Pacific Eden Review
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Having cruised for 45 years we have to say this cruise would have been our worst. We left from our home port for a relaxing holiday after my husband had a year of surgeries. Our Travel Agent asked us how it was upon our return, reply was 'this cruise has put us off cruising after so many years.'
The Waterfront Restaurant Supervisors and Waiters do their best, they are professionals and go out of their way to help. We did have very bad experiences like having to wait for ages for a meal on the first two evenings. We made the complaints and were given our own table each night for the duration of this cruise, for which we were extremely grateful. This would be very beneficial to the over all running of the restaurant if everyone had a fixed table and time. We were horrified at having to see disabled and elderly patrons that had paid for their meals with their passage ticket having to stand in a long line waiting for a table. The Maitre de' was never to be seen. I felt sorry for his assistant rushing around trying to get people seated. But the Maitre de' had to have been the laziest we have come across in our 45 years of holidaying on passenger liners. The Waterfront Restaurant would be much better if it had a new Maitre de'. Also never saw the Executive Chef. If all passengers paid $50 on top of their ticket cost perhaps the Galley could get some better meat to use.
Never able to have a nice steak, it came stewed. I guess the Salt Grill was where we were expected to go. The shops did not stock much, that was a disappointment. The Beauty Salon was too expensive. I have on shore a Thalgo 90 minute facial, which includes shoulder massage, foot massage and hand massage from $113. On the Pacific Eden it was double that, so I did not book. Entertainment during the day was dismal. Trivia was ok, as long as the children running it got the correct answers to the questions they were asking!! A few errors there like who won the Oscar for the movie the African Queen! There were two correct answers for that question. The worst part for us was the Muster and we had not left port!!! We went to the designated area only to be blocked. Asking 6 crew including an officer in white uniform, we were still barred from the area. I think the Captain needs to be aware that this was the worste Muster we have ever had on a passenger liner. Which made us nervous when we had high seas on our return back to Fremantle. That was unavoidable, but at 10.20pm at night we had a very heavy sliding door fall off its tracks in high seas. Being in our 70s trying to handle a door like this that was also a mirror was an accident waiting to happen. It was not until 11.40pm that reception sent someone up, having made 4 calls for help.
Cabin Review
Obviously this used to be a lovely top of the range suite. But it had seen better days. The bed was lovely and comfortable as were the pillows, a left over from Holland America we guessed. [as we have sailed with HAL and loved it] The balcony was huge & if we had nice weather we would have used it more. The ensuite shower could not blend hot and cold water. So we either were expected to have steaming hot water that would give skin blisters [there was a warning NOTICE on the tiles] or freezing cold water shower. So we had a nice deep bath twice a day each.. Our only luxury on this cruise. Loved the dressing room, with the additional dressing table with a little built in basin and tap another luxury. But the wardrobe doors were plain dangerous. The doors had heavy glass mirrors that kept getting stuck. Soon as the really heavy seas started one slid off and we were left to drag it into the bedroom and wedge it at the end of the bed with the chairs. The hot water tap was rusted and before getting into the water I had to make sure the flaked rust and chrome was out of the water. P & O are now letting these suites to multiply passengers, so the once quiet areas are now subject to a lot of noise, we had a family of smokers in next door with teenagers!!