Pacific Dawn W926 Review 25/09/09 - 03/10/09

[kcbj]

Ship

Pacific Dawn sailing from Sydney

 

Captain

David Box (England)

 

Cabin

P155

 

Ports – New Caledonia

Emerald Bay (Poum)

Noumea

Isle of Pines

 

Dates/Duration

25 September 2009 to 3 October 2009/8 nights

 

Group

We travelled as a family of 4 with son aged 10 and daughter aged 9.

 

Ship

Pacific Dawn was built as Regal Princess in 1991 and is enormous. She is a beautiful ship in very good condition. She rides heavy seas beautifully and is a great platform for a memorable holiday.

Rating 9/10

 

 

Cabin

We had a 4 berth cabin, midships on Plaza deck 5. The cabin was in good condition and was very well maintained by our cabin steward. It had 2 upper bunks folded to the sidewalls during the day and folded down during the night. The cabin had a large window about 5 metres above the water.

Features:

• 4 open wardrobes with hanging space

• 8 bedside drawers

• 9 large drawers

• 4 shoe shelves

• Large desk/dressing table with 2 large drawers & mirror behind

• Full-length mirror

• Plenty of lights with convenient switches beside the door and in the bed head on both sides

• LCD TV on a corner shelf above the desk

• 1 large and 3 small safes

• 4 adult & 2 child lifejackets

• Air conditioning with temperature control above the desk

 

The cabin had a bathroom with vacuum toilet, large basin with flick mixer tap, triple mirrors 2 with cupboards behind. Shower with fabric curtain, flick mixer tap, soap dispenser and shampoo/conditioner on a recessed shelf. The shower had an inbuilt, retractable washing line overhead. The hot water was hot and plentiful with excellent water pressure. The water had a slight chlorine smell but was readily drinkable.

 

The beds were long enough for my 190cm frame. The mattresses were firm enough to provide good support and soft enough to be comfortable. One harder and one softer pillow were provided. Sleep quality was excellent.

Rating 10/10

 

 

Shark Shack (Kids Club 7-10 year olds)

Having heard so many great things about the kids clubs we were excited about the kids going there and a little concerned that they would spend too much time there. What a disappointment!

 

After sail away, we went to Shark Shack to register the kids. On arrival we saw that a staff member from Teen HQ was showing the Shark Shack staff how to register the children. We also overheard conversation that clearly indicated the staff were brand new. The first day at sea was very rough and half the ship were sick. Teen HQ was in Shark Shack and the day was a write off.

 

On day 3 our son wanted to do the ‘Pirate Treasure Hunt’ that was on the Shark Shack program. We took him there at the appointed time and after 15 minutes were told that the treasure hunt would not be on due to lack of interest. From who? The staff?

 

Daughter then went to do the ‘Earring Making’ shortly after. When we returned at the conclusion our daughter had painted a flower on paper. The earring material had been put out but no staff member instructed the children. Daughter completed the painting as that required no instruction.

 

After day 3, our children wrote off Shark Shack as a dead loss and never returned.

 

Wife is an Early Childhood Teacher. She feels the problem is that the staff although offering many activities, failed to engage with the children, capture their imagination and provide them with direction.

Rating 1.5/10

 

Entertainment

Cruise Director Josh Dayboll was funny and very quick witted.

 

Pacific Entertainers put on shows in the International Show Lounge. The performers are better dancers than singers but we enjoyed their shows.

 

Each of the bars/venues had live performers or a DJ and the standard of all was good. Whatever your taste, within reason, one of the venues catered for you.

 

Baked Alaska Parade/Laser Show/Champagne Waterfall commenced at 10.45pm. As a general comment it is on too late for a large percentage of passengers and all that champagne is wasted. We attended but a lot of others commented that it was too late for them.

 

The galley tour was a highlight and should not be missed.

 

P&O take the enjoyment of the passengers very seriously and every effort was made to ensure that we had a good time. They succeeded!

Rating 8/10

 

Ports

Son commented that the ports were very disruptive to his cruise!

 

Emerald Bay/Divine Island

Emerald Bay is a beautiful aqua blue lagoon fringed by palm trees and rugged mountainous terrain.

 

Tenders take you to Divine Island, which seems to have the exclusive use of P&O, at least while the ship is there.

 

P&O put on an excellent lunch on the island of hamburgers and/or sausage on a roll with cake/biscuits and fruit.

 

The snorkelling on the reefs around the island was good with a diverse range of coral and tropical fish. The beach is all coral and is very hard on the feet. Reef shoes are a must both in and out of the water.

 

There was a small stand on the island where Pareos (sarongs), shirts, necklaces etc were being sold and passports being stamped by local people. The prices were about the same as the terminal in Noumea. Passports were stamped for free.

 

The facilities on Divine Island are basic but clean. There was a long queue for the ladies toilets after lunch.

Rating 7/10

 

 

 

Noumea

Noumea is somewhere between the Paris of the South Pacific and a French slum in paradise. Just where it sits depends on your perspective.

 

We decided to go on this cruise because our 9-year-old daughter wanted to visit another country. She wanted to experience another language, culture and currency. Noumea is an ideal place for that experience. Two cultures, French language and a currency with a difficult exchange rate of 68:1. As a bonus, they drive on the 'wrong' side of the road.

 

We decided not to do a tour as we felt that would reduce the exposure to the differences. We walked around the city and got a feel for it.

 

Wife was not impressed but our daughter got her cultural experience and we all had a pleasant day in the sun.

 

Noumea has something for everyone. You just have to accept Noumea for what it is. A large country town with racial/social issues.

Rating 6/10

 

 

Isle of Pines

We were on the first cruise to visit Isle of Pines for some months after the swine flu issues. All shore tours on Isle of Pines were cancelled due to ‘differences’ between the tour operators and P&O. This didn’t affect us as we hadn’t booked one but it did disappoint a lot of others.

 

Isle of Pines has breathtaking tropical scenery. It is a picture postcard tropical paradise. We had a great day snorkelling in Baie de Kanumera beside the sacred rock. The sand is like talcum powder and beautiful on your feet. The snorkelling is good with plenty of coral and friendly fish of large size and variety.

 

Social issues were apparent with 5 star resorts beside shacks and ruins still visible from the troubles of the 1970s. Three Gendarmes in ‘Warwick Capper’ shorts patrolled the beaches whilst the Kanaks went about their business. The Kanak youths all smiled and said hello to us but the Gendarmes did neither.

Rating 9/10

 

 

Dining

We ate three meals a day in the Palm Court Dining Room. We tried the Café del Sol (Buffet) once for lunch but didn’t go back. The food there was good and the décor/outlook was nice. Why line up, serve yourself then search for a seat when you can sit down and have your choice served to you by waiters. Dining room all the way for me, thank you.

 

The selection available and quality of the food was superb. Son rates the crusty bread rolls as his #1 highlight of the cruise.

Rating 10/10

 

Medical Centre

Daughter spent day 2 suffering mal de mer. We took her to the medical centre where, due to her tender age, she saw the Doctor. The Doctor was personable, very good with children and gave a painless injection. He also provided a bottle of liquid Phenergan for follow up medication if required. The total medical bill was $90. For a consultation and 2 prescriptions, without PBS, we thought that was very reasonable. After we claim 100% back from our travel insurance it will be awesome value!

 

The best part is that the treatment cured her completely and she had a great cruise.

Rating 10/10

 

Safety/Security

Security personnel were unobtrusive. I found everyone on board to be well behaved and saw no issue requiring security intervention.

 

Travelling with the most precious cargo of all, wife and young children, I felt completely safe. The rails are high, the decks scrubbed and I was happy to take the children anywhere regardless of sea conditions.

 

Walking through Noumea, I felt completely safe. A lot of young locals were hanging around but they weren’t threatening. They either completely ignored us, or smiled at us.

Rating 10/10

 

Items not reviewed

We didn’t attend/use:

Laundry

Room service

Casino

Gym

Lotus Spa

Turtle Cove

Teen HQ/HQ+

International Show Lounge as a movie theatre

The Dome as a nightclub

 

Overall Cruise Experience

Whilst sitting in The Dome in Sydney waiting to disembark, I asked the children would they rather go to Disneyland next time or go on another cruise. The answer was an immediate and unanimous, “Cruise”.

 

The food was a highlight, the entertainment enjoyable and the holiday was exhausting. We met some lovely people and had a great time. We would all cruise again, both with P&O and on Pacific Dawn.

Overall Rating 9/10

[tazzza]

im off on the dawn 20 oct ...enjoyed the read thank you :):)

[lizzy77]

Enjoyed your review very much. It is great to know that all the family enjoyed it as it can be so hard to please everyone.

[karmac]

....

I asked the children would they rather go to Disneyland next time or go on another cruise. The answer was an immediate and unanimous, “Cruise”.

 

 

 

I asked my kids the exact same question after our first cruise & their answer was the same.

 

Shame about the kids club.............my kids have always enjoyed it their.

 

DH thinks the same about the bread rolls:)

 

We are doing the same cruise at the same time next year on the Jewel and am looking forward to Emerald Bay as we have never been there before.

 

Glad you had a great time.

[yamcrzr]

Great review. Shame about Kids club, our kids loved it, however we were travelling in a group where there were 9 kids that new each other and got along really well. I actually had totally different responses from my kids, when we left the dawn in jan 08 my daughter (who was sick twice, however didnt even need medical treatment as was totally fine after the event) said she would never go on a cruise again, 6 months ago changed her mind so we're on the sun in 3 weeks and the jewel xmas 2010.

[Rasa Sayang]

What an enjoyable read.:)

 

An intelligent, articulate, informative, and very entertaining review.

 

Thank you for posting it.

 

Looking forward to our next voyage on that lovely vessel.

 

BTW - great photos, but especially the first - the P.D. in the background, the two tenders in the middle ground - that is a top photo.

[LouLou28]

Thanks for the well written, comprehensive review! Really enjoyed it.

 

Sounds like you had a great time - and it is a pity about the kids club ... that has been a highlight on our cruises for our 9 year old daughter (our 12 year old son found it better to hang with his teenage cousin then hang around with some 'randoms'!!!). We've always had trouble getting our daughter to join us some days!!! Hopefully it's not a long term problem and they resolve it soon!

 

I loved your son's comments about the ports disrupting his cruise!!:D:D:rolleyes:

[sopheej]

Great review. Made me look forward to our cruise even more, but it seems like sooooo long to wait.

[OverTheTop]

Clive I enjoyed reading your review and looking at your fabulous photographs. When I get a chance I will add my two cents to the bits like laundry, HQ/HQ+ and Turtle Cove. I will try to post a few of my pictures also. However, I don't think they are as spectacular as yours!

Angela

[coopercruise]

Wow, thank you.

That was one of the best reviews I have ever read, on this site or any other.

Normally they jump from one topic to the other, leaving bits out.

But this was great and easy/enjoyable to read. (:

 

The only problem is. I want my cruise to come sooner now! lol :)

 

Cooper

Pacific Dawn -W934/9th December 2009.

[Aussiemin]

Thank you for a fantastic review it helps people like me get to know the ships that we havent been on, me and my hb will look into this ship.

 

Im glad you and your family had a good holiday

Thank you for sharing your photos

Aussiemin:)

[Kinkacruiser]

A pleasure to read. It was heart-tugging to read about your "most precious cargo" (wife and children.) Sorry to hear your daughter was unwell.Let's hope she gets her sea legs for the next cruise.

Thankyou for writing and sharing your adventure with us.

Cheers,

Anna

[subaru94]

Great review, we too have been on the Dawn and I really enjoyed this ship in particular, everyone has their favourites this one is mine, although we are going on the Pacific Sun January Flowers of Asia 2010 mainly because of the destination and when we can go on holidays.

[Drelix]

your reviw was great sound like you had an awsome time.