cruise part 3

Mystery Island

Had a very early start and were on the first tender to leave the ship this morning but so worth it to get our snorkeling in early before the hoards got off the ship. The water and coral here are stunning. 

We snorkeled and swam until lunchtime then we split up to wander around the markets, Fred and I had a mooch then went and had a cup of tea. Was so quaint you got a teapot cum kettle of hot water and 2 mugs and 2 teabags and a piece of cake, the table was rough planks and the chairs and in fact everything was old and mismatched but the people running it were so polite and friendly. I so regret I didn't think to take photos.
Mystery Island is a "deserted" island but as ships pull in almost every day and islanders come across from another near by island and set up their markets stalls to sell the usual tourist rubbish I personally thought it was a misrepresentation and felt a little cheated

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Cruise continued

Our first island stop was Lifou  and the morning started a little stressful as Fred and I disagreed on where to go.  Fred reckoned we had to go one way and I reckoned we had to go the opposite way. We had been told about a really wonderful snorkelling area and our instructions were to walk up the hill past the white church to a car park  but they forgot to tell us there were 2 white churches and we of course went to the wrong church and couldn't find a carpark so after a nice  long uphill walk until we flagged down a passing car and asked directions and sure enough we were going the wrong way so retraced our steps to the intersection and had a family discussion and decided we would just find a nice spot and snorkel. While Fred Jay and the 3 kids hopped in the water the girls and I explored a little and took about a million photos.

From there we made our way back to the main beach area, Fred Erin and Renae went to a cave area with a fabulous swimming hole and Kris, Jay, I and the kids returned to the beach and swam til it was time to return to the ship

 

The next days stop was the Isle of Pines. We all enjoyed todays island so much more than yesterdays.

The beach and snorkeling were excellent and the island really picturesque.

Carnival Legend Cruise

As the cruise lasted 11 days I will do my blog over a couple of posts so you don't get tired of reading.
Our cruise left from Circular Quay in Sydney so we flew down the day before and met up with my
2 daughters and their spouses and my 3 grandchildren who flew in from Adelaide to join Fred and myself for the cruise.

I will start with describing the ship and what we did abroad and then describe the islands we visited.
The ship was huge it is 963 ft long with decks 2 to 10 for the sailing guest which number 2124 when full and approximately a 1000 crew to look after us and believe you me the staff do an excellent job, always smiling and helpful whatever the problem.
I won't list everything on the ship as this post will go on for ever but there were a heap of eateries, bars and entertainment areas to suit the different ages from very young to very mature.

the ship

looking overboard

The Punchliner Comedy Room

1 of the bar areas 

dining room 

waterslide

every night we had a different towel animal on our bed

The deck at night

part of a deck

Our first port of call was Noumea and it was my least favourite stop of the whole cruise take away the  different language I could have been at home, my view may have been tainted by it being sunday and nothing very much was open but suffice to say I probably won't return.

a beach in Noumea