Boom Boom, aint it great to be crazy!

For some fun and frivolity, we decided to have a mad hatters Tea party to celebrate Xmas in July. 

Not only did we have a wonderful display of hats but we had a special visit from the big man himself and his helper Wazza the Elf.

Our head waiters extraordinaire helped us choose a couple of winners....

What we would like to see is the CC footage of a fellow Pacific Circler raiding the toilets and borrowing the carnations to decorate her hat...

And so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess.

The Circle of Friendship

Just before arriving in Yokohama, we arranged to have a group photo of our Cruise Critic Pacific Circlers group.  Thanks to Garry and Mal our photographers extraordinaire.  It is not easy to get 200 passengers to look in the same direction… ok so we are happy with 95%

And so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess.

The Men's Shed

A little tradition that started a few cruises ago was the formation of the Men’s Shed.. Grunt! Grunt!

This is an opportunity for the boys to meet for coffee and a chat each sea day morning..  They see it as a good bonding session… We girls find it a great opportunity to get things done without our fellows under our feet!!

Pacific Circlers Gift Exchange

One of our Cruise Critic activities on board was a Pirate Gift Exchange.  The Idea was that everyone would buy a gift up to the value of $10. The theme, something that you find handy on a cruise.  

Most people put a lot of thought and went to great efforts with their gifts.  We had magnetic clips, plastic wine glasses, fancy lanyards, adult colouring book with Pencils (no not that type of adult book), fluffy pink handcuffs (yes, that type of handcuffs ) crosswords, sudokus, etc, oh and also that talking bottle opener.

 There were some who were a little unfair in what they contributed, and I felt the embarrassment as some gifts were opened.  It wasn’t till a couple days later that it was brought to my attention that a receiver sat down with his T-shirt, and on closer investigation, found the Princess laundry tag still attached.  This was quite upsetting and he walked out early.  Moving forward, I think we will ask for names and cabin no’s to be attached to the gift so recipients can be thanked in person!!

Getting that off my chest, I will now move forward and say what a great time we had.  Thanks Janet from the Northern Territory: her gift was her autobiography of her life as a part of the Royal Flying Doctors Service.  Well this gift became the hot potato of the day.  It was the most stolen gift where people didn’t get a chance to put their bums back down on the seat, before it was stolen again.  In the end it was easier to have the holder of the book stand up front with me! A lot of jokes and a lot of laughs.

Anyway, thankyou to all who attended and thankyou to those who helped make it a fun day…

And so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess. 

Shout out to my beautiful Deck Angels

I am lucky enough to have a group of lovely ladies who are happy to deliver the reminders to each of the Pacific Circlers cabins. 

They are Sharon, Sandie, Ann, Loren, Larraine, Lorraine, Eileen, Keryn, Pat and Marie….

A big thank to each and everyone…

Oh but I do believe that there a couple of devils giving them a hand..

And so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess.

Water, water everywhere but we have alcohol to drink!

Another way to while away the day is to gather with good friends and have a drink…  Only cruising out of Australia will you find a group that will BYO fold up chairs…  Yes at drink o’clock ( 5pm ) at the back of deck 11,  the party faithful arrange their chairs, fill their glasses and debrief on the day’s Events

d so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess.

Are we there yet!

There are lots of sea days between Sydney and Darwin, but as we sail upon this mill pond, we occasionally glimpse an island or two, especially the really big one on our Port side.

The Big Island - Australia

 Filling in the days has not been difficult, especially when it comes to organising our Cruise Critic events… I thought I had them all finalised, even sent out the notices for our gift swap, only to get the call that they have now scheduled the crossing the equator ceremony at the same time… back down to guest services for me, and yet another cabin drop for my Deck Angels.

We did have our first lunch the other day which was a roaring success.  Approximately 170 Pacific Circlers invaded the dining room.  The look on Sean, the Head Waiter’s face as the never ending stream of passengers passed by was priceless.

There is always trivia

Our Dinner Table

Slot pull..... we may not have been winners, but we were grinners.

And so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess.

Day 2 We are Sailing..

It is amazing how it doesn’t take long to get back into cruising mode.  Once you are unpacked, and the bags are stored under the bed, it is like you have never been away.

Today is Meet and Greet day. The invites went out, so it was fingers crossed that Captain Ricky and his team would turn up.  With a sigh of relief, they came.  Although he had another appointment to rush off to, our Captain addressed the group and introduced each of his officers. 

We decided to re-introduce the Bloody Legends awards, and already we have a list of contenders, and of course, our first couple were sensible, like… Ray for his great effort on name tags and Marie for looking after our roll call so well.  But then being the loving wife, I had to give one to Garry for being such a great Wine Dropper!

Our meeting ended with a little get to know you game, well, as well as you can with around 200 people in the Marquis dining room. Everyone seemed happy enough with the way things turned out, except for Mr Grumpy Bridge Player as we broke his precious silence…

Unfortunately, we needed to have the medivac chopper come in and pick up a passenger with ulcer problems, but the captain later told us that he was ok and the rumour mill has it that he will back..