Stopping at Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach is the most famous beaches in the world and one of the most popular stops on the Sydney Big Bus Tour. It can be reached by the Blue Route, which is currently suspended, but was in operation when we were in Sydney. This is a must see attraction in our opinion.

We had about an hour to get something to eat and explore the town and beach before the next Big Bus came along and we were able to continue our journey.

 

click images to enlarge

According to Wikipedia "Bondi," originally "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word which had the meaning of "noise made by sea waves breaking on the beach," which is essentially the definition of "surf" in contemporary American English. As you can see from images captured during our visit to Bondi Beach, this is quite an appropriate name.

Lunch Break & Beach Time

The Big Bus dropped us off near some restaurants and shops which were just down the block and across the street from the beach.  Since we only had an hour, we opted for a quick lunch at McDonald's.  We were in the mood for a taste of home anyway since we'd been gone over 14 days at this point.  After lunch we crossed the bridge, seen in this photo, to the sprawling beach.  It would be a great place for a picnic or just to hang out and enjoy the surf and sun.  As you can see, the beach was quite crowded, but no one seemed to mind as there was plenty of room.

We got to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus and resume our tour.  We still had plenty to see before the tour was concluded.

Additional photos can be found on our Australia & New Zealand Shutterfly page

Bondi Beach

Big Bus Sydney




Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.

Connect With Us On

       

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers


Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat

Where is Chris - Sunscreen Protection Day

Here's a little known "holiday" -- Sunscreen Protection Day. Sun Screen Day educates and brings awareness to the importance of using sunscreen to protect yourself and your children from harmful UV rays from the sun. This day is held on May 27th, just in advance of the summer and vacation season.  In today's destination, you definitely want to be wearing sunscreen.  We were on a cruise and the captain kept announcing warnings about staying protected from the sun.   For those that didn't listen, they were sporting a bright shade of red later that day.

Today would be a good day to education your children on the dangers of being in the sun too long without sunscreen.  #KeepTheKidsEngaged

We hope you are enjoying this series of  "Where is Chris" posts.  We'd love your feedback on our social media.

Where is Chris? 

Where is Chris    Learn More

Here is today's post: See if you can guess where I am. 

As promised, we've updated yesterday's post, Where is Chris - Spacey, with the answer to the puzzle.  Revisit that post and just scroll over the image to reveal the answer.  You can also click on the link below the picture to read more.  

Make sure to follow us on our social media, so you don't miss any destinations. 

If you can't wait for tomorrow for the answer, you can take my quiz in my Instagram story.

Follow Us On

        

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers

How to Spend Summer Vacation

When we think of Summer...
CRUISING comes to mind

We missed the "live" tweeting on #travelpics because we were on a Seminar at Sea on board Carnival Breeze.   We still wanted to share our responses, so pardon the late entries.

Questions for last Monday’s summer-themed #travelpics chat: 

(3:00) Intros: Please introduce yourself and tell us where you’re tweeting from today!

Key West, FL during Carnival Breeze #cruise #travelpics (picture above is Carnival Breeze in port)

(3:05) Q1: Home or abroad, where is your favorite place to spend your summer? Why?

A1: On a cruise - doesn't matter where it is going. Great way to #seetheworld  #travelpics

Seeing the world by cruise ship is one of the easiest ways to get around.  You embark your ship and unpack and each day you are either somewhere at sea or in a new port of call.

This cruise took us from Miami, Florida to Key West, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, Mexico before returning to home port of Miami.

(3:10) Q2: Share a photo from your most recent quintessential summer vacation.
A2: Relaxing is what #summer #vacation means to us  - by the pool, in the sun or shade #travelpics

I guess we can't be more recent than the vacation in progress during this #travelpics chat.  Truth be told, it was a mix of business and pleasure, but our trips always are that way since we are constantly learning and gathering images and information to share with our followers.

In this image, you see the Carnival Breeze main pool area on Lido deck.   It's not far form there to your favorite meal venue, such as Guy's Burger Joint.

The perfect ingredients of sun, shade, water, and plenty of places to simply relax can be found around the pool area.  Top that off with perfect weather, and it doesn't get much better than this.

 
(3:20) Q3: BESIDES swimming at the beach, what do you think of when you picture summer? Favorite activities?

A3: #summer fun activities for me include #waterparks Carnival Water Works #travelpics

At home we've been known to take a summer vacation that includes some time at a water park or two.  Carnival Breeze's Water Works is a great place to splash around.  I opted for the slightly slower orange tube which dumps you into the "drain" at the bottom of the slide.

(3:30) Q4: Show a summer photo of yours that ISN’T sand, surf, or sunglasses.

A4: as I get older, I'm getting braver Carnival Breeze Rope Course was my next conquest #travelpics


This definitely doesn't include sand or surf, but since it was bright, but glasses did automatically darken.  Here I am waiting for the people ahead of me to clear this next section of the rope course.  It took some figuring out at first, but once I got the hang of it, the rest was "easy".

(3:40) Q5: What is the most unique place you’ve ever spent your summer?

A5: it was end of #summer when we visited #galapagos Celebrity Cruises #travelpics

We explored this Land Beyond Xpectations via Celebrity Xpedition.  Here you'll see species that can be found nowhere else on earth.  You can snorkel with turtles, sea lions, and other marine line.   Walk along paths where Darwin explored over a hundred years ago before writing his famous publication.

(3:50) Q6: From hiking to wildflowers, show off your favorite view of summer anywhere in the world!
A6: #galapagos islands have many beaches like Urbina Bay #travelpics


We traveled by zodiac from Celebrity Xpedition to this landing site in Urbina Bay.  You can't tell from the picture, but it is one of the more difficult wet landing sites on our trip due to the inclination of the beach.   After landing on the beach we went on a short hike in search of Giant Land Tortoises and Land Iguanas before returning to spend some time snorkeling and swimming in the bay.

This concludes our #travelpics chat about #Summer.  We'd be happy to share other images from our summertime cruising adventures if it helps you plan your escape.

This final image was captured in Cozumel at Secrets Aura Resort.   We spent the entire day there relaxing, swimming, and enjoying a fabulous fresh fish lunch.  We'll write more about our day there in future posts, as well as the rest of our trip, so be sure to follow our blog.

Have you seen the  #travelpics recap? http://bit.ly/17RRaFq

Join us for #travelpics on Monday's at 3 PM ET every week for a fun-filled hour related to travel and photography.  Follow us on Twitter: @ChrisPappinMCC  Pinterest: CruiseWithChris Pappin and Facebook: CruiseWithChris Pappin Cruises Inc for more ideas.

Carnival Announces More Changes

Carnival Cruise Line

Cracking Down on 

Deck Chair Hogs

It's a beautiful day at sea aboard your Carnival Cruise.  You have some breakfast, change into your bathing suit, lather yourself in sunscreen, grab a book, a hat, and your towel and head to one of the sun decks to catch some rays.

Experienced Cruisers - Does This Sound Familiar?

Upon arriving at the sun deck, you see row upon row of chairs lining the pool area.   Now, you just need to find that perfect spot to hang out for a few hours.   You survey the landscape and see towels, flip-flops, books, and all sorts of items on the chairs.  Someone has beaten you to that chair, so you move on, only to find all the chairs are already taken.

New Program Going Fleetwide

Carnival Cruise Line, responding to guest comments, has recently been testing a program on Carnival Breeze.  The program is designed to ensure that all guests are able to enjoy equal access to sun loungers by preventing seat saving in outdoor deck areas.

Outdoor deck area crew monitor sun lounger usage and when they see a seat that contains a towel or personal belongings that appears to be unoccupied, a notification sticker with the time of day is placed on the chair. If the seat remains empty for another 40 minutes, the contents are removed. 

Carnival says that the test program was well received by passengers, and they have decided to gradually roll the program out over the next several weeks with the entire fleet enforcing the new policy by mid-September.   Note:  other cruise lines have similar programs.

Hopefully, with this new program, the next time you are on a Carnival Cruise, you won't have the experience mentioned above, of not finding a sun lounger.

 Carnival Expands

All-You-Can-Drink Package

Now on

Carnival Splendor & Victory

UPDATE 9/15:  Carnival Spirit & Breeze Added

The trial program, "My Awesome Bar Program", debuted on Carnival Victory and has now been expanded to Carnival Splendor.

The per-cruise cost for the "My Awesome Bar Program"  is $42.95 per person per day, plus a 15 percent gratuity. 

Purchasers can partake of a wide variety of wine, beer and spirits, as well as sodas, bottled water and non-alcoholic frozen cocktails throughout their cruise.  Not all drinks are included in the program.  Specialty coffees are excluded, as are drinks that are more than $10.    Passengers participating in the program can get a 25% discount on bottles of wine and Champagne, as well as more expensive wines by the glass and cocktails.

There is a big catch, however.  If one passenger in a cabin wants to purchase the beverage package, then all passengers ages 21 years and up in the same cabin must also purchase the package. 

Once again, Carnival isn't the only cruise line that has beverage programs of one sort or another.  Some programs are restricted to certain ships and destinations.   It will be interesting to see if this program expands to more ships in the fleet.

We'd love to hear your reaction to these new programs ...

Do you think that this program would be for you?   Do you think the value is commensurate to the cost?   What do you think about requiring all passengers in the cabin to purchase the package?

Note:  For those that haven't cruised before,  as you can now see, alcoholic beverages, soda, and bottled water are extra cost items on the majority of the cruise lines.  For the most part, it's only on the luxury lines that you see the cruise cost include alcoholic beverages, for example.

 

Celebrity Solstice - Poolside

The sun is shining, the temperature is warm, there's a gentle breeze blowing and you have the entire day at sea. This is the formula for a perfect day poolside.

Celebrity Solstice offers several pool choices. On the Resort Deck, the main pool area consists of a Sports Pool, Family Pool, and Wet Zone. The Solarium and Aqua Spa are forward from there on the same deck. Flanking the pool area are the typical lounge chairs you find on any ship.

What distinguishes the Solstice from other ships are the unique lounge chairs poolside. In addition to the typical lounge chairs, you'll find lounge chairs built for two that are secluded inside shaded columns that flank the Family Pool area.

Make sure that you go up the secret staircase to the Solstice Deck where you'll find an assortment of loungers including my favorite the oversized red loungers pictured above. These are perfect for catching some rays or simply relaxing.

Whether you are looking for sun or shade you should be able to find a chair to suit your requirements. Lay back, catch some sun, read a book, talk to friends and family, have your favorite beverage and just relax. The Solstice provides the ingredients for a perfect day at sea, it's up to you to complete the recipe.