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Review of N828 and N829 on the PS

mickalex

By mickalex,
in P&O Cruises ( Australia )

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mickalex

mickalex

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Sorry i know i said i would start this thread yesterday but the family came over and i did not have a chance to sit down and two finger type the start of the review.

Hope it is not to long winded and i will add to it over the coming days.

Please forgive spelling and grammar as my typing skills are lacking.:D

mick

 

p.s only up to the first night on the PS

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mickalex

mickalex

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27th Aug. Left Home at 4am and drove the 6 hours to Brisbane, it was a brisk -2 degrees when we left and as the sun came up all you could see around was frost. The kids all woke up about 8 am so I only had 2 hours of “ are we there yet’ ” before we got to Brisbane. The 20 degrees that greeted us in Brisbane was a welcome change from the cold mornings at home. We spent the rest of the day with grandma making sure she had everything she needed so we could get anything needed in the next two days. Everyone was excited about the cruise and after 120 days of waiting for it the next few days wait, would be the hardest.

 

28th,29th Aug. Spent the days shopping for things that we needed for the trip. Lets just say I am a typical male shopper and know what I like and just grab something and shopping is finished for me .When a wife and 4 young kids are added to my shopping party, an hours shopping turns into 8 hours of the most excruciating torture known to man. I just kept thinking “we are going on a cruise” and walked around like a zombie with an automatic nodding head that activated upon a voice request from my wife, with the occasional grunt thrown in to show she had my full attention at all times.

Shopping now finished I needed a stiff drink or two to bring my nerves back into line.

 

30th Aug .Everyone was very excited as this was the day we really started our adventure. The day went very quickly with last minute packing, making sure batteries for camera’s had been charged, checking we had not lost a child shopping over the last two days and packing My Patrol and my sister inlaws Hiace van for the trip to the airport. At the airport I became the official pack horse for the trip, getting luggage for 7 people to checkout was fun but the really fun part was carrying the onboard luggage and guiding the kids onto the plane through customs with 7 passports in hand.

The flight was good and we had a nice couple next to us that turned out to be going on the cruise as well. They informed us the boat had been delayed because of bad weather.

It was wild weather in Auckland and the landing or landings our plane made was an exciting finish to the flight.

The mini bus I had booked a month earlier was there to meet us {and the 3 john walker red 1125ml I picked up duty free at the airport for $17 each. Yes I know it’s a lot for an overnight stay in Auckland, but I have 4 kids and a mother inlaw with me so the never medication is needed in ample doses} and the driver helped load the bags. It was great door to door service on a wild weather night and at $75 NZ for 7 people it was a bargain.

The hotel room turned out to be perfect for us as it has 3 bedrooms and a kitchen and even more so as the ships departure was delayed further and further.

 

31st Aug .I rang P&O first thing in the morning to find out the Pacific Sun will be delayed 24 hours, so I then went down to book the hotel room for another night being worried I would not be able to as rugby fans had been streaming into the hotel for the Aus V NZ test. Our luck held out and they moved people around and we could stay in our room.

The weather had cleared a bit by mid morning so we explored Auckland city. To say you could not have missed us walking around Auckland was an understatement, picture mother inlaw in wheelchair with our youngest child on her lap the other 3 kids all wanting to push grandma’s chair and my wife and I herding the said group around{if I had been on horse back with a stock whip in hand herding this mob, it would not have looked anymore a spectacle than it already was.}.

Even on a cold windy day Auckland harbour is a great sight to see, on a warm summers day it would be a great place to tour by boat and speaking of boats, our ship was not in her berth and we noticed a number of people at the wharf who did not get the message of its delay.

After walking our legs of we returned to the hotel to rest and for me to bath my nerves in the iced tea looking {hehe} Johnny Walker and water.

We enjoyed walking around Auckland and is a great city full of Jaffa’s{we learned this term for Auckland’ers the night we arrived from a south islander} and Bungy, there was even a vertical bungy setup right outside the door to our hotel in the heart of the city then you look to your left and there is more people with a death wish jumping off the Sky Tower. I really think the adventure tourism in New Zealand should have the slogan “ If we cant kill you, no one can”.

Thanks Auckland for a great day!

 

1st July. We should be on the ship at this moment seeing nothing but ocean but looking out the hotels portholes we are still surrounded by highrise buildings. I ring P&O and find the ship has been delayed 48 hours so once again a run down to the front desk and ask if we can have the room for another night, the answer is yes and he tells me there are a large number in the hotel awaiting the ship also. So my wife decides the waiting is not killing me nearly enough so we go, wait for it, SHOPPING so it can finish me off once and for all. The only saving grace for me shopping was buying the 1.5 litre plastic coke bottles that my mother inlaws ice tea would go into {hehe}. We walked down and watched the Might Pacific sun come in. The whole time being pestered by reporters asking if we had family on board and do they have any picture etc of the damage . After telling them no but we are about to board they asked “ you must be worried, are you going to cancel, why would you risk life and limb etc etc” I turned and said remember this “each and every time you board a plane from this day, you will remember you spoke to me and you will know I told you that you have 10000 times more chance of dieing on your plan flight than you have on a cruise ship. You will now have a great fear of flying knowing your going to die when you board a plane”. This had all the non media laughing at them, and rightly so as they had been trying to beat the story up big time.

 

To see the look of amazement at the size of the Pacific Sun on the kids faces was worth every penny to be going on her{the excitement continued till we boarded the next day} and to know we had 18, I mean 17, oh well 16 days on her made watching her very special for all of us. I took a few pictures of her coming in but stopped after being zapped by the electric fence at the top of the tradition fence it was the only time in my life I wished I was not 6’2 as reaching up to get a clear shot of the ship over the traditional fence my thumb touched the electric fence{note no self, pay more attention to the hundred of yellow warning signs saying ”warning, electric fence”} and I had all waiting laughing once more, thank god the media has moved on or the next day in the paper would have been “Pacific Sun Passenger in waiting nearly dies after being electrocuted at the wharf in a terrifying experience that has the NZ prime minister calling for a review of passenger safety ”{haha, as they media never exaggerates it must be true}. After this we walked back to the hotel. Later my son and I walked around the corner to the indoor golf driving range and had a ball for an hour or two. We packed for hopefully the last time and organised 2 taxis for 11am the next morning. It was hard getting everyone to sleep after the excitement of seeing our new home for the next 16 days.

Thanks for another great day Auckland!

 

2nd July. As has been my habit over the last couple of days, I awoke and rang P&O {whom by now recognise my voice so there is no need to give them booking number or names.} and was told we could board from noon, this had cheers all round. We got all the bags to the hotel foyer using the porters troller and on the usual pack horse. The taxi’s arrived so we loaded all the bags except the wheelchair and everyone got in the taxi except myself and my son. My son had a ball the last morning in Auckland as we had the great race to the ship, he sitting in the wheelchair and me pushing {not pushing more holding on as its all down hill to the wharf} and racing the two taxi’s to the wharf. As there are many traffic lights it was neck and neck the whole way, we even pressed a few of the traffic light buttons in the spirit of competition. Lets just say they got three green lights at the end to just win, and lets just say they got to drive all the way into the wharf in the taxis, and lets just say my wife had all the passports and all the tickets, and lets just say a man with his son in a wheelchair performed what looked like a miracle to people waiting in line with passport and tickets at the front gate when his son jumped up from the chair and said “there is mum getting out of taxi at the terminal”, lets just say after explaining the situation to the kind P&O rep she took the wheelchair for my mother inlaw

and bought back our tickets and passports. Best of all we did not have to wait in the 100 deep line to get through the gates as she ushered us through. Lets just say that we found it much better to travel together after that!

We got all the forms together to fill out, by this time our 2 year old had fallen asleep in grandma’s lap which is a saving grave with so many people around and having to wait around a bit. With 7 of us the forms felt like writing a 3000 word essay and a swear the customs agent was thinking “no, dear god please let them go to the next agent” when he saw us coming. The good thing and the part that made my wife and I feel guilty, was that with her mum in the wheelchair we got guided straight through around all the lines of people with no waiting time in lines to get on{through the quilt I managed to plan my next cruise in my head while walking and my mother inlaw is always coming with us}.

The funny thing is my 2 year old only woke up onboard when we had our picture taken for the cruise cards, must have been strange for him but he did not miss a beat.

Having two cabins on main deck we walked straight to them {and we ditched the wheelchair and mother inlaw ran up the 5 flights of stairs to the lido deck, haha just kidding} and had a warm greeting from Christian our steward and Donn his assistant.

After seeing us into the cabins we did what we know to be the best trick in the book, we tipped them both $30 each. They are both fantastic at there job, I am not sure if it made a difference but you could not have asked them to do anymore on our trip, they are amazing{much more on both of them later as they truly made the trip special for all of us}.After a quick look around the cabin{which are ample for even us as we had 4 kids, my wife and I for most of the cruise in one, grandma got a 4 berth to herself for 90% of the cruise but she was only in it at night and was perfect location as you opened the door and stepped out to the lift doors, and it was quiet 99% of the time} we head off to explore the ship and to get a bight to eat. We headed straight to lido deck to get a quick feed then up to the Oasis deck for a look around. This is the place the damage of the last trip showed up, but not at first. The kids had a ball running around the enclosed deck looking and playing until one of them ran over to the starboard rear corner {we came in the port door} and I looked up and yelled stop, there was a full pane missing and a couple of pieces of yellow warning tape{they put a net over it a day or two later} over the big hole. As it was a big fall out the missing window we decided it best to explore other places.

After going up and down 3 floors finding everything we resisted the kids in there respective clubs and took grandma and our two year old up to lido bar area to watch the world go by. The Capt came over the load speaker and said “after looking over the weather charts and wanting everyone to have a safe and fun trip we will leave tomorrow. I will watch the weather over night and inform you as soon as possible when we will leave”. So we had a night on the ship in port and if I had known I would have gone to the rugby, I found out later they would not be showing the rugby on the ship at all till the next day because of the copy right etc. Many a rugby fan left the ship to find a pub that the game was playing, I thought about doing the same but then reality hit and I new it best to stay onboard with my wife as this was the first night of many and I would need her permission{haha} to go to the casino on future nights.

We all got ready and went to our first dinner in the Burgundy 1st sitting. We had table 44, this is a 12 seat table and we waited to meet the people at our table and hoped they liked kids. I was astounded at our dinner company and this continued for the first half of our trip{they only did the first part of the back to back}, 4 older ladies and one of there younger sons. They would have to be the nicest people I think I have ever met, they loved the kids and we had some great conversations every night and we all became very close.

After dinner the kids begged to go back to there clubs, we obliged and grandma and our youngest got tired so we put them both into bed {hehe} and my wife and I socialized together for the first time in our recorded history as a family {ok maybe not the first time but it felt like it}.

Was a great night and we met many great people and the bonds started to form, stuck in port and my wife and I loved cruising and the people already.

As a side note, grandma’s iced tea got onboard without a hitch.

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mickalex

mickalex

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Next installment in the morning. Yes i am male so used to wives laugh at my expense, just kidding its me that give them the ammo!:D

Oh and it will get funnier as it goes on because like anything when you relax the humor follows closely.

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Ruby62

Ruby62

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Mick - I must say a very amusing review so far! we were on the cruise before you so very interested to read your review.... DON'T MENTION THE WEATHER!!! (cos I know it was soooo much better than what we had!). Looking forward to the next instalment tomorrow.

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mickalex

mickalex

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I will not mention the weather but i will put Ruby's wish instead, that way the weather can be to your liking or dislike:D.On a funny note, i do not think you guys had bad weather, just good party time and trashed the ship:p you animals!haha

All i can say is that P&O went out of its way to make smooth seas after the bad press, i knew this would be the case after your cruise Ruby.Know we had the same great staff that you had that made the cruise no matter the weather!

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mickalex

mickalex

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Excuse the month part of the dates above as it was typo's, no i am not a time traveler.

 

3rd Aug. Get out of bed and open the curtains to reveal we are still bloody tied up to the dock. Get the crew together and head up to the buffet for breakfast, the choices are many and I am wondering if I should have a health breakfast with cereal and fruit or go the whole hot breakfast deal. Well let’s just say I did not make it past the hot food section but I resolved to keep it a well balanced breakfast, so I balanced a large portion of bacon and sausages on one side of the plate and hash browns and scrambled eggs on the other side. Knowing I had to keep a balanced diet I added a sole backed tomato to the middle of the plate to make it a perfectly balanced breakfast.

The damage from the last cruise is evident in the buffet/outback area with missing tables and pillars with be chunks out of them, which I assume the missing tables collided with.

Workman are repairing the floor before and after breakfast time and continue to do so for most of the cruise.

Brekky over the kids go to there clubs and mother inlaw takes her seat in the smoking section of the lido pool area {portside}, this is a table right at the window bow end of the smoking section. She retained the same table through out the cruise and socialized the whole time.

Alex our youngest and myself went on an exploring mission so we new the boat well before we had even left port. There was a fair bit of damage around the ship, damaged windows, poker machines floor bound, god save us the Sushi bar is not operational{and remained that way till the last few days of the second cruise} and a lot of other superficial damage from moving object.

We picked up the kids, or should I say dragged them out of there clubs for lunch in the Bordeaux dinning room. We had a table to ourselves and the kids dived straight into the chicken and chips {I told them that after the cruise they would not have hot chips till the end of the year after eating the ships stock of hot chips dry} and we had a nice meal and bottle of wine {hence why I cant remember what we ate}.

Just before 1.15pm I left the crew and went and played in the golf putting tournament, I qualified for the final with a 5 putt and proceeded {or sneaked, we can keep this amongst friends} to the lido bar for a well earned iced tea and smoke before my wife arrives back from dropping the kids back at kids club {after them asking for 2 hours “can we go back yet”} and reins in my unruly behaviour, of sitting quietly with no kids.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, socializing and eating {what I assume a cruise if for} until our sail away at 9pm

We all found a place out of the rain to watch sail away, even on a wet night Auckland looked very nice and we stayed watching till we reached the bay.

Kids settled and young ones asleep, mother inlaw settled in to watch a movie as my wife and I went up to the lido bar with out ice tea in hand. Great atmosphere on lido deck with everyone excited about beginning there journey with a great mix of young and old and that many grins around the place, it looked like an audition for the Joker in a Batman movie.

Head to bed with very little sea motion at all.

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gizzigoo

gizzigoo

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Oh my goodness, "not the sushi bar", I love the sushi bar, what terrible news, no sushi for almost the entire cruise.

I suppose a few iced teas helped with that devistating discovery. ;)

 

It does have a great atmosphere the Sun! Just love it.

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