All Aboard!

We spent quite a bit of time on the ship. After our port day in Sydney we had 2 days at sea before arriving in New Zealand. We spent 7 days at ports in NZ where we got off each day and then we spent a day cruising the Sounds in NZ which was absolutely amazing before 2 final days at sea on our way back to Sydney. There were not a lot of things for us to do since Grace wasn't able to swim (you have to be potty trained) and we are not 70. Dustin tried his hand at trivia a couple of times and Grace had her play group every morning and then on sea days had an arts and craft session. I went to a scrapbooking class one day and almost every sea day there was some sort of culinary demonstration. There was also a Men's Belly Flop Competition and a Sexy Leg Competition (for men) which were both pretty hilarious (and somewhat disgusting!!). There was a Caribbean style band that played by the pool most afternoons and Grace loved to sit (or run!) out there in the shade and dance. There was also a soft serve ice cream machine next to where we would always try to claim a table which was pretty entertaining to watch. I don't think old people know how to fill their cones. It took each of them several minutes so the line would always move so slow. They never pulled the lever down far enough so the ice cream would barely flow. The people behind me were always impressed when I produced a large, perfect cone in about 20 seconds. I think they probably thought that I used to work at McDonald's.

{waiting for ice cream}

Almost every sea day there was a barbecue by the pool. On the last day we had some yummy tacos!! One thing they had at all of the barbecues but never at any other meal was corn on the cob, which is one of my favorite vegetables (one of the only veggies I will eat). Normally, I would claim a table and Dustin would go grab a plate for Grace and I and then go back for his. When Grace saw the corn on the cob she didn't want anything else. I think for lunch the last day she had 2 cobs before she would eat her chicken! We had people constantly running into us and telling us they had been watching Grace eat. A couple of ladies were watching her eat her afternoon snack (a banana) and were laughing at how she took such big bites. I started joking around that Grace could get a contract with the cruise line because she kept the guests entertained. I think we could have made some money by charging people a few bucks to take a picture with her!

Ever since before Grace's birthday I have been wanting to take her to build a bear. Well, on the ship they had a Pets at Sea booth. I finally talked Dustin into letting her make a stuffed animal because it would be a great souvenir. We went on the first sea day and picked out a kangaroo.

{stepping on the pedal to fill the kangaroo}

{almost finished}

{Grace and Skippy}

Her kangaroo was a lot bigger than it looked in the picture but she loves it. Now I can ask her "where is Skippy" and she will go find him! Skippy is the name of a kangaroo on an Australian TV show similar to Lassie.

One of our favorite parts of being on the ship was dinner time! We ate in the dining room all but one night. The night we decided to go to the buffet we were a bit disappointed in it and our waitstaff missed us. They told us the next night that they had been waiting on us and Grace's throne and her fruit bowl was all ready for her. We had the my time dining which meant we could eat anytime from 5:30-8:30 but we were always there around 5:30. We ate at the same table and had the same waitstaff each night.

{Us at dinner}

We sat next to a window and had some pretty amazing views each night. We would normally pull out of port a little after 6:00 so we could watch the land go by as we ate!


{leaving Sydney}

Grace had a huge buffet of food each night! I think she normally had about 9-10 different food items - fruit, bread, 4-7 green veggies, potatoes or rice, chicken or some other main dish, and then dessert.

{A normal dinner on the cruise}

As soon as we would sit down they would be bringing her a bowl of fruit and bread. She loved the little hard pieces with sesame seeds. Then they would bring out her plate of greens. They normally do not serve green peas in the dining room (I think I saw them on the menu once) but we had seen them on the buffet at lunch so we asked. After that every single night they arranged for her to have peas. One day at lunch our head waited saw us and went and cooked her up some peas! He always came by to make sure she had gotten peas for dinner.

{Grace's green veggies}

Dinner was always followed by dessert! Grace would normally get a cookie or ice cream. We learned that she does not like jello and she won't eat much of a chocolate chip cookie but will eat an entire chocolate cookie. She is very independent when it comes to eating and wants to do it all by herself. She has gotten pretty good at using her spoon and fork!

{MMmmm... Delicious!}

She loved to RUN and CLIMB. She is pretty good at going up the stairs. She never did try to go down the stairs which is probably a good thing. Once we were on deck 6 and she made it almost all the way to deck 10!

{wearing my dress for the very last time... it is getting to be too short!}

Grace really liked all of our waitstaff. By the end of the cruise she was being carried to the table!

She really enjoyed all of the attention she got from them!

{our waiter, Lester, holding Grace and one of our Maitre D's}

{smiling at the waiters}

{Grace and Blanca, an assistant server for another section but she always stopped by our table}

{our other Maitre D, Boots Mary, Grace, and our assistant waiter, Nie}

When we weren't eating we were usually chasing Grace around. We made it a point to take her to playgroup each morning unless we were in port. There were 3 days we went to the Crayola Beginnings session and we went to read bedtime stories several times. Grace was normally the only child as all of the sessions. There was a little girl, Allie, who is 3 months older than Grace who came to 2 of the craft sessions and to playgroup a couple of times. The program uses Fisher Price toys so there were a lot of Little People which she really likes playing with. They even let us check out bags of toys for our room!!

I think we enjoyed the sessions as much as she did because we were able to talk to people our own age!

{the fish she made at a Crayola Beginnings session}

The Baby Gymnastics theme was her favorite! They only have 6 different themes to choose from for each age group (6-18 months and 18-36 months) so they had to do some of them twice so she got to play with the gymnastics toys twice! Occasionally they would pull out a theme from the older group so she could have some different toys.

And another favorite thing was coming back to our room after dinner to find a towel creation!

On the last day we went to a towel folding demonstration and they gave out instructions. I have still not tried to see if I can duplicate any of the animals.

{the biggest creation of all}

We also went to a few culinary demonstrations. We missed the ice sculpting because Grace was having fun at playtime and we stayed for the older age group session (Grace was the only one that EVER made it to that session).

{carved watermelons}

Then I went on a tour of the galley. It was pretty neat seeing where they prepare the food that we eat every night!

{Chef's getting things ready for lunch}

A lot of people have been asking how Grace did on the plane. I think that is the second question I get from everyone. The first being did we have a good time. Grace was wonderful the entire trip. We couldn't have asked anymore of her. We had the bulk flight for both long flights and Grace is just barely small enough to fit in the bassinet. As soon as we took off on the first flight she was asleep. We had to wake her up before we landed to feed her because the flight attendant had put her food in coffee cups when we asked if she would be able to heat it. If we didn't feed her before we got off the plane she wouldn't have had any food left because we couldn't take it with us. On the long flight she was asleep when we got on the plane and slept up until 2 hours before we landed (which was about 7:30 back home). She only got fussy the last 15 minutes of the flight because she wanted to run and we couldn't get up. On the flight home she slept the entire time and she was able to stay in the bassinet the entire flight. The flight to Sydney they kept making us take her out because of turbulence. And she slept for probably half of our last flight!

Sydney: Part 1

Since we spent a few days in Sydney both before and after the cruise I am going to break it up into 2 parts. I will wait until after I write about New Zealand to do part 2 that way everything is in order.

So we got into Sydney around lunch time on Wednesday, the 20th. We bought shuttle tickets and then went to eat lunch at McDonald's. Grace learned the goodness of french fries! Now if she even sees them she will not eat anything else (unless, of course, it is ice cream!). It was also Grace's very first taste of fast food. We ate quite a bit of fast food when we were in port and while travelling just because it is fast and cheap. Plus, we were eating fancy dinners every single night on the ship.

After lunch we took the shuttle to our hotel and checked in. Grace took a nap while we showered and got ready to go our for dinner. We walked around Hyde Park which was right across from our hotel then went on to explore the shopping district.

{Grace loves to SHOP!}

This next picture is of the Queen Victoria Building. It was a huge mall and then went underground and into another mall. Once you got to the lower floors it was a huge maze since it was so big. The stores were all very fancy and way expensive which is totally not my type of place!

After a bit of shopping we were hungry. We asked about some restaurants since nothing in the food court of the mall looked any good to us and ended up walking to Darling Harbor. We wanted pizza but couldn't find any where we could actually sit and eat it and we did not want to carry our food around looking for a place to eat. So we ended up eating at a pancake restaurant which was very good. I think if it was closer to where we stayed after the cruise we would have gone back. Then we went back to the hotel and let Grace go swimming for a little while. The pool was a little too cold for her but she enjoyed the hot tub which was just a little warmer than her bath.

The next day we packed up our bags again so we could head to the ship. We ended up putting our 2 small suitcases inside the bigger suitcases so it would actually all fit in a taxi. The taxi driver pulled up right outside the ship and there were guys who took our luggage so all we were left with has the stroller, diaper bag, camera, and computer. We decided we would just explore the Rocks area of Sydney before we got on the ship.

{in front of our ship and the Opera House}

We were walking around when I spotted a convenience store with internet. I decided I would check into it since I knew that our family would be thrilled to know we made it to Sydney alright. While I was calling family Dustin was going to walk around with Grace since she was so tired and could sleep in her stroller.

This is what I saw when I came out to find them!

{Grace loves playing in water and they found a little fountain}

It was about lunch time so we were off to find something to eat. We decided on Hungry Jacks.
Take a look and see what you think this place is!

{Burger King}

They even have a whopper on the menu! Grace ended up falling asleep so we walked back to the ship where there were some shade trees and park benches to eat our lunch then Dustin went back to find something for Grace to eat when she woke up.

{crowds of people waiting to board the ship}

{Aboriginal that played loud, spooky music}

We still had lots of time left in the day so while Dustin was looking for Grace lunch and she was sleeping I pulled out all of the tourist books we had picked up. We decided to go to Observatory Hill and the Observatory Museum. The view from the top of the hill was spectacular!

{Grace was still sleeping so she got left out}

Grace woke up while we were still on the hill so we decided to have a picnic!

{she was enjoying all of the grass}

And then she got to run around some which is one of her favorite things to do.

{Dustin did quite a bit of chasing after Grace the entire time we were gone}

{still running around}


Then we went into the museum, which was free! It was all about stars and planets and telescopes. We were too late for all of the shows so we just looked around a bit. It was pretty fascinating but very small so we didn't spend a lot of time inside.

{in front of the museum}

Then we walked to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We had to walk down several flights of stairs to cross under it to get to the side where we were allowed to walk. Then back up even more flights of stairs. All while carrying the stroller. We walked to the lookout point on the bridge which had an amazing view of the harbor!

{Opera House from bridge lookout point}

Then we headed back to the ship and this time we checked in! We got on the ship and found our room and all of our luggage was inside waiting for us. So we unpacked as much as we could and then headed to dinner.

The next day was a port day in Sydney so we decided to stay on the ship until after the Fisher Price playgroup was over and then we went to the Opera House. We had already done quite a bit of exploring by this time so we took it easy that day since we had 3 days in Sydney still after the cruise.

{ Here is a picture of our ship from outside the Opera House}

{The pillar on the left of this picture is where we walked to the day before. Now I can see that we didn't even go over the water!}

{this was taken from our ship}

Whew! That was a lot. I think next will be life on the ship (since we had 2 sea days before we made it to NZ).

Where to Begin...Taipei!

There is so much to write about that I am not sure where to begin... should I start with the best stuff? Or about the ship? I think I will start at the beginning so I am less likely to leave something out!

We left Okinawa on the 19th and flew to Taipei. We had an 11 hour layover so we had checked on any visa requirements and found that we would be all set to leave the airport. Getting some fresh air (even if it is polluted city air) is always nice on long flights. We went through customs and immagration then headed to the info counter. This airport loves to give info! Everywhere we went people we bombarding us trying to help. They wanted to get us a taxi, a bus, tell us which way to go. They were very pushy!! We ended up hiring a car to take us around the city for 5 hours and we got to see quite a bit. We saw three things--the Imperial Palace Museum, the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial, and Taipei 101, the world's second tallest building (the one in Dubai surpassed it about a week before we were there). The Imperial Palace was ok--not very exciting, but still interesting since it contained artifacts that were actually kept in the imperial palaces of all of the Chinese Dynasties--Shang, Ming, Zhou, etc. Next, we went to Taipei 101, took the elevator to the viewing floor, and had gelatos in the cafe up there--Grace loves the Chocolate! The building was really impressive. Finally, we drove to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial, the man who founded Nationalist China, and the first leader of Taiwan. The architecture was amazing--kind of looks like Shuri Castle on Okinawa. We ended the day with a long layover at the airport and boarded the plane at 11 pm for an overnight flight. Grace slept so peacefully on the flight!

The Imperial Palace Museum

Chillin with Dad at the museum

Taipei 101 (1624 feet tall!)

Checking out the view from the 88th Floor!

Grace kept saying WOW!

The arches at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

She loves to walk by herself

Very cool architecture at this memorial temple

Daddy's Girl

Again

The cab driver took a picture of all of us

She was exhausted after the flight and long day in Taipei

Waiting out the layover. Not sure what is so cool about sitting in a suitcase, but still VERY cute

Heading Home

We fly out tonight. We have had a wonderful vacation! It will be nice to get Grace back in her own bed. I think she has missed all of her toys and books too!

Yesterday we had another wonderful day the Zoo. We got the behind the scenes tour and got to go inside some of the exhibits! Grace LOVED the animals too!! On Thursday we went to the Blue Mountains but it was raining so bad we couldn't see anything. There was a mudslide which closed down the road we were on so it took a lot longer to get back.

Today we are going to explore Sydney a little more by going shopping! We are going to try to find a park for Grace if it ever quits raining. Then it will be time to head to the airport and fly home.

Coming to an End

This is our last day of the cruise. We don't want it to end! I don't know what Grace is going to think when she has to go back to eating in our quiet house and not having 6 different green veggies every night. I may need to learn how to cook a few new veggies for her since she has found a few new favorites. We have really enjoyed our vacation! We still have 3 days in Sydney before we will be home. Tomorrow we are renting a car and driving to the Blue Mountains and on Friday we are taking a behind the scenes tour of the Sydney Zoo. Grace will get to feed kangaroos and take pictures with the koala bears!!!

I don't remember where I left off so I think I will wait until I have pictures to update on all of our adventures. If we were to do another cruise there would be things we would do differently. We won't be booking our shore excursions with the cruise ship. The two days we did have excursions with the ship were nice but very long and at times rushed. I will say that Dunedin was our very favorite port! We got to do and see so much there and just had a wonderful day. We had booked a private tour and the driver was very knowledgeable about the area and all of the wildlife. We saw endangered penguins up close!

The weather has been perfect the entire cruise too! On Monday we were in Milford Sound and saw LOTS of dolphins. More than on our dolphin cruise! There is so much more to write about but I don't have the time right now. When I get back home and get a working computer I will start by sharing lots of our wonderful pictures!