Pacific Sun Cruise N518 Paradise Daydream

I have been keeping an eye on the boards for Pacific Sun and eagerly reading all the reviews about the sun and finally got the courage to post a thread.

This will be my families very first cruise and I am starting to get a bit excited, we were meant to sail on the sun in november (evening dreams) but unfortunately it was cancelled:( would love to hear from antone else going on this cruise

suuz

Suuz

My family was waiting for a fifth rollaway bed to go on the Evening Dreams Cruise in November. Then it was cancelled:( .

We are also going on Paradise Daydream N518 in June:D . It is our first family cruise aswell.

Regards

Kazza

Kazza

We had just recieved our tickets for the november cruise when they cancelled it.

It has been a long wait for this cruise to come around now.

I have three boys at the time of the cruise they will be Jake 11, josh 6 & adam 4. They are so excited about it.

Hopefully nothing goes wrong with this cruise

Regards

Suuz

Suuz

We booked this cruise a year ago and it has been such a long time. The kids were so excited about going on a cruise, then they were told we werent going in November and they would have to wait till June.

Had to pay balance of cruise today, so it feels like it is getting closer. The travel agent said we had to wait a little longer and she will call us as soon as the tickets arrived. She remembered how excited the kids were when we booked it. We also have 3 boys. At time of cruise - Blake 10, Reiley 5 and Joel 4.

Dont know how long you have been reading Cruise Critic, but there has been some good information. (None from families with children though)

Whoey is also a family of 5 going in 2006 and is waiting for a review about the childrens facilities.

Regards

Kazza

Hi Guys,

I am sure that both your families will enjoy the cruise. We meet many people with children on the cruise we went on and all said that they and the kids were loving it.

The childrens centres were really popular and I remember walking past one at about 11pm and all the kids were crurled up in beanbags watching movies or sleeping.

The Sun now has radios that you can hire and keep intouch with your kids on board (introduced on N510, so we missed out). They hire them for $5 a day. A bit pricy but lets you stay in touch.

Kids are also issued with cruise cards and parents put money on them so kids can buy the "junk food and drinks".

The only place that children were not allowed was in the casino and poker machine area. Next to that area is a video games room with table games and car racing machines and stuff. Just like a video arcade. Only thing was that there was a token system to operate the games. Not sure how much though.

Hope this helps a bit.

Regards

Ron & Neicy:)

I was told that the sun had pagers to hire, which I thought was really good to keep in contact.

I was also told that my 10 year old could have a key to the kids club to come and go as he pleased IF we gave permission. Did you hear of that from anyone?

I was wondering if the kids got a cruise card or would they have to get us to use our card. Do you know if that was only for the older kids?

When we tried to book our first cruise, the lady at P&O knew how excited the kids were and she sent them a copy of the kids club newsletter from Pacific Sky (as Pacific Sun wasnt here yet and they say both ships are run the same way)

The daily activities for the kids looked fantastic. So much to do.

Im glad to hear that the kids on your cruise were loving it.

Thanks for the info

Regards

Kazza

Thanks Ron and Neicy for the information.

Kazza my sister has been on the sky twice before and she has said that older children can be given a room key by there parents and then they can come and go from the kids club as they please if no key is given then they can't leave unless there parent's come to collect them. With the cruise card she said that each child has there own. I have got a lot of daily news from turtle cove and the shark shack from her cruises it looks like heaps of fun I am a bit worried about the ice-cream eating competitions they could get a little bit ill:eek: .I am looking forward to having a holiday where I can have a little time to myself and not have to worry about kids:D

Suuz or Neicy and Ron

Asked P&O but they were unable to tell me. You might know.

On the Pacific Sun deck plan there is Turtle Cove Childrens Centre (2-6yr olds) and there is the new shark Shack (7-13yr olds I think) but when they did the new refurb, they took away the childrens pool and replaced it with Pelican Bay Childrens Centre. Does anyone know what this is used for?

Suuz, so our 4 yr olds will have his own cruise card? Is it just used for ID when they leave the ship? If they are in the kids club how would they be able to use them?

Regards

Kazza

As far as I understand :confused: from my sister they use the cards in the kids club for their drinks while they are there.I don't know if I trust my 4 year old with one

Hello Suuz and welcome to our community. As Kazaa said my family consisting of 3 kids, my lovely wife and myself. We are booked to cruise with another family of four in February 2006 on Pacific Sun and like all the kids mentioned in this thread mine will flip out once we tell them. We are going to wait until much later in the year to show and explain it all to them. Quick question when did you and Kazza tell your kids about the original November cruise (so freaky you have had the same experience, like it was somehow meant to be or something ... cool huh)

It's great to see another family and at least Kazza's boys will have some other mates to cause havok on the ship, isnt that the job of young boys? Tare around and get up to mischief..

Anyway, if I could ask a small favour of you to please post here your review / opinions of the cruise that would be greatly appreciated !

Once again, welcome and happy sailing to you and your family :)

I cant see my kids having cruise cards youngest will *just* be 3 then 5 then 7.

Maybe the 7 year old she is a VERY sensible girl, but 3 and 5 sounds rediculous, that would be like giving them access to all the lollies in the pantry and saying have as much as you like... no thanks, definately dont want mega-hyper kids!

Wouldnt they have a cut off age for say the younger group and only issue these for the 6 and over groups?

In some ways I think of the cruise and hope it is as much fun for the kids as I know the *oldies* will be having.

Have you guys (err girls actually) ever holiday as families for this long away from home before? Any issues with homesickness and the kids? We are going to package a few days in Sydney before the cruise (we live in Melbourne) and then come straight home once the ship gets back. We are looking at 13 nights away, just curious as to what you think about this. Am I making a fuss over nothing ?

We went to Sydney a few days before and had a great lead up to the cruise.

However, my tip is get the "First flight" home when you get back into Sydney.

After the cruise we were exhausted and all we wanted was home.

Regards

Ron & Neicy:eek:

Just rang P&O to check on the cruise cards they said that yes they get their own but parents decide how much to put on them you can just put $10.00 on if you like so then they can use them if they go for an ice-cream or drink. You can give them to the staff in the clubs to hold onto them while they are there or you hold them when they are with you.

Whoey the longest we have been away on a family holiday is a week the kids seemed to be okay with that. We didn't tell them about the cruise they guessed from hearing us talk about it and seeing the cruise books so we had to explain it properly, My six year old started marking the days of the calender then. He was upset when we couldn't go in november but was really happy when he found out we were still going in june he has marked the dates on the calender again.

Reagrds

Suuz:D

Ta for the info Suuz. I simply dont understand the point of a 3 or 4 year old having a cruise card. Maybe for identification purposes it makes sense but putting money on it they can spend as they wish.... weird.

Maybe the Parents are suppose to word up the child care minders in the younger group as to likes / dislikes and what is allowed for their kids... it probably works like that.

I think I am making too much of the length of the holiday and as per Neicy & Ron a couple of days sight seeing Sydney before the cruise sounds like a lot of fun and shouldnt have much impact on the kids.

cheers all.

Suuz,

Thanks for the info. Great that you were able to get through to P&O. They must have sorted out all the Pacific Sky customers. I was put on hold for ages, tried for 3 days. When I paid my balance, the Travel agent said P&O had actually called their office and told them to try not to call as they were too swamped.

Glad that the staff will supervise the boys cruise cards, especially my 4yr olds as he would just keep on going till he was sick.

Told my boys about the Ice Cream eating comp that you mentioned. You should have seen their faces (this:eek:, then this:D x 3 boys)

Whoey,

When my husband and I were picking which cruise we wanted to go on, the boys saw the brochure and wanted to know everything about it. They were with me when we tried to book the Nov cruise and were wait listed. We decided a couple of days later to book the June cruise aswell (ended up being the (best thing we could have done) If Nov cruise went ahead we would have gone on it aswell because it went to Fiji. THEN when the Nov cruise was cancelled, the boys were disappointed but straight away we could tell them that we were already booked on the June cruise. They were excited again and all the research started again.

I doubt the kids will be homesick. We havent been away for that long before BUT when we get back they have 3 weeks school holidays at home. They will be sick of home. ha ha. We are only away for 11 nights. We have a limo taking us down and one picking us up after. It takes about an hour to get home. Feel sorry for you Melbournites and Queenslanders that on returning you have to get to the airport and fly home aswell.

Regards

Kazza

Those faces rock... hahaha

this and then this

I can just imagine !

Here is a daily activity sheet that my sister gave me from turtle cove:)

9.00am face painting & craft table, 10.30am morning tea and play with outdoor equipment, 11.30 am abc favorites, 12.00md lunch time, 2.00pm talent show rehearsals, 3.00pm talent show, 3.45pm ice-cream time:D , 4.00pm pass the parcel and musical games, 5.00pm childrens dinner, 6.00pm magic show in the showroom, 7.00pm movie.

There are some activities they do with shark shack like coketail parties that parents bring them along to.I will post the shark shack one up soon.

Regards

suuz;)

thanks suuz, much appreciated !

looks great, kids will love it all I think

Suuz,

Not knowing much about cruising, I was a bit worried about there not being many children on the cruise as it is not during school holidays. I now know how silly that sounds. It was nice to hear from someone else booked on the same cruise and that our boys are the same age. The activities for Turtle Cove sound really fun and I think they will be very happy. My eldest son would love to see the activities for the Shark Shack. Thank you for posting the Turtle Cove activities and thank you in advance for the Shark shack activities.

Im really excited and have post it notes all through my office with things to do, questions for P&O and recommendations from Cruise critic past cruisers so I dont forget anything. Are you all organised? If you have any hints or advice from your sister about cruising with children, could you please let me know.

Do you fly into Sydney earlier or on the day of departure?

Regards

Kazza

Here are the shark shack activities

9.00am start the day with a walk, 9.30am playstation and book mark making, 10.00am table tennis challenge or make an autograph book for your new friends, 11.00am trax not sire what this is, 11.30am talent show rehearsals, 12.00md lunch, 2.00pm talent show rehearsals, 3.00pm talent show, 3.45pm pig out with ice-cream:eek: , 4.00pm monster movie quiz, 5.00pm childrens dinner, 6.00pm magic show in the show lounge, 7.00pm chocolate eating competition:eek: , 7.45pm movie time, 9.00pm free choice, 12.00 closed.

hope this helps.

Kazza we got our air tickets through P&O so do not now at this time when we get in will find out when our tickets arrive we don't even know which airline we will be on makes it difficult to organise car parking for the holiday.Hopefully we will fly out of Tullermarine.

Regards

Suuz

Suuz'

Showed my son your posting and he said thank you for the info. He is really excited.

We got our passports on Saturday. Hope I have everything in order and havent forgotten anything. Just have to play the waiting game for 6 weeks until we get our tickets.

I couldnt stand not knowing when you were flying and from where:confused: .

Regards

Kazza

Suuz,

What part of Melbourne do you live in ? We are down Nepean Highway and wouldnt want to fly from Geelong...

We intend to catch the train ($500 return for 5 of us).

Suuz,

 

We intend to catch the train ($500 return for 5 of us).

I don't know if you have done the trip by train before but it is long and the kids will be very restless.

I have travelled on both the day and night train from Melbourne to central NSW with work and I dont see kids having heaps of fun.

Regards

Ron & Neicy;)

We will catch the night train both ways and make sure the kids are tired before we depart.

I spoke to Countrylink and they said we can book the back section of the train and rotate two rows of seats and make beds out of them for the kids.

whoey

We are from country Victoria near Shepparton,we looked at going by train back in november but it was a long trip with the kids, we have to go to melbourne to catch the train for sydney so it is a lot quicker to fly. Hopefully we can get a flight from Tullarmarine then it is only about an hour and a half home. If we have to leave from Avalon we have relations in Geelong that we could leave our car with then catch a taxi to Avalon.