Murray Princess – 07th to 10th January 2022
After a couple of false starts we finally got to travel on our long-awaited Murray River cruise, which took us gliding along the river on the 3 night / 4 day ‘Discovery Cruise’, departing from and returning to the Princess’ home port in Mannum.
The P.S. Murray Princess is a stern paddle wheeler vessel, which has been plying these waterways for decades. There are several cabin categories to choose from, including accessible options, so there is something for everyone’s needs and budgets. We stayed in an outside twin cabin with two single beds, an ensuite and plenty of storage space for stowing our empty cases once we had unpacked.
The daily newsletter that we received on arrival told us that day one’s cocktail of the day was the ‘Procrastinating Pelican’, which was just like drinking an alcohol soaked cherry ripe and was the perfect kick off for our sail-away from Mannum at 4pm.
The combination of a casual atmosphere on board, small passenger numbers (84 on this cruise, which was the maximum allowed due to covid restrictions, but the ship will usually carry 120) and use of name tags allowed everyone to get to know each other quite quickly. I am not a huge fan of the ‘name tag’ idea, but all the staff knew our names by the end of day two, which added to the feel of being amongst friends for the duration. Apart from learning all our names, the staff on Murray Princess were excellent in all aspects of their jobs – nothing was too much trouble, and everything was done with a smile.
4 days on board was only long enough to get a taste of what the mighty Murray has to offer in terms of site seeing, wildlife and bird watching, but we moored at a few beautiful hidden secret spots along our cruise to get an idea of the local flora and fauna, before getting back to continue rollin’ down the river.
Most passengers took those opportunities to work off a few calories that might have crept on to our waistlines via a combination of the fantastic cocktail and wine list options (all local from the various SA wine regions), which all complimented the meals perfectly. Breakfast is buffet style but served to you so that there is not as much food waste. Lunch is two courses, with a choice of between two mains, usually with one larger and one lighter option, plus a dessert. Dinner is three courses, with a tough decision having to be made each time between two entrees, two mains and two desserts. Food allergies and preferences are all catered for as long as the Princess staff were alerted to any potential issue ahead of boarding. We were happy with every meal that was delivered to our table, even if our waist bands weren’t.
Our four days came and went far too quickly and next thing we knew it was already time to disembark back in Mannum. The whole experience was very relaxing, and I am happily recommending a cruise on board the Murray Princess to anyone looking for a ‘closer to home’ holiday, or anyone just wanting to escape for a few days.