Rina Lets her SPIRIT soar! (somewhat) Live Review

So as I write this it's just turned midnight ships time (gmt+11) so let's review so far...

Woke up at 4am Thursday 25th of may to board our flights to Sydney (I by the way am from Brisbane) we fly 1 1/2 hours south to Sydney on the most quintessential Aussie airline QANTAS. What makes it even better is that both our flights are complementary from carnival (saving me almost $400). I should also mention I am traveling with my autistic brother on this cruise and it's our first time ever on the spirit! We get off the plane at T3 and there is a carnival Rep waiting at the carrousel who says we've gotta go over to T2. For those who don't know it's quite a hike when you have to pull your luggage almost a kilometre and you have 2 dodgy shoulders from working in retail for 10 years. We board our shuttle and make our way to circular quay in the heart of Sydney!

We had the first boarding time of 12Noon and the process of getting to the ship was pretty straight forward. One thing that surprised me is they didn't confiscate our passports like they have done before on the Legend... maybe it's a transpacific thing I don't know!

First thing I do is make a b-line straight to Guys Burger joint! I order the Pig Patty... if and when they add Guys to the legend I'll be one happy chappy! (She's going into dry dock this time next year so I can only hope so) I then go check out the Cantina and the tequila and rum bars (another 3 things missing on the legend that I want!). I head up to deck 10 to Fat Jimmys. Unfortunately he is closed today but they have seats up there with unrestricted views of the harbour...

Our rooms weren't ready until 1:30pm so we just chilled on deck for 1/2 an hour for it to happen. We are on deck 6 midship in an interior room right opposite the suites. This is the first time I've ever been in an interior room so this is all new for me. First impressions were it was homely and that is still my impression today.

After dropping our hand luggage in the room and such we went back up to the lido deck and grabbed a few drinks! As soon as we knew it it was mister time. We went to the muster area and waited for people to come with these IPad things to scan our cards to confirm we are at the right area and the muster. Muster didn't go too long and we went up to lido again for our sail away party! Now it wasn't much of a party (not what I'm used to I expected more to be honest). We did like 3 dances that is it then everyone scattered like cockroaches when the light came on. It was almost 7pm so that may have something to do with it...

We had a light dinner at the buffet and got ready for the welcome aboard show with our Cruise Director Lee! If you have never been to a welcome aboard show go to it! I will not spoil it here but one thing when they are looking for people to do the "Game" you need to be husband and wife. Apparently brother and sister are not good enough... :(

Well that is day 0 done done as after that I crashed in bed! I'll add the other days underneath.

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Day 1:

Woke up and went straight for bacon! Had a light breakfast and then went down to the red frog pub on deck 2 for the live morning show! It is so weird to see a live morning show as the one on the legend is basically a camera on a tripod in the cruise directors cabin... this is the Spirit Set Up:

I'm in the front row watching and all the sudden a lady from the nouveau restaurant comes on with a tuna Tartare. Never tried it before so I threw my hand up to volunteer to try it... next thing I know Lee is doing a Choo Choo train with a fork full of tartare to my mouth on live tv ...

I am eating the dish off camera in amazement. It was delicious!

Next we head to trivia First was slogans trivia... I hate when they "Aussie" trivia like this as my knowledge of American slogans is quite high! After that was Dr Seuss Trivia which we won a Dinghy on a Swingy Thingy... thank god my brother is a librarian!

We headed up to the lido deck to registrations for the mixology competition. I signed up and thought I'd have no chance of getting through But I did! My drink was called the Legit Boss (Shoutout to all those Wrestling Fans who may have got that reference!) so I go up to make my creation and was hoping for a purple colour... I failed art class by the way so I ended up with a murky sewer colour almost grey! Lee put it in words for everyone "It may look like Ship but it tastes legit!". It by the way had coconut rum blue Curacao raspberry liquor and a splash of OJ. After seeing this monstrosity I thought I had no chance of winning but the fates were with me... the two tequila drinks made the judges spit it out (too much sours mix me thinks) and the other rum recipe was labeled "Lolly Water". When it came to judgement I got to the final two when I though "Holy Foley I could win this!" Then Lee called my name as the winner I was glad I wasn't wearing white undies as they would have been brown by now... after getting my prizes I made my way to my room for a nap and to get ready for theme night 1 which was island night...

Gonna leave it here I'm falling asleep just typing! More to come soon!

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Nice start. Will be following along.

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Great start, I'm following this review

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Thanks for the live.

Nice photos!

Doing us Aussies proud Rina. Keep it up. Enjoy the islands..

Ok where was I... Island night! We went for dinner in the empire dining room (MDR of the ship) the staff were dressed in their aloha shirts and the food matched the occasion I don't remember what I ate as I was a bit intoxicated but I do remember ordering a banana split from the kiddies menu for dessert. So some pics of the dining room:

Kids menu (the wait staff thought I was crazy for asking for it... they also gave me a crayon to do the activities inside!)

And the banana split:

After dinner we went to the pharaoh lounge (main show room) for getaway island! I've never seen this production before and I was amazed! They threw 3D aspects into it and had great music! I wish it was on the legend! Before the show they had some playlist preshow fun with Lee our cruise director!:

After the show there was an after party in the pub with music Manila! They are a great band! After that we retired for the night!

Up next sea day 2!

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Thanks for the live review! Following. Congrats on winning the drink contest!

Sea day two: bit of a quiet day for me as I partied too hard the night before. So I slept until midday. Got some fat jimmys BBQ for lunch (pulled pork kransky and jailbird chicken...DROOL! A must for all carnivores!) and enjoyed the sea breeze on deck 10. It was also formal night but I wasn't feeling the best (Not Seasickness btw but a hangover with the life span of an everlasting gobstopper) so we went to check out the seafood shack. The legend had a version of it called Freshies and nobody seemed to use it. The prices were quite good for the product! For $5 I got the New England Chowder in a Bread bowl (DROOL!!!) and $13 got me the seafood basket:

Tonight's show was epic rock. It was the only show that is the same on the legend. I didn't go as it would have been predictable for me! However if you haven't seen it before please go and see epic rock!

Up next sea day 3!

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Ah sea day 3... fun today! I was back to my normal self after laying off the booze! Started the day with a hearty helping of bacon! For the record they serve two types of bacon American Bacon (over cooked like leather) and Aussie Bacon (can be classed as undercooked to some but with rind still in tact) and yes the bacon police are in force onboard (as is the roast police too at dinner time).

We went down to trivia after breakfast and won it again. The topic was Aussie States and territories. Pretty easy stuff if it was American states that would have been fun too! Years of watching wrestling pays off for once!

Tonight's show was the hasbro show. We went to the first sitting at 7:30pm. I have a lucky hotdog hat that I bought from party city in Honolulu last year. As a joke I wear it to the hasbro shows onboard and I'm guaranteed getting picked... (I mean you too would pick someone with a giant hotdog on their head right?) anyway the two games in my session was Yahtzee Bowling and Operation Sam Dunk. I got called up for Sam Dunk and the final score was Blue (me) 2050 Red 2100. It was the closest game of Sam Dunk I've seen! We were pipped at the post but had heaps of fun!

Here is a close up of the hotdog hat from September...

We went up to the lido for ice cream and popcorn then retired for the night!

Next up our first port of call: Lifou!

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Lifou day 4:

Lifou (Pronounced Lif-Foo) is an island of New Caledonia. It was recently hit hard by Tropical Cyclone Donna and it was visible. Lifou is an island great for snorkelling and swimming but as I can't swim I really couldn't do much here. The temperature would have been 25-27°C (Sorry I don't speak Imperial or Fahrenheit). I really didn't do much here as there was not much to do unless booked on a tour or you can swim. I did however check something off my bucket list and that was to get my hair braided! $25 dollars gave me my hair braided and a massage too.?

Here is what Lifou looks like:

And the spirit:

Coming up next: Mexican Fiesta featuring Sushi?

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A wee bit off the timeline but we are in the empire dining room again and well the whites are always out! I find it gives it a luxury feel to your dining experience... underneath is like a white marble by the way!

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Singing karaoke in a shanghai piano bar wearing a sombrero...

The ship pulled anchor from Lifou at 5pm local time. I should also mention Lifou is a tender port so no watching for pier runners... (we save that for Noumea)! Tonight was Mexican night everyone donned their sombreros and fake moustaches and let the tequila flow like water! Tonight's show in the show lounge was Martin Ralph who is a juggler. I've seen him before on the legend and walked out halfway thru. Simply because I am friends with a juggler who does cruise ships here in Australia and does much much more complex things than him.

So I went up to the shanghai piano bar for karaoke. I love the decor of the piano bar it actually makes you feel like you've stepped into a little bar in the back streets of shanghai. Our karaoke hostess is Cheeky Charlie from England. From 7-8 it's family friendly then after 8 for an hour it's adults only. In that 8pm block Charlie does a song about her life. Tonight's song was "I will survive" as she talks about the time her boyfriend dumped her 2 weeks into her first contract and she drank 3 bottles of wine at 3am with this song on repeat. Charlie is a character!

Before this I got up and sung the Cups song from Pitch Perfect. Charlie and 4 other people got plastic cups from the bar and started doing the Cups song right there on the bar! Charlie said as a Pom there is only two instruments she can play... Cups and Spoons. I will endeavour by the end of the cruise to get Charlie some Spoons to play with!

After karaoke I was hungry (I completely forgot about dinner) so I got bonsai sushi before it shut and ordered a bento box. The sushi here is totally worth the price! I paid $13 for 9 sushi a salad miso soup & edamame. I would pay near $20 for that on land!

I forgot I took this in bonsai sushi...

After this we went up to the lido deck for the Mexican Fiesta! They did the Macarena/chicken Dance (why they mashed the chicken dance with the Macarena is beyond me) Cha Cha Slide and one other called the Wiggle (never heard of that one!)

Halfway through it was overrun with kids so we left for the Adults Only comedy show. The comedian was Greg Sullivan. He used to do Breakfast Radio in Brisbane many years ago. This is the 3rd carnival cruise I've been on and the third time he's been in the comedy club. Mr Sullivan I swear I am not stalking you it is just fate... will I see you on the legend at Christmas? Maybe! If Greg is on your Aussie Cruise please go see his Adults Only shows!

Up next: Mystery Island (That is its actual name)

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Lifou looks beautiful!!! Enjoying your review!

Mystery island!

First I gotta shout out to all of the kind words about my review! This is my first ever review for cruise critic so I'm glad that you like it!

We got up at 7am today so we can make our way to mystery island. The tender over to it takes 15 minutes. Brief background on mystery island is that it is an uninhabited island and locals come from nearby islands every time a cruise ship is in to sell their wares. Mystery Island does have an airfield for tiny planes to land. Legend has it that Queen Elizabeth the second plane made a brief landing here to fill up fuel for her plane.

The island Is my favourite on this cruise. It is quite nice and relaxing even if you stay out of the water! There is a lot of cultural things to do here plus there is a marketplace to buy thing like pens snow globes fans sarongs apparel and more. Most of which is handmade. Australia has tough quarantine laws especially to shells sand and wood products so I keep away from stuff like that.

If it is your first time to mystery Island I suggest going to the cannibal soup. It is a photo opportunity near the market place for $5AUD

Also there are locals with these iguanas which they put on you for a photo opportunity for $5AUD as well. They are harmless and cute.

After a good 3 hours here we made it back to the boat. Tonight's show is the love and marriage show. I'm not a fan of this show maybe because I'm single like a Pringle I don't know! I kinda wish they did like a perfect match show as well which would have been fun.

We had an early night tonight as we were both exhausted after today.

Up next is Mare.

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Loving this so far! The ports over there are neat to see!

Looking forward to the next installment

My apologies folks I have been off the boat and back home for 2-3 days now sick with the vertigo feeling (hopefully it goes tomorrow ). I have made it my mission to strap myself to the beast and finish this tomorrow. This is also where I'll be posting the fun times and other Various papers I came across on the ship.

Cheers, Rina

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Yay!! Glad you're coming back to finish. Hope you feel better soon!!

Mare (pronounced Mah-Rey) is an island of New Caledonia. It is a small island (not as small as Mystery Island) and very humid island! So much so it made my phone crash! It was 28°C but the humidity must have been at 90% or higher!

The only Carnival excursion you can do on Mare is buying a $20 return transfer to a beach called Yejele (Pronounced Yay-Lay). I've said it before and I'll say it again when I "attempt" to swim the butterfly looks more like the BlubberFly. Ok that was harsh but the truth is again I can't swim to save my life so a visit to this beach was out of the question!

So after returning to the boat looking like (and feeling like) a drowned harassed rat we went up to lido deck for the port day matinee movie which was... umm hang on I thought we were watching secretariat I just looked and it was actually seabiscuit. I feel like a goofball! So we sat and watched the movie with a guys burger and an massive helping of pickles with ranch dressing on the side... yeah I'm the girl who'd probably go to McDonald's and order extra pickles on her burgers!

Afterwards we made our way down to the red frog for beer pong! Now I've never played beer pong before but it was fun and I'd totally do it again!

Tonight's show was another one that didn't interest me at all as I've seen her before on my transpacific cruise in September. Her name was Nikki Bennett. She's a singer and to be honest her show was more aimed for mums and dads who "put the kids in camp ocean" for the night. Not my cup of tea! I went to the casino for the night to watch Game 1 of the State Of Origin match. State of origin (for my American folk) is like a state versus state game of Gridiron (instead of wearing padding we go al natural in the padding area... I don't think we even wear Cups! Just short shorts and A jersey) like if it was Seattle vs New England for 3 games and whoever wins the most games gets bragging rights for the next year... It was being shown in the sports bar casino and on lido deck. So I was playing the pokies (Slots for my American readers) winning up a storm having fun watching the game wherever I could until I am on a set of machines nobody is around I'm on my own so I turn the volume up on the machine. Then it really starts paying off! So as all the bells and whistles go off a (much older and ruder by the way) lady sits down right next to me (reeking of booze too) puts $5 in and yells at me to "Stop winning" as the noise is driving her insane! She reaches over my machine pulls out out my sail and sign card and throws it in the floor! Little did she know a security guard was right behind her to escort her out! I picked up my sail & sign card put it back in and in 2 spins I got the minor jackpot of $300. Well if that ain't karma I don't know what is! I started with $20 and walked out with $500. Not bad!

Our next stop is... Noumea (our final stop!)

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Last stop before Sydney...! Noumea

Noumea (Pronounced New-Mia or Noo-May-Ah depending on who you ask) is the capital of New Caledonia and the most urbanised of all the ports we have been to. Noumea is one of those places where if you've been there once the second time around will be bland. If it is your first time to Noumea I recommend doing the Tchou Tchou Train. It is a big motorised road train that takes you to all the hotspots of noumea. For the adventurous visit Amedee Island. Those tours sell pretty fast.

For the seasoned visitor of Noumea go to the Casino Supermarket in the middle of town. Before you do make sure you swap any currency to XPF (Pacific Franc). You can do this in the Visitors centre across the street. This is a great place to buy French Wine or alcohol (it will be confiscated when you board the boat and given back at the end of the cruise) as well as stuff like Chips Confectionary and Water... you know those things on the boat that can charge you an arm and a leg! You can also buy souvenirs here too. I remember when I first visited Noumea 4 years ago I saw the "Casino" & thought it was an actual Casino like Caesars Palace. Looking back I was an idiot!

Tonight on board is the 80's night... no not a throwback Day just 80's night. We went to the 80's trivia party and had heaps of fun!

Here is Lee decked out in his 80's gear!

Our show tonight was 80's pop to the max! I have found a new show that I love! It's fluro 80s pop crazy.

After this we went up to the deck party. Didn't stay very long as again hit was over run by kids who were unsupervised. Plus we lost our hearing too as it was quite loud! I could also tell my autistic brother didn't like the atmosphere as he was acting out. Something he does when he doesn't like the situation he is in.

Up next is sea day 4!

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My apologies for not completing this sooner as I have had a lot of trouble with the app I use for the forums not letting me reply or post anything. So now I have every thing fixed to some extent I will finish my review!

Before we left Noumea the captain informed us that the next 2 days heading back to Sydney will be our roughest as we will be going through a low weather system.

Before I continue I must say this... I have Emetophobia which is a fear of vomit. Being on a cruise ship with several first time cruisers who don't know if they will get sea sick or not and me don't really mix especially if there is rough seas. I don't have a problem with rough seas as I have survived the "Terror storm of April 2015" Wikipedia mentions it on the Spirit & Legend page. Put it this way I was on the Legend in the middle of this storm leaving Sydney and we were listing so bad that I was forced out of bed by the motion of the ocean and rolled from one side of the cabin to the other. The alcohol in the gift shop and bars were all forced off the shelves and smashed on the floor. It was 2 nights of hell I would never ever wish on anyone. Ok a bit off topic but I'll get back to it. Anyway I have a phobia of vomit (which I call a "Reversal of fortune" as even the word creeps me...) and me seeing hearing or smelling it will make me run in the other direction in an instant!

I woke up that morning to go and get some breakfast I go to get into a lift to take me to the lido deck the doors open and here is a kid having a "Reversal of fortune" in the lift. As soon as I saw this I ran back to my room and asked my brother to go and get some breakfast. I had a quiet morning in my room watching tv and sleeping. I woke up at midday and my brother handed me an invitation that was in our mail box...

As Australian cruises very rarely have passengers who are diamond platinum or white card holders gold card holders are invited to the vifp parties.

Here is all the senior staff onboard

Here is Lee with the Entertainment Directors

Tonight was just a quiet night in due to the high seas.

Next post final sea day and arrival into Sydney.

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Thanks for returning to your review to finish up, many do not. I like your writing style and the story about the pokie night with the rude woman is priceless.

How was the cannibal soup? I've read it can be too salty.

Really enjoying your review! :)