Cruising Back to Sydney

The final two days are at sea as we sail south back to Sydney. Carnival does do a good job of having lots of activities of every kind. You can do as little or as much as you want. 

Day 8 — At Sea

We were able to sleep in a little longer this morning. After coffee and putting the absolute final touches on our model ship, we had breakfast, played trivia, learned how to make towel animals, played cards, and had a little lunch. 







Each day at sea at about noon Captain Mario comes on the PA to give a navigation update — he is fun to listen to: great Italian accent and quite exuberant. 

He mentioned that we were moving along at 19 knots, which is not slow. We left Airlie Beach well after our scheduled time, sometime after 8pm. We heard that a passenger gashed his foot open pretty badly on rocks on shore. The gossip was they were deciding whether to wait or leave him to get better medical attention. We don’t know what the decision was, but we think we are moving fast today to make up a little time because we left so late. 

At 12:30 it was time to report to the Lido Deck pool to float our ship. There were eight entries. Ours was definitely the largest and most cruise ship-like, but a few others were creative and colorful.





First came the sea trials. Six of the eight held all the cargo and floated well, even in the very rough seas. Ours could have taken on quite a bit more. 




Next, the judges — two passengers — made the final decision. After a few minutes of discussion … the FUNtastic, the name of our ship, pulled off a first place finish!  We had finally received a coveted “ship on a stick” trophy!  ðŸ¤£







Right before the ship contest we had eaten a hearty lunch, so afterwards we had a good long nap. We think Jim was still recovering from the early morning and long excursion yesterday. 

After our rest we got dressed for dinner and had a drink at the atrium bar; we also enjoyed the string trio again. We also met a nice Aussie couple, Deborah and Shane, and had a nice conversation about their cruising adventures. 





Dinner was quite good tonight. We turned in early after after checking out the crowd at the Lido pool who were watching a big Aussie rugby match on the big screen.

Day 9 — Sea Day

We both had a really good sleep last night and didn’t wake up too early. After a quick breakfast we headed to morning trivia and stayed for a trivia game with a theme — The Office television show. We didn’t do so well. 😂

We spent the rest of the day playing shuffle board, cribbage, eating, lounging, playing trivia …







We had our last dinner …





Day 10 — Disembarkation 

We entered the harbor at about 5:00AM and docked just after 6:00AM. 



We arrived to rain, but no complaints as the whole trip has been sunny weather. There are some severe storms south of Sydney. It definitely feels like winter this morning. 

After breakfast we walked off the ship at about 8:15AM. We are ready to get on with today, but it’s always a little sad to leave the ship that’s been home for the last ten days. 







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