Pacific Jewel/Pearl comparisons

Hi all :)

I have done my last four cruises on Pacific Pearl. Which I have loved, the crew were fantastic and entertainment great:)

Just secured a 14 night last min cruise to the Pacific Islands and Fiji on Pacific Jewel. It leave in two weeks!

Just wondering if these two ships are basically the same layout and if the shows in the theater are the same ie.

Don't stop the music, Circus etc.

Also what is the captain like? First two cruises on the Pearl we had captain Lorenzo who was great, second two cruises we had an English captain (cant remember his name ) but he not so good.

The ships are very similar but there are some differences, the main one being with regard to The Dome.

It is smaller on the Jewel as it shares a space with the gym, beauty/spa rooms and a thermal suite.

So depending on whether you are a clubber or a gym/spa type of person will decide whether you like this idea or not. We bought a pass to the thermal suite on the Jewel as there is a quiet lounging area as well as a sauna with a sea view and other areas. Limited number of passes available and lounging area had great loungers and also a sea view.

Jewel also offers zip lining/funnel climbing/etc at extra cost!!

No hot tubs in Oasis area.

Theatre layout seemed the same on both, we have recently done a couple of 4day trips, one on each Jewel and Pearl. Shows advertised seemed to be same on both too.

Can't remember who the captain was on either so no help there altho you may get email about that.

Hope this helps. oh and on our late Nov trip on Jewel we found the main dining room breakfast to be wonderful. Hadn't tried on it on Pearl in Aug as our last trip with PO a few years ago the dining room breakfast experience was not great. About to go on Pearl in Feb for an 8 day trip so really hope the breakfast menu is fleetwide.

enjoy your cruise, would love to do that itinerary.

Thank you for your feedback:)

We loved all our meals on the Pearl. Only went to the Buffet once to have lunch whilst in Sydney Harbour !(prior cruises went a lot more, but realised how much more we enjoyed being able to sit and relax and have what ever we fancied being bought to us).

So enjoyed having breakfast lunch and dinner in the waterfront restaurant especially the second sitting for dinner as the waiters got out their guitars and started singing Bee Gees songs and the few diners that were left all sang along:)

As we had seen the same shows a couple of times it was nice when all the newbies left and we just stayed in waterfront as they prepared it for breakfast and enjoyed the ambience and close relationship with the crew, some even remembered us from previous cruises:)

The 2 ships are similar, but I liked the Jewel much better, with a more open layout, if you liked the Perl's buffet you should like the Jewel's more open buffet layout and more serving area and more seats as the Luna on Pearl takes up so much more room.

Just got off the Jewel.

So glad I didn't pay the full fare $2200

Just got off the Jewel.

So glad I didn't pay the full fare of $2200 for my ocean view room like a lot of passengers did.

Much prefer the Pearl in so many aspects.

Think P and O will be recieving heaps of complaints regarding this last cruise if the convesations on board are anything to go by.

Taffy,

You say you've just got off the Jewel, yet your date list says you are not due to cruise on it until 28th Feb?

Why do you think there will be complaints?

Cheers,

Oops should read 28th January.

Service in MDR was really bad all meal times.

Ran out of some food towards end of cruise.

Also they started watering down juice towards end of cruise.

Three and half hour wait to board tenders after getting tickets then had to queue ages to get back to ship so couldn't do planned activities on shore.

Cruise director not n person on stage at beginning of shows only announcement.

Activities cut back a lot.

Buffet..mostly same food also flies on it.

This is my view I still made the best of my holiday.

It could be the same on other p & o ships now as some people said it was bad on pearl in November.

I was last on pearl in august and it was great the fourth cruise on her in two years.

I did hear that instead of 700 staff they have cut down to 500. Maybe this could becthecreason of bad service.

I personally prefer the Pearl layout.

The spas are on the adults only oasis feck.

I like the swim up bar.

Pools are bigger and deeper.

Dome is bigger and better as spa in down on deck two.

Atrium all levels accessable from staircase dont dave to go around to lift