I was surprised to sleep in until about 8am. But then again,
as I told Kory, we went to bed at 12:03am after our dinner and late show… and I
can’t remember the last time I was up so late.
We returned to the fabulous breakfast buffet for the second, and last, time. I snapped a few pictures and was entertained by kids who were constantly excited to see, and then use, the chocolate fountain. As far as I could tell, the kids were eating from the chocolate fountain and getting ice cream and that was the extent of their breakfast.
From breakfast we headed back to the room and started packing. We had both crammed so much into our bags and we pretty much had to repack all over again. It is like a puzzle, one that Kory is way better at than I am. But after an hour or so we got it done. I took a few pictures of our great room and told Kory, “welp, our entire cruise ship room is going to be about the size of this hotel bathroom”.
We had a little time to kill before heading to the ship. We took a walk around the neighborhood. We were in the University and college part of town. There were some legit looking universities (College of Auckland) and some questionable ones… (jewelry design…) There were also a ton of travel schools. I am not sure if they are a scam or not, but I suppose a lot of people go into the tourism industry.
At about 11:30am we got a taxi to the port for our 12pm cruise check-in time. It was great that the ship docked right in downtown Auckland. Very different from when we flew into Rome and it is an hour to get to the port. Or Orlando even where Port Canaveral is about an hour away. Our taxi took about 10 minutes and dropped us off at our floating home for the next 12 days, the Norwegian Spirit.
It took us about a 40 minutes to drop off our bags, (they go through security and then get brought to our room,) wait in line, then get checked in, (lots of travel documentation needed for this cruise…. Passport, visas, etc.). Then after a quick passport control and security check, we were on board.
We booked the cruise relatively last minute just a few months ago so dinner reservations for the specialty restaurants were already full for pre-booking. This was why I wanted to be among the first groups to board, so we could make reservations that they hold back for onboard booking. I accessed the onboard wifi and got all the reservations we wanted while everyone else was waiting in a long line to talk to someone. This is when Kory said he is again happy to have a travel planning expert husband. :)
While we were waiting to check-in Kory also said, “I think we’re brining down the average age of people on this cruise 10-15 years.” To which I replied, “I hate to tell you, but each cruise we go on, we’re brining that average age down a little less because we are getting older.” He didn’t like that comment much and disputed that we are getting older.
Anyways, dinner reservations made, we could get on with the fun and explore and get our first of many, many fun cocktails.
We wandered the ship checking out the different spaces and bars. I know we will be visiting Magnum’s Champagne and Wine Bar frequently!
At about 2pm they announced our cabins were ready… We ventured to ours and Kory said, “The cruises are getting more expensive and the cabins we are in are getting smaller and smaller.” It was a nice space and though the bathroom is small, it is well laid out and will be fine. Besides, we will rarely be in our room.
We were very excited to unpack and get everything put away so we weren’t living out of our suitcases like the previous few days. This is one of the main benefits of cruising… go different places, see different things, wake up somewhere totally new… without packing and unpacking.
We had a 6pm dinner reservation for the Italian Restaurant “Onda”. They asked if we wanted to dine Al Fresco because it is the only restaurant on board you can do that. We thought that would be lovely… and for the most part it was. It was a little hot in the beginning in the sun, and a little chilly at the end in the shade and wind, but the view couldn’t be beat. We were sailing away from Auckland and the little islands around it. They slowly got smaller and smaller in the distance. Dinner was delicious, especially the bread service… I love bread, and the Stromboli bread and multiple dipping sauces were awesome here.
After dinner we headed for the theatre and saw the comedian. I remember laughing, but was pretty exhausted and tipsy by that point. Once it was over, we went to the room and I was sleeping by 9pm, within two minutes of walking through the door.
Bonus story I forgot about on our rainy day in Auckland yesterday: In Auckland SO MANY PEOPLE use the little scooter things. Some people buy them, or they are readily available from the Uber or other apps… We didn’t want to walk to our dinner reservation in the rain, so we Ubered. But on the way, this guy was zipping up and down the hills and then wiped out skidding down the hill to the stoplight. It looked crazy. Luckily he was wearing long pants and coats or he would’ve been really scraped up. But he just jumped up, ran over to the scooter, got back on it and continued on. Moral of the story… I won’t be getting on one of those things, especially in a foreign land. And I can’t believe we didn’t see more wipeouts.
Other observations from Auckland:
So many people Vape I can’t believe it. There are vape stores, convenience stores and coffee shops EVERYWHERE. And most open 24 hours.
Getting tattoos and piercings seems like a national pastime. I probably sound 100 years old when I say that, but it seems like nearly everyone has them.
Tons of foreign labor. I think they must have work visa exchange or similar from other countries. There were a limited number of actual New Zealanders that we interacted with in Auckland or Waiheke Island.
Anyway, now we are on to our many planned activities at the cities along the cruise!
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