Review - Pacific Star 805

On Tuesday 29 January 2008 we left for Auckland to start our honeymoon. We were about to set sail on the Pacific Star for eight nights to New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

We were dropped off at Princes Wharf right next to the Hilton. Within seconds of putting our bag on a trolley a staff member came to collect it from us and we were pointed in the direction of customs. We went through the usual customs procedure and then ended up at the check in desk where we were issued our cruise cards – which were used to buy anything, and to get you on and off the boat. The lady gave us our room number and we then walked up the ramp to board the boat. I noticed that our room number wasn’t the same as what I had so it was at this stage that I had a hint we had been upgraded.

We scanned our cruise card to get on the boat and we walked into the level 5 reception area. The floor was marble (well it looked it!) and there was a gigantic chandelier light hanging above us. For a 3 star boat it was looking pretty glamorous to us! One of the staff then sent us in the right direction to our room, and when he told us to go to level 10 instead of level 7 where we were supposed to be I definitely knew it was an upgrade. We walked into our room and wow!! We had been upgraded to a suite with our own balcony, walk in wardrobe and bathroom with a spa bath! Spoilt! And there was a complimentary bottle of bubbles, a vase of fresh flowers and a fruit platter waiting for us. We didn’t hang around our room for long as we wanted to go exploring so we put left our bags behind and left the room with just our cruise cards and key. It was nice not having to carry around a bag the entire time!

We basically started at the top and worked our way down. On our level was the Lotus Spa and a viewing platform right at the front of the boat. People on the viewing platform could actually see into our balcony but they couldn’t see into our room as the glass was tinted. This is a photo Hubby took from the viewing platform of our balcony:

The next level down was one of our favourite decks – why because it had two buffets and two bars! The Lido Bar was nice as it was enclosed and all the tables and chairs circled the main pool. The service overall was impeccable; you would finish a drink and within seconds there was someone there asking if you would like another one!

If you carried on walking to the back of the boat you would pass through the main buffet and out to the Outback Bar. This was our favourite place to sit and drink when we would leave a port. This is also where we met most of the awesome people that we did on board!!

Deck 8 is probably where we spent most of our time. This deck had the Casablanca Lounge where we would usually end up before and after dinner each night for a drink or two. A couple of doors down was Dukes Piano Bar – a very awesome looking bar:

On this deck was also the internet stations, the casino, the Starlight Lounge which was turned into the nightclub after 10:00pm, and Club Bahia which was a steakhouse where you could eat for a surcharge of $20.00 per head.

Deck 7 had the main showlounge and also the teen area, but apart from that it was all rooms. Deck 6 was the duty free shops where I spent a lot of time browsing, especially at the jewellery! Again the rest of this deck was rooms. Deck 5 had the main lobby (where we had entered the ship) and Deck 4 was the deck that the main Bordeaux Dining Room was on.

After our tour we found ourselves a table out the back of the boat at the Outback Bar and had our first drink of many while waiting for the ship to leave the harbour. I believe we were on time but I must admit I wasn’t checking the time!!

The tugs pulled up and not long after we had set sail and were cruising past Rangitoto and out to sea. We took this opportunity to head back to our balcony and drink our yummy bottle of bubbles. It was so nice and relaxing just watching the land disappear – the ocean was so calm. You could feel the boat moving but I likened it more to the feeling of being on an aeroplane rather than a sea sickness feeling. At no point during the cruise did either of us feel sea sick! Well actually Hubby did one morning but I think that was due to the copious amount of bourbon drunk the night before!

We were on the second sitting for dinner which meant that dinner started at 8:00pm. If there was a show on that night, our show would be at 6:30pm so we would finish in time for dinner. There was a welcome aboard show but we decided to check out some of the bars instead. After a few drinks in the Casablanca lounge it was time for dinner.

We were seated at a table of four with a nice couple from Auckland. Everyone we spoke to said they were happy with their table companions so P&O do a great job pairing people up. The service at dinner was amazing. We had two waiters; our food waiter and our drinks waiter. We ordered a bottle of bubbly, and proceeded to do this every night for the rest of the cruise. Dinner started with breads, followed by a starter, an entrée, a main and then dessert which you were able to choose. There were some nights where we had to skip the entrée as there was no way we could eat it all!

After dinner we had a few more drinks at the bar and then decided to head to bed after a huge day. Surprisingly the motion of the boat rocked us to sleep in minutes (yes seriously minutes) which was awesome – I have never slept so well in my life!

I won’t continue on in this much detail as we will be here forever but the next two days were at sea sailing towards Vanuatu. Every day there was an announcement from the Captain letting us know what was happening, where we were, speed etc. On Day 2 during lunch we had an announcement but you could tell in his voice that something wasn’t right. He advised that Cyclone Gene was heading from to and it was due to arrive the day that we were. They were going to try and find somewhere else for us to go, and they would keep us posted. We didn’t mind as we would rather go where the cyclone wasn’t – but you would be surprised at the amount of whinging that we heard from passengers for the rest of the trip. I think one of my favourite comments was a woman who really wanted to go to Vanuatu, and when asked what about the cyclone she said “well why don’t we just go and see – it might be gone by the time we get there!” Yeah please can we sail into a cyclone – can we!!

On Day 3 the Captain announced that we were heading to Fiji. We were stoked as we love Fiji, and although we wouldn’t be going out to the islands like we had been before, we thought it would be interesting to see the mainland. It was this day that we met three other couples who we ended up spending the rest of our holiday with. They were awesome!

On Day 4 we woke to see islands – it was quite strange after seeing no land for two days. We pulled up to the port in Suva to a huge brass plan welcoming us ashore. Suva is quite a dump really, but then what do you expect for a third world country. We went on a tour which was quite cool to see the sights you wouldn’t normally see on foot. We later ended up back at the boat for lunch, and then we walked into town with some girls from Hastings as I didn’t want them to go back in on their own. The men are quite scary and intimidating and there is a lot of theft so it was one of the situations where you had both hands on your handbag. We were warned about sword sellers – people who talk to you, get to know your name, then engrave it on a sword so you have no other choice but to buy them. I had been so cautious all day but got a bit overconfident on our way back to the ship and I was approached by this elderly Fijian man who sucked me in big time. He wanted F$20 but I told him I would give him F$10. After all that I forgot to pick them up from customs when we got back to Auckland so all I have left is the memory ha ha.

On Day 5 we went to a town on the second main island of It was almost like a little country town. We had to catch the tender boats ashore as there was no port for the ship to dock at. The people here were very friendly and were very happy to see us as a cruise ship hadn’t stopped there for approximately 8 years. We ended up at the yacht club – the tiniest pub I have ever seen, and I think we almost drunk them out of Fiji Bitter!!

We caught the second to last tender back to the boat and felt quite sad leaving Savusavu and the people, but we were looking forward to some snorkelling at Dravuni Island tomorrow.

We met up with our friends at the Outback Bar and settled in with cocktails to say goodbye to Savusavu. It was then that the Captain started his announcement and again we knew something was wrong. Apparently the cyclone was heading straight for us and heading towards Auckland so we had to get moving now or else it would catch us. This meant that we were no longer stopping at Dravuni Island and because of the change of course we had to take, it would take us that extra day at sea so we would still arrive home on Wednesday. It was sad but we didn’t mind the at sea days on the boat – so long as my holiday wasn’t cut short I was happy!

The next day we had to meet the customs and MAF people on board to go through our arrival stuff. This was good as it only took 5 minutes out of our day, and meant that when we got back to Auckland, apart from going through a scanner we were free to go.

We basically just lounged around for the next couple of days enjoying the end of our holiday, and spending time with the awesome people we had met. We had a few good nights on the booze and one night we even tried out the nightclub.

Our last day at sea was the most interesting. We basically crossed paths with the cyclone so the sea swell changed from a max of 5 metre swells to 10 metre swells which were apparently 30 foot!

The front to back motion was fine and was the nice rocking motion that would put us to sleep, but when the waves were hitting us side on it made the side to side motion quite bad. Again we weren’t sick but we heard there were a few people that were. You had to be careful as your drink would go sliding around the table, and I had a few knocks into walls trying to walk down the hallway – but then again that could have been due to the cocktail as well ha ha.

The funniest part of it all was when we were sitting at the Lido Bar on Deck 9 and the pool overflowed!

All the water came to our side of the deck and for an hour or so we were submerged in about 30 centimetres of water until the drains unblocked and it slowly drained away. The dedication of the staff over this time was amazing – they still came and served us drinks which meant their shoes were soaked.

The day we woke to a view of the Sky Tower as we were pulling into port. We had to be out of our rooms by 7:00am and we headed down to the Dining Room for our last breakfast on board. Disembarkation didn’t take long at all – we were one of the last ones off (which we had requested as we weren’t in a hurry) and we were back on land at 9:30am.

All in all the holiday was fantastic, and we are already thinking about doing a cruise for New Years. It was great as the holiday started from the minute we walked on the ship, and everything was included apart from booze. We ate like kings, and the food was awesome. There was something for everyone. You could either choose the buffet or Dining Room for breakfast or lunch, and everyone ate in the Dining Room for dinner. There was also the choice of the Steakhouse for a $20.00 surcharge.

The rooms are nice – nothing fancy but then you don’t spend much time in them anyway. Our suite was nice, but we definitely wouldn’t have paid the extra $2,000 each to have one!

P&O were fantastic, and the Captain deserves a medal. It was not his fault that there was a cyclone and he did everything he could to stay away from it. The staff organized shore tours in Fiji with one days notice, and when people couldn’t snorkel at Dravuni Island their snorkel price was refunded in full. After the amount of slack these guys have had over the past few years, I think they did a fantastic job. Well done P&O, and thank you for giving us the best honeymoon ever!

Blonde,

Thanks for such an interesting review. What a wonderful surprise being upgrated to a suite for your honeymoon. Congratulations! Glad to hear you had such a fantasic holiday.

Regards

CRUISING ALONG:)

Thanks for the review Blonde, I havent been on the Star, sounds like you had a fabulous time and met wonderful people, thats what its all about eh?

Like to hear some more about Savu Savu, we are going there in 3 months. I have heard its a lovely place to wander around and the duty free is good there??

Chez

xx

Thanks for the great review *Blonde*. A lovely start to your married life being upgraded to a suite!!

I loved your attitude regarding the deviation from your original itinerary and how communicative the Captain was (DH and I have just returned from Pacific Dawn and were most disappointed in this aspect).

Positive comments for P & O!!

Have fun planning your next cruise :)

Sarah

....and how communicative the Captain was (DH and I have just returned from Pacific Dawn and were most disappointed in this aspect).

 

Positive comments for P & O!!

 

Have fun planning your next cruise :)

 

Sarah

I believe Fabio is still the captain on the Dawn? We didn't think much of him either. As I've said before, it was hard to tell when he was communicating with the passengers because it just sounded like he was talking to his mates & accidently turned the mike on.

Karen

That was a very positive and happy review, thank you. I will miss this for awhile. No internet for a few months! Might get to the library now and again.

Our welcome aboard freebies

Our room

Our balcony from the viewing platform

10 metre swells on the last day

Our towel swans

Our Happy Honeymoon cake

And the pool overflowing

Savusavu

The Outback Bar

The decks off the back of the Outback Bar

Looking down from Deck 10 to Deck 9 at the Lido Pool

Looking down from the Deck 6 Duty Free area to Deck 5 Main Entrance/Pursers Desk

One of the hallways on Deck 8

The Casino

Dukes Piano Bar

Docked at Auckland

Blonde,

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing.

Regards

CRUISING ALONG:)

Hi Blonde,

enjoyed your photo's, one quick question if I may.

You said that you were upgraded, what room where you meant to be and which did you end up in ?

Thanks Deb

Congrats on the suite upgrade and well done on the brilliant photo of the pool splash.

Glad you enjoyed yourselves and were happy to go with the flow of all the detours.

Hi Blonde,

enjoyed your photo's, one quick question if I may.

You said that you were upgraded, what room where you meant to be and which did you end up in ?

Thanks Deb

We were supposed to be in Room 7038 on Aloha Deck, and we were upgraded to Suite 1002 on Verandah Deck :D

Hi Blondie,

I think we had breakfast with you in Suva(we had the house that we were worried about - all was well, nothing was damaged so we were happier after that), your review was excellent, very well done. Sad to see that the Pacific Star is now gone.

Your room phots look nice, and I agree, the best sleep I have had in ages, just like being rocked to sleep.

We have already booked for our next cruise, this time we are taking 2 of the kids with us.