Day 1 December 1st 2012

December 2012, time to go cruising again.  

December 1st - Embarkation.  

This time our party consisted of Raina, Sarah, Andy and Chris Brain, Sarah's bestie. Once again we were traveling on Radiance of the Seas out of Sydney, in a family suite and were travelling to the South Pacific.   We worked out a better mode of transport to Sydney this year.  Raina and Andy, with the luggage, drove to Sydney and Sarah and Chris caught a Murray's bus. We all headed off at the same time and arrived at the same time. Chris and Sarah sat with Andy and the luggage while Raina took the car to the long term parking in Darling Harbour then came back in a taxi.

Embarkation was fast and easy. We were on board by 12 noon, with our wonderful Gold Cards - the key to a luxurious life. Sarah and Chris had eaten the traditional embarkation mudslide cookies from Latte-Tudes (the coffee shop) and all was well with the world. The Christmas decorations were up and the ship looked lovely. It was then off to the Windjammer for lunch and a beverage then time to go and explore our room. 7672. This suite had an even bigger lounge room than last year's.  Andy's room was smaller but Raina did have a HUGE walk in robe/gimp closet.

We all meet up in the Concierge Club at 5pm (as was to become our ritual) for a few welcome drinks. Raina did not have any luggage yet so had to mix and match with Sarah and Andy's clothing. It was great to catch up with Juan Diego and to meet Chandler the new barman. And of course there was Norman May and Roxanne. A fun night was had.  Sail away was fun with three of us running in and out of the club to look at various things or to refill drinks. Chris and Sarah were both 'well buttered' given the wondrous discovery that was the "Royal Caribbean Long Island Iced Tea", massive, free poured, and with a full six spirits and mixed with concentrate so - tasty as.

Raina and Andy tested out their beds while Sarah took Chris on a guided tour of the ship. They had a few drinks, they completed a puzzle in the games room (a new cruise activity for Sarah), took bites off the massive gingerbread houses and lounged on the stage in the movie theatre among other things.\

We then sloshed off to dinner in the main dining room. Sarah "shmeared" Chris with butter, reminiscent of Year 8 with Sarah Cox. By some wonder we managed to avoid being removed from the main dinning room.

Sarah and Chris went out and made a quick start in terms of the making friends agenda and quickly joined up with another two couples - all Drama/Teacher types. They danced, they sang, they played golf, they supped spilt drinks from the astro-turf, they performed an acapella rendition of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' atop the golf course and they generally ran amuck until the wee hours.