Yet another review of D822 2nd - 10th Aug!

Finally I’ve done my review! Sorry if it’s a bit long and “woffly”, I’ve tried to cut it down as much as possible!

I’m not going to do a day-by-day one as Glenda and Matt have already done great ones. I thought I’d do one focusing on different aspects of the cruise. Our experience was quite different to that of the other CC’ers on board, as we were the only ones with young kids, so I can talk about many of the things that affected us, but that the others wouldn’t know about. So here we go…

Flights and transport to/from ship

I’m starting with this only because it was the only really negative thing about the whole cruise experience, not because it was the most important thing, or because it ruined our trip (it certainly didn’t) but because I want to get it out of the way, and then forget about it!

We booked our flights and transfers through P&O as they offered $49 return packages which were too good to pass up. Our flight up to Sydney was scheduled for 7.00am on the Saturday, which meant getting up at 4.00am. That wasn’t too bad, as we wanted to spend some time with my brother and his family before sailing, but when we got to the airport Qantas’ wonderful new check in system was playing up, and we couldn’t get on our flight. That was OK as they transferred us and about 4 other groups to the 7.15 flight. More problems meant that flight was delayed for nearly 4 hours. By the time we finally took off my son was ready to abandon the holiday and go home! Now, obviously none of that was P&O’s fault, but when we finally arrived in Sydney, there was no P&O rep around. About 90% of the people on our flight were sailing on the PD, and P&O would have known we were delayed. Eventually a very nice and apologetic rep turned up, and told us the bus would be there in about 20 mins. An hour and a half later the bus still hadn’t arrived, and she didn’t know where it was. In the end my brother came and got us, and drove us to the ship. At least we saw him for a short time!

Coming home the bus transfer was much more efficient! We were in the first group disembarked, and were at the airport by 9.00am. P&O had thoughtfully booked us on a 1.30pm flight, and as it was a group booking Qantas refused to transfer us to an earlier flight. We spent a wonderful 4 ½ hours waiting, and of course the plane was late! I realise that P&O have to allow for the ship arriving late, and book flights for after lunch, but I don’t understand why we needed to be in the first group off! There really wasn’t any rush.

Anyway, we’ve decided that next time we’re going to drive! Enough of the whinging now! On to all the great bits! :D

Embarking and Sailaway

Embarking was very quick (probably because just about everyone else was already aboard!). We found our cabin on Dolphin deck, enrolled the kids in Shark Shack, then made our way to the little deck at the front of Baja deck. The weather was wonderful, and we enjoyed a lovely sunny sailaway. I missed out on the sailaway cocktail though, but heard later that it wasn’t great so I didn’t mind at all. There weren’t many people at the front, so it was pretty quiet. There was more of a party up on the top two decks for those who wanted to dance. I think it must have been a bit chilly up there as it was all over when we finally made our way up.

We had the first of many wonderful meals in the Palm Court Dining room, the kids went to shark shack for a little while, then we all got a very early night. Can’t remember the last time I was in bed and asleep before 9pm! Unfortunately we were all too tired to go to the show that night, which was a pity, but we managed to get to most of the others.

Shark Shack

There are always plenty of questions about this, so I’ll give it a section of its own.

The kids had a ball! We have an eight year old daughter and a seven year old son. Grace was right into it from the start, and made some friends quickly. Callan took a bit longer, but by the afternoon of the 2nd day had made friends too. Sometimes we had trouble getting them out when we wanted to spend time with them! :)

The carers were all great, and really seemed to enjoy looking after the kids. They had a number of activities each day, which the kids could do if they wanted, or they could just play with the games and toys there. It’s open from 9am to midday, then 2.00pm to 10.30pm. After that they offer babysitting until 1.00am, which we didn’t use. Kids eight years and older are can be given the “privilege” of signing themselves in and out, but only if their parents grant it. We didn’t, as we weren’t really comfortable with the thought of our eight year old daughter wandering around on her own. Next time, when our son is old enough, we will consider it, but only on the proviso that they come and go together.

One small piece of advice though. Just check the kids’ club schedule before retiring to your cabin for some “rest and relaxation”! You don’t want to discover that a scavenger hunt is in progress when about a dozen kids and a carer come knocking on your door! :eek::eek:

The kids both said that it was the best holiday of their lives, so it must have been good!

Food!

We are all vegetarian, so I wasn’t really sure how well we, and especially the kids, would be catered for. I needn’t have worried. We ate all our breakfasts in the Café de Sol and most of our other meals in the Palm Court Dining Room. Each menu had at least one entrée or starter that was vege, and one main course item as well. All the meals were yummy! The kids menu was almost the same each night, with pasta, nuggets and so on, and it also had a couple of scaled down items from the main menu as well. We were able to convince the kids to try one item from the main menu on most nights, but if there was nothing they wanted then the pasta with tomato or cream sauce was a good fall back. A few times I ordered some lettuce and tomato for them, and that was no problem at all.

We also tried the pizza’s. I think they were about $7 and $2 for some very yummy garlic bread. Obviously we didn’t try the steak house, but I’ve heard it’s very good.

Cabin

We were on Dolphin deck, in D151. We found the cabin to be fine for just sleeping in, but on a couple of evenings the kids were really tired and went to bed at about 8pm. As we weren’t prepared to leave them, we stayed in the cabin for the evening, and that’s when we really noticed the lack of space, or more to the point the lack of anywhere to sit. There was only one desk chair. The top bunks were too close to the bottom ones to enable you to sit comfortably, and I couldn’t see the TV from my bunk anyway.

Our’s was one of the converted 4 berth cabins. That meant the top bunks folded down from the walls, and a cabinet about 20cm wide has been built on each wall to accommodate the bunks when they’re folded up. I saw Glenda’s cabin, which was one of the original 4 berths. The top bunks come down from the ceiling, and they don’t have the cabinets on the walls for the bunks like ours did. It was a bit hard to tell, as hers was done up as a twin, but it did seem a bit roomier than ours. I don’t think I’d like to be in a converted 4 berth if I was using it as a twin or a double, because those cabinets take up a bit of space. We all hit our heads a few times on the shelves when we got into bed too.

Since getting home I’ve found deck plans of the Regal Princess, and next time will try and book one of the original 4 berths. I was pretty surprised at how few there were though!

Our cabin steward was Aileen, and she was lovely. She got sick a few days in, and we had a replacement for a couple of days. I never found out his name! I guess he was so busy doing his rooms as well as a few extra ones that he didn’t have time to chat. We didn’t get any towel animals though, which was a bit disappointing!

Ports

We stopped at Noumea, Isle of Pines and Ouvea.

Noumea was first, and we did the little red/purple train for $20, and along with everyone else on board had lots of fun waving to everyone on the little yellow train when we passed! We really enjoyed it, and our guide was good too. He was a New Zealander, who has been living in Noumea for about 3 years, and has married a local girl. We sat in the first carriage, which was a bit of a mistake, as he was a little hard to hear over the engine noise. Probably the second or third carriage would be better, not too far back as apparently it can sway a bit at the back.

We’d also planned to use the hop-on/hop-off bus, but by the time we finished our train ride and picked up the timetable from the info desk in Coconut square we realised that we wouldn’t be able to see everything and then get back to the ship on time. We’ll save that up for next time! Instead we returned to the ship for lunch, then wandered around the shops and picked up a couple of things for the kids to wear for island night. Then we spent a couple of hours in the Museum. We couldn’t believe how cheap it was to get in – just 200 francs for adults, and free for kids. We got an audio guide each, which you really need as all the printed info is in French. We could have stayed longer, but the kids had had enough.

Next we went to Isle of Pines which was just lovely! It’s pretty close to what everyone imagines when they think of an ideal tropical island! We didn’t do much except snorkel at the sacred rock, and walk around the beach to look at the resort there – I’ve forgotten it’s name. Before we left home I had tried to get a lilo, but couldn’t find one anywhere. In the end I got a thing called a Spring Float from BigW. It’s an oval shape, with a blow up pillow at one end. The outer rim blows up as well, and it has mesh in the middle. It collapses down into 3 rings when you’re not using it. This was great for the kids. They lay down on it with their faces in the water, and we towed them over to the coral so they could see the fish.

Tendering was a bit slow as one of the tenders was out of order, so they only used 3. I’d love to go back to IOP as well!

Our last port was Ouvea. Unfortunately after two days of beautiful sunny weather it rained for most of the day. Tendering was much quicker, as I think many people decided to stay on board. We decided to walk to the beach rather than use one of the waiting cars as we needed the exercise, but many people did get driven down by the locals. I think they were charging $3 per person. The beach was lovely, and the water was a glorious blue-green colour. I’d have loved to see it in full sunlight! We all had a swim, then after a couple of hours Ken and I’d had enough so we got out and attempted to stay out of the rain under one of the “sun shelters” the locals had erected along the shore. They were pretty leaky but better than nothing! Of course the kids stayed in the water all day! We bought a freshly cut coconut. The kids discovered that they didn’t enjoy it as much as they’d assumed they would! Ken and I liked it, although as one woman near us said, a bit of rum to put in would have been even better!

CC stuff.

The CC’ers on board were lucky enough to have an organised get together on the first full sea day. Glenda did an amazing job planning and organising this! It was great to put faces to the names of people who I’d been chatting with for so long before the cruise. Ken and I didn’t get to the CC formal night dinner, but we did go along to the galley tour later in the week. It was great to have such a small group and to be shown around personally by Fabio the maitre’d, and Marc the head chef. They were both wonderful, and really seemed to be more than happy to show us around. The previous day we went to the demonstration they put on (this was lots of fun), which was followed by a galley tour. About 1000 people went! :eek:

We were very lucky to get a tour with only about 8 of us! It was really enjoyable!

Shows and other entertainment

As I mentioned earlier, we missed the opening night show, but went to most of the others put on by the PD entertainers. I find it hard to walk in heels at the best of times, so I was pretty impressed by the dancers! I didn’t see any wobbles, even when it got a little bumpy once or twice. We thought the standard of the dancing and singing was very good, particularly the lead singer, James Shaw. He was excellent. They did the ‘world premier’ of the Pirates of the Pacific which was OK. It was pretty corny, but entertaining. We enjoyed the other shows more, which were more straightforward singing and dancing though.

There were a few guest entertainers. We didn’t see the hypnotist at all, but heard he was good. We saw Fallon (singer) and Joel Ozborn (comedian) briefly during one of the shows. We’d have liked to see their full shows, but missed them. Joel in particular was very good. He had a late night show in the dome, which was packed. I heard that he was very funny, and as we really enjoyed the little we did see, we regretted not putting the kids into the late night babysitting on that night.

We did manage to catch up with the Elements a few times, and enjoyed them too. Jesse Banez wasn’t really my style, but I know lots of people like him as well.

We sat in on a few art auctions, but didn’t buy anything. They were one of the things that Ken enjoyed the most. He’s always had quite an interest in art, but hasn’t been able to follow it much over recent years. He said that the auctions re-kindled his interest! He would have bought a couple of things, but was reluctant to as he really didn’t have any current knowledge of the artists. I think that next time he will come more prepared, and we’ll bring the laptop so he can do some on-the-spot research! We couldn’t get near the computers, as each time we went into the room they were all taken. We didn’t really try too hard though.

OK, that will do for now. I’ll put up anything else I can think of later on. Sorry it’s been such a long post!

Ok have read half way, thanks so much for doing this post, will finish it once kids are in bed!

Great overview. I have one of those BigW things and think they are excellent.

Thanks for a great review Jo, it was so nice to get to know you all, it's just a shame it all went so quickly!

Good Idea regarding the regal deck plans and checking cabins.

Glenda

Thanks for a great review Jo, it was so nice to get to know you all, it's just a shame it all went so quickly!

Good Idea regarding the regal deck plans and checking cabins.

 

Glenda

It was great getting to know you too Glenda. I really enjoyed the couple of chats we were able to have. You are right though - it all went far too quickly! I'm busy planning the next one now :D

Hi Jo

Thankyou for the review. I really enjoyed reading it. We are in the same cabin as you guys for our cruise next year. We had cabin D170 this year with the inbuilt bunks and had no problems except they occasionally went up into the ceiling by themselves...lucky the kids weren't on them at the times it happened. I hope I won't be dissapointed with the cabin or maybe they will upgrade me??? I almost requested D170 again, but I wanted a different cabin so we could experience a new cabin and to be on the other side of the ship too. Ashame about your cabin steward. I liked mine his name was Ciko, but I doubt he'd be in the same spot next year anyway. I'm glad you all had a great time and once again thanks for taking the time to do a review.

Hi Jo

Thankyou for the review. I really enjoyed reading it. We are in the same cabin as you guys for our cruise next year. We had cabin D170 this year with the inbuilt bunks and had no problems except they occasionally went up into the ceiling by themselves...lucky the kids weren't on them at the times it happened. I hope I won't be dissapointed with the cabin or maybe they will upgrade me??? I almost requested D170 again, but I wanted a different cabin so we could experience a new cabin and to be on the other side of the ship too. Ashame about your cabin steward. I liked mine his name was Ciko, but I doubt he'd be in the same spot next year anyway. I'm glad you all had a great time and once again thanks for taking the time to do a review.

Rose,

We were in D174 with Chiko, he is just so lovely. I really loved where we were and with what Jo showed me of their cabin with the bunks it's not exactly a great cabin, it seemed much smaller than ours too. Although with them returning to the ceiling on their own doesn't sound good either.

Am pleased to hear that your kids were,nt in them at the time!

Hi Glenda

Thanks for the info. Do you think I should put a request to the online t/a to get the cabin I want seeing as how it is so far in advance? Are they able to change the original cabin allocated? Can you recommend a better cabin on dolphin deck - I was upgraded to a cat 'E'. Thanks for any help.

A great review, with lots of different info too

Ok I think I understand the bunk thingy :confused: Where can i check what my cabin was? Is there a site that you have found of which are the converted and not converted?

In the end I got a thing called a Spring Float from BigW. It’s an oval shape, with a blow up pillow at one end. The outer rim blows up as well, and it has mesh in the middle. It collapses down into 3 rings when you’re not using it.

I'm really interested in finding this, sounds like a great idea....have you got a photo of it just so i know what i'm looking for.....if so my email is probably easier gt76 "AT" internode "DOT" on "DOT" net

Thanks so much for your review....each and every review brings different information which i love!

Hi Jo

Really enjoyed your review. It is interesting reading reviews from different people on the same cruise' with a different perspective, and yours was certainly different from Matt's.....more day focused. Glad you and your family enjoyed yourselves.

The spring float sounds like a great idea...especially for kids

Cheers Marg..:)

A great review, with lots of different info too

 

Ok I think I understand the bunk thingy :confused: Where can i check what my cabin was? Is there a site that you have found of which are the converted and not converted?

 

 

In the end I got a thing called a Spring Float from BigW. It’s an oval shape, with a blow up pillow at one end. The outer rim blows up as well, and it has mesh in the middle. It collapses down into 3 rings when you’re not using it.

I'm really interested in finding this, sounds like a great idea....have you got a photo of it just so i know what i'm looking for.....if so my email is probably easier gt76 "AT" internode "DOT" on "DOT" net

 

Thanks so much for your review....each and every review brings different information which i love!

You can compare the Regal Princess deck plans with the current P&O website and brochures for PD. When she transformed from Regal Princess to Pacific Dawn, scores of twin cabins were converted to 4 berth.

I can't post a direct link, as the ones I have seen are attached to online T\A sites. If you do a google search for "Regal Princess deck plans" you will find several sites that still have the the Regal plans for comparison.

As per the review, you are looking for cabins that were already 4 berth when RP. The cabin numbers are still the same for both versions.

Hi Jo,

Thanks for a great review, and the 4 berth tip is a great one.

I think the muffled sound of the Petit train engine beats the rear carriage, which feels like a ride on the end of a whip.

Yes, they cater for special diets very well, better than most places on dry land.

Just for reference of anyone doing a search for info on this cruise, I will add a W822 (actual cruise number) so they can find yur review on google. :)

Yes, we would certainly like to return to IOP as well. It is a beautiful stop.

Here is a link to show how relaxing they are. Somewhere on the boards there is a decent photo of one. When I find it I will post it.

Hi Jo

Glad to read your review. I.ve been meaning to write one but since coming back to the beautiful Melbourne weather have had flu and sore throat that just doen't want to go away. I agree that it all seen to have gone so quick and now starting to feel like i haven't been on holiday. Debating about booking another cruise, the only thing is after having mini-suite, which was very spacious, i don't think i can go to anything smaller, then the cost factor enters in, suppose i'm lucky though that my kids have grown and don't have to consider taken them when booking.

PS. We flew home with Virgin and our flight was also delayed, and also unable to get on an earlier flight

Cheryl

thanks for that link, they look comfy!

I will have a look for the "spring float" at big w tomorrow

Geoff. Thanks for the info about the Regal Princess. I have done a search, now I'm assuming that the cabins with a dot represent the ones that were the original 4 berth cabins? D170 has the dot. Can you please confirm this with me :) . My online t/a will allow me to change cabins if they have the ones I want...given that I have booked so far in advanceI don't think it will be a problem...now to pick a cabin :D

Hi Glenda

Thanks for the info. Do you think I should put a request to the online t/a to get the cabin I want seeing as how it is so far in advance? Are they able to change the original cabin allocated? Can you recommend a better cabin on dolphin deck - I was upgraded to a cat 'E'. Thanks for any help.

Hi Rose,

Sorry it has taken ages for me to get back to you, but I see you have it all worked out thanks to Geoff.

I loved ours on D174 and I'd say that your D170 was probably similar, but sure hope they have fixed the retracting bunks!

Post 23 has the picture I was thinking of.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=440720

Hi Rose,

Sorry it has taken ages for me to get back to you, but I see you have it all worked out thanks to Geoff.

 

I loved ours on D174 and I'd say that your D170 was probably similar, but sure hope they have fixed the retracting bunks!

Hi Glenda

Another huge thankyou for getting back to me again. I'm now trying to decide which cabin to pick...there arn't that many to pick from on Dolphin Deck - it's just ashame they are all towards the back. I'm thinking D167. Did you like our side of the ship - I loved it - sticky beaking out the window when we were in port (and Ciko :p)...but maybe it will be an experience being on the other side of the ship for a change (we were on port side when we were on the Pac Sun too) decisions, decisions :D

Geoff. Thanks for the info about the Regal Princess. I have done a search, now I'm assuming that the cabins with a dot represent the ones that were the original 4 berth cabins? D170 has the dot. Can you please confirm this with me :) . My online t/a will allow me to change cabins if they have the ones I want...given that I have booked so far in advanceI don't think it will be a problem...now to pick a cabin :D

I cannot find a key to those plans, but I believe that the red dots are the original 4 berth cabins.

Hi Glenda

Another huge thankyou for getting back to me again. I'm now trying to decide which cabin to pick...there arn't that many to pick from on Dolphin Deck - it's just ashame they are all towards the back. I'm thinking D167. Did you like our side of the ship - I loved it - sticky beaking out the window when we were in port (and Ciko :p)...but maybe it will be an experience being on the other side of the ship for a change (we were on port side when we were on the Pac Sun too) decisions, decisions :D

Hi Rose,

I really loved port side as it is often where the action seems to be. And being at the back it's so easy to pop out on the wonderful back deck for sticky nose. I kept refering to it as our private back deck as we really were the only ones out there most of the time! Just a jog up the stairs to the buffet. Although it's really long way from the show lounge and the Dome! But it's and easy walk to the dining room down one flight of stairs.

My favourite part is that there is almost no through traffic and being at the back it's so calm.

Yep, I think I would pick it again:)

Thanks so much for the idea, i bought a spring float today......just a tip for others Big W they were 24.99 and Target 29.99

Rose, if you do end up in the same cabin as us (D151) make sure you take some duct tape! I was sure we wouldn’t need it, but going on the terrific advice from CC’ers, packed it anyway. I was very thankful on the two occasions that my drawers slammed open in the middle of the night! They didn’t seem to close very tightly, compared to the others, and on those two nights we had a bit of a side to side swell. I’m not sure what we would have done without the tape, but having it there meant that the drawers were taped shut and we were back asleep in minutes!

We were really happy with our location on Dolphin deck. We were close to the stairs, which we used all the time to try and counteract the effects of all that food. Ken says he even managed to lose 1kg! I wasn’t silly enough to weigh myself before we went, but hopefully I didn’t put on much! Taking the kids to Shark Shack (deck 6) then climbing up to Lido deck (deck 12) a few times each day meant lots of stairs! I did count them all, but I’ve forgotten now. I think it was 20 between each deck, except Promenade to Dolphin, which was about 30.

Gratz, I did just what Geoff suggested, and Googled deck plans for Regal Princess. I then went through deck by deck and crossed off all the cabins on my P&O brochure that show a 4 berth cabin that used to be 2 berth on RP. There aren’t many left that were originally 4 berth. It’s probably best to do this sooner rather than later as I expect that the TA’s won’t leave the RP plans online forever. I’ve put in two photos below which hopefully show how the bunks are built out from the walls. The first is taken from the door looking towards the bunks, and the second shows the ‘shelf’ above the top bunks that the kids kept hitting their heads on. There’s one above the bottom bunk, but it’s a bit hard to see. Actually you can just see the shelf above the bottom bunk in the first photo - my husband's folded up jeans are sitting on it! They were useful for something after all! Glenda has a photo in her review where you can see the outline of the upper bunk in the ceiling. It's much less obtrusive, especially if you are using the cabin as a twin or double.

You can also see the pillow I put under the mattress on the top bunk. Another great tip I picked up here to stop the kids rolling out! Worked like a charm.

I just took a photo of the Spring Float for you, but I can’t find the lead to connect the camera to my PC, however I've just read that you've bought one so you don't need it now. We found it quite difficult to blow up by mouth, which I suppose also means it won't go down easily. We tested it out at home, and ended up using our foot pump. The little attachment that goes in the hole had broken off the foot pump, so we took that with us. It was much easier to put it into the little hole, and blow it up that way.

Geoff, thanks for putting in the W822! I don’t know how I messed that one up. We’re looking at a 14 day PD cruise in August next year, which goes back to Noumea and IOP!

Cheryl, those flights were a bummer! Please write a review! I’ve loved reading all the other reviews on our cruise. I’m still way behind catching up on all the posts though. Can’t believe the amount of traffic there’s been here in the last few weeks!

Glenda, we loved Dolphin deck too, and will definitely try and book there again. We’ll go for one of the “old” 4 berths though, and probably try your side next time!

Thanks for all the kind comments from everyone else. If there are any more questions, then fire away. It's a pretty quiet day here at work today! :D

ok I've looked at the plans of regal princess and ours was a twin double, so I take this to mean mine is a converted on like croydon cruisers?

i've confused myself silly reading and rereading the post

ok I've looked at the plans of regal princess and ours was a twin double, so I take this to mean mine is a converted on like croydon cruisers?

 

i've confused myself silly reading and rereading the post

Sorry Gratz, it's probably my post that's confusing! If your cabin was a twin on Regal Princess, and is now a quad, then it'll be like ours. Now, that's not the end of the world! The cabin wasn't bad, in fact I think it may have had more wardrobe space than Glenda's, and it was perfectly livable. I just wanted to point out the differences between the two types of 4 berths, not worry anyone about it. I hope I haven't stressed you out about it. You'll have a fantastic time, regardless of where you go to sleep at night! :):)