Cruise N807 - The Review and Images

[phantomoz]

Hi all,

 

Well I have returned from the cruise on the Sun. My first thoughts from a first time cruiser are wow it was great. For those one the cruise I am sure you can relate to some of the comments below....

 

You can find some of my photos right here

http://www.photoblog.com/phantomoz

 

The good points:

Wow how well organised was everything (well almost)

Meals were great

Tours fantastic

The staff fantastic

The daily events - so much fun - loved the survivor series

The shows were awesome

The $7 pizzas yum

Cascade falls tour at Vila - a must do

The kids club staff amazing

never got sea sick :-)

Cruise Director - very funny

 

 

The not so good points:

1. The purser desk - did I say the pursers desk

The line up for the pursers desk seemed to go on for the whole cruise... they seemed so disorganised. The lesson learnt do your money exchange before you go.

 

2. Wow the humidity - dress lightly

 

3. I know there are mixed thoughts about Noumea, the city reminded me of a 3rd world country, the outskirts of town were much nicer.

 

4. An overnight or two day stay at Vila would have been great, there was so much that you could do there.

 

5. Karaoke was fun - but Frank - Never Let Frank Sing :D and yes it was our daughter who thought singing on the bar was fun - bad idea

 

6. Standing in the sun waiting for the tours at Vila - take a big hat :-)

 

Things to remember:

1. you can use australian currency at Lifou and Vila - just carry small denominations e.g $20 dollar notes or less - never had a need to exchange money there

 

2. buy duty free at Vila and shop around, on board was way too expensive in comparision.

 

3. Dont hurry to get off board - it was so well organised there was never a need to hurry

 

4. You can use ATMs at Noumea and Vila, you just need to know the exchange rates

 

P.S. To Sarah and the other cruisers sorry we didnt find a bar on level 12 either, but we had a great time.

 

Cheers

 

Rick

[la1982]

Awesome photos! Glad you had a great time!!

[arxcards]

Rick,

Your Cascade pictures are absolutely amazing. Thanks for sharing.

 

And a review on a page - works for me. :D

 

Cheers

Geoff

[cheznandy]

Loved your photos, the Cascades look gorgeous, havent been there since 1992, think thats what we will be doing next time;)

 

Chez

xx

[Neicy& Ron]

They are great photos....what sort of camera you using please.

 

Regards

Ron

[phantomoz]

Neicy and Ron

 

These photos were taken with the Canon 40D using a Canon 28-105 Mk2 USM lens.

 

Cheers

 

Rick

[Skyrules]

Wow, what amazing photo's! Thanks for sharing.

 

I see you did the Seaplane flight in Port Vila, wonderful way to see this great port of call isn't it? Wayne & Simon are certainly doing a good job.

 

I love the shots of the Cascade waterfalls. We haven't been there yet, but we did fly over them on our sea plane flight in September;

 

 

[sarah_in_townsville]

Hey you know how you daughter sang on the first night.. i was sitting with her family... my friend Mandy sang and got through to the Final Pop Idol.. how terrible was Minas aka Frank... we met his mum... she actually thinks he was good... weird huh??

 

It was fantastic.. i will write a review.. just no time at the moment!

[karmac]

 

P.S. To Sarah and the other cruisers sorry we didnt find a bar on level 12 either, but we had a great time.

 

Cheers

 

Rick

 

 

To all you CCer's on this cruise, I've now read from a few of you that you didn't find the bar on deck 12 so I'm guessing this is where you were supposed to meet up. So, I HAVE to ask........who's idea was it to meet at the bar that doesn't exist:p and didn't anyone else check out the deck plans before going so you could point out that there wasn't one up there??:confused: :rolleyes:

 

Karen

[phantomoz]

Hey you know how you daughter sang on the first night.. i was sitting with her family... my friend Mandy sang and got through to the Final Pop Idol.. how terrible was Minas aka Frank... we met his mum... she actually thinks he was good... weird huh??

 

It was fantastic.. i will write a review.. just no time at the moment!

 

Hey Sarah

I didnt watch our daughter sing the first night only the second, lol would have been funny had we met that night and not realised :D You would have met my wife and sister in law most likely.

 

Frank was certainly one of a kind, I didnt see Mandy sing but there were a couple of good singers the night i watched.

 

Cheers

Rick

[aussiedisneyfan]

Lovely photos, beautifully presented.

[fishtaco]

Hi all,

 

Well I have returned from the cruise on the Sun. My first thoughts from a first time cruiser are wow it was great. For those one the cruise I am sure you can relate to some of the comments below....

 

You can find some of my photos right here

http://www.photoblog.com/phantomoz

 

The good points:

Wow how well organised was everything (well almost)

Meals were great

Tours fantastic

The staff fantastic

The daily events - so much fun - loved the survivor series

The shows were awesome

The $7 pizzas yum

Cascade falls tour at Vila - a must do

The kids club staff amazing

never got sea sick :-)

Cruise Director - very funny

 

 

The not so good points:

1. The purser desk - did I say the pursers desk

The line up for the pursers desk seemed to go on for the whole cruise... they seemed so disorganised. The lesson learnt do your money exchange before you go.

 

2. Wow the humidity - dress lightly

 

3. I know there are mixed thoughts about Noumea, the city reminded me of a 3rd world country, the outskirts of town were much nicer.

 

4. An overnight or two day stay at Vila would have been great, there was so much that you could do there.

 

5. Karaoke was fun - but Frank - Never Let Frank Sing :D and yes it was our daughter who thought singing on the bar was fun - bad idea

 

6. Standing in the sun waiting for the tours at Vila - take a big hat :-)

 

Things to remember:

1. you can use australian currency at Lifou and Vila - just carry small denominations e.g $20 dollar notes or less - never had a need to exchange money there

 

2. buy duty free at Vila and shop around, on board was way too expensive in comparision.

 

3. Dont hurry to get off board - it was so well organised there was never a need to hurry

 

4. You can use ATMs at Noumea and Vila, you just need to know the exchange rates

 

P.S. To Sarah and the other cruisers sorry we didnt find a bar on level 12 either, but we had a great time.

 

Cheers

 

Rick

 

Great you had a fantastic trip !But am totally puzzeled? Which 3rd world country did Noumea remind you of? Have you ever been to a 3rd world country?Or did it just not live up to your expectations ?

Or did it live up to other cruisers who disslike Noumea's expectations?

Maybe its just me and Tracey but Noumea to us is quaint!

Did we miss somthing on our recent stop there?Was we lucky?

I would conpare it to perhaps parts Nice in France?

I am asking genuine questions here because perhaps we just had a rare good day in Noumea?

 

Thanks Den.

[phantomoz]

Wow, what amazing photo's! Thanks for sharing.

 

I see you did the Seaplane flight in Port Vila, wonderful way to see this great port of call isn't it? Wayne & Simon are certainly doing a good job.

 

I love the shots of the Cascade waterfalls. We haven't been there yet, but we did fly over them on our sea plane flight in September;

 

 

 

 

Skyrules

 

Wayne and Co were great I posted some shots on my photoblog, the link is in the 1st post above

 

Cheers

 

Rick

[phantomoz]

Great you had a fantastic trip !But am totally puzzeled? Which 3rd world country did Noumea remind you of? Have you ever been to a 3rd world country?Or did it just not live up to your expectations ?

Or did it live up to other cruisers who disslike Noumea's expectations?

Maybe its just me and Tracey but Noumea to us is quaint!

Did we miss somthing on our recent stop there?Was we lucky?

I would conpare it to perhaps parts Nice in France?

I am asking genuine questions here because perhaps we just had a rare good day in Noumea?

 

Thanks Den.

 

Den

I havent been to Nice, but in my own opinion the city was rundown and had a seedy appearance, had nothing that really attracted tourists, but this is my own opinion. I did however take the tour out of town and thought the countryside was great and would have liked to explore that more.

 

I am simply adding my thoughts via a review, everyone has an opinion and as I stated in my post some people may well see Noumea in a different light.

 

Cheers

Rick

[Skyrules]

Skyrules

 

Wayne and Co were great I posted some shots on my photoblog, the link is in the 1st post above

 

Cheers

 

Rick

 

 

Thanks Rick - some more lovely shots there!!

 

Can't tell from the photo, did Wayne or Simon take you up?? We went up with Wayne.

 

Kym

[fishtaco]

Den

I havent been to Nice, but in my own opinion the city was rundown and had a seedy appearance, had nothing that really attracted tourists, but this is my own opinion. I did however take the tour out of town and thought the countryside was great and would have liked to explore that more.

 

I am simply adding my thoughts via a review, everyone has an opinion and as I stated in my post some people may well see Noumea in a different light.

 

Cheers

Rick

 

Hi Rick ,I was in no way trying to disspell your opinion! I really only ask as Perhaps Tracey and I viewed Noumea in some different way than others?

I would prefer to go to many places in the world that I have already been to other than Noumea but found the place quite nice and would not miss it on another cruise if it was heading there! (By staying onboard the ship as others have suggested)

So excuse me if it came across as a bit of a harsh question as that was not my intention.

I suppose beuaty is in the eyes of the beholder?

I just think that Noumea gets a bit of a bagging on here and I think it is perhaps a bit off putting to some less well traveled people who may tend to judge it before visiting much worse places in the world, only to regret intentionally missing this port later in life.

 

Den

[das1989]

Your daughter was hilarious! Very funny when she climbed onto the bar, but she was also a pretty good singer, definately better then a couple of the finalists. My friend Phoebe sang on the second night and made it into the final.

 

I went with a group of 12, and most of us work at Coles so we re-named the Speakeasy bar on the last night with cardboard over the sign saying, "Coles Crew Bar".

 

Was a great cruise overall and would definately do it again!

[phantomoz]

Your daughter was hilarious! Very funny when she climbed onto the bar, but she was also a pretty good singer, definately better then a couple of the finalists. My friend Phoebe sang on the second night and made it into the final.

 

I went with a group of 12, and most of us work at Coles so we re-named the Speakeasy bar on the last night with cardboard over the sign saying, "Coles Crew Bar".

 

Was a great cruise overall and would definately do it again!

 

Das

Phoebe was a great singer, i expected her to win, although I didnt hear the singers on the first night. It was a great cruise and we are looking forward to our next one :-)

 

Cheers

Rick

[i_love_cruising]

Hi Rick,

 

My DH and I have just viewed your photoblog. Your photos are magnificent!! We have just returned from our Pacific Dawn cruise that called in to Port Vila where we did the Ekasup Cultural Village tour (and loved it). On our next one in March, we also go to Vila and have decided we will definitely be going to the Cascade Waterfalls - they look spectucular.

 

Sarah & Anthony

[CRUISING ALONG]

Hi Phantomoz (Rick),

Thanks for such a concise and honest review. Loved that you listed the positive and negative aspects of your holiday and some helpful hints too.

Also what wonderful photos.

 

Regards

CRUISING ALONG:)

[kaseyoz]

loved your waterfall photos they certainly look like a postcard.

 

I am one who also has been to noumea several times(we went to the club med village for extended stays a few years back)

 

we had decided just to stay on the ship this time but the night before decided to just walk around and get a taxi to lemon bay, which is what we did on our last cruise.

coming back we couldnt find a taxi so had to get the bus which was packed. The driver sped along windy streets as we all hung on (standing room only). It was like a disney ride and one the kids loved and spoke about most. If you ask them one of the best things about their cruise it was the bus ride!!

 

So you never know if you never go.....what will entertain you

 

go with an open mind,just dont go walking in the city area expecting bali type shops and people