little britain

Notable difference

In my mind it does!

Entertainment - as ever the musicians and bands around the ship are excellent. We didn’t go to many shows…one was supposedly Australia’s best Beatles tribute act… apart from Ringo on the drums it was tricky trying to guess who each one was meant to be! We also went to an Olivia Newton John tribute by a lady called Susannah Mirana - she was very good with a lovely voice. We skipped comedians because with a 98% Australian audience we suspected we would have no idea what the jokes were about. * Australians wait for the CD to finish his announcement at the end of the show before getting up and leaving! Who knew!!

* Australians throw them selves into the “dirty napkin waving “ on the 2nd formal night…. Not sure why as tips are included!! And no begging for the perfect 10 another good thing ✅

@jean87510 Noumea is definitely the best place for shopping, upstairs at the main cruise building where the shuttle drops you off. Some very nice handmade crafts.. I got a beautiful pair of porcelain and gold earrings for only A$35. The best (worst) thing I saw someone buy at another port was a raffia beach bag with the port name proudly displayed below a photo of the famous bridge in Curacao… obviously none the wiser!

* Wine and beer offerings are very different on Australian cruises… and much better. - that said, the offerings in Giovannis were appalling. Only 3 were offered by the glass, one white/red/rose; and they were all “house hooch”, and nothing that I would associate with the upsell of a specialty restaurant. I am guessing this is fleet wide? Our charming waiter went and got us a bottle of the delicious Fifth Leg from the MDR menu! It’s crazy that the MDR has better choices than an upsell venue. Rant over. * We used our BOGO on d6 and d8. * Giovannis cost $44.99 onboard. Remember the price you see is the price you pay. No hidden service charge.

Our tour only mentioned reef sharks in the blurb ( or “it’s a little bit sharkey” as our friend says!!)… however when the tour arrived at the island 🏝️ then the guide mentioned the snakes!!! People on this cruise have pics of the snakes crossing the jetty in front of them 🫣 but I think this is a rarity. We were on Signal Island.

As this first cruise nears its end: some throwaway (very broad tongue in cheek) observations… * Australians all wear lanyards * Australians dress up in the dress code of the day * Australians take the stairs not the elevators 🛗 * Australians know how to drink 🍸 * Australians know how to party 🎉 * Australians do not overload their plates in the WJ and you never see plates of untouched food going to waste 🍽️ * Australians do not discuss their medical ailments and medication 💊 * Australian children are polite and well behaved - it’s a very different experience. Refreshing. And I wish it was closer to Europe so we could cruise with our Ozzie chums again … oh hang on a minute … we are in a few days time! Stay tuned!

They certainly saved the best till last! Loved Noumea.. so clean, so stylish, so French… the Auchan resembles the ones in France. Restaurants serve croque messieurs, and beautiful patisseries…even menus are in the same French handwriting - you could be in a very tropical Cannes! I have no idea why the 650+ on the roll call dismiss it as a dump!! Took a trip out to Signal Island to swim with the sea turtles… only the sea turtles 🐢 hadn’t received the memo!! Lots of fish 🐠 and we saw one sea snake. 🐍 given that a bite means you have 30 mins to live and the island was 20 minutes offshore, we stayed alert!!

Will do, on Brilliance at the mo… get on Ovation on 21st.

Today is Lifou in New Caledonia. 🇳🇨 At last somewhere that looks like a south seas paradise unlike the frankly disappointing and dirty Vanuatu 🇻🇺 I think they have learned their tender errors from Mystery island as 4 were running continuously. We tendered into Easo beach. You could see sea turtles 🐢 as soon as you docked - they were about 2ft in diameter. Sandy beaches, loads of fish 🐠.. sadly no underwater photos as “someone” didn’t close the underwater camera 📷 properly so it’s now waterlogged !

Yup! Especially as there are empty cabins on the ship and people are already getting their Ups!

From close to Sydney

On our RC for Ovation 1/29 someone is saying his cruise has been cancelled because RCI need the cabin. Says he is paid in full, has a gty that has been assigned. RCI says they told him in October. He says if his cruise was cancelled back then how was he able to book things on his Planner in the past few weeks. He says he’s already gone to the press so expect this to show up again

It’s Carribean night on board… again the Australians preplanned and dressed up… the ship is a sea of flowers! 🌺

Today is Luganville on Espíritu Santu island in Vanuatu 🇻🇺 Here, you are greeted by music from islanders and there is a big market set up alongside the ship. It takes 25 mins to walk into town. Sadly another place strewn with refuse and litter at the side of the roads. Which kinda spoils the island paradise mental image. the lemon beer is very lemony!

Solved it! I had my VPN on. Turned that off and it worked.

A few underwater ones from Mystery Island the blue coral 🪸 was amazing

My iPhone 14 will not show my onboard account. I’ve done the usual uninstall/reinstall, logout/login…any suggestions please ?

Port Vila, Vanuatu 🇻🇺 We dock a little way out of town. It looks like we are alongside a towpath overlooking a scrap yard! We took the water taxi option to get into town A$5pp e/w water taxi boarding platform at the port. Yes I am serious! Taxis lined up in Port Vila TBH we were expecting a little more French influence and style but there wasn’t much there. The market is good to see the lush flowers and fruit. So we wondered around, bought local Tanna coffee from an adjacent island, had a few beers 🍻 and returned back.

So far the food on board has been well presented, hot and tasty. DH says the beef in his daily kummelwrek bun is the best he has ever had! Every table at dinner has wine. No iced tea in sight! We have MTD and there is a lengthy queue between 8-9. Interestingly the signs on entry are split into Party of 2-4 and Party of 5+ and not into the usual Reservations/ non reservations

So apparently getting everyone off Mystery Island yesterday was a disaster. One of the tenders broke ( people were stuck on it for an hour) and people queued on the island jetty literally for hours waiting to return. We were back on board by 2pm and they were still calling tender numbers. So it didn’t take a genius to work out that the return timings would be just as lengthy! We were late leaving but at least we didn’t have far to go!

We have that one in England!

Day 4 - Mystery Island An uninhabited island surrounded by blue seas, stunning coral and fish. 🐠 Tender island: it took 4 hours for all tender tickets to be called! Thankfully we were escorted off early with the Suites! Locals come across from the neighbouring island of Aneityum to set up stalls, offer 💆‍♀️ massages, coconuts 🥥, hair braiding and boat tours. No need to pay the highly inflated RCI shore ex prices!!! Tip: water shoes are needed The whole island

Australians pay the tips inclusive with their fare. We have not prepaid as I booked via USA and the $18pp is being deducted daily as normal. I assume the staff salary structure onboard these itineraries is different to compensate ?