Pacific Encounter nearly ready to sail home.

[Bowm54]

Pacific Encounter left dry dock in Sembawang overnight and called into Singapore marina bay today to embark crew and provisions.  Its looking pretty spiffy and sporting the promised waterslides.
The ship is due to back at the shipyard tonight and will return to the cruise terminal tomorrow for the big trip home.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Bowm54

[Sparky74]

Apart from the water slides, what other changes have been made?

[Bowm54]

I don't know of any other changes but may find out after tomorrow. Our departure has been delayed slightly for operational reasons but hopefully we will stick to our modified itinerary.

Notice the clean hull and new antifouling. No problem entering NZ for this ship.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Bowm54

[joejoe 59]

Looks good. I'm hoping they have improved the air-conditioning, it was just about non existent on our October cruise. 

[arxcards]

On 2/24/2023 at 8:33 PM, Sparky74 said:

Apart from the water slides, what other changes have been made?

As listed by P&O, it was hard to fathom 3 weeks for the apparent lack of work being done. As listed by P&O:

- Edge Adventure Park - zipline, Rock Climbing wall, Cargo Net, Walk the Plank, and Beam Walk.

- Minor repairs and hotel enhancements

 

If they actually drydocked the ship, they needed to be doing something below the waterline.

[Bowm54]

We are in Benoa, Bali at present.

Brilliant ship and great food. New carpets were fitted during Singapore maintenance.

Water slides will not be operational until next voyage, edge equipment is in crates on upperdeck. There are a number of contractors onboard preparing for the edge.

New production show last night called “seven”, 7 songs representing the deadly sins.

Great visuals.

Aircon throughout the ship is working well and ship is very spacious with around 2,000 passengers. 
Lombok tomorrow.

[Bowm54]

At Lombok today.

[Aus Traveller]

On 2/28/2023 at 2:43 PM, Bowm54 said:

We are in Benoa, Bali at present.

Brilliant ship and great food. New carpets were fitted during Singapore maintenance.

Water slides will not be operational until next voyage, edge equipment is in crates on upperdeck. There are a number of contractors onboard preparing for the edge.

New production show last night called “seven”, 7 songs representing the deadly sins.

Great visuals.

Aircon throughout the ship is working well and ship is very spacious with around 2,000 passengers. 
Lombok tomorrow.

Did you need a visa for your visit to Indonesian ports? I am getting conflicting information on this with regard to a visit on a Princess cruise. The P&O website refers to 'visa-free' entry to Indonesia, not Visa on Arrival that has a fee.

[MicCanberra]

Yes 500,000 Indonesian rupiah pp. Equates to about $50 Aud.

[Bowm54]

Yes, in our case we had to complete both an electronic and a paper visa application. These were provided with the online cruise documentation and all were processed on the ship.

The 500,000 Rupiah fee was charged to everyones onboard account.

[MicCanberra]

We used obc to pay for ours

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, Bowm54 said:

Yes, in our case we had to complete both an electronic and a paper visa application. These were provided with the online cruise documentation and all were processed on the ship.

The 500,000 Rupiah fee was charged to everyones onboard account.

What did P&O charge you? AUD$50?

[Bowm54]

We were charged around $47 each. Apart from two bottles of gin from the duty free and some laundry tokens we have spent nothing else on the ship.

We don't have any beverage package nor Wifi.

 

[Bowm54]

Darwin today, the halfway point of a so far incident free trip.

Cairns on Wednesday.

[Aus Traveller]

48 minutes ago, Bowm54 said:

We were charged around $47 each. Apart from two bottles of gin from the duty free and some laundry tokens we have spent nothing else on the ship.

We don't have any beverage package nor Wifi.

 

AUD$47 is great. Princess is going to charge us US$60 (AUD$88.63) - nearly double what you were charged.

[lyndarra]

On 3/4/2023 at 11:14 AM, Aus Traveller said:

AUD$47 is great. Princess is going to charge us US$60 (AUD$88.63) - nearly double what you were charged.

Similar on HAL. I organised my online visa beforehand. Needed to produce it to HAL guest services as they have to log it on their records.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, lyndarra said:

Similar on HAL. I organised my online visa beforehand. Needed to produce it to HAL guest services as they have to log it on their records.

A few of us on the World Cruise are researching the Indonesian visa issue. Do you know the link you used to get your visa? One Indonesian website I have looked at refers to flying into the country. So far I haven't seen where people on a cruise ship can apply. Maybe you can help.

[MicCanberra]

On 3/4/2023 at 7:04 AM, Aus Traveller said:

What did P&O charge you? AUD$50?

 

On 3/4/2023 at 7:25 AM, Bowm54 said:

We were charged around $47 each. Apart from two bottles of gin from the duty free and some laundry tokens we have spent nothing else on the ship.

We don't have any beverage package nor Wifi.

 

$46.47pp for us.It may fluctuate due to exchange rates.

[lyndarra]

7 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

A few of us on the World Cruise are researching the Indonesian visa issue. Do you know the link you used to get your visa? One Indonesian website I have looked at refers to flying into the country. So far I haven't seen where people on a cruise ship can apply. Maybe you can help.

It was the cause of a lot of confusion on my role call. People were getting incorrect advice from HAL that they could not get the visa onboard as has always been done in the past. Some were told they didn't need a visa.I have posted link to role call. Post #207 has good info for completing the application.  Other posts are scattered from about #176.

You apply through the Indonesian government site.

https://www.imigrasi.go.id/en/e-voa/

 

One of the confusing things was that our first port-of-call, Lombok, was not listed as an entry point but that didn't really matter, we were still good.

 

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

It was the cause of a lot of confusion on my role call. People were getting incorrect advice from HAL that they could not get the visa onboard as has always been done in the past. Some were told they didn't need a visa.I have posted link to role call. Post #207 has good info for completing the application.  Other posts are scattered from about #176.

You apply through the Indonesian government site.

https://www.imigrasi.go.id/en/e-voa/

 

One of the confusing things was that our first port-of-call, Lombok, was not listed as an entry point but that didn't really matter, we were still good.

 

 

Thanks for the information.

 

[Aus Traveller]

14 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

It was the cause of a lot of confusion on my role call. People were getting incorrect advice from HAL that they could not get the visa onboard as has always been done in the past. Some were told they didn't need a visa.I have posted link to role call. Post #207 has good info for completing the application.  Other posts are scattered from about #176.

You apply through the Indonesian government site.

https://www.imigrasi.go.id/en/e-voa/

 

One of the confusing things was that our first port-of-call, Lombok, was not listed as an entry point but that didn't really matter, we were still good.

 

You mention Post #207 on the Roll Call. Presumably you mean the Roll Call for the Pacific Encounter cruise from Singapore. There are only 50-odd posts in that Roll Call. Am I looking in the wrong place?

[lyndarra]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

You mention Post #207 on the Roll Call. Presumably you mean the Roll Call for the Pacific Encounter cruise from Singapore. There are only 50-odd posts in that Roll Call. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Not pacific Encounter. The Westerdam roll call link in my post, #20

Edited March 6, 2023 by lyndarra

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, lyndarra said:

Not pacific Encounter. The Westerdam role call link in my post, #20

I will check it out. Thanks.

[Bowm54]

Just entering the GBR after transiting Torres strait late this afternoon.

 

 

 

[Bowm54]

Anchored off Airlie Beach today, Clear sunny weather and HOT.

Nice day yesterday in Cairns however recent heavy rainfall caused the closure of the Kuranda rail line so many missed out on the eagerly anticipated train trip.

 

We were booked on the train but would have cancelled due to my wife having covid thrust on her by rude, ignorant, old enough to know better passengers.

 

The wheels started to fall off on the afternoon of day 8 when the number of people with dreadful coughs became very noticeable. These people did not seek medical treatment or test for covid as (there is NO covid on this ship because everyone tested before leaving Singapore).  My wife tested positive on Tuesday and is isolated until getting off on Saturday.

I have remained covid free so far because I am very protective of my personal space, particularly in the pig pen known as The Pantry.

The Waterfront and Alfredos restaurants though are very civilised. 
 

The contractors erecting equipment for the Edge and Waterslides are making good progress, incidentally they are all from Ukraine and eager to return home after the task is finished.