ben's first cruise experience.

After 30 long years I finally experienced my first cruise, and it was excellent!  I'm not quite sure why I waited so long, though I guess it's because when I was younger my family was all about camping trips, which I loved, and then post-college I started enjoying trips where I'd stay in cottages at beach towns or rent a house with the family in a fun mountain town.  But still through most of that time, the idea of a cruise was somewhat unappealing to me, mostly because of my perceptions of what the cruise included and that I wouldn't like being cooped up for days on a small ship.  I used to think of cruises as basically floating casinos, lots of flashing lights and sounds and pretty to look at from a distance, but depressing when you got inside.  Fortunately, this was not an accurate portrayal of the cruise we went on.

My first impression upon arriving in Port Melbourne was how big the ship looked.  We were on the Dawn Princess, which is a mid-size cruise ship by today's standards, and can hold up to 1,990 passengers.  For those into specs, it is 266 metres in length (873 feet), weighs 77,499 tonnes, and has a maximum speed of 21 knots (24 mph).  The ship was full to capacity for our cruise, but even with all the passengers and almost 900 crew members it never felt overwhelming or crowded.  This is primarily because of the layout of the ship which features many different open areas and places to hang out, so while the main atrium of the ship was usually full, there would often be plenty of room on the open decks.  Candice and I had no trouble finding places on the boat to be alone if we wanted to be, and we managed to get a prime spot for all the on-board entertainment.

view of the stateroom hallway

After getting briefly settled into our room, Candice and I headed up on one of the outer decks to say goodbye to Melbourne.  This was because upon arriving on-board, we were supposed to set sail in less than an hour.  Unfortunately, one of the frequent windstorms that rips through Melbourne arrived shortly after we did, so our departure was delayed by 5 hours.  But we didn't mind one bit, we were on our holiday and it was time for our first dinner in the luxurious Florentine dining room.

too windy.

see ya, Melbourne!

With the exception of the buffet, the food on the Dawn Princess was very good.  It's all about dinner on the cruise ship, and the 4 to 5 course meals we enjoyed in our dining room were always excellent and offered plenty of variety for even a picky eater like myself.  I enjoyed steaks, salmon, pastas, curries, and too many appetisers to count.  We were also fortunate in that we had a table for 4 by the window, which meant we always had a view at dinner, and it also meant we only had to get along with one other couple at our table (which fortunately we did).  They also had breakfast and lunch in the dining room, which was excellent as well, and a really good pizza restaurant where we had most of our lunches.

some of the delicious appetisers and desserts at dinner.

That evening we were able to enjoy the first of many shows and on-board entertainment.  The first show was a bit of a teaser show to get everyone excited and interested in the upcoming shows, as it featured some comedy, a musical number by the singers and dancers, and helpful information about the cruise.  With the exception of my one seasick day, I made sure to enjoy almost all of the nightly shows, which featured comedians, lounge singers, impressionists (think Dave Coulier from Full House, only not actually good at impressions), the "fireworks on four strings" violinist we loved, and of course the singers and dancers.  The quality wasn't extremely impressive, but a couple of the comedians were entertaining and the singers and dancers always put on a fun show.  From British Invasion to Country to songs from the 50s and 60s, the diversity of genres and the elaborate costumes made the singers and dancers my favourite part of the cruise shows.  

the Princess theatre, where we saw most of the shows

Having never been on a cruise, I wasn't sure what to expect on the sea days.  I knew there would be some activities and of course a pool to relax by, but I didn't imagine there would also be paper airplane competitions.  As Candice wrote about in her blog post, we took part in quite a few activities including ballroom dance classes, arts and crafts, and a gingerbread house making competition (which we did not win, but which resulted in us being filmed and featured in the cruise "reflections" dvd).  We watched Godzilla under the stars on the big movie screen on deck, attended port lectures, a shopping guide presentation, a cowboy poet reading, a fruit carving competition, and the aforementioned paper airplane contest.  We enjoyed listening to the sounds of a string quartet, a Jamaican cover band, a piano-playing lounge singer, and the crew singing Christmas carols.  There were so many activities to choose from on the sea days it was a bit overwhelming, and really made me appreciate all that cruising has to offer.

our gingerbread house 

about to watch "Godzilla" on the top deck

coincidentally catching the end of the Seahawks game on the cabin tv - we won!

Despite all this, I don't want you, dear reader, to think that the cruise was full of nothing but sunshine and rainbows.  There were a few things that I found a bit frustrating/annoying, and I made sure to let Candice know!  Such as that latte's or specialty coffee costs extra (seriously?), while regular tea and coffee is free throughout most of the ship and via room service, except in a couple random areas where you have to pay for it.  The lack of information regarding options for food and drink in some of the bars was also weird, though not a big deal since we didn't drink anything.  I was shocked that we couldn't gamble, couldn't get alcohol, or couldn't even enjoy a cold Coke without shelling out money.  I mean, what kind of cruise charges money for these things!?  Candice says all of them do, but I'm not buying it...

formal portraits usually cost $30, but we somehow won a free one...

Seriously though, the worst part of the trip was that we didn't get to cruise through Milford Sound because of the bad weather.  Those that know me can understand that a scenic cruise through a national park of beautiful fiords and mountains would be very high on my list, so when the captain announced at Christmas dinner that we wouldn't be going I was really disappointed.  It was also frustrating because the justification for not going was to avoid the worst of the storm, but we still had a day of horrible rocking thanks to wave heights up to 7.5 metres.  Or as the officer of the watch put it, the ship went from a waltz to a very energetic rhumba.  (A note for those that are susceptible to seasickness - it's probably not the best idea to try watching a movie at the very front of the ship where the rocking is extremely pronounced.)  But for all I know they did manage to avoid the worst of it, and we made it safely back to Melbourne with a few pounds taken off my body weight to make up for the vast quantities of food I had consumed throughout the cruise, so I can't be too critical.

rocky and windy weather.

After the rough day, the weather gradually improved so that by our last day at sea the ship was back to its relaxing waltz.  The weather was also beautiful for our last day at sea, and we took advantage by spending as much time as we could by the pool while still making it to all of the shows and presentations we were interested in.  The best moment of our last day was seeing the vast pod of dolphins while we were hanging out on deck.  It was like a scene out of a David Attenborough special, with the sun setting over the Tasman Sea and hundreds of dolphins leaping out of the water to say farewell to the day and to our honeymoon adventure.

I had a fantastic time on board the Dawn Princess, and it was an excellent introduction to all the luxury, entertainment, and delicious food that a cruise includes.  I'm sure there will be a few more cruises in our future, but likely not across the Tasman Sea again.  The honeymoon was well worth the wait, and although we are still wishing we were cruising around New Zealand, we have already started planning for our next adventure and a return trip to Milford Sound as well.  Thanks to all the crew for making my first cruise a great one, and the highlight of 2014!

Until next time, Hobbits.

BK