It was the October 2024 school holidays for South Australia and we booked a cruise with P&O. This cruise was certainly well set up for families. The day had finally arrived and we were very excited to be catching up with our daughter and two gorgeous grandchildren, so we can spend the next 7 days all together making memories.

Facts

• It can carry 2,600 guests
• 12 guest decks
• Twin racer water slides
• Byron Beach Club
• 290 meters long
• 108,865 gross tonnage

Embarkation / Disembarkation

We were staying with family south of Brisbane and they very kindly allowed us to leave our car and caravan with them for the next 7 days.

The cruise terminal is located at Pinkenba and is a $50 Uber trip and about a 25 minute trip from Coorparoo. Not the prettiest location in Brisbane but nevertheless it has plenty of parking if you choose to drive and leave your car there. Please note the road into the terminal is in terrible condition, primarily as it is in Brisbanes industrial section and heavy trucks are going in and out daily, not the mention the sewerage works next door.

We had our Embarkation time booked and I must say everything went smoothly and before we knew it we had our rooms and bags and we were enjoying a drink ready for us to set sail.

Our first 2 nights we were at sea when we finally arrived at Willis Island, located around 450km east of Cairns. It is located in the Coral Sea and beyond the Great Barrier Reef. It is home the Australian Bureau of Meterology (BoM) weather station which is a early warning station for cyclones and storms. It is one of the worlds oldest weather stations built in 1920 and has been providing valuable weather observations ever since.

We sailed close by but not too close and they managed to link up with one of the Scientists currently living there on her 6 month rotation. It was very interesting listening to her explaining life living on the island.

Very soon we had started to turn around and headed back to the mainland and by morning we were docked in Cairns. We had an overnight stay in Cairns, we didn’t have a shore tour booked for the first day. Primarily because nothing suited all of us or was booked out. So our Daughter and Grandchildren enjoyed a day visiting the sights of Cairns city, while Chris and I enjoyed a relaxing day by the pool. Later on we met them over at the Coral Sea Brewing Company and enjoyed a beer or two.

The next morning we had our shore tour booked for the Karunda Sky Rail and the Karunda Markets. We then enjoyed lunch at the Petite Cafe.

We set sail the next day for the Whitsundays and we booked a day out on the Lady Enid to sail through the Islands and to do some snorkelling. The sailing was lovely but shorter than what it should have been. Unfortunately, P & O changed the itinerary without letting the Lady Enid know we would be arriving about 2 hours later than arranged. This of course had a on flow effect with the sailing and the snorkelling being shorter than planned. But at least it was a beautiful day out on the water. Back on the cruise ship we set sail for Brisbane having 2 more nights at sea.

We throughly enjoyed our food, hospitality and time on the ship and we all loved Angelo’s restaurant. Blanc de Blanc stage show was amazing as were the comedy shows, we watched. Both the kids enjoyed all their activities on board the ship. The swimming pools were busy with children of course but overall we had a fabulous time.

This was our first time cruising with P&O and now they will cease under that name and go under the name of Carnival in 2025. We throughly enjoyed cruising with them and found most things well organised and some not so. But all in all well done to P & O Cruises.