Pacific Sun Review - N606

[vengeance88]

I was on the same cruise as Smurfette (N606) which was a 10 night cruise and departed on 18/Feb/06 from Sydney.

 

Arrived at Wharf at about 1:20pm and faced a very long queue which snaked round and round the terminal. Took about 50 minutes to get through the whole check-in procedure, but I don't think many of us were too impatient because we were all excited and the air conditioning kept us cool.

 

Watched the whole sailaway from the deck and then rushed off to my 6:15 (first sitting) dinner in the Bordeaux Dining Room. I found this dinner time ideal as there was just enough time to get ready after I was one of the last off the islands. The 5:45 dinner would have been too much of a rush and my stomach would have rumbled if I had to wait until the 2nd sitting.

 

Most surprising part of the trip was the excellent quality of the dinners. Service was excellent at our table and I thought the food was as superb (although i'm easily to satisfy and I eat everything). We had a good mix of ages on our table (as a 22 year old I was worried about being surrounded by people far older than me, but there was a great mix of people on the cruise).

 

Buffet breakfast/lunch was excellent - always changing and clean (we didn't get sick at all on the cruise) and my microbiologist girlfriend was impressed with the alcohol cleaner dispensers! Quite often we would skip breakfast or lunch because we were just too full.

 

Pools were small but fun for a change once I had done everything on the boat. There were plenty of vacant sun beds around at any time of the day.

 

Internet connection was super slow and cost $15 for an hour. And as someone said, there are HEAPS of boardgames in the Churchill Library (I hope P&O got a discount for buying so many board games!)

 

Gym was TINY but we went at lunch time when everyone was feeding their faces - and always was able to get a piece of equipment. As the seas were rough balance was a bit of a challenge at times in there.

 

Bars were excellent with pleny of people asking if you needed another drink. We went through the new cocktail (top 20) and also had most of the cocktails of the day. Please let me know if anyone wants me to scan a copy of the new price list (i'm not sure if someone else has scanned the new menu).

 

Lost some money in the casino, then won it all back, and then lost some more... But was fun nonetheless. I entered each of the Bingo sessions and came away with a 'Drongo' win (XXXXLarge T-Shirt and Hat), but no prize money came my way.

 

Almost half of the games in the video-games arcade were broken, but the ones that were functional were a fun way to kill 10 minutes or so.

 

I think the one critical thing to bring along (on top of all the things that others have suggested) is a watch. There were SOOO many times I asked for the time off my girlfriend - i think it's a must-have.

 

I went to pretty much every evening show and could only rate them as "good" (rather than excellent). They kept us busy through the evening whilst dinner was digesting :D . Entertainers were Maureen Mitchell (Singer) and Jon Bell (Saxophonist/Singer/Comedian - who's jokes were lamer than my own:p ). Shows were Piano Man, Tribute, G'day-G'day.

 

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ISLE OF PINES - The best beach we visited easily - my girlfriend and I went down to the other end of the beach and almost felt like we were the only ones on the whole beach! Snorkelling at The Rock was awesome as well - plenty of variety of fish and coral. Only downer was the overcast weather :(

 

Next Day was supposed to be MYSTERY ISLAND. I woke up at around 9am and the ship was rocking around in the rough seas and the tenders couldn't handle the conditions, so the captain became my worst enemy and cancelled the visit :mad: I was VERY disappointed but understand there's nothing that can be done.

 

PORT VILA was an excellent cultural experience. We went on the LAGOON CRUISE which was great - a good overall view of the land and agriculture from a picture-perfect lagoon (good weather). Picked up some super cheap grog (about 1/3 of the normal price in Sydney), but I loved walking around the main street and having EVERY taxi/bus driver beep their horn at me to see if i was looking for a trip back to the boat. Eventually got a bus back ($2) and enjoyed when 3 drivers were racing each others down the main hill beeping horns and trying to overtake each other.

 

LIFOU probably gave us our best photo opportunities, though the snorkelling was as great as I had heard. I brought reef shoes but didn't use them as I was too busy snorkelling. But others on the cruise said the beach was very uncomfortable on bare feet.

 

Last stop was NOUMEA where we did Le Petit Train (everyone has said it's great, and i'll agree it is an excellent way to get an overall feel of Noumea). We spent the rest of the day at Lemon Bay and had a fun time trying to communicate with locals and bus drivers in our hopeless french. Everything is a complete rip-off there, so go easy on the spending in Noumea! Plenty of shady looking characters walking around the main shopping district (I saw a bloke in broad daylight throwing a hat he had just stolen against a building wall so that he could break off the security tag!).

 

A few tips: Don't buy the souvenir pencils that have bark on the outside - we lost about 6 of them to customs, and were disappointed because they looked great. If you are awake, best time to visit the Purser was at midnight (never any queues).

 

This has been a LONG rant/rave, so i hope someone finds it useful

 

Overall we had a great time, we did every activity on the boat and were happy with the variety of things to do. Only real disappointment was the poor weather.

 

Oh, and if anyone was recently in Riviera cabin R58, I found the bra that you had lost/hidden under the bed :D .... All the best to all you Cruisers!

[suexxx]

hi there, thanks for a great review. hubby and I will be doing the same cruise feb 2007. it will be our first. looks like you had a great time even though the weather was not all that kind.do you have photos you are going to put on the board.would love to see them. will you be doing more cruising? any other information you can pass on to us first timers would be great.

[keith61]

Hi Vengeance

Great review and would be greatful if you could scan and post the menu and drinks selection. Some of the posts I have read suggest purchasing tours in Noumea from the cruise terminal rather than P&O, just wondering what your thoughts were on this. Also did you manage to smuggle any grog on board for those late night cabin drinks. Would appreciate some guidence with the cruise card; did you load this up as soon as you got on board and how did you pay, with cask, travelers cheques or credit card?

Thanks Keith

[vengeance88]

Guys,

 

I've gone to the trouble to scan the new drink menus/prices, but i'm having issues attaching them.

 

I can attach them as .jpg or .pdf but cruise critic is saying that the dimensions of the image is too big (and when i reduced the quality of the image it then told me the dimensions of the image are too big!).

 

Can someone let me know the best way to attach the images (there was a posting where someone posted a REALLY good picture of the old cocktail menu, and i'd like to do the samething).

 

Thanks.

[vengeance88]

Hi Vengeance

Some of the posts I have read suggest purchasing tours in Noumea from the cruise terminal rather than P&O, just wondering what your thoughts were on this. Also did you manage to smuggle any grog on board for those late night cabin drinks. Would appreciate some guidence with the cruise card; did you load this up as soon as you got on board and how did you pay, with cask, travelers cheques or credit card?

 

Keith61, When you get out of the ship at Noumea, you enter a little building where they sell local souvenirs and you can seek a tour. I think plenty of people can do that, and it may be potentially cheaper, but I personally wouldn't risk it (if all the tours are sold out, it would be very expensive and difficult to make your own way around). We actually posted the pre-booking slip off to P&O before we commenced the trip (saved mucking around on the ship, and any disappointment on missing out on your chosen tour).

 

When you get on the ship, there is already $300 on your card as a loan, and that will last you at least a day (hopefully)...I think i went down to the Purser on the night of the departure (around midnight when there was no line) and charged it up with $500 on my AMEX (gotta love getting some points on your credit card). But I wouldn't rush to charge it up as there were HUGE lines at the Purser when we first got on the boat at about 3:30pm and the Purser told me that all these people were charging their cards up (cause they weren't aware of the $300 loan).

 

I think someone mentioned it, but if you have PRE-booked any tours, the fee has already been taken off your card (I had $220 of tours taken off my card when i stepped onto the boat, so i was left with $80 to spend before charging up) - so if you have a family and/or are going on a few tours, don't be surprised when you order your first drink and they tell you that you are already over your limit!

[maxx]

I was on the same cruise as Smurfette (N606) which was a 10 night cruise and departed on 18/Feb/06 from Sydney.

 

Arrived at Wharf at about 1:20pm and faced a very long queue which snaked round and round the terminal. Took about 50 minutes to get through the whole check-in procedure, but I don't think many of us were too impatient because we were all excited and the air conditioning kept us cool.

 

Great review, thanks. My only question....does it always take this long to get on board?

[suexxx]

hi, can you remember the cost per person for LAGOONCRUISE and PETIT TRAIN.. How do you get to lemon bay. what currency do you need at the stops you made. thanks. did you book on the ship or when you got there.

[cruiselover96]

Great review vengeance88, really felt like I was there with you.

 

Kerri

[Gyyp]

When you get on the ship, there is already $300 on your card as a loan, and that will last you at least a day (hopefully).

 

You have 48hrs to pay for the $300 loan.

[keith61]

Thanks for the help Vengeance.

Hopefully $300 will get through a few days butI am meeting with some frieds from Brisbane and they like to quench their thirst so will have to wait and see!!!!!!!!

[Skyrules]

In this way the system on Pacific Star sounds much better, no more queing at the pursers desk to put money on at the start and top up during the cruise. It'll be much easier to provide credit card details on embarkation, and then not having to worry (apart from making sure you don't overspend).

 

I'll be able to comment soon, only 15 days to go.... Yay.

[kaseyoz]

In this way the system on Pacific Star sounds much better, no more queing at the pursers desk to put money on at the start and top up during the cruise. It'll be much easier to provide credit card details on embarkation, and then not having to worry (apart from making sure you don't overspend).

 

I'll be able to comment soon, only 15 days to go.... Yay.

 

 

You dont need to queue at the pursers desk as there is already $300 credit on your card so you can go down any time and top it up.

[Skyrules]

You dont need to queue at the pursers desk as there is already $300 credit on your card so you can go down any time and top it up.

 

Except unless you go at midnight, my experience is you ALWAYS have to que up at the pursers desk, especially in the first few days when everyone is wanting to put their money on the cruise card. And as many people have said, if you've pre-booked your shore tours, your $300 advance doesn't go very far before you don't have any money for the important things like cocktails.

[NARELLE]

Maxx

 

when we boarded for our New Year cruise we actually got there before they said. i think boarding time was 1 or 1.30 and we got there approx 12.30.

we were on board the ship in our cabin by 12.50. this is the fastest we have EVER got on board a ship. Last year when we went on the sapphire we stood for 2.5 hours to board that ship.

 

In regardsa to cruise card etc it sounds like The pacific Star has adopted Princess lines way. At embarkation they took an imprint of our mastercard

and you could settle up at the end of the cruise. We were told to check your bill every few days (Which we did) no hassle for pursers to print it out. We even paid our bill part way thru our cruise so we knoew where we stood money wise. Even though they had our mastercard imprint we paid cash at the end. It is a much simpler way to handle ship board expenses

[vengeance88]

SueXXX, I think the Little Train was $49 or $50

The Lagoon cruise was about $58 but it was a bit longer (2hrs) whereas the Little Train was 1.5 hours

 

This was my first major cruise, so for cruise-newbies, i think the two big issues for me before boarding was (1) do we take sea sickness medication and (2) do we bring snorkel gear?

 

(1) I wasn't going to bring anything because i thought i would be fine, but all the talk on this message board made me go and get some Kwells from the chemist just in case. Although you're supposed to use these before boarding (as a preventative), i thought i'd pack it in the bags and wait until i got sick before using them (didn't want to have any issues with drowsiness on the first night). In the end my girlfriend and I didn't have any problems with sickness at all. Having said that, there were plenty of people in the first 2-3 days who told me they were sick and were out of action for most of the day. I think it's a very personal issue and some people are better travellers than others. If you have issues on airplanes, sitting backwards on a train, or reading in cars, i think you will be more than likely the ones being sick on the ship, and may want to use a preventative measure.

 

(2) I was super keen to get into snorkelling so bought some good snorkel/fins from Rebel ($90). We tried them out in a pool before we left and loved the idea (but the bottom of a pool is bloody boring)...so we packed the set in our luggage and set off. Snorkelling was probably the highlight of our trip and we don't regret bringing our gear at all. The cost of well worth is because we will now go on snorkelling trips on weekends. The Snorkel hut on board was sold out of equipment within 1.5 days, and i never liked the idea of biting down on someone else's mouthpiece. I saw the brand of snorkel/fins they use and they are actually relatively rather poor quality. The only thing we would do in hindsight would be to carry all the snorkel gear as hand luggage (the fins take up tonnes of space in the luggage and worried us that the bags were too full - there is no limit on hand luggage, so you may as well carry those bulky items on board!).

[vengeance88]

Forgot to answer your other question SueXXX...

As a general guide, all NEW CALEDONIA countries use the Central Pacific Frank (changable on board the ship). Having said that we bought some postcards at Isle of Pines and they know the ship is there and accept Aussie dollars, but i'd say bring both CPF and A$.

 

Vanuatu officially has their own currency, but all shops took Australian dollars, so just bring a wad of your normal cash. Souvenirs are very cheap in Vila so you won't need too much. I put my Duty free on my credit card. This was my first international use of my credit card and there were problems. Here's an idea for people that haven't been to Vila: I bought a litre of Midori and a litre of Absolut Vodka for A$33. In Liquorland it is about $77 for a 700ml bottle of each!!!.

My girlfriend and I took $300 in cash to spend and that was JUST enough for our island souvenir spending and food (excluding Duty free) for 4 islands.

 

I think Dan has already stated that you can use the Casino as a 'free' money machine. Although I used a credit card to pay my onboard costs (it's treated as a PURCHASE, not a cash advance - so no interest/fees if you pay it on time), I went to the casino and received cash in hand which was obviously meant to be used in the casino machines, but there was nothing stopping you from taking this cash onto the islands.

[suexxx]

hi, thanks for the information. we are flying to sydney when we cruise so do you think we can carry snorkle gear as hand luggage. Ihave seen some which come in a bag of there own. what trouble did you have using credit card? was your first cruise as good as you hoped. if so will you do another one. I have read on these boards that they promote cruises while on board. did they do that on your cruise? if so were the prices good. thanks again

[Past it]

suexx,get some of those plastic space bags in supermarket for clothes. they roll up and let the air out.Leaves you lots of room for Snorkel gear and grog! I agree its best to get the best snorkel gear you can afford.I didn't take the flippers last time as I wore my reef shoes. You only need to go out a few feet to see amazing sights,so anyone that hasn't done it yet try it. :D

[kaseyoz]

I think P and O work very closely with the island locals. They may "teach" them about australia money and get them to accept A$ but they probably change their money for them. On Mystery island quite a few of the local were asking us to change all their coins for notes at the end of the day also on Wala. P and O did say to take lots of coins not large notes to the islands.

[chaz cruiser]

I think P and O work very closely with the island locals. They may "teach" them about australia money and get them to accept A$ but they probably change their money for them. On Mystery island quite a few of the local were asking us to change all their coins for notes at the end of the day also on Wala. P and O did say to take lots of coins not large notes to the islands.

 

Sorry kaseyoz I don't mean to contradict you but I don't think P&O change the money for the locals. I could be wrong but I don't recall ever seeing the Purser's go off to change money. We also were asked several times on Wala to change coins for notes as the "money changers" do not change coins only notes. We were led to believe the "money changers" were either banks at Vila or another of the islands or people who came in from the other islands to specifically change the money. Although maybe they did this so they didn't have to pay fees to convert the money but I can confirm most places will not convert coins which is why they have the charity coin bins at the airport for people to put loose change in!

 

We didn't have a problem with it just wished we had known as we probably would have taken more notes with us. As it was the ship encouraged people to take small denominations and coins for the "donation" pots.

 

Cheers,

Chaz:)

[aussiedisneyfan]

If you are worried about problems with your credit card overseas. Notify the bank before you go and tell them when are which countries you are in. Hopefully then you won't have a problem. That is if it was a bank problem.

 

We were in Malaysia last year and the bank rang us to confirm that we had been using the card over there as it is a high target for card duplication etc. They even recommended that we get new cards once we were back.

 

I have never had a problem in Vila or Noumea.

[smurfette]

SueXXX, I think the Little Train was $49 or $50

The Lagoon cruise was about $58 but it was a bit longer (2hrs) whereas the Little Train was 1.5 hours

 

This was my first major cruise, so for cruise-newbies, i think the two big issues for me before boarding was (1) do we take sea sickness medication and (2) do we bring snorkel gear?

 

(1) I wasn't going to bring anything because i thought i would be fine, but all the talk on this message board made me go and get some Kwells from the chemist just in case. Although you're supposed to use these before boarding (as a preventative), i thought i'd pack it in the bags and wait until i got sick before using them (didn't want to have any issues with drowsiness on the first night). In the end my girlfriend and I didn't have any problems with sickness at all. Having said that, there were plenty of people in the first 2-3 days who told me they were sick and were out of action for most of the day. I think it's a very personal issue and some people are better travellers than others. If you have issues on airplanes, sitting backwards on a train, or reading in cars, i think you will be more than likely the ones being sick on the ship, and may want to use a preventative measure.

 

(2) I was super keen to get into snorkelling so bought some good snorkel/fins from Rebel ($90). We tried them out in a pool before we left and loved the idea (but the bottom of a pool is bloody boring)...so we packed the set in our luggage and set off. Snorkelling was probably the highlight of our trip and we don't regret bringing our gear at all. The cost of well worth is because we will now go on snorkelling trips on weekends. The Snorkel hut on board was sold out of equipment within 1.5 days, and i never liked the idea of biting down on someone else's mouthpiece. I saw the brand of snorkel/fins they use and they are actually relatively rather poor quality. The only thing we would do in hindsight would be to carry all the snorkel gear as hand luggage (the fins take up tonnes of space in the luggage and worried us that the bags were too full - there is no limit on hand luggage, so you may as well carry those bulky items on board!).

 

 

Hi Vengeance88 - isn't it strange to think that we could have been on the same cruise, and talked to each other but still not sure who each other is..........funny.....

 

Our whole family took snorkelling gear and we just had a seperate bag for it called the "snorkelling bag". This meant that it was always packed and ready to go. It made coming into customs easier too.

 

 

We also had the pencils with the bark confiscated from us - bugger.

 

It was a pity about Mystery Island - but the captain had to do what the captain had to do. I was impressed though that the crew got a new newsletter and activities happening very quickly.

 

 

Katie