Kiwimills

I'm sUre now it's fine...and by March you should be sweet

Can't answer the snorkelling one, someone will though I hope.

Thank you ms Belmont , appreciate that.

Yes, he is very good...On the last night in the atrium for the farewell party, people who hadn't heard him, realised then he was brilliant !!

Hubby won us a bag, a drink bottle and a wrist band from the games! ( plus a free cruise on name that tune show) so we too are all trivia out. Told him to let others win!!

Glad you had a good time.

Going on the spirit in July from Sydney. Can't wait. Getting a bit cruise addicted!!! When is your next one ?

Oops, wonder what that was!?? We had three circus shows but the third show at 9 cancelled due to swells.

Lucky we saw it at 6, people were a little peed they couldn't see the show at 9

We couldn't do mystery island as the wharf was busted, glad they have fixed it. We did maré instead.

We had 6 met swells, but only during the night for about 15 hrs, so the restaurants in the morning and the rest of the day were still busy. He had slowed down to 10 knots Which helped

The boat is old so stabilisers aren't as good as say carnival or MSC, I hear.

Hence slowing right down.

Glad you saw all the ports, wish we had seen noumea but thems the breaks...

Any more cruises planned ?

No one came back......

How was it? Warm weather?

Have a nice time, jealous..much.

When you see pascal, the French / Canadian guitarist can you tell him the guy who sang summer of 69 on his guitar says hi.

Thanks

Thank you for those answers.

We have anytime dining, so all good there.

We were just on the pearl, and had an obstructed view and got upgraded to non obstructed along with four other couples we talked to at dinner ( again, anytime dining , sit where you want and when)

Just wondered if the spirit was as generous as the pearl had been....

But we are mid ship, one lady never cruised ..may get nauseas.

One cabin may go higher but still inside which defeats the purpose etc.

So for this cruise, I think we won't tick the box.

If it was me and hubby...Ild def have that box ticked, but would hate to tick it and then not be able to bang on the wall good morning, cos one only got moved, to a balcony!!!

Thanks again

Hi,

Shall we or shan't we..tick the box.

We have two cabins next to each other 1135/39 riviera deck, deck four. Interior.

Has anyone been upgraded from the bowels of the ship to a window? Or better?

We are four mums travelling on the spirit in July from Sydney for seven nights.

Money is limited, hence the interior cabins.

Thoughts anyone?

We just did ten days on the pearl to the islands from Auckland.

No entertainment at dinner.

Anytime dining so long as you book at 5.30 the night before ( when bookings open) or they will tell you when there is space on the day .

Buffet anytime, but we liked the waterfront.

No dining time needed for breakfast or lunch there just dinner, and yes they had the circus show with the two elephants on

We had a new pacific entertainment crew start on the second last night, not as good as the week we had had, but they had been doing it for 6 mths and they could really sing. Like being in the east end.

We missed noumea cos of bad weather and headed back to Auckland over three days, but saw the other four islands,

Not as bad as carnival stuck out of Sydney heads today in 9 met swells and not being able to get in!

We were lucky!!

I'm going on spirit in July, just noumea and Isle of pines, hopefully noumea will be doable this time .

Enjoy your May cruise, prices are crazy low! Twin $620

They do say you can go..but only on THEIR TOURS! which is a bit rich..

So if you aren't doing their tour, don't go out and about on your own. ( or with local people ) they said

Some went and saw 60 people living in a concrete square with no roof and shared cooking outside. They said it was sad, but saw how resilient the people were and still happy and smiling,

The police were at the entrance to the ship, I think to keep the local taxi guys under control cos it was very calm and no clambering etc for passengers.

We just went sharp left and jumped on a water taxi, as had read about them

On here.

Great way to travel.

We were the second ship allowed into Vila, we took the water taxi to town and saw the smashed boats against the rocks.( $5 still for that, ) the fruit market has gone as no fruit but the other stuff was still there in the undercover market and in the shops, we bought our kids gifts in Vila.

The supermarket had cheap sarongs, so bought a few (350 Vatu and jandals/ thongs 200)

We spent about 2 hrs in town. Very like Nadi

In Fiji

We went back to the boat and had lunch then there is a nice beach at the back of the boat dock, so walked there..took 10 mins and snorkelled, wonderful fish and a bit of coral. We had the beach to ourselves. The people on the boat watched us...some then joined us, as they could see our blue stripped towels in the distance!!!

It was so cooling as it was a warm day.

We then went to champagne bay as a cyclone prevented us going to lifou and noumea was cancelled altogether and we headed back to Auckland for three days..6 met swells , fab

Some went to the villages and it was a mess, but p and o said don't venture past the town, but we ignored that. We took books there direct, to the library .

Three weeks ago there were no leaves or grass, but now it was green again cos they had had rain and sun non stop so the vegetation is growing back quickly.

The trees had been bare...all leaves shredded off.

Was a nice day, and next time we will swim with turtles etc. but $20 got us to town and we bought other stuff on credit card.

Mrs knz

We are doing your cruise at the Moment. We are in vila.

If you don't want to go to the beach on mare, walk to the cop station and opposite are some steps in to the water. The best snorkelling EVER!!

We also walked to the natural aquarium about 2 kms from the cop station.

We have had calm seas and great 29 deg weather.

You will love it!

Get on the face book group, so you have some mates in the evenings for the quizzes etc or it can be a bit lonely.

Have fun!

Thank you so much!!! It's 3.30 am..a tad excited, we leave at 4 pm. I'll report back on my $20 experience :)

That is great, thank you!

If I'm am dieing in the humidity do you recommend the water taxi to the left of the wharf? I hear it is the same as the bus to get to town ? ( $5) if it isn't too hit, we will walk

We are coming from nz so have nzd, so are changing into aud, but might change a bit into whatever currency Vanuatu and New Caledonia use. Am changing that in auckland tomorrow.

I wanted to go to the hideaway, on the local bus from town, which would be about $16 return all up, but then $15 each to get on it...so that takes us over the $20 each, Lols.

Thank you, the markets and the food from them sound good, we can sit and watch..are there swimming holes near by? Either from the boat or in town?

We will def have a wander through the resorts, we did that in Fiji, just to see them..well nice.

We didn't eat, as they were Exy, but we didn't swim there either, but worth a thought ...ESP if I am dieing from said humidity.

Thank you again, very nice of you to share your information. :)

Thank you for that. I wonder if you could help me...we have $20 aud each, ( for noemea as well! But I hear there is a free bus and a hop on bus, so will use them) so $40. Yes, we shouldn't be cruising, but there you go! What would you do with that $40. ?

Our April 6 th cruise is now going to mare instead of mystery island as the wharf is damaged.

We return to vila this week though,

Do you have to pay to go on to hideaway island?

P&o pearl

we have arranged for someone from the national library in Vanuatu to meet the boat in vila, with a sign " books, "

For those going on the cruise, please spare one or two books ( adult/ kids) and drop it in his box as you get off the ship. Pop it in your swimming bag.

They will use them as needed, some schools lost their library roofs and lost 95% of their books etc

If you want to donate more, just fill a landing / goods arriving / cargo card out at the pursers desk on board, or drop at the wharf in auckland with your cans and hammers and hygiene kits etc

Happy cruising...two sleeps!!

As of yesterday I can contribute to this thread!:)

Pearl,

April 6 th 2015

Melanesian .

Vila, lifou, noumea , Isle of pines, mystery island

At the moment Vila and Isle of pines are being substituted after delivering supplies

But by April 6 th they might be going there,or elsewhere.

It's like a mystery cruise!

We are not, but just booked a 4 night cruise Sydney to Auckland on the pearl for next year. How did your cruise go? We got rooms 10102 and 10106 as they are interconnecting , as 4 mums are traveling and easier than a suite..as 2 bathrooms, and 4 beds, but one large room ( we hope !)

At least you had good weather ...

I hope we do as well.

Any tips, greatly appreciated, ie did you get to eat lunch after you boarded etc

I met an Aussie in the lift, from qld. Had long blonde hair, she was getting off in Barcelona too..the next day!

Other than that, I didn't have a whole lot of chit chatting going on other than with the husband...grrr.

We had calm seas the whole way, I hope you did too. It made it really nice to sail.

Glad you had fun!

Hi,

We got on at marseille dec 8th and off 15 th. Were we on board at the same time?

I wrote a review here

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10703-k7049034-Family_of_6_just_back_from_MSC_splendida_cruise-Cruises.html

We were in the bowels of the ship though!!

We have 4 kids, 11-17 ( and a 5th already in the uk)

And I think we might have been the only kiwis on board...we met 2 Aussie families and that was it. Hard to tell though as people don't really sit and chat with you.

Anyway, hope you had a good time, we did :)

We were on splendida

Did western med.