Pac Sun 23/7 to 1/8 review part 2

Hi all,

Here I am back agin well rested in a bed that doesn't sway all the time. I had a great nights sleep!

Just to clarify from my first post - my husband is on a South African passport which is why he needed a visa for Lifou. Interesting though - if we were booked on the next cruise that is supposed to leave today and they changed the ports like they are planning to he would have had a big problem as no visa. Also - the CD was Adam and the ACD was Cole.

Anyway, on with our story -

So, we had missed Lifou and the captain told us we would stay a bit longer at Vila to make up for it a bit (an hour earlier and later). We left the ship quite early and went to Cascades first (with a tour of a village etc on the way). Thomas loved running along the track and at the top of each lot of stairs he would call back "are you coming mummy?". He was great actually and walked all the way to the top pool with me. For those of you who don't know, that means walking up through the middle of little waterfalls (there are steps cut in the rocks). He only got scared at the very top with the noise! We all had a bit of swim and a great time. We were first there so it was lovely and tranquill.

On the way back to the ship we stopped off and brought our duty free and a few sightseeing places. We stayed on the ship for the rest of the day as Thomas was exhausted and needed to sleep so he did for 4 hours! We had dinner and tried to take him to Turtle Cove but he wouldn't stay. They said they would take him for a few hours so we could go to a show but he was not staying to sleep there for anything so we just mucked around a bit.

We were supposed to leave Vila at 8-9pm but we had an annoucement that there was a medical emergency and an air ambulance was coming from NZ so we wouldn't be leaving until approx midnight. At 2.34am I woke to hear the engines starting so I looked out the window to see what was going on. We left port at approx 2.50am. As it is about 12 hours to Mystery Island we were thinking we would miss that Port as well so I had a sleepless night thinking this was very unfair.

Eventually the captain told us that due to "weather" we would not make Mystery Island until 2-2.30pm and that the last tender leaving shore would be 5pm so it would be a very short stop. I was really annoyed that he blamed the weather when he could have just said that we didn't leave Vila until the early morning.

At about 12.30 I rang the Pursers to see where and when we should go to get the tender tickets. they said to go up to 9 "now" so we did. We found a huge line of people so went to the end of the line. After 10 minutes of no movement I went to see what was going on and found that the tickets were not getting handed out until 2pm and people were lining up to be on the first tenders. i took Thomas for lunch and left Morgan to stand in line. When I got back at about 1.30pm all hell had broken loose. :mad: People were getting off the lifts and joining the lines were they got off, others were coming from all directions off the stairs and then just stood were they were. People were almost coming to blows as they were all tired and p'ed off. There were no staff around at all (and no line either I might add). A couple of people went down to the Pursers desk to tell them the problem and they thanked them but still did nothing.

Eventually we got tender tickets but on the 7th tender despite Morgan waiting for 1 1/2 hours and being reasonably near the front of the line to start with. Other people waited the same length of time and were on and even later tender so were really p'd off. We eventually made it to shore at just after 3pm and were told the last tender was 5pm but that not everyone could be on it. the first tender leaving shore would be 4pm. We decided to take that one so that those arriving later would have a bit of time on the Island.

The almost 1 hour we spent on the Island was beautiful. We walked around, waded in the water, watched hermit crabs and generally enjoyed ourselves. Thomas found a shell he wanted to keep and MAF let us so he has a little momento which he loves. We then arrived back on the ship at about 4.30pm and other were still arriving on the Island at that time (very disappointing for them). When were at dinner later we saw tenders still leaving the Island so it was after 6pm that we finally left. Some people who arrived first on the Island were amongst the last to leave which I found very to be very selfish but I guess that is their choice.

We found out that the medical emergency was a girl from the dinner table next to us. She had very bad asthma and the machine she had didin't work on the ship. Her mum and little brother stayed on board and the poor mum was beside herself when were we getting in late to Auckland (the dad and other sister went from Vila I understand). We all understood a medical emergency had delayed us but it was still very disapointing to have so little time on Mystery Island when it is very beautiful. We heard later that the ambulance had run out of petrol and so there were lots of delays! We did get a full refund from Aqua Hut as we didn't have time to use the snorkel gear we had hired!

That night we dropped Thomas off at Turtle Cove a bit earlier so he was happy to stay. I gave them his precious rabbits that he always sleeps with a bottle of soy milk. I stressed that he would require both or not settle. They said it was no problem and gave us a pager and we had our first night of freedom. We went to a show and it was fantastic. We were going to do other stuff but decided to check Thomas. We found that he was asleep but they had tried to page us (but the system didn't work) as he was very distressed and it took them ages to calm him. he eventually fell asleep as he was exhausted. I checked his bag and found they had not given him his milk or his rabbits :mad: I was very unhappy. They said they had a change of staff and the message wasn't passed on. Needless to say that was the last time we left Thomas for the night and the last night we could go out to a show together.

More to come ...

Trish

Hi Trish

Glad you had a good night sleep. I would be upset at missing Lifou and Mystery Island too. They are two of my favourite ports. The tender system sounds like it was nightmare. We had such a great cruise on PS

only 3 weeks ago, it just goes to show how circumstances can change things. Two years ago we had some issues with Shark Shack and it was also put down to change of staff. Our pager didn't work either!

Do you ever think you will go on a cruise again?

Hi Trish,

Thanks for the report. I was on the cruise prior to yours, and things couldn't have been more different!! We had calm seas all the way, and everything went like clockwork.

Give it a while, and all the good and bad things will come together as a memorable cruise! One to tell the grandkids about!!

Keep smiling, looking forward to your next installment.

PS..Glad you're home safe.

Kaz

Hi,

The tender system on the Pacific Sun usually runs superbly well. The problem at Mystery Island was probably that everyone wanted to be on the first tender because of limited time on the island.

It sounds as if there were problems on this cruise right from the start - weather delaying departure; a medical emergency delaying departure from Vila; this event resulting in less time at Mystery Island and then bad weather at the end of the cruise. None of these are the fault of P & O or the ship's crew, but they would have had to deal with them. I can't help thinking about the hard-working stewards and other crew who would have had to clean up all the mess caused in the extreme weather conditions. :):)

oh my goodness Trish, it sounds like it wastruly one thing after another......what a nightmare for you all. I bet everyone, staff and passengers was glad to be on land again

None of these are the fault of P & O or the ship's crew, but they would have had to deal with them. I can't help thinking about the hard-working stewards and other crew who would have had to clean up all the mess caused in the extreme weather conditions. :):)

Decisions made by P&O head office, Captain, Engineers, Port Authorities that can impact on the quality of a cruise. The weather was the major problem here, but Lifou was unlikely from the moment they departed Auckland.

Thinking back to the previous cruise, there was information posted that Pacific Sun was to leave late due to emergency repairs. Interesting that Trish mentioned on part 1 (easier to discuss if pt 1,2,3 are all on same thread) an announcement was made that late departure was due to rough seas.

Yes, all the stewards and service staff should be applauded for their high workload in these conditions. Not only for the extra work, but they also have to sleep in the rough seas as well.

Trish, your post is truly gripping and I am hanging on every word. The mix up at Turtle Cove is horrible. Waiting on the next installment. Did you take a camera?

Hi all,

We did have a camera but we really didn't take many pictures and none of the damage. I saw lots of people doing that but we really didn't feel that we wanted to. We did buy some nice pictures though. Once I have finished the last instalment I will see about putting something on here.

We really do appreciate everyones well wishes. We will think about cruising again - maybe on Pac Dawn but it depends on the compensation we are offered and when cruises are. We think we will wait until Thomas is at least 3 and we are a bit more relaxed. We will never cruise again in July!! :)

Trish