Review of N828 and N829 on the PS

[mickalex]

12th Aug. Another great sea day! I open the curtains to reveal another blue sky and flat seas. I look at the Pacific Daily while there others get ready for breakfast and there is so much I would like to do, but hey, I am feeling really lazy. We go up and I have a well balanced plate for breakfast and wonder why you cannot cruise into out of space yet, because I could eat as much as I wanted and I would not feel any heavier!

 

After a well balanced breakfast plate, you guessed it the kids dragged us to the clubs to book them in. As this was part two of our cruise and my 9 year old son had the ship down pat, we decided he could sign himself in and out of the shark shack as long as he came straight to one of us when he did so. This made it better for him and us because the things that he wanted to do during the day outside of shark shack he could do without us having to be time keepers for him and go and get him ten minutes before something started etc.

{On a side note, he had a crew card and could get what he wanted, but he always asked before he got it so it really is a good way to teach them restraint when using a card.}

 

By now we are very fond of the Pacific Sun and we want to make her our permanent home, if we could. To the people that think the Pacific Sun is past it I can only say I love her character and charm and never really see her short comings because she is a lady of the sea like the older yachts I have been on over my life, that have proven there sea worthiness when new yachts or ships need 20 years to do so as worthiness comes over many years!

 

You guessed it there is another Rug sale or I should say, Art auction on but after seeing the prices on the last one we skip it and instead talk to the gun photographer on the Sun by the name of Cronin. We set a time with him to have the formal picture taken tonight, he loves his job and goes the extra yards to make sure you get what you want and with 4 young kids this makes all the difference when trying to get them all to look at the camera at the same time for once in there lives. Hint for people on back to back, if you want to pick pictures from both cruises{each cruise is classed as separate} then you need to get pictures put aside in the folders so you can choose the best ones at the end of the back to back as they destroy the hard copies on the board after each cruise, that said they can make a copy from there harddrive but its easy and better for the environment if you get them put aside, this will save you money and get you the best pictures etc.

After sorting the picture my boss, her understudy [our youngest} and I head up to soak in the sun on the mighty Lido social side. Youngest play’s giant chess on the deck board with some of the other kids while we convert our sixes to sexes, talking to the fantastic kiwi’s onboard.

We collect the kids from the club and go to a wonderful lunch in the dinning room. Lunches in the dinning room means no waiting in line at the buffet and is usually much better quality, cooked and prepared food. This also goes for breakfast {the bacon in the buffet is absolutely foul as they deep fry it, which is an American thing and they should be shot for it, because you can bake it in an oven on trays to feed 10000000 times more people and it take the same manual labour to do it and make it the best bacon every cooked, it kills pan frying by a mile. As you could imagine I only had bacon once from the buffet}. I will take a picture of the bacon I get naturally smoked from my butcher tomorrow and show the difference in what 99% of people get on a ship or from there butcher, bacon is my sin in life beside iced teas.

 

After lunch we jokingly tell the kids there clubs are closed till the end of the cruise, this gets a look of shock for two seconds before they all pipe up and say no they are not, we know. So, off to the clubs they go and mother sits down in turtle cove with our youngest.

So my wife and I go down stairs for some adult fun and I am thinking you naughty girl I have been waiting the whole cruise for this, So she drags me down to the duty free shop and to say I was board is an understatement. The duty free shops are setup on a ratio of 95% female-5%male with what they stock as the cruise companies know full well whom is the boss when it comes to spending! After saying every perfume she tried was fantastic and being told I was no help at all because I liked everything {or I would be in trouble} we,{or as all us males know} she decided it was best that I go and do my own thing so I could not see the final bill of the what I perceived to be 50% on, not off sale. Being a mere male I decided to cut my loses and go to the casino as it would work out the cheaper of us two spending.

We get ready for dinner at what fells to me 15 hours before it but is really only an hour before. I am a shower ,shave and throw the suit on male like most so the getting of 4 females ready and two boys in tux’s really is a trying but pleasurable thing, with a bucket load of impatiens thrown in. All the impatiens goes out the window when you finally see your wife and kids on a formal night dressed up to the nines, what a vision they all make to a proud dad and husband. We have a wonderful dinner and then proceed to the 9th for pictures. Well it all went really well for Cronin until the 3rd shot at the youngest started to wonder why the hell does he have to say cheese, more than once or twice. After getting the shots done we all head down stairs to get changed{or should I say the kids} and we take the kids to there clubs. As it is a formal might and the boss and I are feeling in the mood to enjoy life we book the kids in for child minding after 10pm. We socialize and play blackjack together and have a sensational time, but feeling guilty like parents we pick the kids up at 11pm like last timer only to be told by the kids it is to early, hang on they are all under bloody 9 years old and making us feel old for not parting the night away, this changes the next time and when asked we reply “what kids”.haha.

 

After yet another fantastic day on the Pacific Sun, we have started to think very seriously of booking the next cruise for back to back to back.

[Gratz]

Ohhhhh you crack me up! it's like I am reading my hiusbands account of our upcoming cruise....only difference he wouldn't even come down to the duty free shop :D

[mickalex]

Haha as promised the pic of the small piece of naturally smoked bacon in the fridge for Sunday.:D

[mickalex]

Hi Mick,

What a great review, I have been ready with interest as I will be travelling with kids so it is great to hear what they got up to.

 

I was wondering after all your iced teas do you remember what the cost is for the after hours child minding and is it in the kids club?

Raelee

 

It is really cheap, think its around $5 an hour. I will check with Alex as i just signed and did not look at the cost.

[mickalex]

Hi Mick It is great to read your days i love reveiwing our trip.I can't wait for your next one keep up the good work.Hope alex had good days off at home,she is back at work now?Hope jean is well?Till i read your next text.Take care. maureen:)

 

Thank you both for such a great time on the B2B you really made it great for all of us. Jean is well and wants to go again. Alex back into the grind after 2 months off.

I am glad you are enjoying the read. Hope your well and work is going great. We will have to all go for much longer next year.

[mickalex]

Hi Mick,

 

Thanks for writing such a comprehensive, indepth, interesting and funny review...it's great!!!:)

 

We have something in common, my DH and I also have four kids...although ours are a little older, 16,14,10 and 8.

This upcoming cruise on the Rhapsody will be our kids first cruise, they are so excited... especially the two youngest boys!!

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write your review...looking forward to reading the rest of it.:D

 

Regards Sandie:)

 

My pleasure, i hope you enjoy the rest. Your kids are going to have the greatest time of there life.

[mickalex]

Ohhhhh you crack me up! it's like I am reading my hiusbands account of our upcoming cruise....only difference he wouldn't even come down to the duty free shop :D

 

He would if you had his wallet!:D

[mickalex]

13th Aug. I wake early so I can watch us come into Mystery Island and race upstairs to film the island coming in. It is overcast with high cloud and sun spots burning through with a slight wind. Anatom island{the main inhabited island, 500 metres or so off Mystery island} high hills look amazing, with the tops of the hills surrounded in thick cloud and just below them the village right on a fantastic curved beach adorned with coconut tree’s. It is overcast but I am here to tell you that it’s the most beautiful place I have ever seen, on a sunny day it would fill your head with fantasies of being stranded on it for life. I film and take pictures of this wondrous place as we creep in close and closer, completely forgetting that a have a family somewhere on the ship for half and hour. It is safe to say pulling into and being there at the bow to watch was the highlight of the cruise for me, it really is a place dreams are made of.

I race down to meet the family and we have a quick breakfast, then we head down to the cabin to begin loading the gear to take on the island on this old pack horse named dad. On the way down in the portside lift we come across an old couple and the husband is cursing as they have been going up and down trying to get to the 3rd deck to get the tender for 10 minutes. There is a sign taped to the back of the lift, like on all ports that says this “lift only goes to the 4th level when in port and to use the starboard side lifts to get to the 3rd level’ after pointing this out to him and getting out at main deck{5th level} he knows better and they continue in the same lift{ I half expected to come back after the day on the island to find him still going up and down cursing the world that he still has not reached the 3rd level}.

Stepping off the tender onto the island the family walks into a wonderland, while I follow with what feels like 500kg of gear, they are all excited and running around and I am lucky to lift a foot to get the next step in{haha just kidding}. The island has a row of thatched huts joined together as a market place in the centre that the islanders sell there wears and a great grass airstrip. The way the thatched huts are put together really blends in well with the islands natural beauty and it seems most of the Anatom population comes over to sell, sing or cook lobsters. Get in early for the lobsters as the price goes through the roof as they get low on lobsters and this happens well before lunchtime. There are many kids bought over as well from Anatom by there parents and I am here to say they are some of the happiest kids I have ever come across, they would bring a smile to the unhappiest of people in the world with there love of life. I set mother, Alex and the three youngest kids up on the beach at the end of the markets so my oldest son and I can go snorkelling at the south east corner of the island as our room steward and a few of the crew had told us this was by far the best spot to snorkel. My son and I walk up the east side beach to get up to the spot. We get settled on the beach to get the gear ready and I get the underwater camera out keen to get some good pictures. I have bin skindiving most of my young life but I have never seen so many fish ten feet of the beach as I have on Mystery island. The snorkelling is simply amazing and is such a short distance from sure anyone under 120 years old could do it with ease. It is a bit cold when you first get in because it is overcast and winter but we spent a couple of hours in the water because you soon get used to it and only feel the cold when you get out. The nest coral is out further {50-100 metres out} but 99% of people would be happy with the underwater wonderland just 20 feet from the beach. Even with people around diving and snorkelling always feels like its just you and the surroundings. There is no noise and when the environment is this good, your whole attention is on the environment so you feel like you are the only one out there. I would happily stay in the water till the last tender but after our fun we dry off and walk down the grass airstrip to the markets to meet up with the crew. The kids have a ball playing with the young kids from Anatom and then have even more fun picking out gifts to take back for friends and family. The kids have there picture taken in the cannibals pot and then we give the parents of the young kids the gifts we had bough for the school there{we had bought the 200 lead pencils,200 coloured pencils and 200 black, blue and red pens for Dravini Island in Fiji but because of the weather we never got there so I make a not to make sure we take them for both islands when we next visit}.They are very grateful for the small gift and show great appreciation to our kids. After the best day on the whole cruise we head back on the tender at 2.30pm for lunch. Watching the ship from shore and looking around at the couple of thousand people on the small island, you really do feel it is like a circus, but in my mind the invading of the island for a day would give the Anatom islanders a few weeks worth of income, so it is a win, win type deal but I wish you got a couple of days because then you would get a better understanding of the Anatom islanders way of living and there culture. Anatom is a place I could spend weeks just exploring and getting to know the people and you would just be touching the surface in those weeks.

 

After lunch the younger kids go to there clubs as they request it and I take my eldest up to film us leaving the island. We stand on the portside just behind the bridge as all hands are on the bridge to leave. It is packed with people watching us leave and watching the crew in the bridge. The bow thrusters spin us around on a dime out of the bay while we all watch the crew in the bridge. I can tell you now why Captain Goodway has the job he does, he is the most intuitive person I have ever come across for reasons I will explain. All these people are sitting just outside the bridge and smiling and laughing as he came into view with his trusty pointing cane. There would have been 10 to 20 people laughing saying “ the Cane is to smack anyone that stuffs up when turning the ship, when he turns to the crowd and smacks the Cane and smile, the man has the greatest sense of awareness I have ever seen, sure he has done it many times but his timing was what legends are made of.

After all of us laughed with the captain and applauded him, we went down to meet the rest of our crew. Tonight everyone was tired form the most amazing place any of us could have imagined, so kids clubs and iced teas seemed to go by the way side.

We retire to the cabin after a fantastic day of discovery!

[aussiedisneyfan]

Thanks for posting my lunchtime read! :)

[kaseyoz]

I so hope we manage to make it to Mystery Island on our next cruise.

You certainly paint a very lovely picture and so very true.

[mickalex]

My god this flu is shocking and even more so with 4 kids!

 

But anyway here is there next chapters and hope you all enjoy!

 

14th Aug. There really is no rush when you have been to a fantastic place like the Isle of Pines the week before. The isle of Pines is a sight to behold on a sunny day. The sand is white and like talcum powder and I take pictures and video of us coming in. We all have a relaxed breakfast and mother decides as she was here last week she will stay onboard today{I am sure she just wanted to use the waterslide while no one was around}. We go down and get our gear ready and then catch the tender ashore. The kids are over the moon at the sunny day and we head to the Sacred rock for a snorkel and swim. I take the underwater camera and head out around the Sacred rock, it is murky from the weather over the last couple of days but there is still plenty to see. Snorkelling at Mystery island even on a cloudy day is much better but I am sure there would be places hidden away on the Isle of Pines that have as much to offer. It is a bit cold when you get out of the water, even in the sun. We laze on the beach while the kids build sandcastles and run around. About 2pm we start to walk around the parts of the island we did not see last time. The vegetation is fantastic and makes you feel like your alone even with 1900 passengers or so around you. The kids play with a few of the thousands of coconuts lying around and I wonder how many kids on future cruises will play with the same coconut{ we passed a lady and her kids on the way back to the ship playing with coconuts and as we got near them the lady said to the kids ”look at my coconuts there bigger”, my wife looked at my grin and said” don’t you dare”, so I just had to say with a big stupid grin on my face to the lady “ there whoppers” while looking down at her and she laughed and we kept walking{with me 10 feet ahead, just out of slapping range from my wife}.

I look at the yachts moored in the bay and think about us, here in the future when we sail the yacht around the world with the kids. Places like the Isle of Pines really makes you think about the natural beauty of this world and how privileged we all are to come to places like this with such ease.

 

We all stand on the beach staring at our home away from home anchored off shore and decide we are all hungry. We line up for the next tender which takes but a minute, as they are running 3 tenders .When you sit in the tender you will notice a sign saying how many people it will fit as a tender and how many as a lifeboat. Now call me stupid, but I find it amazing that they fit more in as a lifeboat that would be used in the open rough sea and less in the calm times that they are used as tenders, remembering so many missed ports being to rough for the tenders on other cruises CC’ers have been on.

We board the ship to the usual 6 card ding and the family goes up to lunch while the packhorse detours to drop off his load in the cabin, all the time expecting there to be a watering trough and chaff bag there to greet me..

After lunch the girls are going through kids club withdrawals so we decide to let them have there fix ,and we will put them through rehab when we get home. The eldest son is taking part in Kiwi V Aussie survivor as on of the water gun shooters so we get settled around the pool for the afternoons entertainment. Survivor is fantastic fun for both the people in it and those watching and cheering. The final comes down to two blokes, an Aussie and a Kiwi as you might have guessed. The have to run up the slide stairs and come down 3 times in a lifejacket and then while in the water sitting in a blow up ring put two wet tshirts on each over the lifejacket. The Aussie got ripped off and they both finished within a second of each other to the roaring approval of the crowd. The oldest headed of to Shark Shack after vindictively shooting the survivor participants in the head with the water gun, like the staff wanted him and the others to.

We get mother her afternoon tea and delivered it to her social table on Lido deck and head down to rest for awhile in the cabin.

We grab all the kids from there clubs and head to dinner in the Burgundy dinning room. Like most nights the dinner is fantastic and we enjoy a bottle of wine like most nights.

Low and behold, the kids go back to there clubs after dinner and Alex and mother and youngest go down to the cabin to get ready for tonight’s show “ Love the Nightlife” while I go up for a smoke and an ice tea on the social side of the Lido deck. By now all the new cruisers have found there footing and are lively and fun. After having the same question so many, many times on both cruises “you’re the bloke with all the kids” I decide that next cruise to get a tshirt printed saying “no they are not my kids they just follow me around for food and money”, which is a tshirt nearly every parent should own.

I head down to the casino to play blackjack after a few iced teas on Lido deck. After telling the dealer I will only tip him after I win big bucks, he proceeds to take big bucks from me for the house. After taking a huge amount of betting money from me {all $10 dollars or two bets} I tell him its my turn and punish the house winning $40.haha

Playing $5 a hand you can have hours of joy for low cost and usually end up even, unless you hit or double on 18 like I saw at the table. Unlike a proper casino environment, the cruise ship casino is a much more relaxed atmosphere, they really would have no problem with a banjo playing Billy Bob taking his shoes off to count more than his fingers to get to 21 or even 22 digits in there case to add there cards up.

 

I take my even money for the night and collect the kids and go down to the cabin, as I am a bit tired from pack horsing and snorkelling, not to mention looking at coconuts!

 

 

 

15th Aug. Yes, we have been to Noumea the week before and yes we feel like old hands at cruising by now, but I think any port is done more relaxed and better planned the second time. Mother decided to stay onboard again so we get ready to take on the town. It is a public holiday but most of the tourist district is open. Being old hands at Noumea after our visit the week before we direct the new cruising mates to the best duty free shops etc. We go and do the duty free shopping first that seems to take a year off me for every hundred spent, so this 800 year old is dragged around Noumea and resigns to the fact that he is purely there to be a trolley for the goods. After shopping with my wife that felt like 15 years, we head to the “Casino” supermarket opposite the port. If you like things like French cheese and wine, it is cheaper and fantastic compared to the same in Australia. Other non fresh items are very, very expensive and a huge amount comes from Australia. The “Casino” supermarket takes Australian dollars or franc’s and has sensational digital price tags that have Franc’s and US dollars displayed.

Noumea is like Surry Hills/Redfern in Sydney and needs more money spent on infrastructure and with the tourist dollars should be much more glamour’s.

I think the very outer parts of the island would be fantastic and very beautiful but on a day trip it would be very time pressed to get to these outer reaches.

We bought French brie, caviar ,French sticks, French butter, spicy sausage, water cracker and bought them all back onboard. We had the best stewards so we went halves in the whole lot so they got to taste it all. It was very special when they both said they had never tried caviar and a couple of other things before and said they loved it and shared it with there mates. We are like most cruises and would prefer our whole fair to go to the staff, but we know they are lucky to get $2.50 an hour and feel the ones that love there job and really go out of there way deserve to be shown so with money and treats etc.

You know you have spent too much in a duty free shop when they give you a bag containing atleast 20 free things in it. After shopping we go back to the ship to drop me and the kids off and then my wife goes off to go shopping again. Noumea is very quiet on the public holiday compared to last week, you can nearly cross the road without fear of being run down.

I and the rest of the family dont mind going to Noumea as it is a great experience and in context is a mining town like Newcastle, so think of it like Newcastle and it will never disappoint you8 when you know that before hand. Like any place in this world it has cheap and good value and expensive and ripoff..

 

We sit in the cabin tasting the great food and passing it on to the stewards at the same time. Culinary life does not get much better than this and we all saviour the Noumea/French food.

After all the food we bought back onboard we all skip dinner and the kids go to there clubs for the evening and mother stays at her table on Lido, while my boss, our youngest and I chill out watching a movie in our cabin for the night.

Noumea is what you make of it and your experience there will reflect what your expectations are, of your own world.

[karmac]

......... Now call me stupid, but I find it amazing that they fit more in as a lifeboat that would be used in the open rough sea and less in the calm times that they are used as tenders, .

 

And remember, that when being used as lifeboats, everyone has a lifejacket on & takes up more room:).

[rugbypopsie]

Your posts should be mandatory reading for those who tell us cruise addicts "I couldn't stand being stuck on a ship with our kids". It is undoubtedly the best family holiday and I have loved following your adventures....

 

The worst part is coming back to earth..no kids club, no one else to cook, clean etc. etc.

 

Thanks so much for posting:D

 

"Rugby is God's game"

[mickalex]

Could not agree more, cruising is the ultimate family holiday because you can have a family holiday with the kids and also get your own time on the holiday. Cruising is a win,win, holiday for a family.

 

"God created Adam and Eve and then introduced them to rugby, this created all mankind so they had the extra numbers for each rugby side, there was 12 apostle rugby players until god said "you need two break aways and a lock to make it God game, so then there was 15 apostles on each side ". :D