Mum turned 80 earlier this year. It’s one of those birthdays that carries a bit of weight – not heavy, exactly, but meaningful. The kind that makes you pause and ask how best to mark it.
For Mum, the answer was always going to involve travel. The sea, in particular, has threaded quietly through her life: her father (my grandfather) was a naval officer, and later worked in the cruising industry, and she first sailed at the age of 12. But while cruising is a big part of her personal history, it had been decades since she’d last stepped aboard a ship. And boy, have things changed.
For me, this was uncharted territory entirely. My first cruise. And not just any cruise – the Celebrity Edge, a Royal Caribbean behemoth carrying around 3,000 passengers. A ship so large it doesn’t really feel like a ship at all, but more like a floating luxury city, complete with its own neighbourhoods, entertainment precincts, wellness hubs and more places to eat and drink than a lot of regional towns.
What neither of us quite anticipated was that this voyage from Sydney across to New Zealand, planned as a celebration, would also become a lesson in modern hospitality, human kindness and how profoundly reassuring it is to be looked after when you least expect to need it.
Big ship energy
Embarkation day at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney’s Circular Quay felt equal parts exciting and surreal. From the moment you set foot on board, the sheer scale hits you. Ceilings soar. Corridors stretch away in every direction. Crew members glide past with calm efficiency, gently steering passengers toward the right desks, the right lifts, the right beginnings of their holidays.
We boarded through The Retreat line, which meant minimal waiting and maximum ease, something that would prove invaluable very quickly. Mum was already feeling a little off. The sea hadn’t even properly entered the equation yet, but the combination of excitement, fatigue and a lingering leg injury meant she wasn’t feeling her best.
It was here that the tone of the trip immediately revealed itself. Crew members took notice straight away. They didn’t fuss, but nor did they ignore it. A chair appeared. Water arrived. Someone asked, kindly, if she was comfortable. It was the first of countless small gestures that would define the journey.
After waving goodbye to the Sydney Harbour Bridge – see you in two weeks! – dinner that night was at the Rooftop Garden Grill, open-air and gently buzzing as the city slipped away behind us. CBD high-rise lights reflected on the water. The harbour and then the North Heads receded. Mum picked at her meal, grateful for ginger biscuits, tomato juice and patience. No one rushed us. No one made her feel like she was holding things up. We were already at sea, in more ways than one.
Sea days, slow days, learning “the city” onboard
The first few days were spent entirely at sea, making the long journey across from Australia to New Zealand – which is both the joy and the challenge of cruising. There’s nowhere to rush to, and nowhere to escape to either.
For Mum, seasickness arrived properly once we hit open water. It wasn’t dramatic, but it was persistent. Add a tender leg to the mix and suddenly navigating a 300-metre-long ship becomes a very different proposition. And yet this is where the Celebrity Edge quietly shines.
Crew members seemed to materialise just when needed. Someone offered an arm on a staircase. Someone else adjusted a chair without being asked. In lifts, staff gently ensured frailer passengers got on and off safely.
What struck me most was how normal this care was. The majority of passengers were elderly. Some walked slowly. Some used mobility aids. Some simply needed time. The crew treated this not as an inconvenience, but as the baseline reality of the ship. Support was built into every interaction.
So as Mum rested more during these days, I explored. I discovered that even with 3,000 people onboard, the ship never felt crowded. Not once did we remark, “It’s busy today”. In fact, one of our ongoing games was pointing out how rarely we ever saw the same person twice! It happened so infrequently that when it did, it felt almost noteworthy.
This is intentional design. Lounges are spread out. Pathways curve. There are quiet spaces tucked between showy ones. You can vanish into the ship if you want to, or sit front and centre and watch the world go by.
Eating your way through a floating city
Food on the Celebrity Edge isn’t just sustenance – it’s a daily decision-making exercise. Do you want animated 3D storytelling with Le Petit Chef, where a tiny projected chef prepares your meal on the table before it arrives? Do you want oysters and lobster rolls at Raw on 5, with the sea lapping just metres below? Or maybe a multi-sensory experience at Eden, where food, performance, lighting and architecture blur together into something that feels almost theatrical?
We did it all. Slowly. Carefully. With Mum pacing herself and the crew making sure she never felt rushed or overlooked.
There was humour too. I learned quickly that balancing a platter laden with breakfast goodies while the ship gently sways is a skill not listed on any cruise brochure. Mum, watching me concentrate far too hard on not dropping my daily morning hashbrown, found this endlessly entertaining. By contrast, the lifts on the ship were so smooth that more than once, passengers would hit their floor button, glance around, then realise they’d already arrived without anyone noticing we’d even moved. It was like teleportation, but with carpet and brass handrails.
Stepping ashore
Dunedin was our first port, and it felt momentous. Not because of grandeur, but because it was the first test of how Mum would manage off the ship.
The shuttle system was seamless. Crew members assisted passengers down gangways with calm authority. No one hurried. No one sighed. The message was clear: we’ve got time.
Christchurch followed the next day, offering a different rhythm, urban but relaxed. Mum moved carefully but gaining in confidence. Each return to the ship felt like coming home to something familiar already.
That, more than anything, surprised me. How quickly a ship this large can feel so safe and so much like home.
Tauranga and Auckland. The Bay of Islands. Each destination arrived gently, like a suggestion rather than a demand. The Auckland Wine Trail shore excursion was an absolute highlight for me – mostly because of the charismatic onshore host and Head Winemaker of Soljans Estate Winery, Tony Soljan himself. With Tony standing atop a wine barrel in the display cellar and chatting away to our tour group, I learned more about wine in ten minutes than I have in the previous 50 years.
Mum enjoyed the pace. I enjoyed the wine. Everyone enjoyed the fact that getting back onboard required no planning whatsoever. (For the record, Mum’s absolute onshore highlight came in the form of a lamb and mint pie at a hole-in-the-wall bakery we stumbled across in the small town of Russell, opposite Waitangi Wharf in the Bay of Islands – which she devoured with a gleam in her eye that suggested for a moment she was 12 again on a ship somewhere far away.)
Mum and I both noticed just how heavily many of these port towns must rely on the arrival of a single ship such as the Celebrity Edge – laden with 3,000 passengers – to turn their sleepy wharves into bustling streets, gift shops into temporary gold mines, and cafés into something resembling a festival. Watching the flow of the ship’s guests coming ashore, we couldn’t help but imagine the locals calculating, down to the last lamb pie and coffee, exactly how many cruise-goers it takes to keep the lights on for the week. It’s charming, it’s slightly absurd, and it adds a layer of surreal comedy to wandering a town that, 20 minutes earlier, must have felt entirely empty.
Back on board, evenings began to blur into a pleasant rhythm: cocktails at the Sunset Bar, where the name does exactly what it promises; dinner somewhere new (or somewhere we’d immediately decided was worth repeating); quiz nights, karaoke nights, movie nights at the huge outdoor cinema under the starry sky, theatre shows that defied all expectations of what “cruise entertainment” is supposed to be… each production was technologically dazzling, with moving stages, aerial performers, projections everywhere. It was less “ship show” and more “Vegas meets Cirque du Soleil, but afloat”.
Care as the quiet luxury
Somewhere around the halfway point of the cruise, it dawned on me: the real luxury of this cruise wasn’t the food, the views, or even the space. It was care. Proactive, not reactive. Care that never made anyone feel old, slow, or in the way.
For Mum – seasick, injured, rediscovering cruising after decades – it made such a huge difference. For me, watching it happen was unexpectedly moving.
When we finally disembarked back in Sydney on Day 13, it felt oddly abrupt. The days had passed quickly, yet also slowly, measured in meals, sunsets, conversations and gentle routines.
Mum’s 80th birthday didn’t come with speeches or grand ceremonies. Instead, it arrived quietly (and delightfully) when we returned to our cabin to find it festooned with balloons, streamers and little birthday touches arranged by the crew. It was the kind of thoughtful, unexpected gesture that made the entire trip feel extra special.
And just when you think you’ve seen all the magic a cruise can offer, the final day arrives with its own showstopper: the crew conga. Every staff member – catering, housekeeping, kitchen, bars, entertainment – forms a giant, gleeful parade through the ship. Passengers, who by now have come to know these remarkable people by name and personality over the past two weeks, line the decks clapping, cheering and laughing. It’s chaotic, joyful and entirely infectious, the perfect celebration of community at sea.
In that moment, you realise the Celebrity Edge’s true engine isn’t steel or diesel – it’s the crew, their humour, their energy and the bonds they form with everyone lucky enough to sail alongside them.
I was unsure before this trip if I was the cruising “type”. Now, I’m already planning my next voyage, and watching Mum plot which restaurant we hit first.
If you’re interested in a voyage with Celebrity Edge, consider these highlight sailings that are coming up:
- Departing Sydney 28 October 2026: 11-night New Zealand roundtrip, departing Sydney, stopping at Milford Sound, Dunedin, Christchurch, Tauranga, Auckland, Bay Of Islands before returning to Sydney.
- Departing Sydney 12 December 2026: 9-night Australia Wine roundtrip departing Sydney, stopping at Hobart, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, and Melbourne before returning to Sydney.
