Saturday, March 1, 2025

Our time in Auckland has come to an end. This morning, we spent time packing our bags and hanging around our rented airbnb until Noon. Then, Andi called an Uber and the four of us drove to the Auckland Port where the Norwegian Sun cruise ship awaited.

Over the next 16 days, the Norwegian Sun cruise will travel from Auckland, Zealand to Bali, Indonesia with several stops along the Great Barrier Reef. Bali is our next travel destination after Australia, so booking this cruise proved to be a fun and cost-effective way for us to get there. By booking last minute, we were able to secure this cruise for $80/per person/per day. That’s cheaper than it would have cost us to fly to Indonesia, and it includes food, lodging, and entertainment. Plus, cruising will allow us to visit several cities in northeastern Australia along the way.

Boarding a cruise ship has a similar security process to boarding an airplane. At the ship terminal, we waited for about an hour and a half in lines for passport & immigration checks and bag security.

It was nearly 3:00pm by the time we boarded the ship. We headed straight for the buffet; we were all hungry after barely having anything to eat for breakfast or lunch. The Norwegian Sun is a smaller-sized ship with 1,500 passengers and 900 crew members. The buffet, called The Garden, had plenty of food options. We filled our plates with fresh salad, bourbon chicken, French fries, and fruit. Tory and Aden were thrilled to see Jell-O on the dessert menu.

After our late lunch, the four of us walked to our designated assembly station to verify we knew where to go in case of an emergency. This is mandatory for everyone before the ship departs the port. We’d already watched the safety briefing video through the app before we boarded.

We also visited Splash Academy to register Aden for the ship’s kids programming. The kids area is free for kids ages 3-12. There’s also a teen room called Entourage for people ages 13-17, but Tory wasn’t interested in signing up, she said.

It’s always fun to walk around all the floors on the first day to see what the ship has to offer. We spent some time locating all the restaurants, the pool, theatre, and the Internet cafe. I like watching where people go as they arrive — some head straight for the bar, others lay by the pool, or go to the gift shop. There seems to be a big group of single seniors on this cruise; we saw several advertisements for singles meet-ups.

Andi and I were excited to have access to a gym again, so we put on our workout clothes around 5:00pm and headed to the fitness center. I don’t normally work out in the afternoons, but a bonus of going later in the day is that the gym isn’t as busy. After our workouts, we got in some steps by walking on the ship’s fitness track.

For dinner, Andi, Tory, Aden, and I returned to the buffet and ate our meals on the outdoor patio. The sunset was absolutely gorgeous tonight. As we dined, the ship began sailing away from Auckland. We watched the sky light up orange around the city’s Central Business District.

There’s all kinds of live music performances and dancing on the ship each night, but Andi and I were feeling tired tonight. We decided to watch a few episodes of Schitt’s Creek on the iPad in our stateroom with Tory while Aden closed down the kids club, Splash Academy, until 10:00pm.

We’ll be on the ship all day tomorrow as we travel toward mainland Australia.