Review Racific Sun 5/7/09

[Twosox]

Not too sure where to start!! Overall we had a great cruise with 4 other family members.

 

There were many firsts for us

 

First cruise for our four family members

First time on P & O for us

First time aboard on a birthday

First time cruising in School Holidays

 

We met up in two groups of three at the wharf and all went smoothly on embarkation, nice and quick although we didn't board until 2ish so that may heave helped. This was a good experience for us as our last cruise back from Honolulu had an atrocious embarkation, 2 hours of standing waiting in the heat, almost expiry material but I don't think it was so much a problem with Celebrity as with Honolulu as the airport is the same.....Island time!!

 

We were so thankful to be on...Yay sealegs again, what more could we ask for?

 

Caught up with the others, up on deck, took a few photos had a drink (what else?) couldn't find our friends ashore who had come down to see us off.

 

Found them right up the front of the wharf as we prepared to sail...that was lovely!!

 

Had dinner at the buffet as we couldn't be bothered booking and waiting. Food was good, typical buffet but nice fresh veges and salads which always makes me happy.

 

Put our gladrags on and went to the opening show followed by dancing in the Atlantis...all good

 

I'm sure nobody wants a day by day rundown so I'll condense a bit.

 

The first two days were pretty rough so none of us got a lot of sleep...It was rough enough to give us sore backs holding ourselves straight in bed.

 

Our bottles of coke etc did a waltz around the cabin 2 or three time in the night so I was crawling around rescuing them...Not a pretty sight!!

 

The pools were empty as too rough, many seasick including 2-3 of our group, poor things as this was their first cuise. We were fine having good sealegs and trying so hard to sound sympathetic when we were secretly enjoying the seas, such a buzz to be out there again.

 

On the second day we met our Roll Call friends, that was great...Hi Michelle John and Co.

 

Mystery Island was an eye opener to me. I expected there to be just this little island not the wall to wall markets. This was my husbands birthday so that waas nice. We went ashore in the morning and walked around the island before going back for lunch and our snorkelling gear.

 

Snorkelled for a while but couldn't be bothered walking to where we really wanted to be so found it far too shallow but nice and clear..not many fish to see.

 

Dinner that night all together as I had booked Churchills steakhouse and order a BIG cake.

Here was our first disappointment. I won't bore you all with the detail of multiple muckups, wrong order about 4 times, cold food needing reheating some eating while others not (moi and the birthday boy) waiting. Muckups with the cake, endless problems, no apology no response, did not get satisfactory response despite constant promises until the morning we disembarked, 7 days later.

 

That aside food was beautiful and we made the night a great time for us all.

 

I must stress that this experience did not detract from our overall enjoyment of the cruise.

 

We had some fantastic times, plenty of laughs, dancing eating and met some great people.

 

It was nice to be amongst Kiwis and a few Aussies again as our last few cruises have been more with Americans and Europeans, whose company we have also loved but this was just a little different.

 

Nest stop Port Vila....This was great although a little too humid for me (I don't do heat so well)

Vila a little bit Wild West with lovely people.

 

We wandered around, bought our booze had a drink next door at the bar and then headed out in a taxi to the Cascades.

 

I was in two minds about going here as having done a lot of tramping, I sort of thought..."seen too many waterfalls..boring"

 

NOT SO

 

We love the Cascades, so gentle and ongoing with their deep pools and the lovely colour like the South Island Lakes. We knew it is the Schist in the Lakes but are still intrigued (have to research it) as to what causes theat colour in the stream

 

We walked to the top where the abseil ropes were, nice and wet and cool.

 

Plenty of kids having a great time in the pools.

 

The taxi driver had convinced us to eat here, but I wouldn't reccommend it, takes forever and too expensive, never mind it filled a hole.

 

Our taxi driver didn't wait as he promised so we hung around until he finally came back (we hadn't paid him)

 

Had a BIG discussion with him about picking up some other passengers who we were subsidising.

 

This was such a laugh, on the way to the Cascades he had taken a shine to my husband and had his hand on his arm the whole way. On the way back after "the discussion" he took his hand back and went very quiet....."Oops, romance is off"

We were having a great giggle.. Finally he apologised to my husband who gave him a lecture about not ripping off Kiwis beacuse we are honest people!! This was just all too much.

 

This is getting too long!!

 

Weather was not brilliant all the way but cest la vie

 

Lifou next, pouring rain. Box on!! Walked to the Church, packs full of snorkelling gear...sodden wet, what the heck we were going in the water. Took the reccommended track down to the bay....Loved the snorkelling, great coral plenty of fish, just a little rough knocking mask about...still great.

 

A guy slipped off the ramp and broke his leg here.Spent the rest of the cruise in a wheelchair, poor thing.

 

Last cruise we did a guy from Honolulu slipped going ON TO THE SHIP and spent the cruise in a wheelchair but he took it in good spirit and made everyone work pushing him around.

 

Noumea, windy as!! would you believe Wind and kitesurfers out in force..Thought I was back in Orewa.

 

We took the Explorer bus walked a lot and had lunch in an Italian, very nice, expensive as usual.

 

Sorry to ramble so much (must be age)

 

We enjoyed the ship, she has been lovely in her day but is getting old now. Service apart from Churchills was great...all the crew worked hard. We cancelled our auto tips so we could direct to those we wanted and made a point of giving some to the Chef (Robert) in the buffet. We ate everywhere changeing around a bit although in the end we preferred the restaurant as it slowed us down a bit. The "blackboard" menu was lacking a little some days, eg eggplant or crepes for a main

(NOT) The buffet crew were very industrious cleaning up and replenishing constantly.

 

Apart from the comedian "Ugly Dave" (pretty lame) we didn't do the shows as we like to dance and I also played pokies which sucked my $$ as usual.

 

Went to the Bingo Jackpot $4600 and it was won by a girl from Melbourne who I am pretty sure is "KeentoCruise" on this site...fantastic if is was...Pray tell us

 

Used the Oasis one day and we enjoyed it very much, nice comfy loungers etc probably a good kid getaway, although we didn't find the kids a problem.

 

All in all a great time, we duly filled out our feedback forms and I found that although I had ticked a handful of excellents, my husband hadn't, we had both ticked "maybe" to "Would we cruise

with P & O again"

 

My husband felt the ship was a little too crowded and he preferred the space of the larger ships although I enjoyed the atmosphere which I thought was good.AND I loved going from Auckland to Auckland with NO FLYING (I definitely have sealegs not airlegs) so that would be the biggest sway for me.

 

All in all a fantastic time and thanks to all the wonderful crew and fellow passengers :):cool:

[Ela 2]

Hi Twosox,

Great review. I was particularly interested in your comments about the steakhouse (Churchills). Our group of eight had a similar experience and others on the same night had the same problems. The maitre d' tried to convince us to try it again, but no way would we spend $50 a couple to see if they had sorted the problems out.

 

Evon.

[suexxx]

Hi Twosox. Thanks for the great review. Glad you had a good cruise. Which deck were you on? Did you eat in the dining room, if so how was the food? when we went in 2007 we found it very good. Going on Pacific Sun again in 2011. Do you have any photos ? Suexxx

[kaseyoz]

Rambling....too long....

never words you need to use in a review. I think we all love reading these no matter how long or short.

It is great for us stuck at home waiting for our next cruise.

Glad to hear you made the best of what have been for some a bad experience.

How did the newbies go? did they eventually find their sealegs and become cruise tragics too?

[Tinky2]

Never think you are rambling or too long in a cruise review. The more I read the better as far as I am concerned. Loved your review and having doubts about wether to try the steak house or not now. We did the steak house on the pacific sky and it was sensational. I would also love to see some photos as this will be our first cruise on the sun.

Cheers

Ellen

[decco]

Great review Twosox, I love the Sun, she was the first ship we sailed on, and we hada a great time. :) Went over to your country, which is a wonderful place too. Cant wait to be able to sail on the Sun again. Thanks for the review.

[wildweston]

Ramble on I say, loved reading about your cruise, thanks :)

[Brossy]

Hi Twosox

 

Loved reading your review :). I agree with the others that a review is never too long :p. Thanks for sharing your cruising experience and it's great to read that you had a nice time :D.

[Drelix]

it was a really good reivew

[subaru94]

Great review, we have been on the Sun and going on her again Flowers of Asia Cruise in January 2010, can't wait, don't think we will bother with the Steakhouse have tried them on a view and feel the Restaurants give better service!

[keen4cruise]

Hi Twosox,

Great review...was our first cruise to and we had an absolute ball! It was my girlfriend who won the $4600 bingo jackpot whichi paid off all 4 of our cruise cards and left us with about $250 each...not a bad little suprise!

I enjoyed a bit of the rough weather too, unfortunately my friends didnt and i found myself abandoned at breakfast/lunch more than once!

Noticed there were a lot of older people onboard, but we still managed to meet a group of about 12 people in their late teens early 20's who we had a drink with most nights.

Shame about missing isle of pines, 3 days on the boat left us feeling a bit restless!

Vila was by far the best port, we hired scooters for the day and drove around the island...good times and some interesting tales!!

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself too

cheers

[Twosox]

Thank you all for your kind words. I have received so much of value from this site before our first P & O Cruise do it is nice to be able to contribute positively.

 

Evon thanks for your comments on Churchills, the service we had truly left a lot to be desired but it was more the lack of response than the mistakes which was so bad. The service in Burgundy's and The Bordeaux was far better (and of course cheaper!!)

 

We don't really have many photos (too lazy and weather wasn't great) and the ones I do have are a very large resolution and the photo gallery doesn't want anything to do with them...That leave me downloading thumbnails which aren't great...Can I pass on that one??

 

Hi there Keen4cruise.

 

That is fantastic for you all. I was convinced it was one of your group who had won. There was also another guy from Melbourne who won a more minor prize the same day. Now don't you think you Australians need to step aside and give us Kiwis a chance here...I mean you were well outnumbered on this cruise and you still take heaps (LOL)

 

No seriously we were thrilled for you!! the scooter sounded a great idea but that would not have impressed my husband, who just rolls his eyes everytime I suggest to him that I am going to buy a scooter when we retire (save petrol, grow old disgracefully and all that jazz)

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise a s much as we did.

 

KaseyOz you are right on..despite their seasickness our fellow family cruisers are already on the way to becoming Cruisetragics...Shame!!