Pacific Jewel - Review of Inaugural Cruise

[NSWP]

Interesting comments. It look as though opening up buffet areas like they had on OV2 would ease the 'disneyland like queues ! Certainly P&O needs to get onto this asap to avoid the negative publicity about Pacific Jewel.

 

## Single Cruiser ##..there would have been extra bunks/beds installed to make some 4 berth cabins post Crown Princess to increase pax max from 1590 for that class of ship to around 2000.

[petzl]

Interesting comments. It look as though opening up buffet areas like they had on OV2 would ease the 'disneyland like queues ! Certainly P&O needs to get onto this asap to avoid the negative publicity about Pacific Jewel.

 

## Single Cruiser ##..there would have been extra bunks/beds installed to make some 4 berth cabins post Crown Princess to increase pax max from 1590 for that class of ship to around 2000.

Be interesting to see what the poor sods due back on the 28th say

The ships internet is rubbish (like the ship) limited to browser only, no USB or wireless, athough the info they give passengers it does have wifi?

[bazzaw]

Les

 

You just cannot put 2000 pax on a ship originally designed and constructed for around 1500 !

 

What do we have to do, to KILL this complete Furphy!!!!

 

Pacific Jewel- previously known as Crown Princess, A'Rosa Blu, AIDAblu, and Ocean Village Two - was built to accommodate a maximum of 1990 passengers and now accommodates 2014 maximum.

 

It's sister ship Pacific Dawn - previously known as Regal Princess - has a similar capacity.

 

If there was any problem during the PJ inaugural cruise , it had NOTHING to do with an increased passenger load!!

 

Where do you get the idea that Crown Princess was built to only accommodate 1500 passengers - and when were an additional 500 beds installed??

 

Barry

[Skyrules]

Be interesting to see what the poor sods due back on the 28th say

The ships internet is rubbish (like the ship) limited to browser only, no USB or wireless, athough the info they give passengers it does have wifi?

 

Again, the same as all P&O Australia ships.

 

Yes, the ship will have Wi-fi in some of the public areas (on Pacific Sun it was Decks 8&9, but it was out of order last week), I imagine on Pacific Jewel and Pacific Dawn it will be on Decks 5 & 6 & 7.

 

I think the move to having only internet browsers available (even Pacific Sun which used to have a webcam and card-readers no longer has these) is recognition that most people take their own laptops on board these days.

[petzl]

Again, the same as all P&O Australia ships.

 

Yes, the ship will have Wi-fi in some of the public areas (on Pacific Sun it was Decks 8&9, but it was out of order last week), I imagine on Pacific Jewel and Pacific Dawn it will be on Decks 5 & 6 & 7.

 

I think the move to having only internet browsers available (even Pacific Sun which used to have a webcam and card-readers no longer has these) is recognition that most people take their own laptops on board these days.

No WiFi avaiable on/from Pacific Jewel?

In the Library the people installing/settin-up the "Satellite comms" were there and I asked (again different story to what PJ touts to it's passengers))

 

You can/should just use a USB (not on PJ) with email program and password saver (freeware for 30 passwords) much easier to carry (Passwords are completly hidden for such as internet banking spyware cannot read them) Never store passwords on even your home computer, use a USB with a password saver

 

While in Melbourne next to universtiy went to Internet Cafè Had the best cappachino coffee total cost was $3.00

PJ's coffe taste's like dog dung but you can survive on it I suppose

[Sow There]

No WiFi avaiable on/from Pacific Jewel?

In the Library the people installing/settin-up the "Satellite comms" were there and I asked (again different story to what PJ touts to it's passengers))

 

You can/should just use a USB (not on PJ) with email program and password saver (freeware for 30 passwords) much easier to carry (Passwords are completly hidden for such as internet banking spyware cannot read them) Never store passwords on even your home computer, use a USB with a password saver

 

While in Melbourne next to universtiy went to Internet Cafè Had the best cappachino coffee total cost was $3.00

PJ's coffe taste's like dog dung but you can survive on it I suppose

 

Just curious. Was there anything at all you liked about the Pacific Jewel? In the 20+ years I've been cruising I've never been on any cruise, even one that had to skip 1/2 of its ports for reasons of weather or port conditions, that wasn't just great fun. Yes we've had disappointments with minor matters like web access and bad coffee, but nothing so bad that it mitigated the very positive experiences of cruising.

[petzl]

Just curious. Was there anything at all you liked about the Pacific Jewel? In the 20+ years I've been cruising I've never been on any cruise, even one that had to skip 1/2 of its ports for reasons of weather or port conditions, that wasn't just great fun. Yes we've had disappointments with minor matters like web access and bad coffee, but nothing so bad that it mitigated the very positive experiences of cruising.

 

Weather was good Fog on returning with fog horn sounding

 

This was the only cruise that stunk from start to finnish

 

The only cruise where everyone I spoke to was p****d off

 

PJ absoutly failed in all areas except in delivering nothing

 

Some of the shows were good but again they were packed no seats unless you arrived early

 

The food was good but if you had to wait it became cool(gave up on trying Waterfront) just went to buffet in Plantation

 

Other travel blogs saying the same

[jancy]

We have just arrived back form Holland America Volendam cruising Tasmania and New Zealand.

 

We are booked on Jewel 8 day criuise around Tasmania for early March and I must admit would not consider doing the inaugrual cruise as I think every first cruise has many teething problems.

 

Our expectations are low given the very low price we paid ($1100 for a large window cabin) and we are certainly not expecting anything like we have just come back from. We have not cruised P&O before because we tend to enjoy sailing with guests from other nations.

 

Jancy

[Single Cruiser]

On ov2 there was wifi around the village square atrium. I can't believe that they would remove it and not update or replace it during the refit.

[petzl]

On ov2 there was wifi around the village square atrium. I can't believe that they would remove it and not update or replace it during the refit.

Before boarding and even paying for ticket I checked out what was to be provided. This PJ did not honour. They do/did state WiFi would be available (I forget exactly where).

The Comm guys said they were told not to provide it?

I got the impression the crew were being run like puppets and not being allowed to do anything but what they were told.

I for one don't like liars or being lied too

[petzl]

We have just arrived back form Holland America Volendam cruising Tasmania and New Zealand.

 

We are booked on Jewel 8 day criuise around Tasmania for early March and I must admit would not consider doing the inaugrual cruise as I think every first cruise has many teething problems.

 

Our expectations are low given the very low price we paid ($1100 for a large window cabin) and we are certainly not expecting anything like we have just come back from. We have not cruised P&O before because we tend to enjoy sailing with guests from other nations.

 

Jancy

I booked PJ's top room and were not that impressed

A couple of years ago I had a cheap room (above motor) on the Sun and it was exellent. The quieter rooms are near the engine room, as you go to balcony you feel and hear more propellor noise/vibration and usually a 24 hour kitchen is above that (banging soup pots, moving trollies etc), Modern engines are very quiet

PJ just have to get organised and fire the know nothing arse causing the problem

[cruiselover53]

I have been on 3 P&O cruises and had the best time of my life on every occasion.I have been guilty of criticising P&O but that was generally management I was referring to.On no occasion have I ever had the reason to criticise the ship and certainly never the crew.I will never be able to afford the luxurious ships.I accept that and will sail on any P&O ship with great anticipation whenever I can afford to. (Steps down off box and waves goodnight) :)

[ging466]

Could it be that Australians are known to be easy going people, who don't sweat the small stuff, so have accepted their old ships in the past?

 

I totally agree with you MMDown Under. Australia always ends up with the old refurbished ships...packed with more passengers than originally built for. It's about time we demanded quality for our hard earned money.

 

On my Pacific Dawn trip, the average age was 75 yrs! I enjoy cruising with all ages, in fact I find the oldies are really the most interesting and tell amazing life stories!

 

Cheers

ging466

[JamesOceanVillage]

Hi,

 

I am just wondering does everyone actually like the ship, not the service of food the interior of the ship itself. I am sure the ships service will improve as the crew adjust to the your market. Also how does the ACTUAL ship compare to the other ships in the fleet ??

[lanceross]

Well a lot of people not happy.I went on the Pride Of America in Hawaii & there was queues on it for dinner as well. I think the problem is the Free style eat when you want and where set up. Everyone seems to have dinner at the same time.We just ate a bit later or earlier. Went to show first then dinner or booked day or 2 in advance.Still had a great cruise.

I think we just have to get use to not having set dinner times.

Lance

[bazzaw]

Hmmm - this was my first experience of "freedom" dining on Pac Dawn. However, as far as I can see it is not really dining whenever you choose. You attempt to book at the time you would like - and they direct you to a time that they would like - ie either 6 PM or 8 PM . So effectively, there are still 2 dining times. The only difference I can see is that you do get to choose either early or late dining - rather than being told when you will eat via the cruise personalizer.

 

But I was happy with the arrangement.

 

Barry

[merapi]

I have been on 3 P&O cruises and had the best time of my life on every occasion.I have been guilty of criticising P&O but that was generally management I was referring to.On no occasion have I ever had the reason to criticise the ship and certainly never the crew.I will never be able to afford the luxurious ships.I accept that and will sail on any P&O ship with great anticipation whenever I can afford to. (Steps down off box and waves goodnight) :)

Were you in a 2 or 4 berth cabin? We have been on Celebrity and Princess ships which were less expensive for a 2 berth cabin than P&O. If you get a chance, book on Diamond Princess for an Australia-NZ cruise - usually cheaper than the Aussie based Princess ships or P&O - and Soooooo much better. My point is that you may well be able to afford "the luxurious ships".

[Kiwi Kruzer]

If you get a chance, book on Diamond Princess for an Australia-NZ cruise - usually cheaper than the Aussie based Princess ships or P&O - and Soooooo much better. My point is that you may well be able to afford "the luxurious ships".

 

The current specials on Diamond are amazing.....

balconies are going for ridiculous prices.

[ging466]

Were you in a 2 or 4 berth cabin? We have been on Celebrity and Princess ships which were less expensive for a 2 berth cabin than P&O. If you get a chance, book on Diamond Princess for an Australia-NZ cruise - usually cheaper than the Aussie based Princess ships or P&O - and Soooooo much better. My point is that you may well be able to afford "the luxurious ships".

 

Yeah, do your homework. I have to pay a single supplement:eek:. For my recent trip on the Pacific Dawn, I couldn't believe how much money I paid for it. A couple of thousand extra and I could have sailed 6star. Of course that's not for everyone but think about how much you get billed at the end of the cruise for your grog, coffees, tips etc.

 

From what I have heard and experienced, Americans expect much more for their cruise dollar than Australians do.

 

Cheers

ging466

[merapi]

From what I have heard and experienced, Americans expect much more for their cruise dollar than Australians do.

Cheers

ging466

In general, Americans GET much more for their cruise dollars than Australians do, especially if booking with some of their big online TAs.

[fishtaco]

Hmmm - this was my first experience of "freedom" dining on Pac Dawn. However, as far as I can see it is not really dining whenever you choose. You attempt to book at the time you would like - and they direct you to a time that they would like - ie either 6 PM or 8 PM . So effectively, there are still 2 dining times. The only difference I can see is that you do get to choose either early or late dining - rather than being told when you will eat via the cruise personalizer.

 

But I was happy with the arrangement.

 

Barry

 

this was my gripe when i went on the Pac Dawn when freedom dinning was first introduced!

 

The paperwork and advertising says you choose any time between 6pm and 10pm,when in reality if you are not in the dinning room at 8.30 then you are too late!

 

There are really just 2 sittings still!

 

I argued with a waitress who insisted we sit on a table of her choice with people we didnt know when my in laws had saved 2 seats on another table for us! She said "No" people have already ordered on that table"

 

We booked a table for four at 8.30 every night after that!

 

We also bought wine and refused to leave until 10pm every night much to their dislike!

 

 

Den

[newtocruisenett]

That's the spirit, Nett. Go with the attitude that you're going to enjoy it. I'd say most of the problems would have been because of the changeover of staff and a different type of cruising. It wouldn't be in P & O's best interests to consistently run cruises as bad as has been intimated.

 

I must say that I have been reading all the reviews and have read good and bad on just about every ship and line. As the saying goes. "One man's meat is another man's poison." Also, I wouldn't be put off by one bad experience, disappointing though it may be, because bad experiences can happen on any holiday, anywhere.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise. :)

 

Cheers

Thank-You Sandy, Prior to booking our first cruise (Jan'09 on PD) we had friends who tried to talk us out of cruising, as they had done one and did nothing but winge and had nothing nice to say, infact they tried so hard to talk us out of it telling us we would hate it! as they did! they tried to talk us into going to Fiji with them instead, we declined their invitation as I had waited all my life to experience a cruise ( also been to Fiji 3 times and loved it) anyhow no one was changing my mind I was getting on the PD and as I've said before on here 'I fell in love with a ship' we had the best holiday ever :) our friends returned from their holiday in Fiji and once again they had nothing nice to say, they had a miserable time, did nothing but winge, sure they had a cyclone while they were there, so what :rolleyes: we experienced one when we first visited Fiji, I woke one morning and looked out our window at the beach and saw locals placing sand bags on beach front, I asked my hubby 'what are they doing down there?' (yeah, Im blonde) :p the whole place was in lock down due to cyclone Johnni, but we didn't let it spoil our holiday, in fact we even joined the locals who had been brought in for their safety and were placed in the underneath of the 'Warwick Fiji' resort, we did this to have peace of mind that these fijian families were being looked after and they were, while we continued to have a wonderful holiday experience...needless to say...NO way would I even contemplate going away for a weekend with these friends not even to Sydney! So what I am saying is sometimes no matter what, some people are never pleased nor happy :( I intend to have a wonderful cruise on the Jewel and lets hope I have something nice to write about on my return :D Nett.

[Skyrules]

Hmmm - this was my first experience of "freedom" dining on Pac Dawn. However, as far as I can see it is not really dining whenever you choose. You attempt to book at the time you would like - and they direct you to a time that they would like - ie either 6 PM or 8 PM . So effectively, there are still 2 dining times. The only difference I can see is that you do get to choose either early or late dining - rather than being told when you will eat via the cruise personalizer.

 

But I was happy with the arrangement.

 

Barry

 

We came to the same conclusion about "anytime" dining on Pacific Sun recently. In because of the timing of the shows - people go to dinner at around 6 to be ready for the 7.30 show, effectively creating a first sitting. We went to go fo dinner at 7.15 one evening, but were asked to come back at 7.45 - effectively second sitting.

[walabe]

Thank-You Sandy, Prior to booking our first cruise (Jan'09 on PD) we had friends who tried to talk us out of cruising, as they had done one and did nothing but winge and had nothing nice to say, infact they tried so hard to talk us out of it telling us we would hate it! as they did! they tried to talk us into going to Fiji with them instead, we declined their invitation as I had waited all my life to experience a cruise ( also been to Fiji 3 times and loved it) anyhow no one was changing my mind I was getting on the PD and as I've said before on here 'I fell in love with a ship' we had the best holiday ever :) our friends returned from their holiday in Fiji and once again they had nothing nice to say, they had a miserable time, did nothing but winge, sure they had a cyclone while they were there, so what :rolleyes: we experienced one when we first visited Fiji, I woke one morning and looked out our window at the beach and saw locals placing sand bags on beach front, I asked my hubby 'what are they doing down there?' (yeah, Im blonde) :p the whole place was in lock down due to cyclone Johnni, but we didn't let it spoil our holiday, in fact we even joined the locals who had been brought in for their safety and were placed in the underneath of the 'Warwick Fiji' resort, we did this to have peace of mind that these fijian families were being looked after and they were, while we continued to have a wonderful holiday experience...needless to say...NO way would I even contemplate going away for a weekend with these friends not even to Sydney! So what I am saying is sometimes no matter what, some people are never pleased nor happy :( I intend to have a wonderful cruise on the Jewel and lets hope I have something nice to write about on my return :D Nett.

I hope that i have done this right,,,,thanks Nett at last someone whith something good to say ...my wife and i will be on pj nye cruise and we are very much so looking forward to it !! we did a cruise back in 07 on virgo for 5 days and we loved it....even if we had food poisoning for 48 hours and no not ships fault ...some times i think ppl just come here to whinge and they just love putting things down...some times when i have to stand in a long queue its a great way to meet ppl and just talk about life NOT STAND THERE WHINGING !!!

[petzl]

I hope that i have done this right,,,,thanks Nett at last someone whith something good to say ...my wife and i will be on pj nye cruise and we are very much so looking forward to it !! we did a cruise back in 07 on virgo for 5 days and we loved it....even if we had food poisoning for 48 hours and no not ships fault ...some times i think ppl just come here to whinge and they just love putting things down...some times when i have to stand in a long queue its a great way to meet ppl and just talk about life NOT STAND THERE WHINGING !!!

Difference between queue's and chaos

 

food poisoning? I also noticed the Passenger sanitary hand dispensers were few and far between, often moved to different locations.Outbreaks of diarrhea on a ship spread quickly (once started complicated to stop)

 

Be interesting when the poor sods get back on the 28th to see if PJ's act has got better. No reports from them at all. Seems like no one is using PJ's so called internet "service"

:eek: