Gnomey

Say yes Mr Gut, it's working OK so far :D.

We've recently completed an Island cruise on Dawn Princess with Billy London as our cruise director and it was really great. Tendering was so efficient and service everywhere was always quick and with a smile. I even visited the medical centre where the lovely Doc Ilse repaired me perfectly. I can't recommend Princess highly enough.

Steve.

The Ghan/Darwin combo and also Freemantle/Indian Pacific trip are usually marketed by NRMA and are pretty popular. I have seen them pop up occaisionaly in other publications too.

Steve.

Lovely to see two elegant English Ladies visiting Sydney for a couple of days. Brighten the place up somewhat!

Steve.

Something to consider is the Kimberley Cruising. It seems only the smaller ships go right into the harbour for a good look. That leaves you with Sun or Sea Princess. We went there in Nov last year going anticlockwise and it was a real highlight, exceptional colours, incredible scenery.

Steve.

We stayed at the Goodearth Hotel in Perth recently. Nothing flash but fairly convenient, big rooms and restaurant. Look around hotel websites for the best price. We went through Hotels.com .

Steve.

Haoie, the library is now the Blue Room and is a rather pleasant space. It is a money making item as it includes a bar and cafe. Through the day it is a great and quiet place for a drink and to read. At night it becomes a dimly lit rather intimate night club, which is also pleasant. Something to be aware of if the music is a bit loud, on the Eden I suggested to the waitress that the music was too loud and the volume dropped significantly, by magic!

Steve.

What great news that we Aussies will be allocated a NEW ship. Something many people have been almost demanding for some time now. I'm not going to knock P&O, they do have a few issues to work through but they also have a few years to lift their game before the new ship arrives. As for the passenger numbers, big ships seem to be working OK for Royal at the moment, no reason it won't work as well for P&O. So, lets all get together and encourage our "local" cruise company.

Steve.

Great story Mark. It is sad to see my thoughts and observations repeated on your cruise. It seems that some aspects of staff performance have improved a little as there was a huge gap between the new and experienced crew on our trip. Amazing that they are still serving cold fries in the restaurant, glad the $3.50 coffees are still good! The beds really are great aren't they. We also didn't see the Captain and also only rarely heard from him, one time was when he was booed by all in the Waterfront trying to gloss over the dangerous tendering at Esperence.

I might mention too that while our trip from Freo was called the Inaugural Cruise, it was actually the third trip with passengers for the Eden. Most of the issues many of us raised have still not been rectified.

The messages are here on the forums of Cruise Critic for P&O. Most of us are prepared to accept the cast off ships from Carnival Corp, but they need to lift their game.

Steve.

Absolutely post your review Mark. I was on Eden recently as well and it wasn't good. I'm not a P&O hater but I am certainly unimpressed with the company. The two new ships should have been properly refurbished, not just tarted up with new money making opportunities. P&O really p**s me off because they have generally good ship staff, plenty of ships and some great itineraries. It all bodes well for a great trip, but management of the company really fails. Maintenance, training, planning. Basic management principles really P&O. Ignore the flames mate, tell it like it is!

Steve.

Mr Walker, wifey and I just did around the top on the Sun, Brisbane to Freeo and we loved it. The ship is in good order and the recently refurbished areas were great. International Cafe was open all the time with drinks and snacks and Horizon Court (buffet) had a good spread of food, if you like buffets. MDR was set time dining and we found the food and dining experience very much to our liking.

While older than Radiance I find the Sun class ships have an easy to learn, logical layout that works well. One thing I noticed was the air conditioning was either struggling with the heat, or was set to Queensland temps. The ship was generally too warm for our liking.

The staff/crew were very attentive and pleasant though one had to wave vigorously in the International Cafe to attract the waiters attention as it is a very busy area. Once the waiters got to know you I'd just say g'day as I walked in and they would come around asap! Aussie dollars and no tipping wins me every day too!

Our cruise director was Billy London a larger than life fellow who told stale old jokes (don't tell him I said that!). But he ran a good shop with so much to do you couldn't do it all. We were hoping for days when he had a hangover or something so we could slow down a bit!

Search carefully for your room as sound travels on these older ships, sometimes walking along the hallways the music downstairs can be quite loud, then two cabins later and around a corner - not a sound.

If you have any questions, ask away.

Steve.

Do you know what drink prices are I read where beer was 8 dollars a stubby .?

The best value beer was in the Ocean bar where Matilda Bay beers were on tap. Paid around the $8.00 mark for what seemed like a pint glass. Stubbies were pretty pricey, VB was a bit cheaper in cans and your premium beers were closer to $9.00, in the smaller bottles (330ml).

Steve.

Oh I should add too Mark, the (to pay) coffee in the bars and cafes was among the best I've had anywhere. They are only small cups and I was known to have two in a row some times. They cost $3.50.

Steve.

You got it easy OzKruser, it took us all morning and half the afternoon to get on board the Pacific Jewell in March this year. :eek: Really though it does need to be fixed as it is an easy dock to get to, especially compared to our White Bay!

Steve.

Rest assured Mark, regardless of any issues we had on Eden, we certainly didn't go hungry. Quality varied from the various outlets and the very best dining is or will be in the to-pay eateries, but there was plenty of food. :) Oh and be careful of anyone's suggestions if they say they like the coffee from the Pantry machines. There is something wrong with their taste buds!! :eek:

Steve.

Peter, have a look around in the Australia & NZ forum there is lots of discussion there. I was on the inaugural cruise for Eden and there were some issues. P&O acknowledge this and things will improve in time. Eden is a lovely ship which is well worth traveling on, indeed I am planning on cruising again on Eden or Aria.

Steve.

I tend to agree quite a lot with Gut's comments on page 1. I have not done a review of the Eden cruise because I would have a long list of negative comments and I really don't think that is fair on the Eden's crew. We still enjoyed our Eden trip and the ship is really lovely, a pleasure to travel on. Did it deserve the 1 star ratings, not in my opinion. Do things need to improve, in general - yes. Do I think things will improve - yes. Did we receive "compensation" - yes and without agitation to P&O, it was just provided by the management. Eden had quite a few members of staff who were experienced and "did well", it also has a lot who were not the best and maybe lacked training.

It will be important to not expect a top flight 5 shining stars experience. If you have a good attitude and don't mind the odd "bugger" moment you will love a cruise on Eden. She is not a large ship and still carries around 1,500 people. All these people spread out over the ship really well and it seems like you are only sharing Eden with several hundred "cruislings". It has a most spacious "walkaround" deck to do full circuits on. The Oasis is huge and very pleasant. The main pool with retractable roof is delightful and I found quiet places for a drink quite easily as sound doesn't seem to travel far below decks.

I am quite happy to answer any other particular questions you might have on Eden. In closing I will say that we'll probably sail again on her using our cruise credit as she is much nicer than her sisters.

Steve.

I noticed something similar at Central Railway station, country platforms last week. Good to have luggage storage facilities again. The country railway station in Melbourne also has lots of lockers of various sizes which we have used, the big ones can hold quite a bit!

Steve.

Ha ha Walt, things seem not to have changed much eh! We did have plenty of towels though and the rooms are still lovely.

Steve. :D

Princess for us and that is 6 votes too!

Steve.

Last night I received an email from my travel agent as well as one from the Senior VP of P&O, co signed by the CEO of Carnival. The letter basically acknowledges a sub standard offering on our recent Pacific Eden inaugural cruise, offering a future cruise credit of a "fairly significant" amount for use over a generous period of time (June 2017). There were four of us on my booking and we each received this letter.

I was surprised at this generous offer, especially as it came from the oft maligned P&O management who I have had issues with before.

I am curious, did all of us on the Eden trip receive this email?

I must say though, well done P&O for your fast action in acknowledging most of us had serious issues with the cruise. We will "cruise again with P&O" but I will be watching future reviews to be sure the issues we had, have been rectified. Also rest assured P&O it certainly wasn't all bad, time and training will improve things a lot and it will take quite a show to top the 5 ships spectacular, which was special.

Steve.

Hi Mark, The Ocean Bar is very light, airy and open in an area with high passing traffic. It is a very pleasant place that stretches along the side of the ship. I didn't go there often as when a musician of any sort was there it was pretty loud. The background music wasn't too bad.

I really enjoyed the Blue Room which includes the Statendam's library area so it was like three rooms with the doors removed. As it is intended to be an "intimate club" style it has heavy, dark curtains and most of us opened these up in the daytime to let light in. It is in a much less busy area, being the other end of the Casino with Salt Grill on the other side of the ship. Quite peaceful really! Tea is available, but it would be "to pay" I think and as I said the coffees and hot chocolates, with hilliers choc on the side, were great. The coffee came from an expresso machine at a "drinkable" temperature which was fine for me but some people said it was too cool for them.

The girls servicing this area were (IMHO) about the best on the ship. I would think they could arrange for a tray of pastries to be delivered if you wanted that. I think they might also have sold packets of chips too. One day our family met there for a drink and the music was a bit loud. Jayne mentioned this to Jen (waitress) and the volume dropped, so they obviously have access to the volume control at the bar.

There is a possibility that the dome (party zone at night) could suit you. There is a bar there and lots of seating with great views and it doesn't seem to be used much during the day. It holds a lot of people though and if they are talking, it isn't too quiet!

Eden is not too long, so you could always do a bar crawl till you found "the one"! That's basically how I settled on the Blue Room. Blue Room certainly gets my vote.

Steve.

Make no mistake folks the Inaugural cruise on Pacific Eden wasn't great. Unfortunately for ship, captain, crew and passengers the first stop at Esperence with tendering was a dangerous fiasco. Other stops both docked and tendered were much better. Dining room service was poor and this mainly due to seriously insufficient staff. The waiters tried hard but what they needed was extra staff. The basic service errors, like cold food and wrong orders will probably cease with more practice, but they do need more staff. Other aspects were good and some were great. The rooms were lovely big comfortable areas with generous bathrooms. We had an ocean view on deck 5 and our stewards were terrific. The TV was hopeless, but we don't cruise to watch tele do we? The bars were all different spaces with different themes and you would be an impossible person not to find somewhere nice for a drink. My preferred area was the Blue Room which had a jazz band playing in the evenings which was good, and I don't even particularly like jazz!

At one stage I pointed out a hygiene issue to the Pantry Manager which I though was serious. Subsequent trips to the Pantry showed a much cleaner area. So, things were getting better all the time and I do think the new ships will become the "jewells in the crown" that P&O wanted, in time.

Steve.

The pantry was the place on Eden for snacks and cakes. The coffee from the machines was woeful. A variety of tea bags were available there including herbal, decaf, english breakfast and others, along with hot water from the machines. These drinks were free.

The girls in the Blue Room provided great service and made really, really good coffees and hot chocolates. I believe they also had tea bags there too but it all costs. Coffees were $3.50 in smallish cups, hot chocs maybe a few cents cheaper in glasses. I got good coffee from the Ocean bar as well, but it usually had loud music happening there. The beer from the tap at Ocean bar was the best value on board too, looked like pint glasses and cost about the same as the bottled beer.

Steve.

I like the dark hulls and after the Aria cruise, they need to work on plenty of other areas first rather than the cosmetic ones.

Oh dear, there are "troubles" on Aria as well? With two prize additions to the fleet I hope P&O realise they need to lift their game.

Steve.