marriage Game show. I was so tired anyway, but I REALLY love that game show!!!

We got back to our room and had an invitation to the Captain's Cocktail Reception on the SPECIAL BACK DECK @4pm the following day. How exciting!!!

Next up, Mykonos!!!

Next, we were taken to the museum. The bus dropped us off and would pick us up in three hours.

The entrance

We went upstairs to have lunch. I was super stoked to find OUZO! I absolutely love ouzo!!!

Our mussels for lunch. Delicious.

We got back on the bus and drove past a few very cool buildings

Athena on one side, Apollo on the other

Apollo

Athena

Athens, you are stunning.

All of the columns looked so amazing!!! None of them are linear, (meant to be). The small details we found out about it were amazing!!!

We had 2.5hrs of time to walk around, take pics and catch some amazing rays from the sun. It was so lovely!!! (& sooooooooo busy)!

Isn't the world awesome!

Wow

The Parthenon!!! Built for Athena! Absolutely stunning!!!

Everything was under construction. But it was great, knowing that they were protecting it from the elements and keeping it looking great.

Time to get back on the bus... We're coming!!!

Here we are!

"Archaiologicos Choros Akropoleos" also known as the Acropolis!!!!

Athens, you are very pretty!

Unfortunately, the headsets don't work when you are more than about 2 metres from your guide... Which is pretty hard not to be as there are literally thousands of thousands of people all around you, trying to walk up small paths and in to the same areas you are.

Mick went in to the stadium and took some pics. It cost money and I was happy to look from the outside.

It was pretty empty inside the stadium

Imagine the men, (naked of course), running for their countries! He he he he.

Wow!

Our first glimps

OMG!!!!!!!! Check it out!!!!!!

"Panathinaiko Stadio Kallimarmaro" also known as the place where the Modern Olympic Games were held!

Our bus stopped, along with about 10 other huge buses. The doors opened and we were told to be back in 20 minutes. That was it. Um, what is this place?! I had no idea at all!

After asking a man who worked there, we realised it was the area of the first modern Olympics. I was a bit annoyed that we weren't told something so important by the tour guide on our bus.

It was seriously brilliant. Such a crazy moment in time being there.

The next day, we arrived at Athens about 12pm. We had a super awesome sleep in until about 9.30am, then we had breakfast in the Windjammer. Breakfast was SUPER basic. There was nothing there. I had some mushrooms and a cold bit of toast. Boo.

Today we were doing our first shore excursion with Royal Caribbean.

Steph and Jeff didn't trust doing private excursions, which are the only ones we had done... With 100% awesome success rate can I just add too!

Anyway- our excursion was €90 each- which is about $140 Aussie.

We were to meet in 42 Street Theatre at 12noon. It was a HUGE shamozzle! A massive stuff up and it took FOREVER!!! It was first come, first group you got put in to. As we got there about 11.50, we were somewhere in the middle of the groups.

We ended up leaving the theatre around 12.45pm.

We were given headsets, although, we didn't have to use them until we got to our formal tour... We were just testing them out. Ha ha.

Greek Parliament.

A fruit tree

What a beautiful day

Stunning. Small islands

The harbour

DH and I were also in 8084 ,on the 24th October Greek Islands sailing from Venice. This was our first RCI cruise although we were Diamond equivalent to our Celebrity Elite status. I was not sure how I would like Splendour being the smallest and oldest ship I have ever been on but I absolutely loved her.The ship is beautiful and well maintained. The crew were so friendly and the aft Junior suite was amazing.Sad that she is being sold. I would love to sail on her again.Cruise director Simona was amazing!

I'm so glad you liked her!!!

I wish we had Simona! But our activities manager was brilliant and made up for the lack of enthusiasm from the CD.

We tendered from Vision and Splendour for these ports and the rides were super short- not even 10 minutes. You just have to get your tender tickets early so you're not having to wait around.

On Vision, we ordered everything to share... Even the entree. & lots of it.

The itinerary in February is Dubai,Khasab,Muscat & Abu Dhabi. We just fancy a bit of winter sun!

I've never done those ports on a cruise. Make sure to look up local laws just to be familiar with them as you can't drink alcohol outside hotel rooms or kiss in public & many other things in a lot of those areas.

Enjoying your review - photos are beautiful.

Thanks! I wish they uploaded as better quality!

Thanks for doing this. Just about to book splendour of the seas for Feb. Great review.

Oh you'll love her!!!

What's your itinerary?

I'm loving your review! Your pictures are great. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks so much! Lots more to come!!!

Because simply going out to sea isn't enough, they have to go to a location outside the Zone, I suspect on your Qld cruise Wills Island, and there is no where that qualifies on a Tas cruise

You're right! We did!

Thanks for the clarification! :-)

We were super excited to meet our table mates- as they weren't there the first night... And we were at Izumi's the second. Third night lucky???

We got to our table and Keveendra told us that no one had come to dinner the night before... Nooooooo!!! So it ended up being just the four of us, which was fine, but i LOVE meeting new table mates and getting to know each other. It was because of where I sat on a cruise for dinner, as to how I met Mick... And where we were placed on our honeymoon cruise, as to how we met Steph and Jeff... So it was a big deal for us to have great table people... Oh well!!!

My meal for the night... Delicious

This dessert was so delicious that Daniel brought us out three to share!!!! Whoop whoop!!!!

Dinner was finished and Steph and Jeff went to their room. We decided to go to the casino. It was quite busy, which was great. We had a look around and a bit of a play on the Blackjack tables, then headed to the Schooner Bar.

Usually, on other cruises we have been on, there is trivia or a pianist playing gentle music in the background... Not on Splendour. We walked right in to a jam packed room, with everyone up and dancing to an amazing Japanese man, who was playing the piano, singing and telling jokes all at the same time! It was AWESOME! So awesome.

We could barely keep our eyes open as we danced our way back to our cabin. Another day of seeing amazing, beautiful sights. What would be instore for us tomorrow?!

My amazing Mick!!! Sexy man he is!!!

Cheers

Here I was trying to take a nice selfie with the sunset behind me... Until Mick kept jumping in the pic and photo bombing! Ha ha.

Then it was Steph's turn

The four of us again

Ok, last one.

We got back onboard Splendour and went to check out the Next Cruise area. We saw a cruise for 13 nights from Australia and if we went on it, we would be Diamond after that. Hmmmm, food for thought!!!

Mick and I had a shower and a snooze, then watched as Splendour took off again, as all aboard was at 2.30pm!

Our beautiful balcony view

FORMAL NIGHT!!! I love a good formal night and this one was no exception!!!

The captain was having a welcome aboard party and we we're not going to say no to bubbles. And bubbles there were! They were literally free flowing for about two hours!!! It was great! & our selfies went in to full force!!!

The four of us

And again

Steph and I

As you can see behind us, the room was quite full!

There was another fort to climb

The city walls

Stunning

Corfu, Greece... You are stunning!!!

Jeff and Steph went to climb up to the fort. Mick and I did some shopping. I bought some scarves & we got some t-shirts too. They were all super cheap at only €5 each.

As we kept walking, I saw an ice cream shop! I LOVE tiramisu anything- so I was very excited to order some, in ice cream form! Unfortunately they gave me rum and raisin instead... All good. Delicious none the less!!!