We went on our cruise and after reading some bad reviews for this ship before we left we were hoping we would enjoy it as we have never had a holiday before. I had prebooked Vila and Santo not through the ship but nothing for Noumea and lifou. Well what can l say, we had an absolutely fantastic time, we were happy with our stateroom no. 6186 the food was great and we only did the buffet and the waterfront, the kids loved HQ (kids club) and we met some lovely people. Some days we lounged around and other days we joined in on the activities and went to most of the shows which there are many.Before we left l had read reviews that the food was cold, you couldn't get to see the shows as too many people, nothing to do, boring etc, well we didn't find any of that at all.

Our first stop was Noumea and we paid $15 each for the hop on hop off bus as you walk off the boat, from there we went to lemon bay then to the aquarium which you have to use french francs, 2 adults & 2 children cost us 1500 french approx $20 aus.then we went to the museum which you can pay in Aussie $ and for all of us it was a whole $3.25. We went back to the ship for lunch, this day was really good but if l had a choice wouldnt go back to this one, the next day was Lifou where we walked to the church on top of the hill then down to the water to swim left of the ship, bit of a mistake for me as went in the water near the rocks taking photos and stepped on a stingray and it went straight through my reef shoe into my heal so did n't see much more of the island, carted back to medical who didn't do much and the next three hours in agony and a massive swollen foot for about four days and on crutches, but had booked tours for next day and chucked crutches to do joe's jet skis on irriki island, fun, and went to go back to ship to have lunch and ran into t mini bus and taxis drivers, oh dear, the one guy who didn't yell was Sampson Willy with a dark blue mini bus with an Australian emblem on the door and park on the hill, what a fantastic guide he took us to a really poor village that the organised tours don't do and wow was it special, they are beautiful people and gave us a private tribal dance which cost us $10 aus adult and $5 child ( gave them more couldn't help myself) then we went to Mele cascades which cost $25 aus adult $15 child, very pretty then he took us back to the ship for lunch and Sampson waited for us to take us to our pre booked off road buggy tour through jungle, 2 hours was awesome but is $80 person but worth it, little kids from the villages run alongside so take some little things for them we had chuppa chips, they loved them, we paid Sampson $120 but we had him all day and learnt so much.Last island was Santos which l had organised with Paradise Tours owned by Luke Tokar who meets you at the ship with a sign with your name $75 adult and children half price, what a fantastic day 9.00 to 4.00, Luke took us to ww2 tour, then to Oyster island for lunch, Paradise!! Then Luke took to do the Riri river canoe cruise to Blue pool and then finished with a market.Big thank you to our room Stewart Reggie who was awesome and we are already planning our next cruise with P & O. Great experience