New Zealand Cruise . Days 1-3 . At Sea

DAY 1

After spending a good hour or so checking our bags and going through the different security points we finall got our seapass cards and walked onto our ship for our 14 day adventure around New Zealand! It was lunchtime so we headed to the 11th floor to eat lunch at the Windjammer Cafe. This Cafe is always an all you can eat buffet. Actually, everything on the ship is pretty much all you can eat. It seemed a bit surreal that we were finally on our cruise ship. After lunch our rooms were ready so we headed down to the 3rd floor to our cabins. Our two adjoining rooms were perfect for us--the kids in one room and Mike and I in the other. We even had our attendant fix the kids room so the twin beds were separated and the bed in the ceiling was brought down. Everyone had their own bed because Abby fit perfectly on the couch. The kids were so excited to have their own room with a great view of the water from their giant circular window. After getting everything settled down in our rooms we took a tour of the ship. We checked out the spa and the gym and all the pools. We signed everyone up for rock climbing and signed the kids up to participate in the Adventure Ocean kids program. We had fun playing miniature golf on the top level and had the best views of the city of Sydney as the ship sailed away from the harbor. We spent our first dinner in the main dining hall and since it was Emma's birthday they sang to her which was really special for her. It was so great to be eating such great food and to not have to worry about how much everything cost because it was all included in the price of the cruise. Brilliant! After dinner we headed back to our room for a little birthday party so Emma could open up gifts from her granbparents. Grandma Ann and Grandpa Franz gave her some new girl legos and Grandpa Al gave her a cute Dora card with 25 $1 bills inside. She was beyond excited by both gifts. The kids were so excited by everything offered on the ship that they didn't go to sleep until real late--after 10:30pm.

DAY 2

We all slept in which was so nice and then we dropped the kids off at Adventure Ocean for some great fun with kids their own ages. Mike and I enjoyed some alone time in the hot tub and then walked around eating whatever we wanted and playing basketball. We picked the kids up for lunch and then got dressed to go swimming. The kids loved going down the water slide. The girls had to go with one of the adults but they didn't care. There was even a little tiny slide that Abby had fun on too. After some fun in the sun we got the kids dressed and dropped them back off again at Adventure Ocean at 2:00pm for the afternoon program. I went straight to the spa to get a massage that Mike set up for me. It was so wonderful. We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out with my parents playing miniature golf and just hanging out. It was nice to be able to spend just some adult time together knowing that the kids were having a great time with other kids their ages. We picked them up around 5:30pm and had a little bit of downtime in our rooms before heading up to dinner at our 6:15pm time. Tonight we had a table on the other side of the dining area right next to one of the. It was absolutely perfect because we had the best view, great staff, and a private table all to ourselves. Tonight was also our first formal night. The boys were so tired from playing hard today that they fell asleep at the dinner table after dinner and before dessert. Dessert perked them right up though. Today was the first day of our after dinner towel animal ritual...our first one was a seal! Grandma and Grandpa got an elephant. Today was all about relaxation and fun and seeing as the patch has been working great there has been no worry of getting sea sick!

DAY 3

Today was another beautiful sunny day where we literally spent as much time as possible in the sun.  After three days in the sun I was starting to look a little pink. The kids enjoyed swimming with us, eating the fabulous BBQ buffet by the pool,and playing with their friends at Adventure Ocean. The adults enjoyed minature golf, ping pong, soaking in the hot tub, snacking and chatting, soaking up the sun, and Mike and I even enjoyed our first round at the rock wall. I don't need to say who made it up first but if you must know it wasn't Mike.  Better luck next time honey! 

Sydney, Australia . Before the Cruise

We arrived in Sydney today after a relatively easy flight.  I never thought I would say that a 9 hour flight would be easy.  It did help that we took the red-eye flight. The kids loved having their own TV's with remote controls at the ready to watch movies, cartoons, or play video games.  It will be hard to fly another airline after having been spoiled flying Qantas Airlines.  It was quite a lengthy process to get through everything at the airport (especially as we were all a bit tired) but we survived and caught a maxi taxi (the biggest van we could find) to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Sydney.  The weather was warm and the air was clean and everything was green.  It was a far cry from what we were used to in Tokyo.  Our hotel was only a couple of blocks away from the ship so we headed down to see the ship and explore a bit.  The ship was HUGE which made us all the more excited to get on it.  We eventually met up with my parents back at the hotel.  Our reunion was sweet as the kids ran up to give my parents big hugs.  It had been almost a year since the last time we had seen them in person (except for skype of course).  It was a great moment.

  

We didn't waste any time and headed to eat breakfast at Pancakes on the Rocks which was fantastic.  On the way we browsed through the market which was super fun.  We headed back the long way just to explore the Sydney Bridge and the other streets.  By the time we got back to the hotel I was so exhausted from not having slept that well on the plane.  I took a short nap while the girls played with Grandma and the boys went out with Grandpa and dad.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Botanical Gardens near the Opera House. The weather was gorgeous and it only slightly sprinkled on us for a short time.  We decided to head on the little train to take a tour of the gardens and then walked around the gardens for the rest of the afternoon.  The kids loved walking and running barefoot through the many fields of grass.  In fact, we all took off our shoes to enjoy that feeling.  Real grass is something we don't get in Japan.  It was a nice perk to today's adventure.  We ended up walking all the way around the gardens and then back to our hotel with fish and chips for dinner.  The kids weren't too thrilled with the fish but had no problems eating all the fries.  At least they all tried the fish and then filled themselves with granola bars afterwards.  My parents treated Emma to a sleepover in their room.  Emma was so excited  when I dropped her off that she immediately told me I had to leave.  Funny girl.  The rest of the kids enjoyed watching Zahara on TV--except for Andrew who fell asleep at 6pm.  Looks like staying up all night watching TV and playing video games on the plane finally took its toll on him.