Questions Questions!!

[tonip]

Hi, very new to all this... I have a couple of questions.

 

I have seen reference to costs of food (ie oysters, a cover charge etc) on the cruises. I had thought all food was covered. What is being referred to?

 

Would you book a table alone or take a risk sitting with the same people every day?

 

I have a 14yo but can see no reference on P &O re WHAT actually all the teenagers do (actually can see no reference to WHAT actually we do on shore stops etc).

 

Doing the 12 day ex Brisbane one coming up... any hints would be great.

 

thanks tonip

[ang1684]

hi illhelp best i can.

in regards to the food cost, most food is covered and theres no need to have to pay anything for food as theres sooo much included.

you get buffet breaky and lunch and dinner and also breaky luch and dinner and afternoon tea in the dinning room. so you can choose,plus burgers ans chips out on deck for lunch thats all free but if you wanted to go to the steakhouse you pay $20 and if you want a pizza or ice cream you pay. but thats about it.

 

table- i personally would and have booked with ppl as its part of the experiance and you make friends by the end of it. if you go the first night and dont like who they have placed you with just tell the waiters and they will move you to another table.

 

i cant help on the other sorry

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Welcome to the forum tonip :D

 

What ship are you going on?

 

Would you book a table alone or take a risk sitting with the same people every day?

 

As far as I am aware, you get assigned a table on your first dining night (you look for you names on a table), then I think if you want & you don’t like the people your setting with you can change.

 

I have a 14yo but can see no reference on P &O re WHAT actually all the teenagers do (actually can see no reference to WHAT actually we do on shore stops etc).

 

Once you get your tickets from P&O, there should be an information book (It’s called Cruising Guide), it says what they may do, for example since your child will be in the Teen Lounge they may do things like Dance Parties, late-night-movies, Pizza parties, Talent shows etc…..

 

When you have a shore stop, you go on trips, you will get more information on what trips you can do on the P&O website, when you look up the cruse your doing, or when you get your tickets, there will be a book on all the trips you can do.

 

I Hope this helps :)

[brisbane first cruisers]

Doing the 12 day ex Brisbane one coming up... any hints would be great.

 

thanks tonip

 

Hey Toni,

 

Are you going on 809n? If you are there is a roll call of other people that are going on the cruise too. you can find it at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=571081

 

Not all food is covered by the fare. You will find in brochures ect, that it has a little asterisk on it that says surcharge applies, such as steakhouse, oyster and sushi bar, ice cream shop, coffee shop, room service.

 

Ask any questions that you may have becuase i am sure that there is someone on the forum that will be able to anser them, and there are quite alot of people that have just gotten off Pacific Sun.

 

Cheers,

 

Kirsten

[tonip]

oh the BROCHURES!! yes that does help!!

 

Thank you so much for your replies. Not sure my 14 yo would like too many of the options there...apart from the pizza & movie stuff, she is not sporty, not party and not much for learning to dance.

 

tonip

[MsMinx]

Hi Tonip - welcome to CC :)

 

Sounds like you might be on the same cruise as Kirsten (bris first cruiser) and I. Departing Feb 23 from Bris on the Sun?

 

With regards to dinner you don't book a table as such, they assign you to a table. This will be your table every night for dinner. Breakfast and lunch you just get seated wherever they have some spare seats, you can't just choose your own table.

 

If you really don't get along with the other people at your assigned dinner table, speak to the maitre d the next morning and ask to be moved. He'll see what's available and assign you a new seat.

 

Have fun planning :D

[fishtaco]

Hi, very new to all this... I have a couple of questions.

 

I have seen reference to costs of food (ie oysters, a cover charge etc) on the cruises. I had thought all food was covered. What is being referred to?

 

Would you book a table alone or take a risk sitting with the same people every day?

 

I have a 14yo but can see no reference on P &O re WHAT actually all the teenagers do (actually can see no reference to WHAT actually we do on shore stops etc).

 

Doing the 12 day ex Brisbane one coming up... any hints would be great.

 

thanks tonip

 

On certain nights at dinner the waiters ask you if you would like to have prawns or oysters the following night at an exta charge.you can have them as well as your dinner but I dont see the point? If not enough people buy them then they put them into the buffet b4 the best by date.

Sitting with other people every night is great!I thought i would not like it but even if you disslike your table companions it gives you somebody familiar to talk to at night,you can strike up some good frirendships at dinner and they are always somebody to say hello to during the day when you pass each other,also good to bitch about if you want:D

On my 10 night cruise we were on a table of 10,4 of us 6 of them,1couple and 1 family of three.If we would have met in the street it would have been the only meeting :eek: but after 10 nights we all seemed to know each othe really well even though we were all totally different.Even if I was to cruise alone I would sill request a table for 10.

 

Den

[LouLou28]

Hi Tonip - welcome to CC :)

 

Sounds like you might be on the same cruise as Kirsten (bris first cruiser) and I. Departing Feb 23 from Bris on the Sun?

 

:D

 

... and us!!!!!

 

I think it was Pieboy who posted the programs for the teen club on here some time ago .... I don't have the link at the moment, but if you do a search you may come across it (otherwise I'll see if I can dig it up -I printed them out for my teenage nephew who's coming on the cruise with us so that he knew some of the things that he could do)!:D

[LouLou28]

Found it ....

 

http://www.com-memorate.com/partypies.html#teen

 

These are some examples of the activities they have on board for the teenagers - obviously they may not be identical but should give your teen an idea of what to expect.

 

I think the general advice is to go along on the day/time when they all register and check out who else is there - you'll (or your daughter will) get an idea of whether there's anyone that their age, etc and find out about what to expect.

[MsMinx]

Sorry Linda - I didn't mean to forget you're on our cruise too :D

[brisbane first cruisers]

toni, where have you gone. Are you on the same cruise as us? Please come back on and let us know. Remember that this is the best place in the world to get your questions answered.

 

Have you received your blue folder yet? Are you booking shore tours?

 

Cheers,

 

Kirsten

[arxcards]

oh the BROCHURES!! yes that does help!!

 

Thank you so much for your replies. Not sure my 14 yo would like too many of the options there...apart from the pizza & movie stuff, she is not sporty, not party and not much for learning to dance.

 

tonip

 

Toni,

There is another interest. Other 14yo's, including boys.

 

My 13 yo daughter only did a few activities in the teen club on Sun Princess, but she has made heaps of new friends as they just hung out at the club. She now has an extra 20 people to chat with on MSN, and 5 days later, she misses some of them already. My daughter was apprehensive about signing up, but was soon glad she did.

Cheers

[tonip]

working, I was working!!!

 

I have booked the n809n and not got folder yet.. just booked last night!

 

VERY HELPFUL people here, that stuff on the teens will be really useful, and having seen it I think she will love it.

 

My mum and daughter will share a cabin and my husband and i will share another.

 

New worry: how many people get sea sick?? I tried searching that and got no where.

 

Not sure about tours, what if you prefer not to do any, what are your options? Can you taxi off yourself?

 

if you were going to choose only ONE tour, what would it be??

 

I see reference to formal stuff here... what is that all about?? Is there a way to find out what entertainment is on on our cruise? or films? or do we wait?

 

What time does this depart? 3? What time should we plan to arrive?

 

thanks so much for all your help, hope to meet some of you. tonip

[tonip]

oH!! I remember what I wanted to ask... do we need any vaccinations for this trip? Visas? tonip

[brisbane first cruisers]

Hi Toni,

 

There are posts on here about sea sickness. I posted one a while ago. Where abouts on the ship have you booked? What deck are you on? Did you get rooms side by side (at this late stage it would be interesting to know if you did).

 

We have booked shore tours. You can just do taxis yourself and there are heaps of posts on here about tours. You dont need visas for the cruise but you will need a passport. I cant really tell you what tours to do as this is my first cruise so it is all trial and error for me.

 

There will be 2 formal nights on our cruise. You dont have to dress up but it is nice to see the boys in suits and the girls all done up. It all adds to the fun. It departs at 3 but you have to be onboard by 2. Did you book through a travel agent or P&O. I booked through p&o and they told me all about it when i was booking. They also asked at the time of booking how many people you wanted at your table. Did you pick a table number and what sitting are you at? There is also the cruise personaliser on P&O's website. Put in your first name and last name and booking number and there are details in there that you have to fill out.

 

I went and saw my doctor and he said that there is no vaccination that is essential. But if you have any queries on medication and vaccinations, just check with your doctor.

 

I hope this has helped you a little. Remember that there is a roll call for your cruise. Click on the link that i gave you earlier and leave us a message. It is a great way to get to know someone that is going on your cruise.

[suexxx]

Hi.If you don't have an Australian passport you will need a visa to get back into Australia. My DH has a British one and had to have a re-entry visa. You will I'm sure love Pacific Sun. We did our 1st cruise on her last Feb and had a ball. Suexxx

[MsMinx]

oH!! I remember what I wanted to ask... do we need any vaccinations for this trip? Visas? tonip

 

You don't need vaccinations for the places we'll be visiting, but I had hepititis (sp) shots a few years back just for my own peace of mind. We eat out a lot and travel every so often I thought it was safer to cover myself than to not ;) You won't need visas to enter any of the places we're going to either, nor to return to Australia. My huband travels on a Dutch passport and has never had any issues.

 

I have booked the n809n and not got folder yet.. just booked last night!

 

Welcome to our cruise :D Have a look at the roll call link Kirsten posted further up and join in our random chit chat :)

 

Not sure about tours, what if you prefer not to do any, what are your options? Can you taxi off yourself?

 

if you were going to choose only ONE tour, what would it be??

 

You can just grab taxis but it's best to negotiate your price before you get in otherwise they'll rip you off! You can usually get a pretty good trip around Vila for about $40. A bus to anywhere in Vila is only $2 per person and you usually get a pretty good sight seeing trip out of it, as the last person in is the last person out. They travel around everywhere before they get to where you're going, even if it's the closest stop LOL!

 

As for tours - Everyone says the Ekasup Village tour in Vila is a MUST. A lot of people do the Petit Train in Noumea (i'm doing this one). For Suva i've booked the rainforest walk.

 

 

What time does this depart? 3? What time should we plan to arrive?

 

Boarding should start at 11am with the last passengers on board by 2pm for a 3pm sailaway. Unless there's a delay (which I REALLY hope there's not :D)

 

Hope that's helped you out a bit? Look forward to meeting you onboard :D

[Ela 2]

As others have said, if you travel on an Aussie passport, you do not need a visa for any of the ports the cruise visits.

 

Vaccinations - no.

 

Time to arrive at Brisbane departure terminal - When we disembarked from our cruise before Christmas (at 8am) people were already arriving for the next cruise. There is a waiting lounge. Unless there is a delay (the ship arriving late) the new passsengers usually start embarking well before 11am. When you arrive and check in your luggage you are given a number for embarkation. You do not have to queue at that time - only when the number is called.

 

Formal nights - check other threads on this forum and you will get the info.

 

Tours - You can do your own thing - it is much cheaper, but you have to research what you want to do. Once again, there is a lot of info on this forum.

 

Have a fantastic time.:)

[Ela 2]

Hey Toni,

 

Are you going on 809n? If you are there is a roll call of other people that are going on the cruise too. you can find it at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=571081

 

Not all food is covered by the fare. You will find in brochures ect, that it has a little asterisk on it that says surcharge applies, such as steakhouse, oyster and sushi bar, ice cream shop, coffee shop, room service.

 

Ask any questions that you may have becuase i am sure that there is someone on the forum that will be able to anser them, and there are quite alot of people that have just gotten off Pacific Sun.

 

Cheers,

 

Kirsten

Dear Kirsten,

 

Earlier this afternoon I went from the link you have above to another section where there were comments from people (I think including yourself) who are going on the Pacific Explorer cruise. I am not really experienced at negotiating this forum, and can't find that section again. Can you help? Ela:)