South Pacific Island cruise
Majestic Princess
Note: to the left of the Majestic Princess is the Harbour Bridge and on the right, just visible, is the white tiered roof of the Opera House
Returning to the Majestic Princess in Sydney after our hop on hop off excursion, we started on the second leg of our cruise: we were off to see some of the South Sea islands!
Colleen’s main desire was to get some snorkelling in – but even before we left home, we were told we would be unable to visit the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia – the suggestion was that the local government was concerned about Covid.
The weather was constantly nice and warm, but so overcast and often it rained too. Not the weather we’d been hoping for … but at least we were warm!
We chose an aft cabin for this leg so we could sit and gaze at the wake while cruising along. What we hadn’t taken into account is that sometimes the air smelt like an old diesel bus and bits of soot came down from the funnel! Generally it was fine – and it was an absolutely splendid view after all.
Our stateroom was on the same deck (Baja): B739 just to the starboard side of the middle. (4 decks up in the picture)
The Sail away from Sydney was spectacular as the sun set over the Harbour Bridge and the grand Opera House right next to us. It was another of those evenings that we postponed our dinner to much later.
The Wake Bar was pretty full with passengers enjoying a few cocktails. There was a huge cheer when the captain played the Ship’s Horn Salute (the first few bars of the Love Boat Theme!)
The Majestic Princess had been moored in a perfect position between Sydney’s two greatest icons giving all the passengers amazing views of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
We know that the Opera House is huge – see the ants in the foreground of the photo – but next to our ship it seemed a mite small in our reality!
It was a mighty fine view of the wake from our balcony. The Medallion ordering system ship- wide meant we could order anything we wanted from the app and enjoy it in privacy. Barista coffees, wonderful teas, cocktails, liqueurs, crisps, cookies and fudge chocolate cake were our favourites.
For the odd night when we didn’t want to go anywhere for dinner, we could order in burgers/club sandwiches, pizzas etc with sides such as salad, chips and coleslaw – all included in the cruise price.
We loved the way they served fruit – all chopped up and ready to eat … Colleen rather liked the sushi too. The buffet had a fantastic choice of whatever you could imagine, but we tended to eat our evening meals served in the wonderful main dining room – we used Allegro mostly as it meant we didn’t have to walk too far …
The piazza is the central hub – always something going on. Live music a lot of the time, folk dancing (or learning ballroom/disco etc). The International served great coffee with a choice of a tasty pastry/roll/cake and, if you wanted something stronger, there were several bars in the vicinity.With Alan being unwell a lot of the time, we may not have actually danced but certainly had a wiggle and a shake watching the others!
A little coffee pick me up in the Piazza after an excursion in the sun. So great to have what you want, when you want … and to be all included!
This coffee house has a lovely choice of tasty treats: from a lunch time roll, hot pie etc to a piece of cake or homemade pastry – we quite often had lunch here as a change.
Now we were no longer going to the Isle of Pines, our first stop was in Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia. This whole day turned out to be a bit odd. Our snorkelling excursion was cancelled – due to ‘Operational Reasons’ – but then so were the next two excursions we tried to book on the island! We decided not to bother with a Princess Excursion and took the bus into the town centre on our own. There was a craft market set up on the upstairs of the terminal, so we went for a look. And while buying a beautiful leather handbag there, we discovered the real reason the swimming type excursions had been cancelled: there had been TWO tiger shark attacks in two weeks in the shallow waters of the bay. Gulp … when we got home we discovered there had been a third one! Why didn’t they tell us?!
After a couple of days at sea, we anchored off Dravuni Island, a small island of Fiji’s. We were transported across by the ship’s tender boats and left to our own devices. Snorkelling! After a desultory hunt for fish, let alone coral, we gave up and trudged back to the pontoon to go back to the ship. It seems if you want a coral reef, you must go out on a boat – people in the water have walked on it and smashed to bits. A bit of a disappointing day really.
Set slightly back from the sandy shore there were any number of stalls to buy souvenirs and a few more permanent structures. It was much easier to walk along here, but it was sad to see the rubbish build up that was hiding (not so well) in the bushes … the lively singing of the local Fijians made up for any downsides!
The next and, as it turned out, the last port of call was Lakota, Fiji. Today we had booked an excursion that took us to the island of Tivua. It was raining off and on and not a patch of blue sky to be seen. Undeterred and undaunted, determined to make the most of our holiday, we set off in a sailing boat with as merry and happy crew as you couldn’t believe. A few people got off when they realised they were going to get jolly wet – (who cared, it was so hot) so they missed a wonderful excursion.
There were a lot of crew to entertain us – food and drink was passed around, happy songs with plenty of great harmonies and rhythm clapping. It made such a feel good atmosphere that the journey sped by … and who noticed the rain?!
The first thing you learn on this trip is “Bula!” – welcome/thank you etc in Fijian. This should be said regularly with volume and passion – preferably opening your arms wide as if to embrace the world.
Tivua is a pretty, uninhabited island – when we were there, our companions on the tour were the only others on the island so beautifully uncrowded.There were some little tiki huts on the shore front where we could throw our things for the day. Mostly dry under the banana thatch too.
Not only were there numerous baby black tipped reef sharks in the shallow waters, but there were numerous purple crown jellyfish in the water and washed up – we went for a bit of a snorkel but were wary of the jellyfish as we didn’t have our wet-suits on …
We were treated to a fantastic BBQ, all made of a huge variety of local produce. We were invited to take part in a Kava Ceremony: a mildly narcotic and sedative drink (made from the crushed root of the yaqona) is placed in a large ceremonial bowl and everyone shouts Bula and drinks a cup of the stuff … we gave it a miss – not because of the narcotic effects but because we didn’t want to get Covid!
The next port of call was Suva, the capital of Fiji. We had no plans – we were half tempted to go ashore to visit the market, but decided to rest up for the day so we could enjoy the final port the following day of Mystery Island in Vanuatu.
Well, this is where we should have gone for our lost port of call … but the captain woke us at 8 am with bad news. A passenger had fallen ill during the night and needed hospitalisation … however the Fijian helicopters didn’t have winches and our ship didn’t have a helideck so we had to retrace our course to Suva … this meant we missed our slot on Vanuatu. For the next five days our ship limped slowly back to Sydney at 15 knots an hour with no ports of call 🙁
As the ship docked early in Sydney on disembarkation day and our homeward flight wasn’t until 10 pm … well, we didn’t want to waste our last day, so we took the “Disembark Excursion” to see the Blue Mountains for the day. This turned out to be a very good idea!
With our suitcases safely stowed in the luggage hold of the rather posh coach, we headed out for the day with 10 other passengers, a driver and an excellent guide. (Blue Mountain Excursion)
