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Cruise review - J303 19-29 Jan - Pacific Jewel

sir-magoo

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sir-magoo

sir-magoo

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Well, I have been a long time lurker and really enjoy everybody else’s reviews so it is time for one of my own. It won’t be the most detailed, just the highlights.

We were on J303 – Pacific Jewel 19-29 Jan. Ports were Wala, Vila, Mare and Noumea.

We turned up in Sydney a day early as we always do, boy was that an experience! 46 degrees! We wandered around for a while but obviously not the sort of day to do too much walking around so after a quick visit to the markets and Darling Harbour we retreated back to the hotel room. We stayed at Ibis King Street Wharf, the rooms are very small but really conveniently located to Barangaroo 5 so it is usually our first choice of hotel rooms when we cruise out of Sydney.

Check in morning, we checked out of the hotel and wandered down to the terminal at around 10:30. As always, the process was incredibly quick and easy, we were on board by just after 11:00. We went up to our room, second time in a mini-suite so we sat out on the balcony for a while and went to lunch around 12 to try and avoid the rush. As always, really good meal on offer, particular praise for the chocolate bread and butter pudding that was just a brilliant culinary start to the holiday J

We departed Sydney and had 3 sea days to look forward to on our way out to Wala. Weather was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed our sea days. We visited the buffet for breakfast and lunch, we went to the MDR for dinner each night where we had the most fantastic waitress (Genefare).

After the three sea days we visited our first port, Wala. This was my sixth cruise so I have visited many of the islands in the south pacific, I generally love all of the small islands and rate them above the larger centres such as Vila and Noumea. This was my first visit to Wala and sadly I did not like it at all. Coral at the two beaches we tried was all dead, very few fish, pushy locals and just generally didn’t like the vibe of the island. All good though, there are plenty more fantastic islands out there for me to visit in the future, I will just avoid this one.

We then went to Vila. We went on the Cascade Waterfall Abseil tour and I have to say, this was the best P&O shore tour that I have ever been on! We absolutely loved it and would thoroughly recommend it to just about anybody. You need a little bit of fitness as you need to walk up a relatively steep hill and obviously need to be reasonably ok with heights, but if you can handle that, do yourself a favour and try this one!

Next was Mare, again another new port for me. In contrast to Wala, Mare is now my new favourite port (was formally Lifou). You do need to take the bus but the beach and coral/snorkelling there is just brilliant! Don’t expect a lot of shopping, but there is enough there to keep you comfortable for the day with showers, toilets, plus food & drinks to purchase.

Our final stop was Noumea, again we went for an adventurous tour with the Tree to Tree adventure. Again, I would thoroughly recommend this one. Probably a little scarier than the Vila Abseil, but also less fitness required. After the tour we went for a quick walk around town.

As we were leaving Noumea we were informed that we would likely be delayed by 24 hours back into Sydney. Most people were pretty good about that. P&O opened up the phones free of charge for people to reorganise travel but the internet connection was heavily clogged so web based arrangements were hard to change. I just SMS’d home and had my parents change my travel for me. All good. P&O were great and we were kept fully up to date with progress and conditions.

The trip home was a little bumpy but nowhere near as bad as I was expecting and I have certainly had worse on other cruises. The captain slowed the boat down which helped a lot.

All up, another thoroughly enjoyable cruise. A point of note, this was our second time in a mini suite. First time I was really worried as I had heard a lot about the noise from above. I heard next to nothing last time (on the port side of the ship) but this time we were on the starboard side and it was noticeably worse (11133, just under the smoking area). Not enough to ruin the holiday but I can certainly understand some of the previous comments that I have read. I would suggest just stay on the port side, if you need to be on starboard, try to stay as far aft as possible to avoid the smoking area.

Where to next? Well, we have been on 4 P&O south pacific cruises in the last 5 years so want to try something different and do really want to just experience one of the newer ships. We did look at a Royal Caribbean NZ cruise for next year but the prices were going to be very high. After a lot of research I have now secured relatively good prices for flights to Orlando and we are going over there next year for a 7 day Caribbean cruise, plus a couple of weeks at the theme parks. It turned out about 20-30% more expensive than the 14d NZ cruise would have been, but I think that it is worth it, just for something different and the additional week. If anybody has any tips for this journey, I am certainly keen to hear them.

Anyhow, as I said, we thoroughly enjoyed this cruise and P&O are great to cruise with. Back at work now but looking forward to our next adventure.

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catr13

catr13

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Thanks for the review I am doing my first South Pacific cruise in April (with RCL). I am a bit concerned it's going to be rough and I will get sick.

 

I also have a back to back Caribbean cruise planned for Jan next year. When are you headed there and on what boat? Orlando is awesome theme parks galore and so much awesome shopping!!

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sir-magoo

sir-magoo

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Thanks for the review I am doing my first South Pacific cruise in April (with RCL). I am a bit concerned it's going to be rough and I will get sick.

 

I also have a back to back Caribbean cruise planned for Jan next year. When are you headed there and on what boat? Orlando is awesome theme parks galore and so much awesome shopping!!

Hi catr13, don't worry about the sea sickness. I am about the worst person I know for motion sickness, I cannot even be the passenger in a car without getting sick. I just take avomine at night before bed, and another just after breakfast each day and I have no issues at all.

 

We are departing Syd on 28 Nov, the cruise is on the Freedom of the Seas leaving Canaveral on 1 Dec. Ideally I would have left a little later but flights are so much more expensive if we leave after 28 Nov because Qantas have a sale ending that day, luckily our son finishes school for the year on 26 Nov so it works for us.

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catr13

catr13

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Hi catr13, don't worry about the sea sickness. I am about the worst person I know for motion sickness, I cannot even be the passenger in a car without getting sick. I just take avomine at night before bed, and another just after breakfast each day and I have no issues at all.

 

We are departing Syd on 28 Nov, the cruise is on the Freedom of the Seas leaving Canaveral on 1 Dec. Ideally I would have left a little later but flights are so much more expensive if we leave after 28 Nov because Qantas have a sale ending that day, luckily our son finishes school for the year on 26 Nov so it works for us.

 

Well i am not that bad that I get sick in a car but on the sea I am bad. I stopped taking my sea sickness meds when I was on an Alaskan cruise and I got so sick and the seas weren't even rough so this time I know to keep them up! Trying something different cause they made me so sleepy.

 

Aww you are lucky to be going right before they go up I am leaving mid Dec and it's going to cost us an arm and a leg for our flights!! Freedom of the Seas sounds awesome I am sure you'll enjoy!!

 

Are you spending xmas/NYE over there?

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