Tag Archives: new year

Celebrating Christmas on board Carnival Spirit

Our cruise on Carnival was advertised as a Christmas cruise so obviously I was expecting the Christmas to be special on board.

As soon as we walked onto the ship, I could see that they had beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere. It actually felt like Christmas all the time we were on board.

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Definitely, Christmas day was very special. We had sea day on the 25th of December so everyone was on the ship. They had announced the previous day that they were going to have special Christmas lunch so we were looking forward to that.

On Christmas morning, after a quick workout at the gym, we went to the buffet area for breakfast. Most of the staff and some of the cruisers were already wearing Christmas hats, ties, headbands and earrings. The environment was very festive and there were tables full of families enjoying the Christmas breakfast.

IMG_1043-tile-vertAll the dining areas had watermelons craved with figurines like, Merry Christmas, Santa’s face, flowers and other the Christmas decoration. Also there was an area where they built a gingerbread house, some snowmen and it looked really pretty.

IMG_1024 (2)We had our usual breakfast and as it was nice and fresh. When we were done with breakfast, we saw that a few staffs were craving something on a big block of ice.

We went back to our room and on the way back we saw many rooms door decorated with Christmas decoration. Actually, they were giving prizes for best-decorated doors.  Once in the room, we had a shower and went back to the buffet area again and was surprised to see this beautiful ice carving of Santa with his reindeers and it looked absolutely amazing.

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The staffs on board worked really hard to make sure the ship had full Christmas vibe. The captain of the ship was walking around wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and we managed to take some photos with him too.

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After admiring all the decoration on that floor, we went around to find more activates. Everywhere we saw people in Santa hats and red outfits. I felt like I was in a mall somewhere, not on a ship.

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There were photographers capturing family photos with Santa and Christmas tree and there were families enjoying their time together. For me and AS, we didn’t want photos with Santa so we kept on roaming around until we found the hall where bean bag throwing competition was about to start. It was going to be Men Vs Women.

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I wanted to take part so went and had my name written down. After a few minutes, game started. 4 males vs 4 females.  They gave us 4 bean bags about 10 inches square and it had to go inside a board with a small hole around 15 feet away.

It was a fun game. The first few times, all my bags were either on the floor or on the board but once I got the hang of it, I scored a few points. It was entertaining for everyone watching as well but unfortunately, the male group won the game.

By that time, it was time for us to go to the restaurant (Empire dining room) for our Christmas lunch.

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When we arrived at our table, there were already Christmas crackers on the tables and the staffs were in a festive mood wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. Rest of the couples from our table arrived and we started the lunch.

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They told us that they used to have Christmas dinner before but for the first time, they were organising Christmas lunch because that is an Australian tradition and they wanted us to enjoy an Aussie Christmas. It was really thoughtful of the management and staff because it was extra hard work for them to organise the special lunch.

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The menu was even more aussiefied with crusted lamb roast, prawns and pavlova on the menu. We loved the food and it was fun popping Christmas crackers and wearing the hat. I have to admit, they made us all feel special on the special day.

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After lunch, both of us were so stuffed that we went to the upper deck and just relaxed on the lounge. We enjoyed the beautiful sunset on the horizon before going to the room to get ready for dinner.

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Like every day, the Empire dining room served one of the best dinners and we were happy with the service and food.

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After dinner, special Christmas show was organised in the main hall (Pharaoh’s Palace) so we went there.

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The Christmas show was fun with Christmas carols from the singers and some kids, followed by Christmas song, Christmas story and many more entertainment and of course Santa Clause.

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Overall, AS and I had a splendid Christmas on board Carnival Spirit.

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On the way to our room we had a quick stop at the casino and had some fun :).

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We were both tired after a while and were off too bed.

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Hope all of you a great one too.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

I am back

Hello everyone and a very happy New Year 2014. Yap I am finally back to reality from my wonderful holiday. I am back with refreshed mind, few more kilos on my body, 5 shades darker and lots of memories.

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I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Thank you so much for all your good wishes.

Thinking about this, I just realised that time goes so fast and it’s already been a year since I was writing a Happy New Year post from Kathmandu.

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Anyway, I am happy to report that I loved the cruise and all my fears vanished once I stepped into the Carnival Spirit. It was so grand and majestic that I loved everything.

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I already miss twice-a-day housekeeping, wonderful and yummy foods, the amazing views, snorkelling in crystal clear water, relaxing on the pool side and watching amazing shows every night. Everything made us feel spoiled and made our holiday perfect. We also meet some great people who made our holiday even better. I have so much to share with you all but before that I need to unpack, do the laundry, clean the house, do some grocery, get in touch with our families and get ready to go back to work from tomorrow.

So as I get my life sorted in the real world, please enjoy some amazing photos from our holiday. I promise I will be back with heaps of posts soon.

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Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

Welcoming 2012

I am finally back in Sydney after our nice break. We had an early morning flight leaving Vanuatu so I was sleepy the whole flight. When we landed in Sydney airport, I felt good that I was in Sydney just in time to celebrate New Year.

2011 was one of the best years for me as it was the first New Year celebration that AS was by my side to start the year together. I wanted to do something special for AS so I had bought a cruise ticket to watch the fireworks in front of Harbour Bridge and Opera house. They say Sydney’s fireworks are one of the best in the world so I wanted to be sure that we got the best seats in the house.

After Skyping with our family and having lunch, we headed to the city. As soon as we were in the train I could see that it was going to be a very crowded few hours. We got off at Circular Quay to catch our boat. There were thousands of people every where. I had not seen that many people at one place for a long time. We went to our pick up area and saw that there was a long queue to board the boat. We joined the queue and we were escorted on to our boat.

Once we were in the boat, I saw that they had a live band playing beautiful songs. There were around a 100+ people but there was enough room for us to walk around and pick the best seats. We decided to stay on the outside top deck. After everyone was aboard, our boat moved towards the open water and stopped in between Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

AS was armed with his DSLR camera so when the countdown began for New Year 2011, the camera was clicking as fast as it could. I think we had almost 1000 photos for that night alone and most of them were of the fireworks. It was a beautiful display of colourful fireworks. The atmosphere was so alive that I was sorry the celebration ended after just 25 minutes. There were so many boats in the water that I was glad I was among them  and so close to see the amazing show.

This year, it was a different story. As it was the last day of 2011 and I had so many things I needed to do but I was too tired (read lazy) after our holiday to do them so my New Year 2012 resolution will be to tie up all the loose ends this month. Also I will try to eat healthy and work out regularly along with AS. I also want to be a better human being and try to be less selfish with my needs 🙂

Last evening, we met up with a few friends and my brother and headed to Brighton Le Sands to watch the fireworks because the city is always too crowded for the New Year’s fireworks. Of course there were many people in Brighton Le Sands as well but we managed to get to the front of the beach and watch the amazing fireworks from there. Even though the fireworks may not have been as spectacular as the one in the city, it was still breath-taking and the crowd too was just awesome. The best part was we could walk back home after the celebrations.

This year too AS was armed with his camera and he got beautiful shots of the display and obviously some beautiful shots of me as well with the fireworks in the background 😀 .

The theme of 2012 was “Time to Dream”, capturing the imagination and giving hope.

Happy New Year from Sydney, everyone. May the beginning of the New Year be the beginning of great things to come the whole year through and may the New Year be filled with wonderful adventures and many successes!!!