First Impressions of Pacific Explorer

I'll be doing a full review during a South Pacific cruise in July but here are some initial thoughts from a travel agent who was invited on the 'showcase cruise'. A few surprises.

http://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/news.cfm?ID=7911

I think the public areas look great. I know some will knock P& O but I'm glad they are adding more ships to the Australian market which will only make it grow and give us more choice and competition.

I've never cruised with P&O but the Pacific Explorer has me interested. From the looks of it they have done a very good job with the dry dock and have created a ship that will suit multi generations of families traveling together.

P&O seems to be going more upmarket and offering the Australian market what they have been asking for.

Look forward to reading and seeing more photos and reviews on this ship.

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Yep $15 dollar burger :eek:

Yep $15 dollar burger :eek:

Pricing like Celebrity do.

Surely it's just a replacement for Pearl so still the same number in P & O Australia's fleet?

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I'll be doing a full review during a South Pacific cruise in July but here are some initial thoughts from a travel agent who was invited on the 'showcase cruise'. A few surprises.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/news.cfm?ID=7911

Public rooms look great, but from the one picture of the cabin that I saw, it's..... underwhelming. Hopefully more review and pictures of the cabins will come up soon.

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Public rooms look great, but from the one picture of the cabin that I saw, it's..... underwhelming. Hopefully more review and pictures of the cabins will come up soon.

 

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I think they said that the cabins haven't been refurbished. So they would be the same as when the ship was a Princess ship.

I think they said that the cabins haven't been refurbished. So they would be the same as when the ship was a Princess ship.

No wonder it's so bad, wish they updated those too

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No wonder it's so bad, wish they updated those too

 

 

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Sadly no amount of updating is going to make those inside cabins any bigger!

Smallest of any ships I have been on and a really bad design. Pacific Dawn/ Jewel and Aria/Eden have much better design and larger cabins.

Our last cruise on DawnPrincess/Pacific Explorer we found the cabins to be in good condition, great air con and plumbing.

I agree that the Aria' s inside cabins are much larger than any on Princess but that doesn't make them too small on the Explorer. They are just in proportion with the other cabin categories on her.

Sadly no amount of updating is going to make those inside cabins any bigger!

 

Smallest of any ships I have been on and a really bad design. Pacific Dawn/ Jewel and Aria/Eden have much better design and larger cabins.

 

Our last cruise on DawnPrincess/Pacific Explorer we found the cabins to be in good condition, great air con and plumbing.

Haven't looked at the sizes personally, was referring to deco, but are the other cabins types more reasonable or are they all on the small end?

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Haven't looked at the sizes personally, was referring to deco, but are the other cabins types more reasonable or are they all on the small end?

 

 

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In my experience, Princess cabins of all categories are smaller than X, Royal and it seems that HAL can be included as well. In some cases NCL is also bigger, although I haven't seen that many of NCL's cabins.

Haven't looked at the sizes personally, was referring to deco, but are the other cabins types more reasonable or are they all on the small end?

 

 

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P&O cruisers that are used to Jewel/Dawn, Eden/Aria and as far back as Pearl, Sun and Sky will find the inside cabins on Pacific Explorer smaller. I am only comparing P&O insides.....not other lines.

There are some larger Oceanview cabins which are a good size and the Mini Suites are large......lots of US Princess cruisers miss the large minis on the Sun class.

Having the insides as 4 berths will be a lot tighter than the 4 berths on the other P&O ships.

The cabins on Pacific Explorer appear to be unchanged from when Dawn Princess, Sun class ships do have very small cabins, inside cabins, oceanview and balcony cabins are all very small with not much storage. Bathrooms in balcony and oceanview are very small, no real floor space, inside cabins actually have more floor space in the bathroom and more storage than the balcony cabins. On Princess we normally book a deluxe oceanview, space taken up with balcony is then in the room, have been in interior, don't like the lack of normal light, and balcony cabins and next cruise have a mini suite. Don't think size of cabins will be the issue on Pacific Explorer but the way P&O run their ships, the food and service will be the problem if the other ships are anything to go by.

I'll be doing a full review during a South Pacific cruise in July but here are some initial thoughts from a travel agent who was invited on the 'showcase cruise'. A few surprises.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/news.cfm?ID=7911

By Tim Faircloth, director of cruise booking agency, I Love Cruising

Interesting I didn't realise C/C was allowed to endorse Travel Agents, or have the rules changed.

Your not wrong that was a surprise.

The Pacific Explorer was shown on Seven News tonight. Most of the shots we could tell where on the ship they were taken but with two of them we couldn't work out what previous room/area they were. Maybe they had taken a wall or two down.

The cabin they showed looked exactly the same but with new bed coverings.

 

Interesting I didn't realise C/C was allowed to endorse Travel Agents, or have the rules changed.

 

Your not wrong that was a surprise.

You can't discuss travel agents here. However, a fair number post, and CC has mentions of them. The report you mentioned was not an endorsement of one, just a post from one. That said, there are pseudo-endorsements on CC, in that it maintains a list of TAs it recommends.

You can't discuss travel agents here. However, a fair number post, and CC has mentions of them. The report you mentioned was not an endorsement of one, just a post from one. That said, there are pseudo-endorsements on CC, in that it maintains a list of TAs it recommends.

thank-you, bizarre to say the least.:cool:

So it would be alright to post a report from a T.A, and mention their names, anyways thanks for your response and clarification.

Yes, it is treading a fine line.

I now use Rosie's travel advice when it comes to booking travel. If she says shall we book it, I say yes and then how much?

:)

The Pacific Explorer was shown on Seven News tonight. Most of the shots we could tell where on the ship they were taken but with two of them we couldn't work out what previous room/area they were. Maybe they had taken a wall or two down.

The cabin they showed looked exactly the same but with new bed coverings.

No new bed covers or sheets, ours were thin and some holes. However they did buy new towels. The cabins are not changed in any way.

we liked the public areas. The sanctuary was a bit bare. No shrubbery in the pots. I dont think they charge for it. But not sure. There was no one around.