"LIVE" New Guinea Island Encounter Cruise - X425 PO Explorer

[Mycruiseobsession]

Attempting my first live review.

 

Will be boarding later this afternoon!! 🥰

 

P&O Cruises 

Pacific Explorer 

Departure/ Embarking  Port Cairns QLD 

7 days round trip

Quad Balcony 

 

Any thing in particular you would like to see?

 

 

[Sparky74]

Following with interest. This morning I paid for our August PNG cruise. But we have a three nighter before that one, in 5 weeks!

[Elorac123]

Thanks for doing this I will be following you along, my New Guinea is not till 2025 so heaps of time to plan interested in your shore activities

Cheers Carole 

[arxcards]

I gather Conflict Islands is still on your schedule?

Enjoy your cruise. Post whatever you like, including nice pics. 

[SinbadThePorter]

3 hours ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Any thing in particular you would like to see?

 

Just an observation. Looking at that map the port of Lae appears well within reach of a cruise like this. Who would prefer to go to Lae than Alotau?

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Bon Voyage Mycruiseobsession!

 

Have a great time!

 

Here is your ship in Cairns:

 

 

[Mycruiseobsession]

6 hours ago, arxcards said:

I gather Conflict Islands is still on your schedule?

Enjoy your cruise. Post whatever you like, including nice pics. 

Yes so far  the 3 ports are still going ahead!

[Mycruiseobsession]

@Kiwi_cruiser Love the photos!

 

The weather turned to overcast but no heavy rain.

 

There was a wedding on earlier too.

 

The tug boat is getting ready to go

[Mycruiseobsession]

4 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Just an observation. Looking at that map the port of Lae appears well within reach of a cruise like this. Who would prefer to go to Lae than Alotau?

No not going near Lae at all.

 

I have lived in Lae and no I would not like to go back.

 

Much prefer Rabaul et el 

 

We won't be stopping at Alotau on this trip either.

 

Rabaul

Kiriwina Island

Conflict Islands

 

Cheers

[Mycruiseobsession]

Check in was a breeze!

 

I was impressed.

 

Honestly the fastest check in I have ever experienced.

 

One line to get cruise cards

2nd line for customs

Straight to 3rd line to board the ship and use their gangway security check.

 

30 minutes tops from being dropped off at port and getting to our room!

 

Cheers!

Edited May 25 by Mycruiseobsession
Always editing my typos

[Sparky74]

What are you plans for the port days?

[MicCanberra]

Following along, Bon voyage.

[madnsneaky]

Following with excitement, we leave for PNG on the 5th of June on the Encounter. Hoping to hear about any shore tours and anything else you would like to share. Great to hear about the speedy check in, although we will be leaving from Brisbane.

Safe travels.

[SinbadThePorter]

12 hours ago, madnsneaky said:

Hoping to hear about any shore tours and anything else you would like to share.

 

On Conflict Island if you have any interest at all in snorkeling, try to get on the ship excursion out to the pontoon. Very well worth it.

 

Kiriwina you don't need an excursion as it's all pretty much on the beach. Take some Kina if you want to buy carvings there, there is like a handicrafts shopping mall set up along the main path. Having Kina makes life much easier for the locals.

 

At Rabaul you can get third party excursions at the port, but the quality varies wildly.

 

The town of Alotau is pretty much a dead loss for me. I don't bother getting off any more. The scenery is nice though.

Edited May 26 by SinbadThePorter

[madnsneaky]

38 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

On Conflict Island if you have any interest at all in snorkeling, try to get on the ship excursion out to the pontoon. Very well worth it.

 

Kiriwina you don't need an excursion as it's all pretty much on the beach. Take some Kina if you want to buy carvings there, there is like a handicrafts shopping mall set up along the main path. Having Kina makes life much easier for the locals.

 

At Rabaul you can get third party excursions at the port, but the quality varies wildly.

 

The town of Alotau is pretty much a dead loss for me. I don't bother getting off any more. The scenery is nice though.

Thanks for this, I have booked a tour through Ben’s tours for Alotau, called Alotau Sojourn, fingers crossed it isn’t too boring. It has a bit of everything, sightseeing, some WWll history and a village visit. I am waiting to hear back from Dominic in Rabaul, who has some good reviews about an island hopping tour. Just hoping the rain isn’t too crazy. Forecasts so far for rain and storms every day. No matter what, I will enjoy myself….no cooking, washing, driving etc.

[Mycruiseobsession]

Sorry everyone my internet  connection  was lost at sea!!

 

We are coming back in early tonight instead of tomorrow  due to a medical emergency  and I now have my normal phone services back.

 

Hubby is not happy the Casino had to close early due to this but otherwise  it makes no difference to me.

 

We can't  get off until tomorrow  anyway due to immigration. 

[Mycruiseobsession]

On 5/25/2024 at 12:11 PM, Elorac123 said:

Thanks for doing this I will be following you along, my New Guinea is not till 2025 so heaps of time to plan interested in your shore activities

Cheers Carole 

Hi Carole 

 

We didn't  book any tours.

We have friends in Rabaul so they picked us up. Souvenirs were available outside the port gates.

 

Kiriwina we got off for a short swim. The market sellers were relelentless and some cruisers were very overwhelmed by it.

YWe did pick up some nice carvings.

 

Conflict Islands we hired a kayak for 50kina for one hour and did a self stroll around and swim for the remainder. We did not buy any food or drink - the lines were horrendous. 

 

@Sparky74 sorry for the late reply also. Hope my answer to Carole covers your question too.

Edited May 31 by Mycruiseobsession

[Mycruiseobsession]

The food is lacking compared to pre covid cruises but still I have enjoyed being cooked for and no washing up.

 

Little things I have noticed like eggs Benedict no longer included  at water front.

 

Dinner/ Lunch rotations are small, mostly the same items daily.

 

Angelos was ok. Not as nice as I remember but still decent.

 

I didn't use pantry, I get overwhelmed with the crowds.

 

Drink service  is hard, in terms of the long lines for anything really.

 

Hit and miss, some bars had table waiters but mostly  you had to leave your chair to order anything. 

[Mycruiseobsession]

Conflict Island - Nice enough but I have done snorkelling off Cairns before and probably saw more.

Way too many people standing on the corals. Not sure how much longer it will last. Lines were so long I didn't buy anything except the kayak hire.

 

[Mycruiseobsession]

The Explorer is a bit tired, and I did notice that she's worn at the edges. But there were still some nicely kept areas amongst it.

 

The rooms are smaller than Encounter.  It was pretty squishy. 

 

We did fit our bags under the beds as we have duffle type bags with wheels.

 

Other friends couldn't.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Sorry everyone my internet  connection  was lost at sea!!

 

We are coming back in early tonight instead of tomorrow  due to a medical emergency  and I now have my normal phone services back.

 

Hubby is not happy the Casino had to close early due to this but otherwise  it makes no difference to me.

 

We can't  get off until tomorrow  anyway due to immigration. 

Welcome back, hope whoever needed the medical is okay. Thanks for your reviews.

[Mycruiseobsession]

31 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Welcome back, hope whoever needed the medical is okay. Thanks for your reviews.

I am on the lido deck almost in Cairns. Waiting to see if there's  an ambulance on arrival. We haven't  been given much info obviously  but I hope they will be ok.

[Mycruiseobsession]

So last night we got on around 11pm.

 

It must of not been so urgent in the end as the ambulance  staff wete not rushing so hopefully  that means they are stable.

 

Disembarkation was a nightmare for us. 

 

First we were told we could leave our bags on board but had to go through customs.

 

Then late last night they said no you have to put these tags on your bags and you cannot take them off yourselves. 

 

We got out of the room at 7:30am and off the ship as they called bag tag number 2.

 

Well 2 hours later our bags finally came off so we could go through  customs and then re do the whole check in.

 

We were not impressed!

 

Now off home  to Brisbane  on X426 one way 3 nights.

[MicCanberra]

Sorry that the process was so poorly handled. Enjoy your next cruise.

[Mycruiseobsession]

Kiriwina