Home from Star R632

Well just to keep froggy happy I had better post a quick review.

Embarkation was smooth and hassle free, my daughter and I arrived about 9.30 am and booked our luggage straight in with no waiting. Then we waited for Mum and Frog and they also managed to book in their luggage with no problems. We all had a cup of coffee, then our number was called and my daughter and I joined the queue, we had an earlier number than the others but as mum has a problem with mobility my sister and her were allowed to shortcut the queue and they were in the cabin waiting for us when we boarded (*itches;) ). We were on board and settled in by 11-11.30am.

Even though we had asked for first dining, our tickets arrived with 2nd sitting TA immediately rang P&O and they said it had been fixed up but of course it hadn't and we were on 2nd sitting. Frog saw Maitre'd and he said he would try to fix it for us next day as Mum is diabetic. But for the first time ever for any of us we had dinner late the first night. I don't know how people can do that, eating after 9pm was bloody awful, we hated it. Luckily the next morning we were changed to 1st sitting in a very out of the way table that two of us had to practically climb into but we didn't care as long as we were on 1st sitting. Great table companions and waiters. There was also a kids buffet dining time too, so not many in dining room. The others had one meal in the steakhouse and thoroughly enjoyed it (I'm a vego so no good for me) it has gone up to $20 now. We usually breakfasted in Restaurant, lunched at buffet and had extra cups of tea from Lido buffet at different times of the day.

For entertainment we had four Pacific Star entertainer shows, Elizabeth Lord (singer) and Lucky Grills (comedian). Both very good we had quite a few good chats with Leo (Lucky Grills) as he joined us a few times when we were sitting around the deck and in shows. He has now done 80 cruises and is booked on twice more this year. Ageing but still funny (thats him and his jokes). Michael Whitmore was the cruise director and I didn't find him as bad as I thought he would be. Troy the canadian asst cruise director was great I think he is feeling more comfortable in the position now. He apparently had a hard time a couple of cruises ago when he called bingo for the first time ever and didn't know the calls he was even attacked with a bingo pen by one woman. He is learning fast and was a really friendly guy and we enjoyed our chats with him.

We won three trivia competitions and received vouchers to take to the shop for prizes, a luggage strap, reversible tote bag and a clock. They announced at the start of the cruise that they were now offering scrapbooking as an activity (a love of mine) but apparently they were not sent the right materials so it didn't eventuate but Troy was hoping that the stuff would be waiting for the next cruise. Bing jackpot was $4500 with two sessions on the last day, am and pm.

Mum was announced as the most cruised passenger at The Captain's Club party (Again!!) and received a bottle of Moet and a free photo with the captain.

Well i think that is long enough (sorry for the length) and I really wish this floor would stop moving. Now I have to look forward to next April and I think we will be booking another one for New Year 2008.

Suey:)

Just remembered a couple of people got off in Vila as they hated it, they had to stay in Vila and fly home yesterday at a cost of $400 and accommodation costs, apparently they spent whole cruise in cabin not sick just hating cruise (takes all kinds) :rolleyes:

Also Shona was expected on next cruise as shore tour person.

Shona was on our 2nd cruise a couple of years ago, she was great. Be good if she's back on board when we cruise in a couple of weeks.

Loved your review Suey. did you do any tours?

We had Michael Whitmore and he was useless - too busy with his girlfriend. Even the staff complained about him!!

Kerri

Shona was on our 2nd cruise a couple of years ago, she was great. Be good if she's back on board when we cruise in a couple of weeks.

 

Loved your review Suey. did you do any tours?

 

We had Michael Whitmore and he was useless - too busy with his girlfriend. Even the staff complained about him!!

 

Kerri

We did not do any tours from the boat as we have done many of them before. We did do the town tour on sale inside the Noumea terminal as I wanted to see what it was like so I could tell friends what it was like. It was OK for a $15 tour showed all the main spots around town.

I didn't hear any complaints about Michael on board from staff or passengers and he did have his partner on board. He appeared very approachable to us and willing to have a chat with people. I think we saw and heard him as much as other cruise directors in the past.:)

I have been sitting at the dining table for half an hour and the waiter hasn't appeared with the menu yet!!! Oh well I suppose it is back to reality now

We heard that he spent time with his girl friend before but he was not bad this trip and she was on board.

Troy was great but he can not say orange bless him.

I wish I was back on board now I have been waiting for the dinner bell and it has not come that means we must cook bugger:mad:

I think that my company on this cruise was great but missing one thing Chaz's company.

Next cruise will have the whole gang and heaven help P&O if they get our setting wrong again.:)

Thanks for the writeup. So how many cruises has "mum" done? I can understand why Troy didn't know the bingo calls. It was very boring on the US ship, no fun bits and taken very seriously. They also didn't use dabbers, the numbers on the sheet were sort of "punched out and you folded them behind. It is much more fun putting dabs all over each others books! :D

Hi Suey! - Welcome back - we hope you had a lot of fun - if that bloody waiter wont bring you the menu go back to your cabin and ring for room service?(this did not work for us lol) - It is good to hear that Troy has improved (because he has really bad on our cruise) and yes everyone wanted to kill him during bingo - a lot of people complained about him - he use to read the complaints from the day before out at the start of bingo and that was the only funny thing he ever done - Troy would tell you 40 times a day he was from Canada and if anything went wrong he would say Blame it on Canada and he told the same jokes 20 times each

Great Review, sounds like you had a wonderful time.

Even though we had asked for first dining, our tickets arrived with 2nd sitting TA immediately rang P&O and they said it had been fixed up but of course it hadn't and we were on 2nd sitting. Frog saw Maitre'd and he said he would try to fix it for us next day as Mum is diabetic. But for the first time ever for any of us we had dinner late the first night. I don't know how people can do that, eating after 9pm was bloody awful, we hated it. Luckily the next morning we were changed to 1st sitting in a very out of the way table that two of us had to practically climb into but we didn't care as long as we were on 1st sitting..

We had that problem on Pacific Sun, but unfortunately our's wasn't fixed and we had 10 nightsof not getting dinner until about 9.30pm. Oh well the ship made money out of us because it meant we'd always have a coffee and a biscuit or two around 4pm to get Mum (also diabetic) through to the late dinner time.

For entertainment we had four Pacific Star entertainer shows, Elizabeth Lord (singer) and Lucky Grills (comedian)........we had quite a few good chats with Leo (Lucky Grills) as he joined us a few times when we were sitting around the deck and in shows. He has now done 80 cruises and is booked on twice more this year. Ageing but still funny (thats him and his jokes).

Lucky Grills was on our Star cruise in March, and the only times we saw him other than on stage was in the Buffet! But he was a unwell on our cruise - so I think he spent a lot of time in his cabin.

Thanks for the writeup. So how many cruises has "mum" done? I can understand why Troy didn't know the bingo calls. It was very boring on the US ship, no fun bits and taken very seriously. They also didn't use dabbers, the numbers on the sheet were sort of "punched out and you folded them behind. It is much more fun putting dabs all over each others books! :D

Mum has done 29 P & O cruises plus some others (russian liners etc) She has said that she is retiring from cruising after the New Year 2008 one as she does not want to renew her passport again. But then she remembered that you don't need a passport for coastal ones so who knows!!:)

We had one man complain all over the place that he wished a helicopter would come and take him off, in the end I said, I wish it would too.

I know a friend of Michaels girlfriend and she said she is absolutley besotted with him, I told her he wasn't very nice. She said she got to know him on the cruise we were on, but didn't notice him with anyone.

On our Star cruise in Sept. there was a family of 4 put off in Noumea due to their 20 yr. old son misbehaving. Apparently the parents kicked up a storm about it to no avail. (I think I'd just disown mine;) )

Cheers

On our Star cruise in Sept. there was a family of 4 put off in Noumea due to their 20 yr. old son misbehaving. Apparently the parents kicked up a storm about it to no avail. (I think I'd just disown mine;) )

Cheers

I'm surprised that for a "child" that age they kicked the whole family off If it had been young teenager I'd understand it, but not a 20 year old. I'd say there's more to that story than meets the eye.

Parents probably didn't want to leave the "kid" in Noumea by himself. Especially if he has been kicked off.

Awesome review!! Thanks Suey!! :)