My review - Pacific Sun 23 July - 1 August

Well, I've been off the boat for 3 days now and I am still swaying! I've been busy writing out this review, partly to document our holiday for ourselves, and partly for you Cruise Critic readers and my family and friends to read, so they know what we experienced. We had a fantastic time, a scary time, but more than anything it was a great adventure! So grab a cup of coffee and sit down to read my review (be warned.... you will need a bit of time!)

Wednesday 23rd July 2008 … Cruise day had arrived at last! Arrived at Princess Wharf at 11.50am, our bags were whisked away for scanning and we were both impressed with the great organisation and speed at which we were processed through immigration and the various checkpoints, etc needed before embarking. Before stepping on board we smiled for the camera, then snap, our photos were taken with an island scene backdrop in the first of many photo opportunities available to us throughout the cruise.

Once on board we were directed to our cabin and I was surprised to find birthday greetings in the form of colourful helium balloons embossed with Happy Birthday, and a notice stuck to our door wishing me a happy birthday and a note – Wendy, wishing you a wonderful cruise, from Ganjar and Donny (our lovely Cabin Stewards). All good at this point! A smiley Ganjar appeared at our door, welcomed us, wished me a happy birthday and had our bags in our room within minutes.

The first thing we needed to do was find our lanyards, for our cruise cards, which I had bought from the $2 Shop, (after a tip from one of my fellow cruise critic colleagues). After a full search through the bags we realised that they were the only things I hadn’t packed! 12 pairs of shoes but no lanyards! Husband came up with a brilliant idea of using the luggage tags and along with string, (that he found tying the whistles to the life jackets), he made 2 makeshift lanyards which we used during the entire cruise – until the night of the "BIG ROLL", when we hastily returned the whistle and the string to the lifejacket in a great panic!!

We had a quick look around the ship, found the cruise cam and the gym (hubby didn’t use it once!) and headed for the Lido Buffet for lunch. We found the salad bar with fresh rolls, salads and meats, piled our plates high, and sat down for our first meal on the Pacific Sun. Husband noticed that all the other passengers had fat hamburgers and chips, and I reassured him that they had probably paid extra for that, from the Outback Bar and Grill. A short time later a South African family from Timaru sat down beside us and tell us that no, it is all free. Husband glares at me but I tell him that the healthy lunch is much better for us so don’t worry about it. He still glares at me.

Having recovered from the healthy lunch, husband and I explored the ship further and headed back to the cabin to unpack. We found that we had plenty of room to store our clothes in the wardrobe, with shelves below and plenty of hangers above. Ganjar had provided ice in our ice bucket already and replenished it every morning without fail. We used this in our water bottles each day, as this was fresh water ice, unlike the water and ice in the buffet, which was desalinated water with a definite salty taste.

During the afternoon we had a practice drill with everyone donning their life jackets and heading towards their allocated muster stations on the boat. We then got a briefing from the captain about where to go and what to do in an emergency, how to put our life jackets on, and how to jump off the Ship into the water. We all took this rather light heatedly, with people cracking Titanic jokes around us.

Due to strong winds and heavy swells our 4pm departure was delayed.

The first night’s entertainment in the Atlantis Lounge, was an introduction to all the upcoming acts that we would see during the Cruise. Adam (the Cruise Director) did his best to enthuse the rather lame and weary audience, jollying us along and picking on a few hecklers in the audience.

We had requested a table of 8 at the early (5.45pm) sitting for dinner, but had been given the later (8pm) sitting. We duly turned up at the Bordeaux restaurant and queued with the other passengers to enter the restaurant. We got seated at a table of 8 (they got that right) and introduced ourselves to our dinner companions who were a honeymoon couple from Melbourne (who had requested a table for 2) and 2 other younger couples, both from Palmerston North. We were all so hungry, we demolished our bread rolls within seconds. During our meal we noticed upon looking out the window, activity with various boats pulling up beside the ship and shouting below and it looked like we might be about to leave.

After dinner we wrapped up warm, raced up to the deck and finally, on a cold and very wet Auckland night with the twinkling lights of the city farewelling us, we finally departed on our much-anticipated cruise at 10.20pm. I hoped the weather wasn’t a portent of things to come.

Thursday… As we were in a cabin with no window, we had decided to take a digital clock on board, so we would know what time it was when we woke. Today we awoke to our digital clock reading 8.47a.m. We headed upstairs for breakfast, and after having breakfast and chatting for an hour or so, I glanced at my watch and discovered my time read 8.40a.m. Of course hubby was insistent that I must have set the clock wrong, but after having returned to the cabin and seeing that the clock now read 11.45, I knew something was up. Later that day we came upon an electrician dressed in a brown boiler suit, who informed us the boat ran on 60 hertz, and not the normal 50 hertz, so therefore our clock had gained a couple of hours over night! This really complicated things when setting the clock before we went to sleep, and this became more complicated when we had to put our clocks back during the night when entering Vanuatu waters, and putting clocks forward an hour when we left Vanuatu waters!

The weather had not changed and it was cold and windy with a big swell on. So far so good with neither of us seasick. We talked with lots of people, our dining companions changing half a dozen times, with many different conversations. Plenty of people were being sick. There were sick bags hanging in strategic positions around handrails in the stairwells and lifts. It was a sight to see in the buffet area, when someone did get sick. Staff rush to the site, chairs are moved into position to avoid slippage’s, one staff member dons full body gear (similar to that of a forensic investigator, complete with mask). Then the DO NOT ENTER tape comes out, and the scene gets roped off. Anyone would think a murder had been committed.

On the Pacific Daily (the guide to what’s on that day) we noticed that between 10-11a.m. Maitre d’ Eduardo Ramos would be available for seating change requests. This was all very formal with us lining up on seats and being invited to sit beside him at the appropriate time and we requested to be changed to the early sitting. In his strong Portuguese accent he tells us the early sitting is very much in demand, and if he could do anything for us he would send a note to our cabin later in the day.

At lunch there was every conceivable cake, pastry and sweet ever created available to eat. I chose a selection of half a dozen and only managed one and half. The rest went in the bin.

Hubby got through 22 pages of his sport’s book in between talking to many people. In two hours he got through only about 0.4% of the people on board. Only 1700 people to go!

I went to Bingo and upon returning to the cabin later in the day discovered an envelope had been delivered to our room with tickets for the early dinner sitting. Our new dining companions were a mixture of ages, the oldest couple in their 80’s. We became quite a close team and looked forward to each other’s company each night sharing stories of the day together. Of the nearly 1800 passengers we ended up sitting beside a lady who worked with our daughter – small world!

We enjoyed the evening entertainment - an Australian comedian and juggler, called Rex Allison, who’s been in the industry many years. He had performed for the Queen, and was an excellent joke teller with a great sense of timing.

Friday… The captain has just made an announcement from the bridge, telling us our position and that we are heading straight to Vila, missing Lifou in the Loyalty Islands, due to our late departure from Auckland. We were disappointed to hear this, however we were getting a little extra time in Vila the following day to compensate. We felt the first slight change in temperature this morning, however the conditions continued to be poor. The previous 2 days had been cold and windy with all outside deck activities either cancelled or transferred indoors. Today was not much better.

Our afternoon was mapped out with a speed Sudoku challenge, a 500 tournament, Bingo, Horse Racing, an Art Auction (spectators only), A Bar Cocktail Demo and the Early Evening Quiz. The Scrabble Get Together got a miss.

At the 500 tournament I teamed up with Fred, a retired Swiss Architect from Wellington, whom I had my doubts about at the start, but who turned out to be a whiz at 500 and went on to be amongst the lucky prizewinners. Hubby went off to join a team in the Early Evening Quiz, but I had to pull him away to get ready for the Captains Welcome Party (later we found out that team won the quiz, and they all won Champagne!)

Tonight was Formal Night, with the Captain’s Party beforehand. On arrival at the Party we were given a free cocktail and the Captain introduced us to his Officers. We jumped at the chance to have a formal photo with him before proceeding on to dinner. The nights’ Entertainment was the "Pacific Sun Entertainers" with Sarah and Adam the 2 lead singers. A musical dance show called Music, Music Music.

Saturday… dawned sunny and warm and we were able to put on summer clothes for the first time. The deck activities were in full swing when we woke up. Unfortunately Hubby had to visit the medical centre due to a strep throat infection. The Captain wandered in and chatted with us about Welsh rugby and about the All Black game tonight and teased the nurses. After being given antibiotics and rest instructions, Hubby spent most of the day in bed recuperating. I spent a good part of the day sitting in the sun beside the Outback Pool, enjoying the ample food and conversations with the people who sat beside me. Because of the movement of the boat, the pool was more like a wave pool than a normal pool, and the kids seemed to enjoy this.

During the afternoon we joined in with a General Knowledge Quiz and got pipped at the post by another team. If only we had known what the meaning of felicide was we would have won a prize!

We attended the rather formal afternoon tea in the Burgundy Restaurant, with white gloved waiters offering tea and coffee and delicious cakes on platters.

Hayden Smith, a wonderful multi talented musician and singer entertained us that night in the Atlantis Showlounge.

Sunday… Vila at last. The day was overcast but humid. We headed into town in the minivan ($3 each) and made a beeline to Fung Kuei for our duty free liquor. They took our order and delivered it to the ship later in the day. We browsed the other duty free stores and souvenir shops along the main street, and the markets on the foreshore. Every stall seemed to have the same thing. Bought a sarong for the Island Night tonight. Hubby was very patient and didn’t complain.

Shared a taxi back to the ship for lunch. We negotiated with the taxi driver to take us out in the afternoon to the Cascades and Hideaway Island. The taxi was a wreck, ripped seats, no seatbelts and a shattered windscreen. Our taxi driver was a little crazy, honking at anyone who got in front of him and making dangerous manoeuvres. After lunch it started raining and neither of us felt like making the trip out to the Cascades with the crazy taxi driver. It crossed my mind to go back out of the ship and meet up with him at the allocated time to tell him that we were no longer going. However I decided against it because I thought he might demand money from me or make a scene. We decided to spend the last part of the afternoon at Iririki Island instead, and ventured out again onto the wharf. We heard shouting from the road on the hill above us, and saw a taxi driver gesticulating to us out his window. For a moment we thought it must be the crazy taxi driver, but no, it was another guy just trying to attract our attention for a fare.

As we’d expected, we were charged A$20 each to get to Iririki Island. However, we were given a voucher to use this amount on food and drink on the island. The resort was lovely and we settled down beside the pool, had a swim and set about spending our voucher. We struggled to spend it in the 2 hours we had on the island – beers, lemonade, more beer, more lemonade. Hot chips. The only people sitting around the pool were other people off the cruise ship - everyone had blue striped towels. We got a lift on a buggy to the other side – where the main restaurant was. This was nice, and we could have quite happily settled down for the evening but thought it best to head back to the ship for dinner. When we got off the ferry it was getting dark and we were the only tourists left in town. The taxi drivers had all congregated together in the one spot and there was a brief skirmish amongst them to get our fare.

Island Night was a highlight with most people making an effort to dress in island theme and hundreds of people partying on the decks. Cole, the deputy Cruise Director, and the entertainers lead the moves in the Macarena and YMCA and other party songs. Hubby ended up in a game of musical chairs, using men as chairs. The women had to walk around the men (who were lined up back to back) and pounce on a man when the music stopped. The woman holding the most of the man got to stay in! It was hilarious.

Monday … We were supposed to leave Vila the previous night at 9pm but we had an announcement that there was a medical emergency and an air ambulance had been dispatched from NZ, so we wouldn't be leaving until midnight. At breakfast we heard that the ship didn’t leave until well after that and were beginning to think that we may miss out on Mystery island altogether! The Captain eventually announced that our ETA at Mystery island would be 2pm, and that the last tender boat would leave the island at 5pm, so we knew we would have to be quick off the mark if we wanted to get our snorkel in. We joined the queue for the tender boat tickets at 1pm, after hearing they would be given out from 2pm. We chatted with the people around us, including a bolshy lady from Poland. As 2pm drew near, more and more people started joining the queue near the front, at the stairwell and as they came out of the lifts. Of course this didn’t go down well with the people, like us, who had been waiting an hour or more in the queue. When 2pm came there was a mad surge forward and the Polish lady took off through the Atlantis Lounge saying she was going to see what was happening up the front. She turned up 2 minutes late with tickets for herself, us, and another couple she had been talking to in the queue! Even so, we still didn’t set foot onto an overcast Mystery island until 3pm.

We spent our 2 hours on this lovely island snorkelling (despite our efforts, we couldn’t find the white post marker for the best snorkelling spot!!) and browsing the markets. We felt a bit sorry for the locals who had come over from the neighbouring island to man their stalls, as they had been waiting all day for us to arrive. Lost hubby at one stage and found him sitting on the ground captivating the local children with his tricks.

At 4.45pm we headed back to the other side, and waited in the queue for a tender. Upon looking up we noticed huge spiders suspended in their webs between the trees. I kept a wary eye on them until we moved off onto the wharf. The ship looked beautiful out in the bay, in the falling darkness with all its lights twinkling. We eventually arrived back on the boat close to 6pm.

We were treated to a show from the Pacific Sun Entertainers called Love The Nightlife – fantastic, and later that night the Anything Goes Pub Night, a hilarious show with audience participation involving balloons! (It would be too long-winded to explain how it worked!)

Tuesday … After breakfast we went to the Culinary Demonstration in the showlounge, where Executive chef Eduardo Ramos and Maitre d’ Eduardo Ramos (yes, they have the same name – one is Portugese and the other Phillipino), cook up a a few dishes on stage, and invite a few members of the audience to sample them. Cruise director Adam somehow got roped into cooking instead. Apart from being a bit heavy handed with the vodka in the pasta salmon dish, he seemed to do a good job. We then had a tour of the spotless galley, and admired the baked sculptures and decorated turkeys put on view for us.

This was the day of the MAF Quarantine inspection and we joined the queue in the dining room for this later in the morning. The 2 inspectors had been flown out to Vila to join the ship, and had 2 days worth of work, the first day processing all the staff on board, and the following day the passengers. On our last morning on the ship we sat next to the younger MAF guy, who was happy to chat with us at length, told us it was the first time he had done the Vila run, and had waited a year for it.

Hubby attended The Marriage Match Game in the afternoon and said it was the funniest thing he had ever seen, involving 4 married couples and the host asking some rather personal questions to the husbands while the wives are backstage, and vice versa. When asked "where did you last park the car in the garage" one husband admitted "up on the bridge last night!"

It was our 2nd Formal Night tonight, we had formal photos taken, then dinner, followed by yet another show called Cinematastic. We headed towards the Terraces Lounge at 11.30pm, to see nearly 700 champagne glasses being stacked on top of one another, for the Champagne Waterfall at midnight. Everyone got a chance to climb up and pour some champagne into the top glass, creating a waterfall of champagne down through the glasses.

Wednesday … The sea was roughing up with the ship pitching and rolling more than usual. I wasn’t feeling well all day, and kept fairly quiet, so hubby decides to enter the Talent Quest. He tells me he’s going to tell jokes. I plead with him not to embarrass me! I didn’t see much of him that day and hoped he was busy practising his jokes. I turned up to Bingo in the Showlounge where one lucky passenger won the $4,700 jackpot. Straight after, Gemma introduced the Talent Show contestants and I was surprised to see that there were only 4 of them. Two told jokes, one played the piano and one recited a poem. I’m happy to report that hubby did not embarrass me. In fact, he got lots of laughs as he cleverly told jokes about someone who everybody could relate to – Adam the Cruise Director. Unfortunately no prizes were dished out but I’m sure he would have won if there had been!

During dinner I felt worse so went down to the Pursers Desk and bought some sea sickness pills and called my daughter to tell her our ETA was now at lunchtime the following day instead of 8am. On returning the Captain tells us we are "hove-to" – a seafarers expression meaning we are heading into the wind and swell and maintaining only enough speed for steerage. He tells us that this is an emergency manoeuvre carried out during heavy weather. I noticed the ship’s rolling had worsened and shortly after there was a sharp roll which sent all our crockery moving along the table, and all the glasses fell over. Laurel, on my left, had the contents of several glasses tip into her lap. Several families fled the restaurant with crying children and I noticed several elderly people being comforted by the waiting staff. There was lots of noise and excitement amongst the passengers. We left the table soon after, as I felt I needed to get out of there. We wandered up to the buffet area and sat for a few minutes but returned to our room where I lay down. Almost immediately after we had returned to our room the Captain announced that due to the heavy seas and the fact that the ship was rolling heavily, he was going to do an emergency turn to reposition the boat. This is when the BIG ROLL happened. Hubby dived on the floor and tried to stop everything falling off the table. Everything fell anyway. The ship pitched sideways and we held on to anything we could. The mattress slide off the bed with me on it. Everything was on the floor. It was scary but we weren’t hurt. We heard noise around the boat of things falling and people yelling. After a few minutes we got up and opened the door and found other passengers looking just like us – scared! (This is the point where the string and whistles went back on the lifejackets!)

Soon after the Captain told everyone to go back to their cabins, and for the injured to go to the medical centre. We heard an announcement that they were going to shut the watertight doors and to stand clear, (this added further alarm) and more announcements requesting stretcher parties go to the medical centre. Some of the crew marched by our cabins with their life jackets on, to the front of the boat. Some looked worried, others laughing. We hoped that this was the end of the drama. This ship was still pitching and rolling about but not as bad as before. Passengers filtered back to their cabins, some complaining of not having had their dinner (2nd sitting people), others telling stories of what they had experienced in other parts of the boat. We were told to stay in our cabins. The Captain announced that food would be brought to us. Everything calmed down after this, and we drifted off to sleep, with me still feeling sick. Sometime during the night, the Captain gave us another update about our position, told us how many passengers had been treated for injuries, and apologised for what had happened. Food arrived at some ungodly hour, ham sandwiches, apples and cans of drink – delivered by cheerful Phillipino kitchen staff working overtime. I raced to the bathroom twice during the night to be ill.

Thursday … At about 6.30am we awoke to another message from the Captain, with an update on injuries and telling us our breakfast would be brought to us, and to stay in our cabins until further instructions. We were heading due West. He mentioned that the emergency care centre in Sydney would contact our next of kin, who would be told of our situation and late arrival, due to be sometime the following day. Soon after, breakfast arrived – bacon, eggs, muffins and coffee. I imagine that the crew must have been exhausted, staying up all night cleaning up the mess, and preparing meals for us all. An hour or so later, we were able to leave our cabins and wandered upstairs to see the damage. The duty free shop was a sight to see – totally trashed. The Casino was roped off, as were the outdoor areas. You could see evidence of what had happened the night before – with holes in walls and damaged tables. Hundreds of pieces of crockery and glassware had been broken. Everyone had a story to tell. People were wandering around with plaster casts on their arms and slings. Cuts and broken bones seemed to make up the majority of the injuries. A few were in wheelchairs. I think alot of people felt like us at this point – the fun had gone out of the cruise and we were keen to get home.

Most people just sat or wandered around looking at the damage. We found out that all non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks were free. This continued into the following day as well. Many people took advantage of this. During the day the Captain announced that he would be turning the boat to head back towards NZ. This proved to be uneventful, thank goodness. At dinner that night we caught up with our dining companions and they told us of the deafening noise in the restaurant the night before with everything smashing. Dinner was a set menu – chicken or steak. Food was obviously running down. The show that night was cancelled as the sea was too rough. The computers in the library were online again, having been down most of the day due to no satellite link.

We took our laptop into the library and managed to send an email to our friends and family with an update on what was happening. I hadn’t been too worried about not being able to contact my family on Thursday, as the message from the Captain, about them contacting our next of kin, was broadcast twice during the day. The following day (Friday) I spoke to lots of people who told me they had been in contact with their families that day, and none of them had been contacted. I later learned that my family hadn’t been contacted either!

Friday …. As soon as I woke I knew that we were in calmer waters – no rocking for the first time in 9 days! When we got upstairs we saw land. Breakfast was served in the Burgundy Dining room, as the buffet was still closed. I hadn’t really regained my appetite from when I was seasick a few days earlier, and still felt a bit queasy, but managed a piece of toast. We spent an hour or so talking to the MAF guy, then headed back to our cabin to pack our bags.

At 12.15pm the show that was cancelled from the night before was put on for us. Adam did his best to pull everyone together and the whole team of entertainers farewelled us. When we came out of the show lounge we noticed we were alongside the wharf. Home at last!

We were in the last group to disembark. We were given a notice to say we were offered free counselling. We realised we had one too many bottles of liquor, but the customs guy said we deserved it after what we had been through and let us through with it, no problem! Complimentary taxi vouchers were provided to anyone who wanted to take a taxi home, so we duly lined up to catch a taxi. We saw nothing of the media, they were well gone by the time we got off.

Apparently we are receiving a letter with an offer of compensation, to arrive in the mail this week.

Everyone has asked me – will we cruise again? For us, this was just a one-off. A completely different type of holiday to the usual Fijian/relaxing holiday we prefer. We had a blast of a time – and that I will remember. I’ll also remember the nightmarish experience of that night and maybe it has put me off sailing in the Pacific. Maybe a Mediterranean cruise next time??

Wendy

Wendy..well done..you have posted a brilliant, well written story of your adventure on Pacific Sun, without doubt one of the best I have read on CC. Stop swaying now..you are on terra firma. Sounds like the crew did a good job in extreme circumstances.

Again, well done..Cheers..Les:cool:

Wendy ! wow!

i sat down thinking ok i'll read one day at a time but you had me there going through it all with you and I have just sat and read all about it.

Thanks so much for your review, so sad that it had to end up how it was with all the weather problems.....

Sounds great, it was great to hear about all the shows that were on, sounds like they do heaps to keep you entertained, i hope that with the kids, I can get to a few shows

Hi Wendy,

Thank you and congratulations on your review. It is beautifully written. I love the touches of humour. :):)

I have a picture in my mind of you guys re attaching the string and whistles.....oh what a panic that would have been :eek:

Hi Wendy

Thanks for your account of your eventful cruise.

Very entertaining reading on what appears to be a nasty experience of what mother nature can do to us, holidays or not :eek:

Sounds like the crew were wonderful as always :)

Cheers

Grant

Hi Wendy, great review. I have just printed it off to show my daughter and to keep in her keepsake box. She is one of the entertainers and they will all be pleased to know that their hard work was appreciated.

Ruth

Hi Wendy, thanks for your great revue...

you were able to see the positives of your time onboard..:) :)

(I wish I had been on your trivia side for you.)

If only we had known what the meaning of felicide was we would have won a prize!

It is the murder of a cat...

kind regards, Lorraine:) :)

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for the great review of your time on the Pacific Sun,it was a very interesting read... and I'm glad that you got through the last couple of days unscathed.:)

It sounds like you really enjoyed the most part of your time on board.... hope you book your Mediterranean cruise in the near future.;) :D

Regards Sandie:)

Hi Wendy.

Loved the review..had a few chuckles..glad to

hear that apart from a bit of seasickness yourself

and DH were ok.

Lorraine

Thanks for clearing up what felicide is..when you stop

and think about it, it makes sense..feline just didn't

spring to mind..(Mental Block)

The first time we came across 'felicide' in a trivia quiz we broke the word down and came up with "killing a cat". We were either going to be right or very funny. The rest of our team didn't agree, but they didn't have any other ideas. We were right, and we won!! :):)

Wendy ... thanks for a great review - really enjoyed reading it .. you had me engrossed from the beginning to the end!

A really good overview of your cruise --- including the 'interesting' bits at the end! I loved the string/lanyard story ... I could just picture you trying to tie them back onto the life jackets!!!:eek::D

Hi All

Thanks for your feedback - glad to hear that you've enjoyed reading my review. I, in turn, have enjoyed other's reviews, and was given alot of useful information before we went on our cruise.

And for those of you who are wondering whether I really did wear 12 pairs of shoes on board - No! I took them, but only got through 5 pairs!

Wendy

Thank you Wendy for that wonderful and descriptive review. I was sitting with the laptop, cuppa in hand and reading it out to DH and we were both just trying to imagine the nightmare that you have been through. I so hope that the next cruise is a much more relaxing experience.

Wendy great review. Thought I'd start to read it and come back to it later but once I started couldn't stop:rolleyes: .

Having been caught up in a tail end of the cyclone on my cruise, your experiences bought back memories. I'd had a few drinks too many and ended up being the only one not sick:p

Kerri

And for those of you who are wondering whether I really did wear 12 pairs of shoes on board - No! I took them, but only got through 5 pairs!

 

Wendy

Yes, I did wonder. I usually take five pairs and I think my dear husband thinks that is four pairs too many. I do wear them all. :):)

Wendy,

Congrats on a great review. I have so been waiting to hear how you found things. It is obvious from your review that we were at some of the same things as you include the dinner time but in the other dining room. We ere even that line for the tenders for the hour!

I am really glad you did not suffer any injuries. I laughed when you fell off the bed as that was I thought was going to happen to me all night as we continue to pitch a bit. I wasn't sick but I do symphasize as I felt quite queezy all night too,

We have just been to the doctors tonight as hubbie needed antibiotics and a tetaneous injection after his injuries on the ship but he is doing okay now. We are looking forward to P&O's offer ;)

Again, well done.

Trish

Mick has posted a message with details of what P & O is doing for the passengers on the current (delayed) cruise. I think it is very fair.

I hope you all get a free cruise.:):):)

Great review Wendy. Despite the difficulties I had to smile reading your review.

At least you got to Mystery island, what a beautiful spot.

the crew and staff do an amazing job in all conditions.

I hope the weather settles soon!!!

Wow Wendy what a great review you have written.

Such a positive attitude you must have to still be so happy with the trip even after the scary experience you had.

I felt horrible laughing at your misfortune but the string and the whistle thing was just too funny. Who would have thought that you might adctually feel that you would need them??

I do hope P&O come to the party for everyone with a good compensation offer and that their rep is not too damaged by some of the over the top media reports that came out about it.

Again ... great review Wendy and thanks for sharing your experiences ... both the good and the bad :-)

I really enjoyed reading your review - you put so much effort into telling us all about your trip

thanks for sharing

Thanks for all of your replies, I appreciate you reading my review. Today is the first day I haven't felt like I'm still on the boat. I've been needing to hold on to things to steady myself at times! Yes the string and whistle story was rather amusing - just pleased we didn't need to use them!

Looking forward to Mick's further updates from the Pacific Sun.

Wendy

Awesome review. Thanks for sharing all your memories. Makes me want to go and book another cruise already!

Hi there, we too were on the media fuelled cruise.... I would like to shake the Captains hand and we all think he and the crew were fab!!!

Our 3rd cruise, I actually thought the seas were for 90% of the cruise were good and that the weather was good but once again it all comes down to each other's opinion:D My brother and sister in-law 1st timers on this one, he is raring to go again she says"ask me in a year". Has this put us off cruising? NO WAY.........

TV guy interviewed us but we had nothing but praise as he said most had but of course that doesn't sell papers etc, so we got over inflated stories that have been chopped and edited to death.... my only gripe is here we were feeling good that P&O were letting our emergency contacts know we were ok, but in reality they did not. When asked afterwards they said they only let the injured parties contacts know (could be done alot better).

I really think that if we equate what happened to a plane hitting turbulance and the pilot taking evasive action it would all be in alot better perspective.

WELL DONE ON YOUR GREAT REVIEW!!!!

Hi Lelley,

I totally agree with you. Although I was frightened for my son being thrown around the cabin I was okay however my mother in law completely freaked when she saw the news broadcast and hadn't heard from anyone. Her overactive imagination had us floating around on wreakage or something LOL. Fortunately I got an email off to her on Thursday night and that calmed her a bit. It was disappointing as the captain had told us twice they would be contacted.

Despite all that I too think the captain and crew were fantastic. I was extremely impressed. I was also grateful for the taxi ride home!

Trish