NZ Cruise

Here are some more photos from our NZ cruise in March this year.  We had previously been on another NZ cruise in 2013 which was our first cruise to New Zealand.

I have been looking through my diary and noted we had a good sleep and woke at 7 am, which is early for me.  We had breakfast in the Concerto Restaurant.  I noticed on our previous cruise that we had breakfast in the Buffet most mornings but it was often difficult to get a table to ourselves but we were happy to share and we met some lovely people and enjoyed the conversations with them.

2013 NZ Cruise Horizon Buffet for breakfast

Day 2 was spent cruising so we enjoyed exploring the ship.  This trip in 2019 was on the Majestic Princess so it was a much larger ship than the Sun Princess in 2013.

The Majestic Princess has a capacity of 3.560 passengers so it is a fairly large ship, but we didn't find that it was crowded and could always get a table in the Piazza where we enjoyed a morning and afternoon coffee most days.

Deck 16 Sky Deck 

Beautiful art  in glass

The friendly staff in the Internatioal Cafe

A huge bottle  of  wine on display

The Piazza

Cruising

Some more art on the staircase

Amazing lighting on the ceiling

View of the Piazza and the levels above

Shopping on board

There were a lot of shops on the ship, and every day there were "pop up" shops which had "special" offers ranging from jewellery to handbags and t-shirts and there were also very expensive jewellery shops, perfumes and clothing, so something for everyone.  I enjoyed strolling around the shops while Ron sat and enjoyed a drink and listened to some of the excellent entertainment.

Friday fotos

View from the balcony

In March this year we did a cruise to New Zealand on the Majestic Princess.

We had a balcony cabin and we embarked from Sydney.  Here are a few photos from our balcony.

We enjoyed our view of the harbour as we left Sydney.  The views were amazing and as the sun set we were fortunate to see the Bridge and the Opera House lit up at night.  I think Sydney is such a beautiful city and we loved seeing it at night from the ship as we sailed out.

Our cabin with balcony

A  great view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from our balcony

As the sun goes down and the harbour lights up

The Sydney Opera House at night

Luna Park at night

Sydney from our balcony

BALTIC CRUISE - Warnemunde, Germany

Our cruise ship docked at the lovely little town of Warnemunde. We had decided not to do a cruise excursion to Berlin as it involved a long train trip and sounded as if it would be a very long and busy day of sightseeing.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then headed into Warnemunde which was only a short walk from the ship.  At first we found that many of the shops were not open but they eventually opened up and by the time we got to the Esplanade everything was buzzing.  It was a beautiful walk and the sun was shining and many people were already sitting in their little "shelters" on the beach.  We noticed that they all faced away from the sea and realised it was to get the sun, where here in Aus. we usually face the sea when at the beach!  At the end of the Esplanade we could see the Lighthouse and a few shops and restaurants.



Warnemunde

From the Lighthouse we walked around and down to the waterfront area which surprised us with boats taking people for short trips, restaurants, buskers and a lovely way to spend some time in the sunshine.



Warnemunde Lighthouse

 

After spending most of the day here in this lovely little town, we walked back to the ship and near the dock we came across some sand sculptures which were amazing.

BALTIC CRUISE - COPENHAGEN - JUNE 2017

We left Adelaide on 30th May and flew to Copenhagen with a stopover for a few hours in Dubai.



Time for a coffee at Adelaide Airport





Time for a coffee at Adelaide Airport before
our long flight to Copenhagen

 The flight was 13.5 hours for the first leg to Dubai and a 6.5 hour flight to Copenhagen.  It was a very long haul, very crowded and despite the best efforts of the Emirates staff who were doing their best to make us comfortable, we still were unable to sleep, just a few brief moments when our eyes shut but no real rest but we were hoping that we would get some sleep on the second leg to Copenhagen.  We had a few hours in the airport in Dubai but after our plane landed in a "remote" area of the airport we then spent 40 minutes in a stand-up bus getting to the main transit lounge.  The Dubai airport is huge!

We then boarded our plane to Copenhagen and thankfully it was not so full and we had a spare seat next to us which did make things a bit more comfortable but we still couldn't sleep.



Sunset? or Sunrise?



A few details from in-flight screen

 We arrived in Copenhagen and were easily able to get a taxi to our Hotel.  We were able to get into our room and we were so happy to have our feet on the ground again. 

The Ascot Hotel was lovely, and our room was perfect for our 2 night stay, with a window which we could open to get fresh air, and a good bathroom and plenty of room for our luggage too, as well as seating and a desk.  After freshening up we headed out to have a quick look around our surroundings as it was about 3 pm and we wanted to keep awake till our normal bedtime, and surprisingly we didn't feel really tired. 

We found a coffee shop and ordered white coffee and this was interesting, as I don't think they understood us but finally we got some milk in our coffee which came in a paper cup similar in size to a  takeway milkshake!  We had a good walk around the block and found we were fairly close to a Bus Terminal and Trains as well as many restaurants. 

Copenhagen seems to be a lovely city and we have only seen a very small part and probably will only be able to see a few of the many tourist sights in our short stay, but it has a really nice "feel" to it, very vibrant and easy to get around.



Just around the corner from our Hotel - beautiful building

After a really good sleep and a very good buffet breakfast in the Hotel dining room, we set off for some sightseeing.

 We decided to catch the Hop On Hop Off (HoHo) bus as it was only a short walk away and was "waiting" for us!  We paid the extra for the canal boat ride and made our way up the circular stairs to the top of the Red double decker bus.

 The weather was perfect and we stayed on the bus until it stopped at The Little Mermaid.   The crowd was huge around the Mermaid and we had to wait to get a good photo. 



The Little Mermid

Beautiful views from the canal tour

 We had a look around, an icecream, then hopped on the bus until we got to the stop for our canal tour.

Colourful buildings on the waterfront

The Royal Palace

Our next stop was Copenhagen Mall where we stopped for a needed Starbucks coffee and an attempt to buy an SD card for my camera as it had stopped working !  

Bike City!

Amazing sculpure in the Mall

 

Stock Exchange building with
twisted dragons tails on spire






More beautiful buildings on the canal



  

Statue of David in front of a warehouse

This boat accidentally fired a missile and luckily nobody injured!

 After a rather busy and tiring day seeing the wonderful sights of Copenhagen, we found a little Pizza restaurant and had a very good pizza and a glass of vino -  a perfect way to end our day.

2nd June - Today we made arrangements to catch a taxi with another couple we met at our hotel to take us to Oceakaj where we embarked on the Regal Princess.  At the quay we paid by credit card to the taxi driver our share of the fare, only to find he charged us the whole fare not our half as we requested.  We thought he took off pretty quickly after giving us our folded receipt!  We will not be caught like that again, lesson learnt.  Embarkation was very easy, everything was signed very clearly with hostesses from Princess helping to make it very efficient and we were on board before 12 noon.

All very organised at Oceankaj

Our cabin with balcony

Promenade Deck

Had to check things out on deck

After we checked out our cabin and balcony we headed out onto the decks to get familiarised with the ship.  It is huge and we probably won't get time to see it all!  The ship is beautiful but I will probably get lost so as long as I can find our cabin I should be fine.

Looking down from the Sea Walk



The Sea Walk



Deck 17 Sun Deck

We started to feel hungry so went to the Buffet on Deck 16 and we were surprised to find there was not a huge crowd there, but realised that we had been able to embark quite early, as most people were probably waiting till after 12 noon and so we enjoyed a light lunch with a seat by the window.



The lift area




View of Copenhagen from our balcony