Semi Live Ovation 16th Nov b2b Our Trip to a Land Down Under

[kaseyoz]

Thanks for that

[aussielozzie18]

Enjoying your posts & photos.  Have friends on board, they will be disappointed that Mystery Island has been cancelled.  Look forward to reading what you did in Vila.

Edited November 20, 2022 by aussielozzie18

[kernow]

23 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Vila is a lovely place,the worst part is the wharf.
It really has potential.

 I said hello in the diamond lounge?

Hi @Chiliburn, nice to meet you, sorry I'm only just back online using another free 24 hours😀.

[kernow]

18 hours ago, kaseyoz said:

Hope you enjoy Vanuatu.

it used to be the best place for duty free liquor. They even used to deliver it to the ship for you. All precovid days of course.

 

we would love you to join our family for progressive trivia if you do nit have a full team We have our adult kids (30 yrs) with us too.

we did the progressive trivia on the Anthem a few years back. With Joff Southampton to Canary Islands.

Are you on the next cruise? Yes it would be great to team up for trivia. We've just done the third round and we did terrible today, there were a few Australian questions (about Prime Minister, AFL, airport codes) and we had no idea😅.  No excuses though, there was also a question about Last Night of the Proms and we didn't even get that one!

 

Yes, we are in a balcony too and there is a kettle, fairly sure JS have a coffee machine too.

[kaseyoz]

1 minute ago, kernow said:

Are you on the next cruise? Yes it would be great to team up for trivia. We've just done the third round and we did terrible today, there were a few Australian questions (about Prime Minister, AFL, airport codes) and we had no idea😅.  No excuses though, there was also a question about Last Night of the Proms and we didn't even get that one!

 

Yes, we are in a balcony too and there is a kettle, fairly sure JS have a coffee machine too.

Yes we are on the next cruise to NZ. 
have done NZ cruise before and husband  also did  FIFO to wellington and Auckland  for a year.

BUT.our daughter, son and grandson booked this and said why dont you come so here we are.

we also have two other short cruises booked on her for early next year.

[kaseyoz]

I am karon Cantori elsewhere 

[kernow]

We enjoyed a lovely day in Port Vila. We got a tender about 10am. D and D+ do not officially get priority tickets but Haffnar said if we come to the lounge when we are ready to go he would take us down. The tender goes to the commercial port area which is around the bay from the town centre. From there you can catch a cab or a water taxi into the shopping area, both cost 5 Au dollars pp each way. The taxi drivers were also offering tours to various sights around the island.

We decided to get a water taxi into town. For those of a nervous disposition be aware that this is nothing like the big boat taxi in St Maarten, it's just locals with their little motor boats. Getting on and off was a bit wobbly especially if someone stood up too quickly😁. It was good fun though particularly as it started raining when we were halfway across the bay! The tropical climate certainly made for a frizzy hair day for me.

The boat drops you right in town, there is normally a local food market there but the building was deserted as it was closed on Sundays. Because Ovation was in port many of the shops had opened. There are several duty free shops with really cheap prices for alcohol, tobacco, perfumes etc. Unfortunately for us with two long flights home we couldn't really buy the alcohol, Mark did get some aftershave though.

By this time the rain had stopped so we started walking out through the other side of the town along the coast. There was an area with some gardens leading down to little sandy coves where all the locals were with their families. Everyone was super friendly and struck up conversations with us, asking about the ship and telling us about Vanuatu. Apparently we are only the second ship to have come in as Vanuatu
has only just opened up to tourists since covid, they all seemed really pleased to have the visitors back.

After walking a little way we started to come to some small beachfront hotels and restaurants. It was getting really hot by now so we decided to go for drinks and a snack (of course we need more food, not🤣). As we sat at a table looking out over the beautiful bay we were pinching ourselves, thinking how lucky we were to be in such a beautiful place that we had barely even heard of until we booked this trip.


After lunch we headed back into town and took the water taxi back to the dock. Along the road where the taxis drop you there are stalls set up by the local Mamas selling souvenirs so we wandered around them before catching the tender back.

We thought the whole experience of Vila was fabulous. The scenery is so beautiful and the people are lovely. There was no pressure from anyone the way there can sometimes be in the Caribbean Islands and it felt very relaxed. It's such a shame that our stop in Mystery Island has been cancelled, we'd love to have seen a bit more of this country.

[kernow]

More pics from our day.

[kernow]

And a few more, if anyone is coming and wants more info from the local map, I have the whole sheet.

[bluetardis]

Great photos, thank you for posting

[kernow]

We were supposed to have left Vila at 6pm, just before the captain came on and said we would be delayed as we had another medical emergency onboard and we were waiting for an air ambulance to come to Vanuatu to Medivac them to Australia. Apparently Vanuatu does not have a big hospital with good medical facilities. After a couple of hours there was another announcement saying the plane would not be arriving until noon today so we were staying at anchor in the bay until then.  As I write this it is 11.57 am and we still haven't moved. Presumably the patient is still onboard in the medical facility. There are no tenders running and they are just counting this as a sea day. At least we have nice views 😁.


This is actually turning into a bit of a strange cruise all round. According to the entertainment sheet when we boarded there was supposed to be a show in the theatre last night, by headliners Boys in the Band. It didn't happen and we heard no explanation why. There have been no production shows either, there was a comedian the other night which didn't appeal to us so we haven't even been to the theatre yet. Entertainment wise this is by far the worst cruise we've ever been on, we really are struggling to find things to do. Tonight does sound more promising with a show by the Australian Beatles and then an 80s party in 270.

We were beginning to wonder if this is how Australian cruises are but we've just been chatting to our cabin neighbours who said they think it's poor too and not normal.


For the second night in a row our MDR waitress was missing last night, headwaiter admitted she is 'ill.' We did have a fantastic waiter who told us he'd been bought in from Chops to cover, the previous night we'd had another random waiter. We had no assistant waiter either, we noticed he was working at tables on the other side of the dining room. They seem really stretched. Our neighbours this morning told us they dine in Silk and get a speech every night encouraging them to try the other venues around the ship!


Captain has now just announced our departure has been pushed back to approx 3.30 pm😵.

[kernow]

15 minutes ago, kaseyoz said:

Yes we are on the next cruise to NZ. 
have done NZ cruise before and husband  also did  FIFO to wellington and Auckland  for a year.

BUT.our daughter, son and grandson booked this and said why dont you come so here we are.

we also have two other short cruises booked on her for early next year.

Well look out for you next week. You'll probably spot us first as we seem to be the only ones with the English accents😆.

[M-H-B]

Wow, it sounds like there might be quite a bit of COVID onboard but that could be leaping to conclusions.

 

Hope you all stay well.

 

I agree that it's not normal re the lack of entertainment - I was last on her February 2020 and there was plenty on. Maybe the performers got sick too 😞

[kernow]

14 minutes ago, M-H-B said:

Wow, it sounds like there might be quite a bit of COVID onboard but that could be leaping to conclusions.

 

Hope you all stay well.

 

I agree that it's not normal re the lack of entertainment - I was last on her February 2020 and there was plenty on. Maybe the performers got sick too 😞

That is our thoughts too. For the first time today the Compass says this. The sanitization bit has not been there before. We mentioned Covid to the Concierge and he didn't deny it.

[aussielozzie18]

You certainly made the most of your time in Vila.  Beautiful photos.

 

Hope the person being medivaced  id ok.

[aussielozzie18]

My friends were looking forward to getting massages on Mystery Island.  
 

Photo of one of the Explorer of the Seas tenders at Mystery Island a few years back.  Lovely place to swim & snorkel.

 

 

[Ozark_Kid]

26 minutes ago, kernow said:

For the second night in a row our MDR waitress was missing last night, headwaiter admitted she is 'ill.' We did have a fantastic waiter who told us he'd been bought in from Chops to cover, the previous night we'd had another random waiter. We had no assistant waiter either, we noticed he was working at tables on the other side of the dining room. They seem really stretched.

Hate to hear the MDR problems.  The Ovation staff last May was thin and assigned to many tables.  We also had a 1st time main waiter who had an assistant that had never worked the MDR.  They tried their best.  The experience convinced us to try the UDP on our Allure cruise last month.   I hope it gets better for you. I am enjoying the pics. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[kernow]

1 minute ago, aussielozzie18 said:

You certainly made the most of your time in Vila.  Beautiful photos.

 

Hope the person being medivaced  id ok.

Yes, haven't heard anything official but rumours are that it's a child, fingers crossed they will be OK.

 

The wife of the man airlifted the other day posted in the FB group this morning. A very informative post with photos and thanks to the crew, he is now doing well😀.

[kaseyoz]

2 hours ago, kernow said:

Well look out for you next week. You'll probably spot us first as we seem to be the only ones with the English accents😆.

Sorry you are having so many problems. 
hopefully the NZ one will be much improved.

i was born in Nottingham and been here since 1979, but still people will pick me as English.
 

if you do get to see Boys in The band, go along. Seen them several times, a bit like Human Nature 

[kaseyoz]

What are your plans for Noumea ?

[kernow]

2 minutes ago, kaseyoz said:

What are your plans for Noumea ?

We haven't made any plans, think we may do the hop on/hop off train.

 

I've just had an email from RCL cancelling our Tauranga tour next week, says due to a change in plans!

[resordanis]

44 minutes ago, kernow said:

We haven't made any plans, think we may do the hop on/hop off train.

 

I've just had an email from RCL cancelling our Tauranga tour next week, says due to a change in plans!

I haven’t had that email as yet! Such a shame as I quite like Tauranga.

[kernow]

5 minutes ago, resordanis said:

I haven’t had that email as yet! Such a shame as I quite like Tauranga.

Not sure if it means we are missing Tauranga, maybe just reduced hours so not enough time for our excursion?

[resordanis]

13 minutes ago, kernow said:

Not sure if it means we are missing Tauranga, maybe just reduced hours so not enough time for our excursion?

Reduced hours seem to be the norm at the moment. Hope things improve for you. We usually love the entertainment too, but we are on for 27 nights, so starting to get a bit worried.

Hope nothing changes for our Picton Wine Tour! 

[kernow]

We finally left Vanuatu around 7 pm and are now back at sea. 

 

The Australian Beatles show was enjoyable, now in 270 waiting for the 80s night to begin.