TRAVEL: Before March, my knowledge of cruises had been gleaned entirely from the ‘70s TV series The Love Boat.
Captain Stubing, Julie McCoy and the rest of the crew taught me everything I needed to know: cruises are for couples whose relationships were on the rocks, people with terminal illnesses and families with small sons called Bobby (or possibly Timmy) with bowl haircuts wearing polo shirts and chinos.
More recently I’ve gathered that cruises are also popular among time-rich, cashed-up baby boomers, and schoolies drinking flaming jelly shots from each others’ navels.
Because of this, I could happily have lived my life without ever setting foot on a cruise ship.
But then, I was invited by Carnival Cruises to test-sail the Carnival ‘Spirit’ on a 5 day cruise from San Diego to Mexico – down the Baja Penninusla to Cabo San Luca and back again. Tough gig I know, but someone had to do it. This would be one of the ship’s last cruises in American waters. Carnival Spirit is being brought to Australia to sail the South Pacific out of Sydney from October.
This is one big ship. NOTE – Never, ever refer to a cruise liner as a ‘boat’. Especially when dining at the captain’s table; it’s nautical faux pas number one.
Spirit accommodates some 2,500 guests and about 900 staff. She boasts ten decks, three swimming pools, two waterslides, 16 bars and I reckon if you laid the corridors end to end you could walk from Sydney to Vanuatu with a side trip to Fiji.