Vital stats.

Pacific Jewel vital statistics. January 2013.

Built in 1991, 245m long, 49.6m tall. 9m clearance under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Capacity for 1956 passengers.

10 washers and dryers in the launderette, 3 x $1 for the washer, 2 x $1 for the dryer. $1 for washing powder.

Food venues: Plantation Buffet, deck 12 with access to outside seating;  Waterfront Restaurant, full service, fully enclosed; The Grill, deck 12 inside between Plantation and the outside. 

Bars: Charlie’s Bar – café; Players Casino – in the casino; Mix Bar, Casbah Bar, Connexions Bar. 

Snorkel equipment. Hire: mask, snorkel and flippers for $49.95 for the duration of the cruise. 

This information is now 12 months old and prices could possibly be outdated.

Bonus sea day

Tuesday 29^th January 2013. Bonus sea day!

6m swells have been running most of the night and don’t let up until lunchtime. Apparently there were ships in Sydney Harbour that weren’t  allowed to leave yesterday, the weather is expected to calm enough by this afternoon for them to depart. We’ve been getting snippets of news and SkyNews channel reception is back today. Queensland has copped some more bad flooding, some of it in parts that really suffered 2 years ago. 

 Jenny and Steve dig deep and make it for morning trivia. So we have 5. One question early on has us stumped and a younger guy sitting alone nearby gives us the answer so we invite him to join our team, and we manage to win. Wouldn’t have made it without our pinch hitter and Monique and Rob get another bag, so they won’t have to fight over the first one.

Spent a lot of time today hanging around and talking to people, either ones we’ve already met, or surprisingly, one we haven’t even seen before. That, and eat! Making the most of the bonus day! One of the waiters last night said he’s never been on a ship delayed by 24 hours.I'm glad we did the galley tour and got to see how much food is on board. I don't think one more day will deplete the stocks too much.

The crew show last night was pretty good. I’m so glad we ended up booking at Cecelia’s table, the other waitress who was pushing for us to book with her was soo OTT. Even in the crew show. There are some talented people on this ship, and a few crew who like dressing up in drag. There was a guy who frocked up and was dubbed “Bambi”, bit of an Amazon. It was a fun night. 

Afternoon trivia was based a lot on the Jewel and the goings-on aboard. Bonus points flying thick and fast, but if you didn’t go to the shows or have kids in kid’s club, you lost a lot of points. I was prepared with facts and figures about the ship, which didn’t help, although I did know that Quentin Bryce launched the Jewel and could possibly be the ‘godmother’ of the ship. Only knew that because there was a framed commemorative piece for sale in the art auction. The team that won really deserved it, not us BTW. 

One of the worst things about the Jewel - I have never been on a ship that self promotes it’s services and flogs so much stuff. Once or twice in the morning and again in the afternoon, someone is on the P.A ‘reminding’ us about this or that for sale, or the services available in the Spa. It got to the point of being invasive.

Worst part of the day – packing our bags to leave out before we go to our last on board dinner. (Sad face)

A quiet day.

Monday 28^th Jan 2013. Sea day.

What should have been our final sea day is now our second to last sea day. The majority of passengers are very happy about this development. Maureen has been going to morning trivia and she commented she could have done with some help so we decided to toughen up and get up early to give her a hand. It pays off and we win P&O drink bottles today. Steve will be annoyed with us, he really wanted one of those! There are 2 little kids who turn up to trivia pretty much every time, and Trevor wanted to ask them to join our team this morning but we ended up not asking them. Trevor managed to get 2 more bottles and we spent all day keeping an eye out for them and didn’t see them again till afternoon trivia where we gave them the bottles. They were a bit surprised but managed to thank us. Sweet little kids and good on them for having a go. 

We’re still travelling relatively slowly, around 10 knots and our course is towards the Gold Coast. This will bring us in behind the low pressure system and although there’s a lot of movement, it would have been worse had we followed the plan originally charted. Captain Ravero has the safety of all board absolutely  foremost in his decisions, no matter what the repercussions for P&O in the long run. What about all the passengers booked to leave Sydney tomorrow afternoon?? Not his problem, although I’m sure there are systems in place on shore to deal with it. Our cruise last June was delayed in departing Sydney due to the late return of the Pearl but at least turnaround was on the same day. 

Quiet day today. I liberated a deck chair from it’s bindings once it became apparent that the crew were not going to set them out on deck 7 in the ‘fairly quiet’ zone. Once one passenger started, others, including me, followed. So I got some book reading in before lunch. Top deck was too glary and noisy, inside was far too cold, deck 7 was the place to read. The weather today has been very overcast but around 26 or 27 degrees, so although not tropical, it’s been pleasant. 

Afternoon trivia saw the whole team back together and some of the questions were hard, so with a score of 16, the P&O beach bags looked beyond our reach. Imagine our total surprise to find that 16 was actually enough to take out the prize. Somehow we ended up with one bag too many, so we gave one to Monique and Rob, a nice couple we met early in the cruise who also turn up every day to trivia. They’ll have to fight over it………. On the upside, I think we now have the complete P&O prize collection! LOL.

Winners are grinners

Our waitress, Cecelia has been waiting for us at the door of the restaurant every night since we booked ourselves at her table. She’s such good fun and is giving us the star treatment. The crew show is on tonight and she keeps telling us she’s going to be biting the head off a live chicken! Now we’ve just got to stay awake till it starts at 10.45!!!

News from the front. Or because of the front!

Sunday 28^th January 2013. Sea day.

Sleep in today, nothing to get up for. I sit with Steve and Jenny for a cuppa this morning and they’re in disembarkation planning mode. Jenny has to go straight to work from the dock when we get in. Steve says 10 nights is just about the right time and I agree, but I’m still in no hurry to return to reality. Not more than an hour later our lovely Captain announces that due to the low pressure system, which is apparently producing cyclonic weather on the Gold Coast, our return will be delayed. We will return to Sydney at 8am on 30^th. ??? Has he got that right? Surely not! That’s a whole extra day! Trevor doesn’t realise – he thinks it’s only 1 hour and wonders why I’m jumping up and down. He can’t remember what day he goes back to work. Need to find out. 

Glad we took the pills last night, the sea is definitely getting bigger and according to the navigation chart up on deck, tomorrow will be bigger again. 

So many people have flights to rearrange, the phones at Reception have been made available free of charge. Anyone travelling on a P&O package will have their’s sorted by P&O. The wine tasting session we booked into after lunch has been cancelled due to a large number of cancellations, probably all waiting to use the phone! 

We’ve got a busy afternoon on, although there’s a bit of a gap now that the wine tasting is cancelled. Trivia is 4pm, then the Captain’s Club Cocktail Party for past passengers at 5.15 and we’re booked for dinner at 6pm. Maybe tomorrow will be a quiet day so I can get back into my book.

Noumea. Never on a Sunday.

Saturday 26^th January 2013. Australia Day in Noumea.

‘Pacific Jewels’ ties up at the dock here, so it’s come and go as you please. In an attempt to find some shirt fabric we head up the road towards Coconut Place, and find a shop that sells ready made clothes and fabrics. Problem is, the clothes are made from fabrics I like, but the fabrics for sale are very tropical and not what I’m after. Abandon that thought. Jenny and Steve and Co are in /coconut Place so we get a quick recap of last night’s trivia, we are defeated by one point! So close!! We get some XPF (Central Pacific Francs) from an ATM and head to the supermarket across the road from the dock. I have a bit of a thing for trolling the aisles of foreign supermarkets. We buy a few things to take home and return to the ship to drop off before heading out for some sightseeing. I have heard that the aquarium has been rebuilt since we were here in 1998 with the boys, so we’ll head over there, doesn’t seem like it’ll be too hard to get to. 

It’s a toss up whether we should get the local bus or buy a ticket on the Noumea Explorer. We go for the Explorer City Tour (1hr for $15AU pp which also gives us the hop-on hop-off bus for free instead of $10). We do this because the City tour will take us up to the lookout where we’ve never been and give us a quick orientation as well. 

view from Ouen Toro

We teach our orange- dyed hair driver  what a ‘ranga’ is and he is very amused, always interested in learning more Aussie slang. 

We grab a bite to eat at a restaurant on the foreshore of Baie des Citrons, a bbq chicken pizza that’s pretty good. The aquarium is well worth a visit, it’s much improved on the old one. We easily spend an hour there, goodness knows how many photos we’ve taken! It’s time to head back so we drag ourselves away and find the bus stop we need for our bus. It’s so hot! It’ll be beer o’clock when we get back. 

We thought trivia was 5.30 but a quick check on the Pacific Daily shows us it’s on at 4.30 so there’s only time for a quick freshen up. Again we’re beaten by one point. Bugger!

Captain Ravera gave his usual departure address this afternoon but then he changed over to the system that broadcasts into the passenger cabins, so we knew he had something really important to say. Apparently there is a low pressure system moving south along the NSW coast dishing up some stormy weather and high swells. He will be steering a more westerly course tonight instead of southerly in the hope of avoiding the system, more towards Brisbane at the moment, rather than Sydney. Time will tell if we are delayed returning to Sydney. At this rate we won’t be – he’s giving the engines what for, we’re doing about 19 knots! Dinner tonight is booked for 6pm at one of Cecilia’s tables. We are escorted in by the lovely Cecilia herself – the full star treatment! I felt a bit like the lovely, older vision impaired lady we met earlier. Every meal she is escorted in on the arm of one of the young, good looking waiters. I tell her I think it’s a con and she laughs. Having not been given any recommendations for meals so far, we agree to Cecilia’s recommendations for the main and are not disappointed. Having eaten so much earlier than usual, and I guess being Australia Day as well, there’s still lots happening up on deck. There are some crazy crew running about in grass skirts and coconut bras posing for photos, there’s a band playing and the big $1500 Bingo has just been played. 3 players all called Bingo on the same number so the prize will be shared 3 ways. A fella got up on stage and proposed to his partner tonight, very romantic, even though he dropped the F-bomb when saying how much he loved her! Trevor has gone to the buffet for 2^nd dinner, there are prawns! We didn’t get to the morning market in time to get any in town today. 

As we seem to be heading for some big swells, it might be a good idea to pop a seasick pill before bed.

Mare. 'Mar-ay'

Friday 25^th January 2013. Mare.

Our beautiful white lady ‘Pacific Jewels’ brings us today to the little island of Mare. We came here last year in June, but the water was cold, so we didn’t venture in. This time we were determined to go for a snorkel. Last chance this cruise. We also heard that the main part of town was on the road leading inland from the dock, so we wanted to explore that a bit. We probably shouldn’t have bothered. Unless you’re out of ciggies, and we don’t smoke, it’s not a must see.  The morning was overcast and it had rained through the night so snorkelling didn’t look promising. It soon cleared to a lovely day and got rather hot, so we bought our bus tickets to Yejele Beach, the only P&O option. $15pp return. 

Yejele Beach

Actually, it’s the only option. Anyone with a mini bus is booked to P&O for the day, so there’s no way of getting anywhere else. Humans find safety in numbers, there was a very large number of people in the water and on the beach right where the bus dropped them. We opted to walk a little way down the beach to find a less populated area. Unfortunately, the tide was still running out, so there wasn’t enough water to be able to swim over the coral and there was a noticeable current heading left. The water was also not as warm as we had on Wala or Hideaway. It was still really good to be in the water though, enough fish around to make it interesting. We decided to down a beer while we dried off and catch the shuttle back to the dock. 

We found the chicken skewers that we ate for lunch last time, or should I say, the people who cooked them. $6 for 2 with a chunk of bread each and a nice spot to sit in the shade while we ate. There didn’t seem to be as many people wandering down this way as last time, left from the dock. After we ate another swim seemed a good idea and there was an area at the dock roped off from the open waters. It was much deeper here so better for  snorkelling but the water seemed really strange. It was like you could see the salt in it. Imagine adding salt to a glass of water till there’s so much in there it can’t dissolve any more and you can see the shimmer of it. That’s what this water was like. I thought my facemask was fogging up. The only problem with this area was the slippery algae on the end of the timber jetty. 

Chef’s Table tonight, so we have a bit of a chillout in the relaxation room with our complimentary champers which becomes so relaxing that a strategic nanna nap is called for. We scurry back to 6191 and dive under the doona. How very nice! One hour passes so quickly and before we know it, it’s time to get ready to go to dinner so we can fit afternoon trivia in on the way. Jenny and Steve are already there and Maureen’s not far behind. Maureen has to leave at 6pm as well so we miss out on hearing the answers and seeing how we go. Jenny and Steve will have to tell us tomorrow.

Our appointed meeting place is the Casbah (how appropriate) where we are greeted with a glass of bubbly and canapés. The Maitre d’ explains how the evening came into being and how it’s expected to go. The chefs from the P&O fleet plan the menu, condensed from all their favourites. There will be a galley tour conducted by the Head Chef during dinner service to see how the magic happens, a degustation menu of 7 courses with matched wines, a commemorative group photo, and a surprise back in our cabins after. 

Birthday girl, seated right.

The galley tour is fascinating, they all work so hard in crappy conditions, long shifts and 7 days a week. We show our appreciation by thoroughly enjoying our amazing meal, and when it’s over we get to meet and personally thank all the chefs responsible for cooking it for us.

As an added bonus, it’s one of the guest’s birthdays, so there’s a birthday cake and a rousing birthday song followed by the traditional ‘Happy Birthday’.  About 20 minutes after we get back to our cabin there’s a knock at the door. Hmmmm, looks like our surprise has arrived………. It’s a plate of 6 petit fours. A lovely touch but it’s late and we’re very full so they go into the fridge for later. 

A quick pre-bed check of the navigation channel on the tv makes for some fascinating viewing. It’s not far from Mare to Noumea, the local ferry makes the trip in 3 hours or so and we wonder our ship will do. As we watch, the ship’s speed slows and slows until we’re doing 4 knots, then 3, 2, and 1 and our course changes so much that we’re going round in a circle. Must be letting the officers have a bit of a play. Doughies in the Pacific! A couple of times we have no speed and no heading, probably happens a lot on these short hops but we’ve never been up late enough to see it.

Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Thursday 24^th January 2013. Vila, Vanuatu.

Plans to go to Hideaway Island to snorkel today were nearly dashed before we left the wharf area. Vila is a port where the ships tie up at the wharf and you come and go as you please. It all sounded so simple – negotiate with one of the many local mini-bus drivers to go to the island. In reality, no so simple. There was an absolute free-for-all at the port gates with drivers trying to get business. They’re not allowed through the gates, so if it all becomes too much, a retreat back inside the gates to regather yourself is a good option. If town is 5 km from the port and costs $3AU pp for the ride, how much should it cost to go into town then another 9km to Hideaway? $10AU all up?? No. Try $50AU pp return!! Are you serious? Strategic retreat time. There was a table set up inside the ‘safe zone’ manned by people from the Tourist Information centre. Their advice was to pay $3 each to go in to town, the Post Office to be specific, where we should be able to find a more reasonable price. Brilliant! We found a guy who offered to take us to town for $5AU total, so we followed him to his mate’s van. He was just the tout, not the driver. Once we were at the P.O. we found Roger who gave us a price of $10AU pp each way and he’d wait for us for as long as we wanted.  Much better. We never got out of second gear the whole way, there’s something wrong with the clutch, so it was a slow trip. We were overtaken many times. Trevor had an interesting chat with him about how the Chinese are buying up supermarkets, petrol stations and factories in Vanuatu. Interesting. In Australia, they’re buying up farmland.

The ferry to the island is free and it cost us $10AU each to go onto the island. You pay and are given a receipt as proof. Again, reef shoes are a must. The water’s edge is deep with broken, water tumbled coral. From the minute you hit the water, you are surrounded by fish of all sorts, some plate size! The island is in a marine sanctuary and I think the fish know it. Sadly, the coral is very damaged, but there’s still enough for the fish to hide in. Apparently the underwater mailbox is an attraction here, so we swam out to it, not too far from shore. Had nothing to post though.  Could have stayed out there all day, but fear of sunburn and thirst for a Tusker beer drive us out of the water. 

Just as well, time has flown and by the time we dry off and get changed, down a beer and catch the ferry back, it’ll probably be time for Roger to pick us up. We’re a bit early but he’s there waiting for us. We realise later that he’s been waiting the whole time.  He drops us back in town and we pay him and tell him not to wait for us, if he’s at the P.O when we’re ready to go back to the ship, he can take us. So, of course, he’s waiting for us. It’s far hotter in town than it was on the island, so we don’t last long wandering around. We pick up a few souvenirs for the boys and a little something for the birthday girl. 

We’re back in time for Trivia and again it goes to sudden death, with 3 teams on 15/20 and we’re one of them! My turn to play for the win and I’m beaten to the punch, another player grabs the host’s hand which is acting as the buzzer. And the answer is…….. he goes blank!! So I pounce in with the answer and take the win! Do we really want/need another P&O stubby holder? Not really, seeing as we’ve also got a pair at home from last time, so we offer them to a couple who’ve sat near us every day. They’ve already got some as well, so we end up giving them to the couple we beat at the sudden death question. They’re really appreciative, they really wanted one! And the woman has a photo of the fella hitting the buzzer, so it looks like they won anyway. 

P&O promote their freestyle dining or whatever they call it. Eat at whatever time you like. But on the Jewel, they’re not so keen on that idea and always seem to be steering people into booking a set table for a set time, 6pm or 8pm. That didn’t happen on the Pearl last year. We’ve been going up between 6.30 and 7 and the last couple of nights we noticed a decline in the level of service at this time. We’re going to try booking a table on the way home and see what difference it makes. 

Our cabin steward is Jan Paolo, or JP, a young Philipino man with an 8 month old baby boy at home. He really misses him and told us that sometimes he cries at night before he goes to sleep. They get a break through the day when they usually have a sleep but when he’s in Vila or Noumea he has his favourite Philipino restaurants where he goes for some authentic food. 40 % of the crew are Philipino but they can’t get Philipino food in their mess. There’s an AQUIS issue with the authentic spices needed. It’s a bit sad, they’re so far from home for such long contracts (8 months), they miss their families, their homes and they can’t even get their food.

A little island called Wala

Wednesday 23^rd January, 2013. Wala.

Banging and clanging awoke us early this morning. The tenders were being lowered for our ride across to the little island of Wala. Being very wary of the sun after yesterday’s bit of burn, we make sure we lather up with sunscreen, clothes and hats. There didn’t seem to be a continuous stream of calls for passengers to head to the tender boarding area so we didn’t think many people were going over early. P&O ask you to wait until you’re ready to go before you collect your tender ticket from the Connexions Bar. The bar was packed with people waiting for their number to be called. We must have waited half an hour once we picked up our ticket. Once we arrived on the island, we didn’t really know which way to go. There were people snorkelling and swimming just to the left of the floating pontoon dock that P&O must have taken over for the day and more people in the water on the point to the right. We went left, because on the map we were given, there was a swimming area marked around that way but the path seemed to be blocked by a fence and being respectful of the cultural feelings of the locals we had been told about, no-one ventured any further. We got a good view of the ship and not too many people bothered to walk around there. 

Our first swim was to the left of the pontoon (as you disembark). It was a bit difficult to get into the water here as it was quite rocky – big rocks – and the water was a bit stirred up so it was hard to see where you were stepping. The water was so warm and it seemed really salty. The bottom was sandier closer to the pontoon and that would be a good spot to go for a dip. The locals had lots of stalls set up selling sarongs, leis, stone carvings, shells, woven headbands, drinks and fruit. Cooked lobsters were also for sale, but they were $50 so I don’t think they would have sold too many. There was plenty of shade right the way along the beach with benches to sit on.  We grabbed a Tusker beer each, $4AU if you went to the right bar, $5AU if you didn’t, and found a spot in the shade to sit and watch all the bodies beautiful parade past (not). I thought I was white!! There’s going to be a lot of very burnt people around tomorrow.

Our second swim was to the right of the pontoon and it turned out to be the better place. Lots more colourful fish and deep holes to explore. At one point, there was a school of black and white stripped fish right near the surface and some very excited kids watching them. Once the kids left, we just hung in the water, motionless. After a minute or so, different fish started to emerge from the coral where they had been hiding. There were soooo many, it was truly amazing! 

It was after midday by now so we started heading back towards the tenders to go back on board for lunch. I saw a stand with some more stone carvings and saw a big one for $25 and a bigger one for $35. We always seem to bring back little bits and pieces, usually because of weight restrictions when flying, so today we (that'd be I) decided to go for the big one. We got talking to the fellas selling them and they told us that the face’s name was Na-mun-ki and that the people on Wala were the only people allowed to carve that face. It was taboo for any other island to copy. They were very happy to have a tourist show so much interest and also happy to accept $30AU for him. I imagine there was a replacement Na-mun-ki under the table, ready to take our one’s place as soon as we were out of sight. Can’t wait to put him on the scales when we get home, he’s a heavy little bugger.

Picture postcard stuff

The Waterfront Restaurant is closed for lunch on port days so we had to go to the buffet, there wasn’t much on shore that you could call lunch. This will make me sound like some sort of snob, but I don’t know how people eat every meal up there. It can be a bit of a bunfight at times, looking for somewhere to sit, and getting there without being bumped into hard enough to drop your tray. We took a cuppa out on deck to free up a table for others and we wandered down towards the New Zealand Ice Cream kiosk on deck 12 midships to find a seat. There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing by the staff around the ice cream cabinet and we realised that the glass display window had completely shattered. Apparently around midday, the cold from the cabinet reacted with the tropical sun beaming down on it and although the glass remained intact there was quite a bit of concern from the staff as to whether it would completely give way or not. I didn’t understand why it was situated on an open deck when on the Pearl it was inside just off the open deck, a much safer place by the looks of things.

Trivia was on at 3.30 today and the usual gang gathered, although we thought for a minute that Jenny and Steve weren’t coming. We only scored 17 today, who knew that the dearest seats at a bullfight were in the shade?? Shuffleboard was on next but when we went out on deck, the pushers were missing. I went down to Reception and they didn’t know why they wouldn’t be there. The lady went ‘out the back’ and came back with 3 wooden pushers that must have floated up off the Titanic. They were like pared down pizza paddles! Anyway, Jenny and Steve had never played before, but they dashed to the lead and quickly took the first game. Another 4 ends and we won a game which meant a decider had to be played. Jenny scored a -10 but Steve was able to knock it out but they scored zero for that end which really damaged their chances of a win. Trevor and I played 2^nd and we made a really good score and took out the championship! We all deserved a drink after that so it was off to the bar until it was time to go to dinner. 

shuffleboard fun!

We had to change course tonight which I think is something a bit out of the ordinary. Pacific Cirque were to perform their high flying acrobatic show up on the top deck but the wind was too strong for it to be safe. A change of course reduced the wind speed and strength enough for the show to go on. Immediately after they finished, the wind picked up – we were back on our original heading. The Captain CAN change the weather!!

Vila tomorrow.

Something must have happened.

Tuesday 22^nd January 2013. Sea day.

Gotta love these sea days! After breakfast, I got all energetic and hit the gym for 20 minutes on the cross trainer, then went for a quick swim (1/2hr) during which time I got a touch of sunburn. 10am to 10.30, man this tropical sun is strong. Mind you, we wouldn’t have stayed in as long as we did except we got talking to our dinner companion from last night. We got changed and went to claim our champers, played some shuffleboard and then, off to lunch. We’re getting the hang of doing very little. While we were playing shuffleboard, deck 7, starboard (smoker’s side) aft there was an announcement that we were about to pass the Sun Princess to port. People literally jumped off their deck chairs and bolted for the other side of the ship. We finished our game of shuffleboard then wandered through to the port side to see said ship off in the distance. Not sure how close we got, I can’t imagine it would have been too close, but it was a little bit of unscheduled excitement. We had a very interesting chat with a lady from Perth who works in the royalties section of the Mining Dept  of the W.A. Govt who told us a lot about the mining industry and how it affected the state. 

While we were at lunch a call from the Bridge: Code, Alpha Tango, deck 12 by the pool. Something must have happened.

Every day the Captain gets on the P.A and tells us interesting things about our cruise, the weather, the ports, whatever, and he always finishes up with a comment about our beautiful white lady, ‘Pacific Jewels’. He’s a very proud old sailor. Not that he’s that old…………………

The afternoon saw us back in the thermal suite for the relaxation room, and when Trevor had finished trialling all the different thermal rooms, we went back up on deck to settle in with our books and relax till it was time for trivia. We teamed up again with Jenny and Steve from yesterday’s win, and another woman who tagged in yesterday and today her daughter joined us. Jenny said there was a second ship passing behind the Sun Princess today, but it didn’t get a mention. We were beaten by 1 point!! Bugger! No stubby holder today. Today’s prize was a very handy P&O keyring/bottle opener. Jenny and Steve are going to give us a game of shuffleboard tomorrow if we can arrange it. Port day tomorrow, so not sure how things will run. Probably hit the island in the morning and chill out back on board in the arvo. It’s only a little island – Wala in Vanuatu.

9pm, up on deck after doing our 6 laps, we finally track down Stacey.  Looks like she’s met up with some new friends and having a great time. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that……………….

A Terribly Hard life!

Monday 21^st January 2013. Sea day.

I wake up feeling a bit hungry!! Wow! Who would have thought? Deciding though that I’m not having a big breakfast, we head for the Waterfront and are seated with a nice English couple and another Aussie couple. No comedy this morning, just some good humoured conversation and a light breakfast for me. The waitstaff seem very distracted this morning, service is not up to the standard set so far. The toast is nearly inedible and I am seriously concerned that I might break a tooth on it, so only eat a little. It’s also difficult to get a cuppa. Very strange.

After breakfast I find a spot on a shady bit of deck to read my book – the only thing I have to do this trip, as book club is the week after we get back. It’s called “The Secret River” by Kate Grenville, an Aussie author and I’m about half way through and enjoying it. I really keen to see what happens next, so that’s a good sign. Before I know it, it’s lunchtime………. More food! As tempting as it is to have dessert at every meal, I decided last time to only have it at dinner, but as the lunch menu has better choices so far, I may have to review that decision. I have chicken pho and some poached salmon. The pho has more chilli in it than expected, but edible. We’re used to a fairly plain broth to which you add whatever amount of heat you want. The salmon is good and Trevor has the lime and pepper cali which is also very tasty.

We are trivia winners again!! Already!! Like seagulls on a hot chip, we team up with a couple we met at the wine tasting, Jenny and Steve, and tie with another team for first place. There will be a sudden death question. Jenny goes up to the stage for our team and she gets the answer first. Yay! Winners!! Another P&O stubby cooler to add to the collection which will actually be quite handy, I could have used one the other day when we bought a beer from the pool bar. The bottle was so cold, I could barely hold it.

A complimentary glass of champers is included with the thermal suite pass, so not being ones to turn down a free drink at sea where a glass of wine starts at about $9, we head up to Aqua, hand over our cruise cards, which have been marked with the secret sign of the thermal pass people, and head for the bar. We claim our bubbly then head into the Relaxation Room, the only part of the suite we think we’ll use. It’s lovely and quiet with padded deck chairs to stretch out on and read some more. We must have got there at just the right time because the room was empty but within half an hour or so, most of the seats were occupied. Everyone whispers and you can see out the window to the ocean which has been remarkably calm so far. Our cabin is midships, so any movement there is, is felt less in our cabin.  The English couple from breakfast are there, they only booked their cruise on Friday! More and more I see the value of child-free zones on the ship. Being January, it’s school holidays and I know there are many children on board because you do see them ocassionally, but it’s nice to know that if ever their prescence got to be too much, there is an escape other than your own cabin. And before anyone gets all precious, I am the mother of 2 boys who were usually well behaved when required, but could also tear around with the best of them! Having done the hard yards, it’s nice to totally escape is all I’m saying…………..

Before we know it it’s time for dinner. Again we eat at the Waterfront, it’s our form of portion control, although you could order 2 of everything if you wanted. Aussies all round this time, a couple from Melbourne and one from Sydney. P&O have this new idea on their menu where there is a main designed to be shared by 4 – 6 people. Tonight is slow baked lamb shoulder with all the trimmings of a baked dinner and I hear the Melbourne couple talking about it but then realising it’s too big for them by themselves. Trevor sounds keen as well, so we agree to share it between the 4 of us. Garlic snails for entrée and apple strudel for dessert rounds out the meal. Seriously reviewing the ‘no dessert at lunch’ policy. The desserts offered at dinner don’t really grab me again.

Top deck movie screen

After a quick change into shorts and t-shirt, I’m off upstairs to do the 6 laps of the deck which equate to 1km. Trevor doesn’t see that it would do him any harm, so comes along too, but wants to walk backwards on the port side so he can watch the movie on the big screen! Once we finish our walk we find a couple of deck chairs and settle in to watch the rest of the movie. I don’t think we missed much of the start. Cowboys & Aliens starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. They’ll be doing zombie apocalypse movies next!!

Bring me some food!

Sunday 20^th Jan. 2013

Entertainment at breakfast was never part of the deal, I’m sure, but we had a great entertainer at our table this morning! We were the first to be seated at a table for 6. 2 couples travelling together soon filled the other seats. The 2 girls had cruised before, the 2 guys hadn’t.  The guys had never had eggs benedict before, so decided to give it a try. One guy took the standard path and used his knife and fork, the other guy thought that seeing it was food on an English muffin, he could save on the washing up and just pick it up!! Who knew that a poached egg would be have a runny yolk? Not this guy!! Talk about hilarious! It went all down his beard and hand!! We all had such a good laugh. Round 2 – he also ordered some croissants and was disappointed when there was no chocolate inside, like the ones he had ‘before’. Putting butter on them didn’t really solve the problem, so I suggested he get some jam. He caught the waiter’s attention and asked for jam. A plate was brought over with about 4 bowls of different jams. The waiter gestured for him to select a jam. The guy didn’t specify what sort of jam he wanted, just ‘jam’. This went back and forth a couple of times until I asked did he want strawberry jam? Yeah, he says – jam. So the waiter dobs a spoonful of strawberry jam on both croissants and left. Again we all laughed and the girls said they would have do some serious training before formal night tonight. Jam is jam, unless it’s figjam! Cue more laughter……………….

Did a bit more exploration until it was time to go to the Waterfront Restaurant at 11am for ‘The Taste of the Grape’. $16 pp with tastings of a sparkling wine, a chardonnay, sauv blanc, shiraz, tempranillo and a blush moscato. The waitstaff from the restaurant hosted the event, with one being the MC and others introducing each wine and telling us what to look for with regard to colour, smell and taste.  A fair amount of humour was thrown in, one waiter becoming so embarrassed when the Captain walked in on his talk he couldn’t continue and struggled to regain his composure. He was leading up to saying something a bit risqué and was so worried as to how much the Captain had overheard! 

As always, there’s a marketing op at these things, apart from letting you taste wines you might not ordinarily buy on the cruise. 2 wines were well over our budget, and 2 were at the top end, considering the price for the wine we had last night at dinner was at the lower price point but still well over what we’d pay at home. The other op is a very detailed explanation of the Chef’s Table, another dining option on board. For a price, you meet in a bar for a pre-dinner cocktail, be taken on a tour of the galley while it’s in dinner service mode, then head to the Chef’s Table in the main restaurant to dine with the chef +/-  the Maitre d’. Apparently the Maitre d’ might be too busy, whereas the chef has nothing much to do!! The meal is a 7 course degustation menu with matched wines to each course. Sounds tempting, so we sign up for it, and instantly we are invited to another passenger’s 50^th birthday celebration. That’s on the 25^th, so we’ll wait and see how it goes.

After lunch we wander outside to see what the weather’s like. Still a bit cool and cloudy but slowly warming. We worked our way forward, past some young cool dudes playing shuffleboard and found our way to the only forward vantage point, an almost secret door on deck 10. The sun is starting to shine and it’s actually quite warm out the front, especially with the reflected heat from all the white painted metal behind us. We spot some flying fish which is always an amazing sight. Heading upstairs, we turn up at the day spa to check out the facilities we now have access to. Looks pretty good if you’re into that sort of thing. The relaxation room looks like about the only bit I’ll be venturing to, a quiet room with comfy sunlounge type chairs. The lure of complimentary champers on request is also a bit of a draw card. 

The plan to do nothing this cruise is working so far.  Except for the excessive eating and drinking!

Tonight we have a booking at Salt Grill, Luke Mangan’s restaurant. We heard so many good reports about it on our last cruise but were unable to get a booking. Things got off to a less than ideal start when the wine we chose was out of stock. On the 2^nd night of the cruise!! Mr Waiter said it had been so popular on the last cruise that it had sold out. What the….??!!  Anyway, letters will be written! Not happy Jan! On the upside, the food was fabulous and the service was pretty good. We both ate so much that we were on the verge of exploding! It’s been a long time since we were served tea and coffee with the sugar served in cubes! I had to get changed and do a couple of laps of the deck to offset the meal. I can’t imagine I’ll ever need to eat again, but I’m sure I’ll be over that by breakfast! 

It was a bit weird to lay on deck on a sun lounge looking at the stars swaying in the sky, not fixed in position like they usually are. The ship is rocking and rolling so little that it’s easy to forget we’re the ones that are moving. Not like last time, I was not feeling too good at this stage of the trip.

Off we go again!

I found this file. It's a blog I wrote while we were away in January 2013 and I realised I never uploaded it, so, here goes.

Saturday 19^th January, 2013. 

Who can believe we're going on another South Pacific cruise? We were offered a 'Godfather' deal - the sort you can't refuse, so after quickly arranging leave from work, we're off!

Boarding went very smoothly. We caught the train to Wynyard and walked down the hill, after dropping into a supermarket to pick up a few last minute things. A 1.5 litre bottle of water on board is $4.95, which is a bit rich, luckily we had room in our suitcase for 2 x 2 litre bottles that we got at the supermarket. In the small park at Wynyard station there is a glass and metal dome. Directly below is a Coles supermarket, so now we know it’s there, I think we’ll stop in there again if we ever do another cruise.

At 3.30pm we were all expected to attend the safety drill where the Captain addressed us over the P.A. His name is Stefano Ravera and he is Italian. I thought we were on a P & O cruise, but according to the Captain we are on a Pi-a-no cruise. Even though he is Italian, he must come from a different part of the country to our captain on the last cruise – their accents are so different. 

After suffering through the hottest day on Friday, 44+ C or something, today is around 20 degrees cooler and overcast and by the time we cast off, it’s drizzly rain. Doesn’t stop everyone from going up on deck and enjoying sailing out of Sydney Harbour. It’s beautiful in any weather.  We’re on the Pacific Jewel this trip and the bad thing is that the best vantage points on the ship aren’t public lounge areas, but the day spa (forward) and the kid’s club (aft). The adult’s only area is on deck 10, aft, and is called Oasis, just like on the Pearl, but there are no spas. At least we could go into the outside deck area of the kid’s club for sail out because the club wasn’t functioning.

A treasure hunt is a fun way of finding different locations on board. We have to get 10 stamps on a card and have the card into the ‘treasure chest’ before 8.45pm. The draw is at 9pm. I wouldn’t have minded winning many of the prizes but it looks like we’re not going to be lucky tonight. The final prize is a double pass for the duration of the cruise to the “Thermal Suite” in the day spa and just as I say to Trevor, ‘well, they can keep that one’, my name is called!! It’s valued at $200, so I guess we’ll just have to go and check it out. I’m not into saunas or steam rooms, but there’s a ‘relaxation’ room and a ‘meditation’ room, who knows, maybe there’ll be a good view out!