onboard p&o pacific explorer

[yes!yes!yes!]

Mum and I are on a quick 3 nighter with p&o as a treat for mum before I go on an eight week holiday in Europe in two weeks time.

we didn't have high expectations for this cruise. but we enjoy ourselves on any holiday  and quite frankly it involves no airfare and that's the only reason I booked it. 

fares weren't cheap and we just have an inside room. I did bid for an upgrade, but was unsuccessful. these short cruises fill up no problem from  ship starved perth.

the pacific explorer is the old princess dawn which mum has spent many cruises on in the past (months) as it used to do regular stints out of perth to Asia and back.

our room still has princess carpet in it the same as coral princess and grand princess. room layout is a little different. a bit bigger, lots more storage and the shower is big for cruise ship standards but still has a shower curtain.

apologies for lack of capital letters and correct grammar,  I am doing this on my phone and I'm lazy.

[yes!yes!yes!]

We were allocated a 2pm boarding time, but we ignored that and arrived at the start of boarding time at midday. we walked straight thru and onto the ship within 5 minutes. enough time for them to upload a photo and give us the room key.

rooms were ready. we dropped off our stuff and went to the buffet.

they serve you every thing from different  stations, think food hall.

you can only help your self to drinks, salads and ready made sandwiches and rolls. I enjoyed the Indian food and mum had fish and chips.

desserts were pretty bland, cheesecake was nice.

we then went to explore the ship.

its similar to princess with some of their decor still in place

[yes!yes!yes!]

first thing we noticed when boarding was how many women were checking in. lots of large groups and barely any men. this is an 80's themed cruise and for some reason people think the eighties was all fluro.

we have seen some really shocking outfits that I never saw in the eighties. but we just keep thinking, well at least they are having a good time. there are on alcohol drinks packages available on this cruise, so it will be costing a lot of people money going by the state of a lot of them yesterday. only saw one king-size man who had his friend take him away that was obnoxious. most were well behaved and having a great time 

[yes!yes!yes!]

we are really happy with the location of our room, but then we went to bed and its noisy. it sounded like the band were playing outside our room.

luckily I liked most of the songs they were singing 

[yes!yes!yes!]

although this cruise is quite rowdy every one is very friendly and we have met lots of nice people.

this morning we did see a family wandering around insde deck 7 in their pajamas and slippers.

[yes!yes!yes!]

we had to book dinner times when we got onboard. the times we wanted were not available.

we went 45 minutes earlier than our timeslot and they said not a problem and let us into the almost empty dining room.

food was basic, mums pie was good, my brisket was awful. I ordered a bottle of wine  and they told me I could take the rest of the bottle back to my room and take it to dinner tomorrow.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

Thanks so much for all this @yes!yes!yes!. I'll be going on my first P & O cruise in Jan so all this info is really helpful.

[MicCanberra]

Have a great cruise 

[ceeceeDee]

48 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

although this cruise is quite rowdy every one is very friendly and we have met lots of nice people.

this morning we did see a family wandering around insde deck 7 in their pajamas and slippers.

Good old P&O, you see it all.😂

[ceeceeDee]

Thanks so much for your observations! If you happen to have the time, would it be possible to post a photo of the cocktail menu/prices please? Would really appreciate it.

[yes!yes!yes!]

56 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Have a great cruise 

always

[yes!yes!yes!]

1 minute ago, ceeceeDee said:

Thanks so much for your observations! If you happen to have the time, would it be possible to post a photo of the cocktail menu/prices please? Would really appreciate it.

here's a few

[yes!yes!yes!]

there is a big wine menu in the dining room but I forgot to take a photo of it 

[ceeceeDee]

1 minute ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

here's a few

You're amazing! Thank you so much!

[yes!yes!yes!]

for those that like to know.

there is one Australian plug and one American plug in there area below the TV. with 4 USB plugs in same area. nothing by the bed

[yes!yes!yes!]

we are going to have the yum cha/dim sum for lunch. you have to pay per item but mum and I love dim sum so will give it a go. mum is at bingo so I had a quick look in the buffet to see what the menus are at each food station. they are more or less all different dishes from yesterday. ie the chicken Tikka is now lamb Rogan Josh.

[yes!yes!yes!]

mum isn't going to bingo. she said the line had hundreds of people waiting to buy the cards. and she went really early. 

she will try again  this afternoon. 

the casino keeps her distracted in the mean time.

we have been doing ok with trivia so far. but haven't won.

[yes!yes!yes!]

I have just noticed that there is no chair what so ever in the room. what I thought was a chair under the dressing table is in fact a small coffee table 

[ceeceeDee]

3 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

I have just noticed that there is no chair what so ever in the room. what I thought was a chair under the dressing table is in fact a small coffee table 

Well, that only leaves you the option of sitting on the beds. Not ideal.☹️

 

BTW, if the coffee table looks like this, maybe it's a stool?

[cruiser3775]

You can make it a stool by putting a pillow on it.

 Can you ask for a chair for the room?  Sitting on the bed without a back support is no good for many people.

[ceeceeDee]

14 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

You can make it a stool by putting a pillow on it.

 Can you ask for a chair for the room?  Sitting on the bed without a back support is no good for many people.

It's definitely worth asking your cabin steward. In my experience they do their best to accommodate requests wherever possible. They may have a spare dining style chair which is what is used at the desk in the mini suites. As the old adage says 'If you don't ask, you don't get'.

[yes!yes!yes!]

55 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

Well, that only leaves you the option of sitting on the beds. Not ideal.☹️

 

BTW, if the coffee table looks like this, maybe it's a stool?

yes. looks like that but not strong enough to sit on and I'm not big

[yes!yes!yes!]

17 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

It's definitely worth asking your cabin steward. In my experience they do their best to accommodate requests wherever possible. They may have a spare dining style chair which is what is used at the desk in the mini suites. As the old adage says 'If you don't ask, you don't get'.

as its only 3 nights, I won't bother.  mum usually sits on it.

seems like only royal Caribbean gives every inside room a 3 seater sofa and a high back padded chair

[yes!yes!yes!]

we just had the dimsum. we enjoyed it, but we also said if it was at a restaurant on land we would never go back. 

we are booked in there for dinner tonight. everyone says its the better of the included dinner dining rooms.

we had 4 dishes. $30

[Over from NZ]

3 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Good old P&O, you see it all.😂

Out of Aussie; it's the same people on Princess.. just a generation older. 😂