Sun - April 30 Cruise Help required

[mokindah]

Hi, I am travelling on my first cruise with my husband and our daughter who will be 2 yrs and 11 months at the time of travel. P&O have told us our daughter is not able to use the kids club facilities unsupervised and we are not able to get use of baby sitters. Is it hard to get a babysitter on the side to watch her in the evening? Is it going to busy easy to keep a child of that age busy.:confused:

Q's from my husband - How much is the beer onboard? and Is there a fridge in the rooms?:p

[chaz cruiser]

Hi Mokindah,

 

Welcome to the boards. Firstly the question I can answer, there are no fridges in the cabins although you do have an ice bucket and your cabin steward will bring you ice whenever you ask for it.

 

Secondly, Truebliss should be able to answer your questions re child under 3 as she just recently returned from her first cruise with one. I think her comment was along the lines that it was difficult and she wouldn't do it again.

 

I'm not sure about beer prices but think they are about $3. There are plenty of drinkers on here so I am sure that one of them will know (Dan???).

 

Cheers,

Chaz:)

[keepcruising]

Hi Mokindah and welcome.

 

A rough guide to the drink prices are as follows

 

• beer ranged from $4 to $5.50 for the imported stuff.
  
• cocktails standard was $6.50 signature ones up to $10.00
  
• could get a sourvenir cocktail for $11.00 where you get to keep the glass, which has the ship logo on it. (larger than the standard size glass)
  
• liqueurs $5.50
  
• spirits range from $4.50 to $7.00

and tell hubby that at least once a day there is a chance to win free beer at beer quoits it's only a can of VB but it's free, and you can take it to the bar and swap it for a cold one at any time, so if you don't drink it straight away, you can swap it for a cold one when your ready to drink.

 

Hope this helps

[karmac]

Hi Mokindah,

 

Welcome to the boards. Firstly the question I can answer, there are no fridges in the cabins although you do have an ice bucket and your cabin steward will bring you ice whenever you ask for it.

 

Secondly, Truebliss should be able to answer your questions re child under 3 as she just recently returned from her first cruise with one. I think her comment was along the lines that it was difficult and she wouldn't do it again.

 

I'm not sure about beer prices but think they are about $3. There are plenty of drinkers on here so I am sure that one of them will know (Dan???).

 

Cheers,

Chaz:)

 

Just wondering Chaz, from cruise 603 where you are no longer able to take alcohol on board, maybe there will no longer be ice buckets?

 

Karen

[karmac]

Gee Mokindah, I suppose you probably didn't realise at time of booking, but one more month and you would have been ok for kids facilities. You're probably kicking yourself now, I know I would be. You might be lucky enough to meet some families on board with teenage daughters willing to earn a few dollars for a night.

 

Karen

[NARELLE]

JUST CAME BACK OFF SUN yesterday.

As previously quoted those are the prices for drinks and cans of soft drink are $2. we were not very pleased as first day usual can 370 ml $2 2nd day and thereafter can dropped to 330ml came from Asia and tasted like s*hit.

My husband complained to cruise staff but nothing changed till guess when? My daughter wanted a drink while waiting to get off ship yesterday morning and guess what appeared 370 ml Australian drink.

At dinner we had a family sitting nest to us who had twins and were only 2 years old. What a handful they were every night at dinner and I guarantee 10 out of the 12 nights they had to get up and leave the table because they were playing up. I was talking to the mother later on and she told us they also had 2 older children - who were in the kids cluvb and ate at childrens dinner but P& O changed the rules that they didn't look after children inder 3 anymore and they hadn't been advised until they paid for it and they had been on a cruise before and thought they were going to get a bit of a break. I couldn't understand why there werre so many children in the dining room woth the adults and it was a bit disruptive i agree trying to keep children still and quite for 1-1 1/2. been there done that luckily mine are 14 nad 16 now and never seen them at all except for dinner at night.

narelle

[karmac]

So, did you have a good time Narelle? And what was the reaction from your kids when they found out? (I think you're the one that was giving it to them fro Christmas - I apologise if I'm wrong). Yes, I'm certainly glad my kids aren't that young. At 15,11 & 10 they should be ok.

 

Karen

[NARELLE]

yes they were pleasantly surprised. My son just looked at his folder and I had printed out the itinerary as it didn't have the dates on the tickets. he just looked and said that is 2 days away and I said yes start packing. My daughter was more upset that she had packed a bag thinking she was going on Boxing day to her grandmothers. When they found out so many people and friends knew and never told them they were very surprised. Everyone had kept our secret well - thank God. We had a good cruise. Weather was perfect except for the last day it rained. There were so many young ones on board nad a lot of them drunk all the time. New Years was a blast and also the Caprain sounded the ships horn 12 times and there was a huge island night on top deck. The kids had friends from School that they didn't know were going - rahter she left and went to another scholl last year so they were inseperable. It was like he was theshiek with his harem. I thought going away I wld get rid of the phone, but guess what it never stopped ringing for the kids. They made lots of frineds and the only time we ever seen them was for dinner. Trioy never came to bed before 2 or 3 in the morning but that is what it is all about _ wow we don't have a curfew and can come in when we like..

Demo was our cruise Director and the shows on board were very good. We had a pommie comedian , a lady singer/comedian and a hypnotist - his show was truly excellent.

narelle

[aussiedisneyfan]

Glad you had fun. I doubt if they would be the same ones returning but our entertainment was the same lineup as yours.

[LHM]

Hi Narelle, glad to see you had lovely time away. How did you find the ship and how many passengers does it take. Were you saying James as in James Ibriham has resigned - I thought he was going to the Star?

 

Who was your Maitre'd and captain? How was the food - normal P & O standard? How were the shows. Sorry about all the questions - just looking at booking another cruise in March and April and was looking at this ship.

 

Rgs

LHM

[NARELLE]

yes it is the same James.

 

Laura was the Deputy who I thought actually was better personality wise than Demo. She was a very outgoing person from Wollongong. Apparently was on a cruise about 3 years ago liked it so applied and got a job. She is actually an ex Drama teacher who also has appeared on TV in Blue Healers and another show- I cant think which one.

 

We had James as deputy 2 years ago and before that was just part of cruise crew. he was very good obviously had enough of shipboard life to get a job back on land. It must have happened very sudden because Natalie another cruise staff told my husband there had been a very big shuffle quite quickly.

 

Food hasnt achanged much since we last sailed on Sky in 2004.

The entertainment was very good and the pacific sun dancers and singers had similar shows as before. We still enjoyed them. The ship holds 1900 passengers and we actually had 1932 on board. i must say that I won't cruise at that time again. So many young ones on board. Mind you we had our children on too - and never seen them but we reckon about 100 were 18-25 year olds who obviosly were trying to outdo each other in the drinking dept. Dont get me wronf we still had a good time and 4 of the islands we went to we hadn't been to before. I learnt to snorkel after all these years. usually hubby and kids went and i stayed on beach but actually did it this time and had the time of my life at Wala and Lamen Bay. we snorkeled in the water for hours and I mean hours Wala for 5 without getting out of the water. The weather was beautiful escept got swellt last 2 days coming back. Rained the last day other than that perfect. The captain was Bob something an English gentleman very nice. had to make quite a few announcements concerning people damaging safety equipment, stayed at Lifou while a helicopter airlifted a lady back to Vila who was serious - heart attack, weather conditions etc. people were put off in last 3 ports and paddy wagon waiting at sydney for others.

There RSA was very lax on board but that is another story.

If you have been on before and remember the dancers Cameron is still oin board singing and dancing till April.

 

the Mairtre d was Fabio - an Italian of course. Alaot of the crew we recognised from the Sky so in that respect hasn't changed much.

[LHM]

Hi Narelle, tks for the info. How would you say the Sun compares with the Sky? Did you keep any of the newsletters from the Sun?

 

Tks

LHM

[NARELLE]

we probably liked the Sky better, maybe because we had been on it 4 times before. Even the crew on board who we knew from Sky agreed that Sky was a nicer ship. Yes we kept the Sun daily"s but I can tell you that they were exactly the same format as the Sky Daily. Probably the main differences we noticed was that there was no cinema on Sun and they hardly showed any movies - although you cld watch movies in your cabin on the TV - but who wants to stay in your cabin and watch movies. My husband is a movie buff so that was one thing we noticed. The casino was very open so children cld see what was going on but we also knew there were underaged in there playing the machines. Right next door to the casino is a games arcade for the kids so that was very noisy if you were near that part of the casino especially with the ice hockey game. There is no open decks like Promenade on Sky until you get to the top of the ship where the pools are that is the first open deck. I must say I dont think there was any shortage of deck lounges on Sun. One advantage on Sun was the slide that they have in one of the pools. The kids and some adults had a ball all day going down the waterslide. At lunch there was Pizza that you cld have for a certain time for free and after that you paid unlike Sky where you paid the whole time.

Anymore questions feel free to ask

narelle

[flaming moe]

I was on 601 Pacific Sun (same as Narelle). It was much better than I tought it would be. The guest entertainers, in my (and many others I met) opinion was a bit like the 20 year old ship - tired. Sorry, but it was like watching daytime tv. The Pacific Sun dancers/singers/musos were great though. I like good pizza, unfortunately the free pizza at lunch wasn't it...definetely would not spent $$ buying one. Agree that the 330ml Vietnam canned Coke was shyte. It was school holidays and overall the kids were OK...it was the young adults who were an absolute disgrace. I was surprised so few were kicked off.

[pixie01]

Hi everyone,

From the posts about the star it appears that the kids separate dining no longer exists is it the case with the sun also?

[aussiedisneyfan]

According Chaz she was told by Shona, the cruise director, that there is no kids dining on the Sun. I am still waiting to hear back from P&O, I have sent them an email with the comment from Chaz and asked them to tell me what is going on.

[karmac]

I also emailed P & O yesterday about it, just waiting to hear back from them. I haven't said anything to my kids yet although I don't think it will worry them either way. I think kids dining would be better for them as it's just another opportunity to make friends. Mind you, I don't think they're looking forward to eating at 5. We don't eat at home until about 7 most nights. Also, hubby, myself and our 15 y.o booked for a table of 8. Had I have known all 3 were with us I probably would have requested a table of 10 in the hope of sitting with another family.

 

Karen

[NARELLE]

there was definately kids dinner on our cruise.

can you imagine 320 under 12 year olds that alone the 182 teens all dining at the same time in the 2 restaurants.

Moe did your children go to seperate dinner??

I agree with Moe ther must have been about 1000 18-25 year olds on the cruise who all competed to see who could get drunk the most.

Moe you wld have to agree the hypnotist was very good.

 

narelle

[Skyrules]

we probably liked the Sky better, maybe because we had been on it 4 times before. Even the crew on board who we knew from Sky agreed that Sky was a nicer ship.

 

When we went on Sun in June, there were quite a lot of crew that had been on Sky on our cruise the previous November, and a lot of them felt that Sky was the better ship of the two.

 

It'll be a shame to see her go.

 

Kym

[LHM]

Tks Narelle for the info. I am sad the Sky is going - it was a great ship and the whole layout of the decks is excellent.

 

LHM

[Skyrules]

The captain was Bob something an English gentleman very nice.

 

the Mairtre d was Fabio - an Italian of course. Alaot of the crew we recognised from the Sky so in that respect hasn't changed much.

 

Captain would probably have been Bob Oliver?? He was our Captain on Sun in June - our cruise was his last before going on holidays, so he must be back now.

 

I think the Maitre 'd was the same to - did he look old and dis-interested when he was doing the Champagne waterfall? He did on our cruise. He also didn't impress me with the way he handled a mess up with our dinner reservations. So hopefully he stays on Sun and doesn't pop up on Star in March.

 

Kym

[flaming moe]

Narelle, the hypnotist was excellent in so much as he appeared to genuinely get people to say and do stupid things. I was a bit disappointed with his attempt at being a comedian on the other two shows he was on. The magic maths puzzle (sic) he used to woo the crowd was exactly the same sort of thing I used to get for school homework, admittedly he did it quicker than me! The kids went to their sitting, we went to the first and that worked out really well for the rest of our evening. We had a couple who booked from Europe with one of their kids a couple of months shy of 3 years. It was fair to say Mum had a less than perfect 12 days at sea...again they were told garbage from P&O about what could be arranged for them. A lot of the tours seemed to be sold out before even getting onboard. The booking pack that I was sent before the cruise contained less than half the tours on offers...makes it hard to prebook when you dont have all the info. As it turned out I had no problem getting on the dive tours at Luganville or Vila and the family saved a fortune (compared to the ships tour desk) by negotiating directly with one of the many taxis for half the day to do the cascade waterfall and vila shopping. I thought the dinner wine prices were a bit steep...remember they are getting grog duty free and then flogging it at three times your local bottle shop prices - but by the end of the bottle it didn't seem to matter much. I can see why they don't want byo on board. On the last night (after your duty free booze had been delivery to your room), I walked past a couple of rooms that had been absolutely trashed...was not surprised cops were called. RSA, LOTFFLOL, I saw some small kid rock up to the bar and order the Mocktail-of-the day..was very funny hearing the poor girl explain to the (english is my distant second language) bar staff that she was to young for alcohol after she was poured a Midori splice. I reported this incident to security staff who just laughed it away as something beyond their control.

[kaseyoz]

Captain would probably have been Bob Oliver?? He was our Captain on Sun in June - our cruise was his last before going on holidays, so he must be back now.

 

I think the Maitre 'd was the same to - did he look old and dis-interested when he was doing the Champagne waterfall? He did on our cruise. He also didn't impress me with the way he handled a mess up with our dinner reservations. So hopefully he stays on Sun and doesn't pop up on Star in March.

 

Kym

Bob Oliver was our captain in late sept also.

We also must have had the same maitre D' who wasnt prepared to help ANYONE the first night who thought they had confirmed seating for their kids only to be told on the night they had to eat in the kids dining room. No further help was given and he was fairly rude to a lot of people.

[aussiedisneyfan]

The shore tours are another debacle in our cruising life. We didn't receive any pre booking forms for our Star cruise which we should have. When I received them for the Sun I queried this and was given a list of tours on offer for our Star trip. Only to find when I rang back to book that the period had closed.

[flaming moe]

I didn't have a problem with Fabio personally...but I did meet heaps of others who did. I did witness on one occasion he was trying to evict a first sitting table whilst simultaneously their desert was being laid on the table. He claimed they arrived late and did not deserve desert, they stated they did not and refused to leave. He was regularly calling dinner up to 20 minutes early and accused people who arrived at the scheduled time of being late.