dollyhouse

Hi we are in Australia but booked through an online US travel agent. So our booking number will not be accepted on the MSC Au site and our address is not accepted on the MSC USA website! We would love to add our Princess Circle points. My question is, has anyone spoken direct to MSC or should we ask our USA travel agent to look into this? Thank you

Single trip cruise Travel insurance we have looked at so far has been quite reasonable until we add Covid cover for the one day in Noumea

We have seen some excellent deals on P&O Australia in April and May this year, incorporating a stop in Noumea. Looking into it on the P&O site and Smarttraveller, it is apparent that to visit New Caledonia, you must have travel insurance with covid cover or you may not be allowed to disembark. 
“The COVID-19 state of emergency has been lifted, and there are no mandatory COVID-19 related health measures in place to enter New Caledonia. Health authorities continue to recommend cautionary measures, including a COVID-19 (supervised RAT) test 2 days after arrival in New Caledonia and wearing masks on planes, in airports and in places frequented by vulnerable people. Travel insurance is mandatory for New Caledonia and needs to cover all medical and hospitalisation expenses, including repatriation costs and medical evacuation. You may need to present your travel insurance certificate when departing for and arriving in New Caledonia.

Any thoughts?

While the new Explorations in Depth cruises sound very interesting, I have read that while some “traditional” activities eg night time big show productions and art auctions  have ceased, the usual trivia and bingo games remain, but no mention has been made of whether painting classes are still offered.

quick question, so we know whether to take an occy strap if the door is not sliding. Nice to have an open door at times.

Yes I would like that info please if anyone has it

The blue room bar was Statendam's excellent library. Has P&O put any area aside for a library on the Eden? Thank you

I thought I’d write a review of my cruise on Pacific Eden- 7 nights from Cairns to Papua New Guinea as there weren’t many reviews for PNG on here. I don’t usually bother writing reviews anymore as they end up being the same as the cruiser who lodged one before me so I apoligise if this is similar to someone elses!

I am a hopeless cruise-a-holic who is now spending the kids inheritance on my holidays. For this cruise I was a solo traveler. I am married -49 yr old female (just for prospective) with 3 young adult kids but none of my friends or family were able to come with me so I went alone.

I was lucky enough to get a balcony cabin at the last minute ( booked 2 weeks before departure) for a great singles price. It was originally booked as a guaranteed balcony but ended up being a triple balcony right near the back on deck 10. Great position on the same level as the serenity deck and one down from ‘The Pantry’ which was great as I could pop up and get a coffee in 1 minute! The cabin itself had a fridge and a spa bath which was a surprise. Tip- make sure you know how to take the plug out of the bath hole before having a bubble bath. I didn’t realise you have to turn the silver knob which is half way down the bath which when covered in bubbles is invisible. A double sofa bed and the rest was probably the same as the oceanview cabins. Loads of mirrors, hairdryer, makeup mirror, shampoo, conditioner, body wash. The water bottles and dressing gown are not free! I don’t normally touch the shampoo stuff but didn’t bring enough and used it twice. It was perfectly fine. It did have 2 faults. If using it as a triple the sofa bed would block your path to the balcony and you would need to stand on it to use the dresser. 2nd-There were 2 aussie power points but they were located under the dresser in the chair alcove near the floor. To use them you needed to get on all fours (or squat down) to plug something in. I mainly used them to charge my phone and had to leave it on the chair to charge as my cable wasn’t long enough. My suggestion is to bring a small extention cord. There were US power points ( I think they were US ones!) in the standard areas on the dresser. Only a shaver plug in the bathroom. Having a balcony was fantastic as a solo. I found the only time I felt alone was as dining times so I would take breakfast down and eat it on the balcony and in between things to do I could go back and sit on the balcony. I wouldn’t have done this with an oceanview or inside cabin.

Speaking of dining, the Pantry is a great idea. It has less choice but it is a lot more healthy, there is less fried foods and the staff serve you so it is 100% more hygienic. Pacific Eden has 3 free dining rooms-apart from the Pantry. The Waterfront- mixed choices, Angelos- Italian and Dragon Lady-Asian. I went to Angelos the first night at 5.30 and was the only one in there up until dessert. It was lovely. Next night I went to The Waterfront and got seated at a table for 2 right in the middle which made me feel uncomfortable sitting there for an hour twiddling my thumbs! I made friends with 2 lovely ladies and was going to join them at Angelos and Dragon lady on subsequent nights but they were always full until after 8.45. A bit late for me to eat. So I used the Pantry after that which was lovely and tasty anyway. I suggest you book on the first day if you want to eat at Dragon lady and Angelos at a reasonable hour.

I have suggested to P&O since getting off to set up 1 or 2 large round tables in the Waterfront for solo cruisers that can come at any time and dine. It wouldn’t make any difference serving one person at their own table to serving someone separately on a mixed table. Plus the bonus is you may make friends and enjoy the cruise more ( which in turn is good for everyone including P&O!) Can you tell I really missed getting seated with other cruisers?

The entertainment was fabulous. 4 different shows with the P&O singers and dancers+ 2 comedians- who were hilarious and 1 magician ( who was funny too) We had a Blanco- white night and a Gatsby night party on deck. I was surprised at how many people dressed up. As the roof can be open or closed it is always likely to be by the pool. The ‘back to school’ night was held in the Dome where the staff organised games. It was great fun.

We were meant to stop at 4 ports but missed Conflict island as it was too rough for the tenders. We waited there a few hours to see if it would calm down so go to enjoy the island views with lovely aqua blue water surrounding them. Our first port was Alotau. The weather was hot and muggy. The town reminded me of Port Vila ( without the shopping main road and all touristy markets ) surrounded by mountains. There was a group of locals dancing and singing when we docked which was lovely.Then another group doing a scary war dance positioned itself at the other end of the wharf.- Very interesting. I had booked a shore tour with P&O as the one I found privately was too expensive at $190. It was Authentic PNG which was $89.95 for 4 hours. There were 6 X 10 seater vans in the group. I was in the first one which had security grills over every window including the windscreen which made it impossible to take photos. 1 other van was like this and the rest were normal. The guide did apoligise for this as they had borrowed the van from a private company who were becoming security conscious. I was lucky enough to press my phone to the window which would limit the amount of metal in the photo but everyone with a normal camera or not by the window missed out. We visited everything on the list but only got to see a war canoe, out of water not racing towards us filled with natives doing a war chant as describe. That was a bit disappointing. We stopped at markets at the end. These markets were unusual in the fact that it was set up in 2 lines with buyers walking down the middle. The sellers and all their family were positioned on each side sitting on the floor with their wares for sale on a cloth/mat in front. Everyone sold pretty much the same thing. Be careful to check for any holes if buying wooden products. Everyone was getting through quarantine fine with lots of close inspection after the cruise. I was quite surprised as I thought it was tougher to bring wooden products in. These had shell product attached too. We sailed away to another group doing a different war dance with lots of hip thrusting. The tour guide did tell us that each area of PNG had different dance styles.

Next stop was Kitara Island. It was raining when we arrived and I watched them unload some tenders from my balcony. From past experience with tenders and islands I decided to wait until about 10.30 until I went across and I was also hoping the rain would go away. I was right as it did at about 10.30 so there was a mad rush to get a tender as everyone else had the same idea! We all had a long wait! I wasn’t too worried as with most P&O beach stops 4 hours is usually plenty of time to see the island, look at all markets- same products but I bought some little wooden sea animals and spears to make into fridge magnets for souvenirs , go for a snorkel and lazy on the coconut tree lined beach. This island had a little extra site seeing to the ones I usually see. For $10 donation you can visit a cave which holds skulls and human bones. I thought this cave was an hours walk inland but really its only 2 minutes off the beach.

Next stop was Kiriwina Island. Arrived at 8am. I got tender tickets for myself and my 2 new friends at 10am . We were off the ship straight away. Docked at the pier and walked up the ‘main street’ (dirt track/road.) lined with sit down markets again. The whole island had taken a day off from their usual life to view the ‘Dim Dims’. That’s what the locals call white people. School was closed and no one went fishing etc- there were no shops. When we got up the street a little there was a natural grassed area with lots of local men dancing in native dress so we stopped and watched. After a while it turned into an impromptu cricket match. I have been told these last up to 3 days and there are 100 or so people on each side. There are 2 batters and 2 bowlers – 1 at each end and 1 runner for each batsman. The batsman doesn’t run. When someone gets caught out all 199 of them do a little chant and dance.(not the one who got out!) It was amazing. Someone hit a 4 and all the fielders just turned and watched the ball roll out of the field. No one chased it! Quite an eye opener. After, we went for a walk up the track to the village and had few teenage guides attached themselves to us to ‘help’ us find it. They were very diplomatic with their request for a gratuity after. I recall one saying the tour was now over and they needed to leave us ….. How cute ! As it was hot we next went for a swim but I needed reef shoes so didn’t get very far. The other side of the beach was good for snorkeling so I made my way to that section of the beach nearer to the pier. As it was pretty shallow I followed the path the local boats were going as I guessed this would be slightly deeper. It was quite a way out before I got to see some good coral and fish which were in a sink hole of sorts.

After, sat on the beach and had a really long chat with a lovely local lady. Ended up giving her half the contents of my bag. Panadol ( with explainations on how to use it), woolies shopping bag, pen etc. – I was really surprised at how educated everyone is. Everyone I spoke to spoke really good English. On the way back to the tender I was stopped by a local man who wanted me to change his 2 x $5 notes into Kina. I only had a 50k note ( which is worth $25 aus ) and knew I didn’t need it for Conflict island as you have to buy vouchers to use on that island as they don’t use cash. Told him he would need to get some friends together to change it. No problem. He had found someone in a jiffy. I had stored it with my medical kit and spare lollies so when I got it out he saw the lollies and immediately asked if he could have them. So palmed them off to him too and also gave him all my bandaids. I explained how to use the bandaids but didn’t bother to tell him the lollies were sugar free!!

All in all had a great time. A few things I should remark on in regard to the ship, I found it was warm inside. I normally need to wear long sleeves at night around cruise ships but I was hot on this one in all the areas. ( and the warmth was not menopausal !) so all my evening wear was too hot! I loved the way P&O have upgraded the furniture. No more white plastic outdoor settings. Everything is funky ,fun and tasteful for lounging and hanging. The theatre is set out really well. All the chairs have little tables in front of them and a walkway in front of the tables so no making people get out of their seats so you can get to the vacant seat in the middle. The ship is designed with only 2 main decks to use for most of the facilities. I didn’t get lost once on this ship. I felt everything was well layed out and the décor was cool and classy. The ship handled the small seas we had really well. We didn’t get any more than about 2.5 mtr seas but you didn’t notice any movement. I had brought my own coffee on the ship but didn’t need to use it. The standard stuff was strong but drinkable. I got into a routine of filling my travel mug( I brought from home) with 1 serve coffee and 1 serve hot water to weaken it! Nice.

I had done a bit a research to find luggage storage after the cruise because my flight out wasn’t until 4pm and read that there was storage lockers at the greyhouse station on Abbott st. Wrong… no greyhound station anymore. For luggage storage there is a tourist information shop on the Esplanade with some very helpful, lovely ladies who are happy to store luggage before or after your cruise - for free!!

Happy to answer any questions if I can

Cheers,

Fiona

:)

thanks Fiona, very informative. On my computer it was all one long hard to read paragraph so I copied and pasted into Word and it came out in easy to read paragraphs.

The photos of the meals you took were informative; although you were not over joyed by the quality of some, I can assure you, judging by the photos, the meals appear to be a LOT better than the ones we endured on an English ship earlier this year. 26 days on a cruise ship and not one kilo put on!!

We also had a rumour that the captain and chief engineer of the Statendam were going to hold the same positions on Eden! Not sure if that is the case. BTW our first cruise was on the Pacific Sun, not perfect by any means, and we had a blast, hooking us on cruising!

I spoke to new friends we made while onboard the statendam. They were on the lowest passenger deck and reminded me 1) their toilet overflowed 2) for the first 3 days of the cruise from Seattle to Alaska (prior to our shorter sector) for three days their air con was stuck on very cold and they were very uncomfortable. Interestingly, for both inconveniences they were reimbursed $150 each time quickly with apologies. They reminded me that on the couple of rainy days we had, buckets had to be placed in various areas under the closed retractable pool area deck. We had a crack in our bathroom basin. The ship itself wasn't by any means perfect.

It is unfortunate that the two ships were so over hyped, as they are certainly not new.

We missed a port due to an engine failure, so I wonder whether this will be Eden's next drama? The saddest part were the final days, where the magnificent library had all its books packed away (some given away to passengers, most packed in boxes to other HAL ships), the terrific art including sculptures, antique furniture, paintings etc, which were all removed, and a real bunfight when all the ports visited plaques were auctioned off. In Singapore while we waited to disembark workers swarmed on, dismantling outdoor lights etc.

This is probably NOT the place to write this but we don't know where else to express our extreme sadness about Pacific Eden. We have not sailed on her as Pacific Eden but read the CC reviews after hearing of her two latest somewhat negative cruises on Sydney media

We sailed in Sept/oct 2015 on the last voyage on this ship, 22 days, when she was MS Statendam, under Holland America, from Hawaii to her final destination Singapore where she went into dry dock to be "turned into" Pacific Eden. We have cruised 8 times on a number of different cruiselines and MS Statendam was one of our two favourites.

Why? Excellent staff in every part of the ship / excellent food in main dining room (it was two stories high so minimal waiting time) and the buffet / cabins had flatscreen TVs with DVD player with 100s of DVDs available free anytime / cooking demonstrations / daily movies screened twice or three times 3-6-9pm / best Reception staff we have encountered / fantastic huge library with librarian, New releases section, magazine bar, jigsaw room, cards room / flowering orchids on each table in the buffet, floral displays, great works of art, sculptures, etc throughout..we could go on.....

We did note quite a number of P&O staff onboard the closer we got to Singapore

So in dry dock in Singapore, 700 odd workers, 24 hours a day... What has gone so horribly wrong?

thank you, hope it is quiet down there, we are above that deck in a cabin on deck 5

Hi we are off on Pacific Pearl soon and looking at the deck plan, wonder if anyone can tell us about Deck 4 and what is next to the Medical Centre on the right? The plans show a blank area right along the right side under the deck 5 cabins. Thank you

Don't see many reviews from the land down under. Would love to see pics if you have them (or a link). We miss the Spirit!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

my review hasn't been posted yet in the Reviews section; keep an eye out for it. I am looking forward to seeing if anyone else posts a review of that cruise

hi you can see some of my pix if you go to Facebook Carnival Cruise Lines Australia or email me on lydia.ohara@gmail.com

cheers

Just back from an 8 day cruise to New Caledonia, enjoyed ourselves and have written review on CC.

Few tips: You can take a small fan on board, no drama, for white noise sleeping issues

Take your powerboard on in your carry on luggage (only one Aust powerpoint)

An occy strap works for keeping your balcony door right open

Steak offered every night in the main dining room (Every day menu left side) and was always delicious and cooked as we like it

The soft drinks package $58 on our 8 night cruise may not be worth it, diet Coke was $1.45 for a decent sized glass; to make a package worthwhile you would have to drink quite a few each day.

3pm afternoon tea in dining room worth a visit, tasty small savoury and sweet treats on offer

When you first board waiters hover round all the lifts offering a welcome aboard drink - this is not free!