The cruise was one of my favourite things we did in Australia. It had so much to do with being in the middle of the ocean. We were on the cruise for 8 days! It was just the right amount to be on a cruise. We were on Princess Cruises and on the diamond ship.
When we first got there, it was quite a bit of work to get onto the cruise. You have to drop off your luggage, check-in, and then go through all the security. It was kind of like boarding a flight. I’ve only been on a cruise once when I was 5, so I don’t remember it. When we got on it was all very fancy and reminded me of the Titanic. We first went to our room. The room was small like any ship room but it was perfect cause it had bunk beds. We explored the boat that night and just got used to being on it.
A few days later we had our first port. It was in Arlie Beach. We had to take a tender to the island. The tender was a safety boat from the Cruise. It was a bit sketchy in my opinion. While my Mom and I were shopping and checking out stores, Kinnon and my Dad were swimming. My mom and I looked at all the Australian beach stores and got some food. Then we met up with the boys at the pool. We were swimming in a pool because it was jellyfish season, so they told you, you couldn’t swim. Since the weather was so hot we basically stayed in the water the majority of the time. Later that day we went back on the cruise, ate and then did some cruise activities. My favourite cruise activity was for sure trivia.
The next port we did was Carins. It was a little beachy town in Australia. I would say it was a little run-down but still nice. At that port, we went swimming again in a pool. We were you still couldn’t swim in the ocean so we cooled ourselves down by swimming in a pool. The next day was a whole day at sea. We ate a lot of food, played some cruise games, and swam. I would say I loved at-sea days cause they were fun just to relax on the ship.
The last port day was in Port Douglas. I would say I was very stressed on this day. We were going snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef. I know it sounds so cool but I was so scared. I don’t really like the ocean so this was a big step for me. I would say when I woke up I felt so stressed and very anxious. On our way there I was contemplating everything. I have a big fear of sharks and thought there were going to be sharks where we were snorkelling. On the boat ride there I was a bit at ease but was still pretty stressed. Once we got all geared up I felt a bit more comfortable. Right when I got in Kinnon started telling me “Did you see the shark”. Right at that moment I started crying, I was so scared and started crawling up my dad’s arm. The main reason why I was so scared was because of seeing sharks. I calmed down after a bit and got pretty comfortable. It was really pretty and had lots of different fish. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and it was pretty calm and soothing. After snorkelling I felt like I could do this multiple times now.
Those were my highlights of the cruise and I had a blast. I enjoyed every part of it especially getting all done-up for dinner and going to all the activities. The cruise had lots of ups and downs but I’ll remember it for a long time.
