Debsta

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack :eek: mwahahahahahaha :D :p Only you could drag me back into the abyss Shiona LOL

Congrats BTW :)

And howdy to all the old (not age old, you know.....long time here old hehe) faces and names.

I'll try to behave :p

I've done both and if you can stretch the dollars I'd definitely do Amadee Island. It is all inclusive, drinks (alcoholic/non alcoholic) are free, the buffet lunch is great, they do a good show, they do a glass bottom boat tour which is free, if you're a snorkeller the fish/coral are better here and you might see turtles and other critters. It's a shame the lighthouse is closed :(

Escapade Island is a different experience but was a nice change from just hanging in Noumea. You have to pay for drinks, no coral or fish that I saw, some turtles. It has a swimming pool, the buffet was also good. There are pay for activities - jetski etc. - not sure on cost though, sorry, but they wouldn't be cheap - it's Noumea after all :p

But as I said, if your budget can stretch I don't think you'd be disappointed with the full day to Amadee.

Still nobody on board that tried out the 3D cinema?

There's no new special 3D cinema. They had a 3D movie in La Scala theatre

So who is the cruise director.

Is it the same guy as last year?

Sad to hear the bad wrap.

But like many I will enjoy our NYE cruise and post our findings.

Good and bad.

Hey Neicy

The CD is Carly Boileau.

Debbie, you mentioned that the tea/coffee station is gone from the pool deck. I take it that means there is no free ice-cream/frozen yoghurt either?

 

Not sure teen son will cope without that. lol!

It's still there but wasn't always open

BTW I had a fun time but those that know me know I'd have fun on the Titanic :eek::eek:

A couple of other things that spring to mind after reading that review.

Their new you beaut wifi doesn't work very well at all and incredibly slow. The satellite was also out a lot so mobile phone service was non existant - a pain as I need to work. The Captain called it the "alleged wifi" haha

You have to pay to watch a movie on your television! Now that's just wrong. Charges were $12.99/$14.99 for regular movies (not the porn channels LOL)

Cleanliness - there is none - the public toilets were disgraceful - hardly ever cleaned - no toilet paper - I wouldn't be surprised if there's a gastro outbreak if they don't get that sorted! Same with Windjammer - tables not cleaned properly.

I did run into two old staff from my last cruise. My dining room waiter (he was serving breakfast) and the crew member who greets you at the Windjammer - does anyone remember the "washy washy" girl? She was on there.

I did the Singapore to Darwin sector - I would never book a cruise straight out of a refit but I was a guest as a competition winner.

Very disappointed - and no I'm not a whinger. Some people drew the short straw and with compounding issues such as delayed boarding, short staff, short on food and certain drinks, and other sundry issues, etc I believe they have every right to complain. Some had greater issues than I did.

I've cruised 14 nights on her before last New Years Eve so can compare apples to apples

Food was disgraceful in the MDR - first time in 26 cruises I've actually sent meals back - not because I didn't like them - because they were stone cold and/or disgusting. Our seating was 8.30 pm - on the 3 nights of the 5 nights we ate there service was incredibly slow.

Gionvannis and Izumis were a welcome relief for a decent meal - worth every cent - even the Windjammer was a welcome relief :p

Some of the new virtual balcony cabins had no air conditioning and only hot water - can you imagine the heat? The virtual balcony cabins are very cool though (if you air-con is working LOL)

The ship is extremely short staffed (I understand 400 crew did not board in Singapore - or perhaps jumped ship in Singapore after doing the 4 night music booze cruise. The reason our boarding was delayed - passengers refused to leave the ship and/or went "missing". Singapore immigration put the ship into lockdown until they were found - then the crew had to do a massive clean up). After finally boarding (that didn't bother me - the new Singapore cruise terminal handled 3500 pax - albeit not enough seating) the ship was also delayed due to waiting for a food delivery - I believe they ended up leaving without it.

There is no longer a tea/coffee/drinks station on the pool deck (not on our sector anyway). Which means if the Windjammer is closed you either have to go to Deck 4 to Cafe Promenade or go back to cabin for room service. Ridiculous, particularly if you have been swimming or it's before 7.00 am or after 9.30 pm when the Windjammer opens/shuts.

Flowrider is great :D

High notes - Deck 14 (or 15???) is the new nighclub - just doesn't cut it for a nightclub now The Vault is gone (The Vault is now Giovannis)

Many complaints floating about were re Guest Services inability to do anything and their rudeness.

We were able to buy 5 days of the drinks packages :D I don't drink but got the Royal Replenish package which was great at $20 per day for mocktails (real mocktails! not just the fruit juice stuff), premium coffees from Cafe Promenade, bottled water, soft drink, etc. Well worth it.

My cabin (9530) had a dodgy card reader - every time I left my cabin I could never get back in so I would have to trudge down to guest services (no I was not demagnetising the cards). On Day 3 I finally spat my dummy at Guest Services at 2 am (going back for my 3rd lot of new cards for the day). Eventually on Day 4 they sent maintenance to fix it. Guess what...................but they did send me a bottle of wine for my trouble pffffft. :rolleyes:

Viking Crown Lounge/High Notes furniture is still shabby

The Staff Captain is the rudest person I have ever come across on any cruise ship and tore strips off the poor guy in Cafe Promenade (he was the only one working) when he couldn't find his staff card near the register. Seriously, in front of passengers - he should be thrown overboard as the 2nd in charge.

Hopefully all the dramas will be ironed out between Darwin and Sydney. Many many journalists got on in Darwin - I hope for RCL's sake they have some stuff sorted.

I have to write a proper review but these are just some things that came to mind - yep no canopy over the Solarium which is a shame, particularly for an NZ cruise

PS: I have a feeling they didn't finish a lot of things - ran out of time? There are no coffee tables in the cabins any longer, but my cabin had new curtains and a new sofa lounge and new carpet

Amnesty! :D:D:D:p

Must be something with AU ports? In USA you can smoke as soon as you board on Carnival as long as you are in a smoking area.

No just Carnival Spirit (and probably Legend). No issues on P&O, Celebrity or Royal Caribbean in the appropriate areas.

Hey Deb,

 

Can you clarify something for me please?... If Matt buys smokes on-board Duty Free can he smoke them on-board?.. I know the restrictions for bringing them off, but just sure about the on-board bit.

 

Thanks,

Sharon

Not sure Shaz.

Before I gave up 2 years a go you could still smoke while the ship was in port in the designated 'Open Areas"but it was limited to one side and up high, I dont think it has changed?

Carnival Spirit changed the rules and you can't smoke until after muster.......they changed that about a year ago.

Smokers were all going nutzzzz and like school kids trying to find a hiding spot as no one was notified prior

No other cruise line has brought in this rule

.

Yeah - make it more like the old drive in Theatres from the "olden days". Used to love 'em. Put some nice comfy love seats out there. Oh Dear! Can you imagine the shenanigans!

That's what the pods on the Carnival Spirit Serenity Deck are for :eek::eek:

I also read that there is no smoking until the ship leaves port. Are you allowed to get off once you've boarded and get back on?

No! Be last to board :D

Thanks for posting the pics talako. I'm loving watching the transformation :D

Hi Deb! (long time no see :D)

I have personally stayed in the obstructed balcony cabins on Carnival Spirit (the cheapest balcony cabin). Yes, you can use the balcony and you can see straight over the top of them by the way they are positioned. The top of the lifeboat is almost parallel to the floor of the balcony. There might be some obstruction when looking down to the water depending on which one they allocated. Can't go wrong really!

Deb

Too funny....where have you been ??? Donna

I've been busy setting up a new biz. Send me email (in signature). John (and Cathy) are trying to talk me into doing the NYE Voyager with you guys :D

Both my kids were conceived drinking Kava.............it's definitely unsafe! :p

Tossing in a shorty. 24 May 2013, Pacific Jewel, 3 nights

I'm another for the 17 January 2014, 3 nighter, Celebrity Solstice :D

These two options are polar opposites so it's impossible to compare. Do both :D (can't take it with you, life's too short, you may never get back to OZ yada yada LOL)

If you do the Bridge Climb, I would recommend the twilight walk as you get the best of both day and night.

Today :D Wooohoooooo. I love my birthday presents to me.....they are the best, even if it is only 1 night :p

Thanks for the report on the other cruises and the assessment of the Pacific Jewel's efforts (or lack of). Sorry to hear that Pacific Dawn almost had a miss due to the lack of P&O's will to move away from the cloud cover.

 

That would have been even worse than what we experienced on Pacific Jewel. We were about 20 nautical miles from the edge of totality (65 nm from centreline) with a relatively clear sky. The minimal cloud cover (theoretically) vindicated our choice to view the eclipse from onboard this ship. Sadly, we watched the shadow of the Moon roll across the ocean in the distance. The onboard astronomer neither alerted passengers to 1st contact nor identified the Moon's Shadow for them. This might have been because, as we understand, he had never seen a total solar eclipse.

 

I think that others present would support my view that the Captain expressed no empathy for our (collective) distress at being trapped on a ship that we knew was not going to reach the path. We were told by the P&O astronomer in his eclipse lecture at 1.30pm Tuesday 13 November (UTC +11 hours) that an 'unexpected', 'unforseen' 30 knot head-wind (the Trade Winds) had slowed the ship so much during the first night of the cruise (Monday night) that it was impossible for the ship to reach the path of totality. From that time on, we tried, as a group of about 40 eclipse chasers, to influence the outcome but had no success.

 

At 5pm that Tuesday evening (15 hours before totality), the Captain advised us that the top speed of the ship was 20 knots but that he would not travel at top speed as he "had the safety of the other passengers to consider". We were all puzzled because other P&O publications quoted the top speed as 22.5 knots and (up until then) P&O had not identified any 'safey issues' as being the reason for us missing out on totality and/or the reason for the ship's moderate speed. The Captain told us that "on the advice of his expert" a 99% partial eclipse was sufficient and so he had no reason to travel faster to try to reach the path of totality. We trundled along at between 16.8 to 18.8 knots for the remainder of the trip.

 

On a postive note, adversity binds those who share it. We made great friends with others who had travelled from as far as Europe and the USA to see the eclipse on the Pacific Jewel and whose loss was much greater than ours.

 

99 percenter - Canberra - Australia

I would have been incredibly annoyed and I don't think their excuses were not good enough. I am going to assume your Captain was Graham Goodway. If I am correct, I am not surprised he showed no empathy. In fact, I'm surprised he even made the announcement at all! I am trying to write a review of my PJ Bounty Adventure cruise not long prior to yours, but the negativity keeps exuding and it's not fit for public consumption :p

I'm really sorry you missed out. The itinerary is why many people would choose P&O who would not cruise with them otherwise.

As any good cruiser though, we always seem to find great new friends! I'm glad that was the case.

HURRY! THESE WON'T LAST LONG!

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*Above rates are based on cat E cabins and are valid for new bookings only made prior to 28 December 2012. Guests must embark and disembark in the specified port on the date specified in the itinerary. Fare conditions apply and offer may be withdrawn at any time.

dear debsta,

 

rest assured that i would not abuse our nascent and somewhat one sided friendship by divulging any more details about your personal life other than 'my friend'. However, from my recent experience with the princess call centre i could have given them your full name, passport number and tax file number and they still wouldn't have a clue who you are.

 

Cheers

 

stu

lol :d

You do realise Stuart, that if they had of made a mistake and deducted my cruise credits I would have had to fly to Melbourne and kill you LOL :p:p:p:p

Told ya call centres know nothing..............:D

The collective group of dedicated cruisers know more than any call centre worldwide :p

Happy to help!