3 Nights, 2 Days, 1 Ship, Part II… Setting sail - the fun and frivolity begins...

Having secured a splendiferous last minute deal on a cruise from Brissy to absolutely nowhere, I was keen to get myself on board and enjoy a couple of days of R&R.

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As soon as we boarded we were immediately greeted by friendly P&O staff who encouraged us to hastily abandon our hand luggage and head straight to the Waterfront restaurant, to enjoy lunch, a cold beverage and meet some of our fellow passengers.

TIP 1: Do not leave your cabin without your daily schedule of events so you don’t miss any of the fun stuff! Or to figure out how to avoid the hoards!

Waterfront is the only table service restaurant included in your fare on Pacific Dawn, and a word to the wise if you want to eat dinner there at a time of your choosing book early.

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There are only a couple of sittings for dinner nightly and if you want to attend the musicals, variety acts, themed parties, or latest release movies screening on the pool deck, you need to book as soon as you possibly can.

TIP 2: Book your fare included restaurant seating times as a matter or urgency! These fill up faster than an octagenarian can fill a plate of prawns on seafood night!

We were seated at a table of 6 and found our lunch companions very friendly, some seasoned cruisers and some first timers. However, the food itself was a bit of a mixed bag.

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TIP 3: The best food is not always served in the flashy sit down venue were you are limited to 3 options per course.

Some beverages are included in your meals at the Waterfront like iced water, milk and juice served at the table and brewed coffee or tea. However, when you book your cruise you have the option to purchase a variety of drinks packages.

Basically these fall into 3 groups, soft drinks, then soft drinks plus specialist coffees (hot and cold) and juices and all these plus alcohol with some premium exceptions.

Of course each is priced differently on a per person basis but are not capped (responsible service of alcohol rules notwithstanding), so you can have as much as you want. Being a light weigh myself and also taking an alarming amount of meds that shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol I went with the soft drinks plus specialist coffees package.

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Now there are a couple of tricks to utilising this package. Firstly, you can only get soft drinks in the Waterfront, no specialist coffees. So if you want a cappacino after dinner you will have to go and find a bar/lounge that serves them.

Once you find out which bars/lounges do serve the specialist coffees in your package then you’re in business, but you do have to work around their openning times too.

TIP 4: Order and pay for your drinks package at least 4 days before sailing or the price will rise like the tsumani wave from hell!

Having done lunch it was time to head to the welcome shindig on the main pool deck. As soon as the lift doors openned you could hear the party was well and truly underway!

Seeing cues at the bars both permanent and pop up were already several people deep beyond the glass doors leading out onto the deck, and still desperate for a post lunch caffine fix, just inside the doors we found a little coffee shop with a huge coffee machine! Eureka!

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Now back enroute to the festivities and boyed by a double shot in the coffees, chino’s in hand we booggied our way through the laughter, chaos and madness of the pool deck welcome festivities.

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There were extra pop up bars to help handle the departure party crowd, a huge big screen playing video clips, people riding the flying fox directly over our heads, while the entertainment team were giving dance lessons enmasse in anticipation of that evenings welcome aboard party in the same venue. Great party atmosphere and as you can see from the photos everyone was having a fantastic time.

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But despite what seemed to be 100s of sun lounges, these were all vigorously occuppied, spas and pools were full, as was the kids water park (and not entirely with kids) and so was pretty much all the seating.

TIP 5: If you want a sun lounge near the action, you better plan a sleep out or pre dawn raid! This is highly prized real estate, reliquish it at your peril!

As it was a tad loud and a tad crowded, we pressed on toward the stern! Now there’s a sentence I had never anticipated typing… Anyway there we found a fabulous vantage point overlooking the adults only (meaning no children allowed, not anything kinky, well at least not while I was looking).

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On the Oasis Deck twin spas, a collection of sun lounges, swings and couches (some even unoccupied) awaited us to take in the view as we sailed out of the Brissy River and into the Pacific.

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Then the real relaxation part began as we laid back enjoying the cool breeze, and watched a spectacular sunset slide behind the Glasshouse Mountains as we bid land farewell…