Cruises.com.au Blog

Words & Pictures: John Pond, Editor at Sea – Cruise Passenger Magazine. My good friends, travel agents extraordinaire, Pauline and Ray of Cruises & Honeymoons, Bondi Junction, recently embarked on a cruise aboard Pacific Jewel, together with several other travel agents in the Cruiseco group.  I am always interested to read their comments as they are amongst the most widely traveled cruisers I know.  Here is their report.

Pacific Jewel. Day 1. P&O Australian based ships have had a chequered recent history, dogged by breakdowns, scandal and negative reports. Pauline and I are now taking a three day cruise to put the new Sydney based ship, Pacific Jewel, through its paces. As this is only a three day cruise and the ship is departing from Wharf 8, Darling Harbour we decide to drive to the Wharf and leave our car in the free carpark.

Our initial observation was the sheer size of  the Pacific Jewel.  Having just come off the relatively small Seabourn Pride this was striking. Pacific Jewel is almost the same size as Cunard’s famous Queen Elizabeth II. She weighs 70,000 tonnes, carries 1950 passengers and has 14 decks. Pacific Jewel has 169 more cabins than the largest hotel in Australia has rooms. It is longer than three jumbo jets lined up nose to tail and carries the equivalent of five fully loaded jumbo jets.

Built in Italy in 1990 and originally named Crown Princess, Pacific Jewel has an attractive, distinctive curved profile—often referred to as ‘dolphin-like’ and was designed by Renzo Piano. Her sister ship is Regal Princess, now Pacific Dawn, which is based in Brisbane.

Embarkation is easy. We drop our suitcase at Baggage for it to be delivered to our cabin. We then proceed to check-in where we show our documents and give our credit card details for on board charges. In return we are photographed and handed a photo ID card to use on board to make purchases. Including waiting in line, this procedure took approximately 12 minutes.

No customs and immigration on this domestic cruise so we proceed directly onboard. There is a choice of a lift or an escalator to take us to embarkation level.

Once on board we proceed to the Plantation Restaurant for a late buffet lunch. Plenty of choices and the food is very good. We order two glasses of wine but service is very slow – a disappointment. We decide to go to the bar ourselves on the next occasion. We find our baggage outside our cabin and the cabin keys on the table. There is plenty of hanging space, at least a dozen drawers, a refrigerator, a safe, a flat screen T.V.,  a very comfortable bed and a newly refurbished bathroom complete our more than satisfactory accommodation.

At 3.30 we attend the compulsory Safety Drill. This means carrying our life preservers to the Marquee Bar that is our designated Muster Station in the event of an emergency. Here we are shown how to don our vest and given a short safety talk. Every passenger on every ship must attend these drills – no exceptions.

In the late afternoon most passengers gather for the Sailaway Party on Deck 14. The ship is bathed in sunshine and it is hard to imagine a more perfect setting. Sydney Harbour is magnificent. The Pacific Jewel clears the underside of the Harbour Bridge road deck with nine metres to spare.  The Pacific Cirque trapeze artists performing as part of the Sailaway Party on the high bar are a few metres lower. The show is spectacular.

More soon.

John.

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