Recent Pacific Sun cruisers: couple of ???'s!

As the countdown clock says, less than 2 days to go!

I have some quick newbie-type questions for anyone who has recently travelled on Pacific Sun:

1. Water: whats the drinking water (or tap water in cabins like)?

lots of cruisers on this thread talk about taking bottled water on board as this also gets quite expensive to buy. I dont normally drink bottled water (environment issues), just concerned it the tap water tastes OK.

2. Internet: I gather there is no wifi in the cabins, is this right? Does one have to take laptop to the internet cafe or is there hotspots? What is the speed like? We want to keep a blog for family and friends and just wondering if that is feasible.

3. Tipping: completely foreign to this! If we opt out of the set amount added to our cabin account, and say, for example, we are very happy with our cabin steward, what is a good amount to give after a 16 day cruise?

I am sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but at $7.50 each for 16 days, P & O would collect $240 from us, would it be better to shell out the equivalent amount on our staff of our choice?

Thanks in advance for replying!

Re the water. It's desalinated & treated onboard. Smells a bit chloriney at times but perfectly safe to drink. They always serve iced water with meals in the dining rooms & there is chilled water you can access 24/7 from the drink stations in the buffet. It's all the same water. They ask you not to fill water bottles from there but your cabin stewards will put ice in your cabin & I usually fill a water bottle in the bathroom & add ice before going ashore. You only need to buy or bring bottled water if you have an aversion to the taste.

1. Water: whats the drinking water (or tap water in cabins like)?

lots of cruisers on this thread talk about taking bottled water on board as this also gets quite expensive to buy. I dont normally drink bottled water (environment issues), just concerned it the tap water tastes OK.

I believe the water aboard is desalinated and sometimes tastes of chlorine, therefore we have bought Brita water bottles with a filter cartridge in the top. They're a good size for carrying in a backpack and cost around $10. We got ours from BigW

Hope this helps. :)

Hope you have a fantastic cruise!

Hi there, we just got off the pacific sun on Wednesday... was our first cruise... see answers below.

1. Water: whats the drinking water (or tap water in cabins like)?

lots of cruisers on this thread talk about taking bottled water on board as this also gets quite expensive to buy. I dont normally drink bottled water (environment issues), just concerned it the tap water tastes OK.

The water in the rooms is fine, a little chloriney, but definitely drinkable. At the bars they have big pitchers/tapped ice water that has lemon in it. In the buffet area there is a water cooler & ice dispenser available 24/7. Both areas state not to fill water bottles there... If you're really that fussy with water, I'd go the brita bottle idea. They do sell bottled water and it's really not that expensive.

2. Internet: I gather there is no wifi in the cabins, is this right? Does one have to take laptop to the internet cafe or is there hotspots? What is the speed like? We want to keep a blog for family and friends and just wondering if that is feasible.

We couldn't find the hotspots, but really lost interest in it anyways... were too busy relaxing! they have internet connections/computers available - they were pretty much available all the time - vary rarely did we see anyone bothering with them.

3. Tipping: completely foreign to this! If we opt out of the set amount added to our cabin account, and say, for example, we are very happy with our cabin steward, what is a good amount to give after a 16 day cruise?

We also opted to pay the people directly. I took it under advisement from friends to pay a portion to our cabin steward up front when we arrived... this made a huge difference -- people we were travelling with laughed at this idea and had very average service from their steward. They get paid so little... we possibly over-tipped, but he was worth it, he was so special to our kids and made them feel so important -- and to me that's kinda priceless. Tip what you think is fair... you can always give more if the service is outstanding! we tipped him $30 up front, (four of us in the cabin 2 adults, 2 kids) and gave him another $50 at the end. we travelled for 5 nights and felt that he earnt it... maybe other people can advise what they paid... but I really felt in the end it was a personal thing.

Hope you have a fab trip. We enjoyed our trip, and found very few faults -- except that a few of the other passengers were grumps! find them everywhere I guess!

Thankyou so much for your replies, everyone!

Thanks especially to Feefs, you have given me a much clearer idea of what to expect and what to do.... I wont bother with bringing bottled water, maybe buy some when we are on island visits. And good info on tipping, I hate to seem scroogy more than being overgenerous...

We enjoyed our trip, and found very few faults -- except that a few of the other passengers were grumps! find them everywhere I guess!

Note to self: dont be grumpy! LOL

As the countdown clock says, less than 2 days to go!

I have some quick newbie-type questions for anyone who has recently travelled on Pacific Sun;

 

1. Water: whats the drinking water (or tap water in cabins like)?

lots of cruisers on this thread talk about taking bottled water on board as this also gets quite expensive to buy. I dont normally drink bottled water (environment issues), just concerned it the tap water tastes OK.

Water in the cabins is drinkable - and in fact it tasted better than Perth water, that's for sure :) (We got off in Fremantle on Wednesday).

2. Internet: I gather there is no wifi in the cabins, is this right? Does one have to take laptop to the internet cafe or is there hotspots? What is the speed like? We want to keep a blog for family and friends and just wondering if that is feasible.

Wi-fi is normally available on the ship - but as at Wednesday when we disembarked it was out of order - it had been since we left Brisbane. When it is operating though, it's only available in the public areas on Decks 8 & 9. Prices are the same as the fixed computers at the Internet stations on Deck 9 outside the top level of the showlounge. Be aware that internet time is expensive. We were lucky on our cruise as we were able to use our Bigpond wireless modem for most of the trip - except when we were crossing the Great Australian Bight. But I guess on your cruise that won't be an option

3. Tipping: completely foreign to this! If we opt out of the set amount added to our cabin account, and say, for example, we are very happy with our cabin steward, what is a good amount to give after a 16 day cruise?

I am sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but at $7.50 each for 16 days, P & O would collect $240 from us, would it be better to shell out the equivalent amount on our staff of our choice?

This one's always tricky, and one of personal choice.... The important thing to remember is that the automatic tipping also goes to the people that you don't see that make the cruise special, and work hard lke the staff in the kitchens, laundry, etc. On this cruise we left our auto tipping on and also tipped the cabin stewards a bit extra. Something some people do is leave auto tipping on for one person in the cabin - but remove the rest, and then tip individual staff as they feel appropriate.

Hi there, we just got off the pacific sun on Wednesday... was our first cruise... see answers below.

 

 

The water in the rooms is fine, a little chloriney, but definitely drinkable. At the bars they have big pitchers/tapped ice water that has lemon in it. In the buffet area there is a water cooler & ice dispenser available 24/7. Both areas state not to fill water bottles there... If you're really that fussy with water, I'd go the brita bottle idea. They do sell bottled water and it's really not that expensive.

 

 

We couldn't find the hotspots, but really lost interest in it anyways... were too busy relaxing! they have internet connections/computers available - they were pretty much available all the time - vary rarely did we see anyone bothering with them.

 

 

 

We also opted to pay the people directly. I took it under advisement from friends to pay a portion to our cabin steward up front when we arrived... this made a huge difference -- people we were travelling with laughed at this idea and had very average service from their steward. They get paid so little... we possibly over-tipped, but he was worth it, he was so special to our kids and made them feel so important -- and to me that's kinda priceless. Tip what you think is fair... you can always give more if the service is outstanding! we tipped him $30 up front, (four of us in the cabin 2 adults, 2 kids) and gave him another $50 at the end. we travelled for 5 nights and felt that he earnt it... maybe other people can advise what they paid... but I really felt in the end it was a personal thing.

 

Hope you have a fab trip. We enjoyed our trip, and found very few faults -- except that a few of the other passengers were grumps! find them everywhere I guess!

Hi Fi,

Sorry we didn't catch up with you on board! Pleased to hear you had a wonderful cruise. I like your comment about the other passengers being grumps - have to agree with you there were quite a few grumpy's on the cruise wasn't there! We always say that the worst thing about cruising is the other passengers (with a few exceptions of course :D )

Re the internet speed/cost etc. I have heard a lot of people on here suggest typing everything up first and then just cutting and pasting into your blog or whatever so you don't waste precious 'usage' time on just the typing part.

Like others said though - it will be the last thing you feel like doing let me assure you! Even the most die hard computer addicts struggle to be bothered to go online whilst on a cruise. :)