7th September...Pacific Dawn W826 Pt 2

[MargnGrah]

There was always something to do, but Grahame and I really had a laid back holiday and didn’t do many of the organised activities. We went to a couple of the port and tour presentations which were informative. Also we sat in on a couple of karaoke singing….some good, some not so good. Listened to a few of the trivia sessions and was disappointed at the way they were organised. They used to be so much fun, and now the questions were being asked in straight laced fashion, and not having the answers read out (the funny ones a least) made for a dull trivia session. The Pacific Cruise Fair was held in the Dome and it showed cased what food, wine beer, cocktails etc that was available throughout the ship. I think this was the first cruise this had been on , so it will be interesting to see if it becomes a permanent presentation. We also went to a sea horse race, marriage match game show, this was quite funny, the navigational chart auction (which went for $850) and to Bingo on the last day only. The snowball jackpot was $11,000….we didn’t win …was planning on booking another cruise if we had have though. The Liar Liarshow was really entertaining as well. There was a guest Lecturer on board …Arthur Daley, (Zoltina J’s father) He is a numerologist, and gave a series of lectures on numerology….I only caught a bit of 1 lecture. I think if you are into numerology it would have been very interesting. Another not to miss presentation was the VirtualBridge tour with Captain Lorenzo Paoletti. This went for about an hour and a half and he told so much about the working of the bridge as well as the rest of the ship. The facts and figures he quoted were amazing. We would have liked to have gone to the culinary demonstration and the kitchen tour, but the showlounge was really packed and we couldn’t get a seat and as we had done it before (on the Sun) we decided to give it a miss. May be next cruise!!

 

As we had quite a few sea days we found we spent a bit of time during the day in the Dome reading, doing Sudoku’s and just sea watching….also having the odd drink or two. Also when the sun was out we went out to the back deck 10 or 11 and lapped up a bit of sun. I was actually surprised to be able to get deck chairs out there when we wanted them. Another place where we spent a little time was on the Promenade Deck…outside. Once again you could always get a deckchair. We always went starboard side as this was the non smoking side. On many occasions we bar hopped and along the way we found we were always bumping into someone to have a talk to and drink with.

 

The entertainment on board was very good. We missed the Welcome Aboard show but heard it was quite good. I don’t think we missed another show that featured the Pacific Dawn Entertainers which include, Do You Wanna Dance, MotorCity, Outback Country, Boogie Shoes, Pirates Of The Pacific, and final show The Starry Starry Night. Other performers on board were:

Peter Byrne, who sings in the style of Neil Diamond.

Paul Griffith another singer who was quite good.

Mike Harris did a couple of shows as well as Liar Liar show, he is a comedian and his show had us in stitches laughing….very funny man!!

Hayden Smith was a singer of the big band style of music and he also played a few brass instruments.He also was very good.

William Mafi, another singer, who at first was putting me to sleep ( I was very sleepy due to the phenergan ) but, in the second part of his show he come out as a Tina Turner ….He was fantastic…Full make-up, hair, dress, stockings and very high shoes (don’t know how he danced in them), I can tell you that I was wide awake after she started singing.

He (as Shirley Bassey), Hayden Smith and Mike Harris also performed in The Starry Starry Night Show, another great performance by all.

Another show worth mentioning, was the Pacific Dawn Crew Show where staff from all over the boat, performed for us…I tell you that this was a fantastic show. Some of them could have fitted in quite well with The Pacific Dawn Entertainers and indeed sang as good if not better than some of them They were great!! There were also performances by Cameo Rascale but as we did not see their show I am not able to tell you anything about them……Maybe Kym will be able to fill you in on them.

 

There were many other performers in various bars through out the ship that were very good as well. Out of the Blue, a husband and wife singing duo who sang mainly in the Bengal Bar, Jesse Banez piano player in the Promenade Bar, and another piano player that played in the Plaza Atrium seating area, was easy to listen to when relaxing at night before bed. We also caught Sounds of Elements a couple of times….what a lot of energy they have……. I am sure there were other performers around the ship that we missed, but overall the entertainment was excellent!!!

 

On the 2nd last night of the cruise they had the Baked Alaska Parade and the Champagne Waterfall in the Atrium. The waiters walked around the around the atrium on the Promenade level then down to the Emerald deck again walking right around the atrium before going down the main stairs into the Plaza deck where they stopped at the bottom of the staircase. At about the same time the waterfall was ready to start flowing…..very impressive…although a little crowded. We were very lucky to get a spot against the rail on the Promenade deck and had a pretty good view of it all.

I'll be back later with more :) :)

[CruiseW827]

There was always something to do, but Grahame and I really had a laid back holiday and didn’t do many of the organised activities. We went to a couple of the port and tour presentations which were informative. Also we sat in on a couple of karaoke singing….some good, some not so good. Listened to a few of the trivia sessions and was disappointed at the way they were organised. They used to be so much fun, and now the questions were being asked in straight laced fashion, and not having the answers read out (the funny ones a least) made for a dull trivia session.

 

Did Bobby do the trivia on your cruise.......she was quite ordinary on ours that followed yours.......very rude if anyone asked to have the questions repeated.

[MargnGrah]

Did Bobby do the trivia on your cruise.......she was quite ordinary on ours that followed yours.......very rude if anyone asked to have the questions repeated.

 

Not sure of her name but she wasn't happy when asked to repeat the question. Could have been her.:)

[Gratz]

whata shame about trivia, I had heard that the triviawas so fun years ago.

 

sonds like you LOVED the relaxing side of things, that's what I'm hoping for while the kids are in kids clubs (please god let turtle cove not be too full)....sitting around and relaxing

[Skyrules]

There were also performances by Cameo Rascale but as we did not see their show I am not able to tell you anything about them……Maybe Kym will be able to fill you in on them.

 

We only saw their 10 minute intro performance in the Welcome Aboard Show, we didn't go to their main show or their circus school, it didn't really interest us.. The son was a little too precocious (sp?) and I think an hour of him would have been too much.

[Ricane]

Enjoying your review Marg. Yes, trivia was not much fun. We went along to the first one and found that the questions were pretty tough :confused: and when a few people were having fun, this seemed to be frowned upon. We didn't go back again. Let's hope someone from P & O reads this, maybe they'll change the way its done.

 

We thought that the standard of entertainment was really fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed all the shows, also Jesse in the piano bar. Karaoke is fun but only after a few cocktails, lol :p

[seaussie]

Hi. your review of the cruise on the dawn W826 was terrific as we really

enjoyed the cruise also, The entertainment we thought was great but we

really enjoyed the band Sounds of Elements and wow were they energetic

and the lead singer we interesting to watch. Also we felt Zoltinas jokes were a little wearing we met her in the casino but she wasnt really interested in talking to us as she was on her break. We enjoyed all ports of call except for Suva which was quite a dirty city. But the best on this cruise was the amount of sea days where you can really relax and enjoy the ship and what it has to offer. We are now booked on a cruise from

Italy as we have done the pacific three times and cant wait to see what

Europe has to offer.

[Skyrules]

Hi. your review of the cruise on the dawn W826 was terrific as we really

enjoyed the cruise also, The entertainment we thought was great but we

really enjoyed the band Sounds of Elements and wow were they energetic

and the lead singer we interesting to watch. Also we felt Zoltinas jokes were a little wearing we met her in the casino but she wasnt really interested in talking to us as she was on her break. We enjoyed all ports of call except for Suva which was quite a dirty city. But the best on this cruise was the amount of sea days where you can really relax and enjoy the ship and what it has to offer. We are now booked on a cruise from

Italy as we have done the pacific three times and cant wait to see what

Europe has to offer.

 

Wow, the W826ers just keep coming out of the woodwork don't they??

 

Yes, Marlon was wonderful wasn't he - oh to be so agile and athletic!

 

[MargnGrah]

Wow, the W826ers just keep coming out of the woodwork don't they??

 

Yes, Marlon was wonderful wasn't he - oh to be so agile and athletic!

 

 

Yeah, I wish I had his boundless energy!!!:)

[PASSIONATE ABOUT CRUISING]

Wow, the W826ers just keep coming out of the woodwork don't they??

 

Yes, Marlon was wonderful wasn't he - oh to be so agile and athletic!

 

 

Great shot Kym! But then again all your shots so far have been FANTASTIC!!! As I mentioned previously we travelled with friends of ours & last night I introduced her to this website. Then she came across all your photos in 'webshot' & she too just loved the photo of PD at anchor at Port Denarau. You've really captured some wonderful moments & goes to show what a great camera you've got ... our next investment!

 

PAC:)

[Cruzer Nut]

Thanks for the review sounds like you are a Girl after our hearts, nothing better than to sea watch and relax.

 

It's Great to see that Jessie is performing on the Dawn now as we loved going to smugglers on the Sun, having a Cocktail and listening to him play. We tried hard to find a song that he didn't know but he was amazing no music sheets just played.

 

Pity that trivia is so sedate now as that was one of the highlights of our cruise last time, we had so much fun writing down those silly stupid answers just hoping that ours would be the one of those read out!!!

 

Looking forward to reading more about your cruise.

[Skyrules]

Great shot Kym! But then again all your shots so far have been FANTASTIC!!! As I mentioned previously we travelled with friends of ours & last night I introduced her to this website. Then she came across all your photos in 'webshot' & she too just loved the photo of PD at anchor at Port Denarau. You've really captured some wonderful moments & goes to show what a great camera you've got ... our next investment!

 

PAC:)

 

Thanks! I was really suprised when I downloaded them off the camera to see how many really good quality photo's I took, but I have to say though, a lot of credit for the quality of the photo's goes to the Camera (Fuji Finepix S5600) - without the preset options that it has for various settings, etc, the pictures certainly wouldn't be as good as they are!