Pacific Jewel, "Food & Wine Cruise" 22-25 July 2011

[MissusH]

The Cruise according to Billy and Dee!

 

 

This was our first ever cruise, needless to say it was going to be a bit of an adventure. The first point of excitement was we were upgraded, same room size/type but from deck 5 to deck 11.

 

We flew into Sydney the day before so that we could spend time with relatives. As we were getting off the plane both our mobiles phones went into a bit of a frenzy, checked the messages and discovered that boarding was to be delayed because of “adverse weather”. No matter to hubby and I, this just meant we had more time to play in Sydney! Of which we did!! :D

 

 

22/7/11

 

We got to Warf 5 at about 4:30, it was pretty insane but seemed to have some sort of order to things. It was really good that there was cold drinks available in the marquee as it was pretty warm in there. Things although took a while or probably did cos we were so excited still seemed to flow well.

We got through all the relevant checks and got on the boat, wide eyed and bouncing off the rafters. We were somewhat clueless as to what to do next, someone said to go to our rooms, so we did, bounding all the way! We were missing one item of luggage, we did not realise we were not allowed to bring alchol on board and discovered at about 11 pm that the suitcase was being held downstairs. OOPS.

Anyhow we bounded round the ship, took loads of photos and were really excited to set sail, we were clock watching. Then the announcement….:( not setting sail till 6am. I knew that I was not able to get up at that time so I was a bit sad I would not see us setting sail. We were grumpy about it all about 1 second, hubby and I have owned boats in the past and know how bad it can be in bad weather. We would much prefer to stay put than risk things.

Hubby booked me in for a few spa treatments and we tried to book into Salt, but to no avail. Not to worry though we did go to Quay on Thursday night so we got in one amazing place. We also sussed out the buffet which was pretty good and booked in for a wine tasting. We too had missed out on a bunch of things, but we were not too fussed, we were already having fun! We had fluffy drinks and the rain had subsided!

 

23/7/11

 

Hubby woke at 5:30am, too excited to sleep he bounded out of bed, into a shower and raced up stairs. He came back at about 7:30 to tell me we were still here, so I got up and out room service coffee juice and hocky-puck cold toast arrived. (Not a complaint, though, re; toast it’s something that we now know not to order and opt to go upstairs for toast. Everything for us on this Cruise was to learn, and good to share so others know)

It was still raining, we kinda found that funny too, we are from a town that happens to rain a LOT and seemed that we bought our rain with us. Hubby stood over me, umbrella above and in front so that I could take photos ♥ Sydney Harbor is beautiful, even in the rain. We watched on by and noticed that further up the swells we set to get a bit rough. Being ex boat owners it was pretty exciting for us, we were soon to find out, not so for others.

Then there was the drill or muster, we were in the Casino and noticed that there were a number of people not looking so well. We opted to no use the elevator just in case, something we found out later was a good move. I had a spa treatment and the beautician told me about the last few days of hectic sailing and the literal carnage in the Marquee’s muster, I will spare you the details.

We then had some fluffy drinks on deck and I think some lunch, we tried again to book at Salt hoping that because of all the people that were sea sick there may have been some spare spots. We could clearly see that there was empty tables and reading Debstas review earlier saying that there was a few tables spare is a bit rough, but as we had spent such an amazing night at Quay on Thursday we were not “too” upset.

We had discovered that we only had one power point outlet in our room, so we know for next cruise to bring a power board and a alarm clock. The inside room we adored, the temperature we loved as we prefer a cooler room; myself especially for health issues. There was not quite enough coat hangers either but this was really quickly sorted by a quick call. We also noticd that we had little to no phone range and as a result this was flattening our batteries rather fast. This was when we discovered the sole power point too!! LOL

We had managed to get into Waterfront for lunch, we did not know that we would be put on a shared table. For us this was a pleasant surprise and something that we very much enjoyed. The food, was fine, nothing amazing but more than what we expected. The service we were very happy with and yet again this was another point in the cruise that we well enjoyed.

We did quite a lot of back and forthing on the ship, we were pretty much finding where things where and what we could do and do on. We spotted a door we could go through on one of the decks and out we went! We saw some amazing swells and like a scene out of Forrest Gump we were elated at the swells, taking video footage and having an all round blast…till we noticed some poor people that were not so well. We figured yelling out, UP!! DOWN” “SQUUUUUUUEEEEEE” may not have been what they wanted to hear, so we quickly scampered off to where we would be less heard. OOPS

We had mucked up our times and missed out on the cheese tasting session so we opted to go to Bingo and that was a lot of fun too, Hubby almost won a prize had one number to go and waited for more than a dozen more numbers to be called then he heard “BINGO” he seems to have enjoyed himself so much that he wants to suss out Bingo in our area.

 

 

24/7/11

 

This morning thankfully the bacon was crispier today!! LOVE Crispy bacon, well it was not as crispy as I would make it but it was not soggy so it was very yummy, as was everything else on the breakfast buffet. The Lunch Buffet was great too, this time I discovered all the cold meats, cheeses and salads!!

While I was in the spa Hubby went off to play golf. He said he had fun but was more nattering on about all the people he met and talked to. Hubby loves a chat, I am convinced if a Kangaroo hopped by he would say g’day!

We had a lazy morning or wandering about the ship taking photos and so on, fluffy drinks (cocktails) just after midday and then a leisurely lunch. We got our Bingo tickets and then went back to Waterfront for our wine tasting session. The wine tasting was lots of fun and very enjoyable, the wines used were premium wines and the session was very informative.

We then made our way off to Bingo, this was a full session and yet again we enjoyed ourselves. In the time we were playing Bingo the ship raised anchor and began to set sail.

We made our way up to the buffet and had a small snack then went for another adventure of discovery about the ship. We had realised we hd not been up the front, we were told how to get up there and in a few minutes of being there someone told us to go back inside as there was going to be some rough weather ahead. By that point we had gotten all the photos and had the great fortune of finding the front of the ship.

We then made our way back to our room and we were baffled as to why there was all these suitcases everywhere. When we got to our room we had a not telling us the disembarkation procedure. We were not too happy as we could not figure out how we could go to dinner well dressed, then put those clothes away and then have PJ’s and our clothes for the next day. During dinner some fellow diners at our table told us they were confused as we were and they had been told that they could keep their luggage with them and they just had to take it off the ship, so we opted to do that.

Dinner was at Waterfront for the degustation menu, it was ok but I found the portions to be far too big and skipped a course.

After dinner we went to the Marquee to see the Circus, unfortunately we were really tired, the rocking of the ship somehow just makes us both really sleepy. We stayed for about half an hour, bout the same time we stayed to see the comedian on the first night. Our batteries were just too flat and we knew we had a big day ahead.

 

25/7/22

 

Disembarkation day! We thought we would get coffee delivered to our room but found out that there was no room service on disembarkation day. Hubby went upstairs and got some coffee and juice, while I showered. Hubby had a shower the night before so we had more time in the morning. We made our way to the Marquee and ended up waiting for some time, Hubby could have had his morning shower. Yet again, no biggie just a learning point. We were then told we did not have to wait as we already had all our luggage and could just disembark! DOH! Like embarkation things went well but as we were on the other side of the bridge we were now in a bit of a spot as we had organised out luggage to be in a locker near Darling Harbour. We tried to get a taxi and this proved to be rather hard as apparently no-one quite knew that the ship was going to be there, so very little was available.

All in all though we had a ball, we learned a lot and now understand a bit more about ship life. We feel after this a lot more ready to go on our 30 day cruise next year. In fact I wish we could squeeze in something beforehand!! LOL

 

 

 

Points that we learned and found valuable to us:

 

* Bring a power board

* Bring an alarm clock

* You don’t have to have you bags out the night before, you can take them all with you

* Don’t get toast for room service

* Go with the flow, things go wrong, weather is a big factor and its better to be late, or loose some cruise time and have an enjoyable time than have a bad time.

* Keep an eye on the times that outlets are open, we thought we would have a late night snack and discovered that nothing included was open so we had to pay (no biggie) but we ordered a ½ kilo garlic prawns and we received 10 medium sized prawns, we asked did ½ kilo include the bowl? There was no offer to check the weight either. We were a bit annoyed, but if we had to pay for garlic prawns elsewhere we would have paid the same amount for the same size portion. But we now know that the portion sizes are not always right.

* At busy meal times at the buffet it’s probably easier to have one person get their meal while the other finds a table, its no fun walking about as your meal goes cold trying to find a table.

* You can take your own luggage off the ship on disembarkation day. Whether this is applicable on all ships I do not know so would be best to find this out by asking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sandielle]

Great review MissusH. You both have the makings of cruise addicts! :)

 

It's a shame you didn't ask about those tips before you went. Fortunately I found out everything I needed to here, before I left.

[musicorn]

I have read a lot of negative comments about this cruise so it is good to see a positive one. :) I did a food & wine cruise last year and loved it. Glad you did too. I am so jealous of your long cruise as that is my dream. Just got to chuck out a couple of kids first. LOL

[LouLou28]

Loved the reviews ... great the get everyone's perspective on their cruise. We have just booked our first ever 3 day cruise (we've done a few more) - we've booked it as part of a back-to-back witha 7 day one ... couldn't bear only spending 7 days on board ... so found a way to stretch it to a 10 day cruise!

 

Really liked hearing about your 3 day cruise ... gives me some good ideas. (Ours is a comedy cruise rather than a food and wine cruise ... I'm suspecing it'll be more like a B&S on the ocean!!!) ... :p

 

Sounds like you had a great time MissusH ... very envious of 30 days!!!!

[Debsta]

Thanks for your review MissusH :D

 

Now you've found us you can ask lots more questions about your 30 dayer :D

[ozlady55]

Hi MissusH

 

What a great report you posted. I enjoyed it very much. I am leaving tomorrow (29th) on the Pearl for a 12 day cruise to Vanuatu and Noumea and am hoping the Sydney weather stays calm so we don't lose any time. I havn't sailed on the Jewel yet , just the Sun and Dawn so far so look forward to trying the Jewel next time.

 

I am sure you will be able to squeeze another little cruise in before your 30 dayer.

 

 

Cheers

ozlady55