Carnival Cruise to Tasmania

And we're back. Just like that, and the holiday I have been long waiting is done. It was fun, but I hope it was a tad bit longer.

I had wanted to book this cruise to Tasmania since last year. I remember mid-2024 when I was looking at promo deals for a Nov 2025 5-day cruise between Sydney and Hobart, but ultimately decided not to book. Fast forward to Dec last year, we saw another good deal from Carnival and heard that a couple of family friends are interested (Madulis and Araullo), so we all did our pencil booking and invited others in. Not long after, we already had 8 families booked in (Au, Maduli, Araullo, Dela Cruz, another Dela Cruz, Romasanta, Bainy, and Beltran).

In January, we confirmed our booking and we were set to go.

April 6, Sunday

- after performing Church duties, kuya Gelo drove us around lunchime to Circular Quay for our boarding

- boarding went smoothly and we were up to the Lido Deck for lunch by 2pm.

- met with the rest of the gang for photos and sail away party at Deck 10

- kids went and explored the ship. Played mini golf, basketball, and went to swimming.

- Ethan and Erin went to their youth clubs and made new friends. Erin spent a lot of her time with Princess.

- big group dinner together at the restaurant in Deck 5

- the trip down towards Tassie was a little unpleasant. The sea was rough, it was extremely wavy with huge swells so some people in the group didnt feel particularly well. Lani went to bed early as she was nauseous.

- few of us went for late snack at Lido around 10:30pm, before calling it a night just before midnight.

April 7, Monday

- It's sea day and the water is much calmer, which is wonderful

- kid had a late night and didn't wanna have breakfast so Lani and I had a morning date at one of the fancy restaurants

- watched a few shows in the theatre throughout the day

- bit of shopping

- in the afternoon, kids went to a build-a-bear show

- Ethan spent most of his time at the youth club

- Gala dinner either the whole group at 6:30pm

- Then watched the 9pm rock concert

April 8,Tuesday

- arrived early at Hobart and we all went off-shore to enjoy the place. We broke off in 2 groups - one going to the nearby Mt Wellington, and another going further to Port Arthur.

- bit of walk to collect the pre-book Kia Carnival from AVIS (got a good deal via Cashback by the way)

- drove up to Mount Wellington to get frozen at the top of the mountain. Managed to spot our cruise from way up top, which was great moment

- afterwards, we drove down to the cafe mid-mountain for snack and coffee. Then decided to go on a short hike to the lookout.

- drove to the Women Factory, an historical correctional facility

- we decided to spend the rest of the day near the port so we returned the rented cars

- visited the Museum to look at the Manchu Pichu gallery

- then ate fish and chips at the food stall by the pier as we waited for re-boarding