P&O Cruises: Brisbane --> Vanuatu/New Caledonia

Back in February, my friends and I went on our long awaited cruise. We had booked the cruise months in advance and it was a great source of motivation to get through the semester and work. I realise it was 5 months ago but now that it's the middle of a very cold winter, I find myself reminiscing our time on the cruise. The islands were perfectly warm, the water was at an optimal cool temperature and sun bathing on the deck with the sun kissing your skin was just amazing. Not only that, but the general consensus was that being out in the middle of the ocean allowed us to leave our problems back on land and truly relax. 

True to our nature, the first thing the majority of us did was to gorge on some lunch buffet despite an opening party going on on the deck. Let me just say that, there was so much variety of food all the time whether its at the formal dining area, the buffet or even the grill. I was literally never hungry because I simply ate too much every meal. 

Group photo minus Emily and Chrissie. Clearly, Mario is too tall.

The ship didn't launch until mid afternoon. Until then we still had our last few hours on our mobile networks and then it would pretty much be a phone detox for a week. 

Our first day was obviously spent on board the ship. We spent the daylight on the deck in our swim wear just enjoying the breeze and sipping pina coladas. Which, frankly I got quite sick of the sickly sweet coconut taste rather than the alcohol first surprisingly.

One big thing that was quite a big stump on fully enjoying our cruise was the motion sickness. I'm someone who doesn't get motion sickness easily and I felt it. I felt it bad. We spent a few nights having dinner while still cruising to an island eating dinner at the fancy restaurants. That particular part of the boat, for some reason, amplified the motion sickness so it took everything to swallow all the food down and not spew it all over table. 

A piece of advice, spend as much time as possible out on the deck. It helps SO much with motion sickness. You definitely don't feel it as much out in the breeze. If you're feeling sick, don't just lay in bed! Lay out on the deck chairs. Or as Chrissie claims, just stay drunk the whole time. I suppose if you're drunk the swaying of the boat will seem normal. 

That's pretty much day 1! Not super eventful but exploring the ship and all was very exciting.