Landmark birthday for me so my wife and I decided to do a cruise on The Pacific Aria from Brisbane to Noumea, Mare and Port Villa and back to Brisbane. On the second day the captain informed us that one of the generators on the ship was faulty. This would reduce the speed of the ship therefore we would arrive late in both Noumea and Mare so all tours at both ports had been cancelled. We had booked tours at both places so naturally we were very disappointed. We would however arrive at Port Villa on time and as it was my birthday that day we looked forward to the tour we had booked. The evning before we arrived in Port Villa we got a note under our door saying that our tour was cancelled due to "Operational Problems". 3 Ports and 3 tours cancelled.The ship arrived back in Brisbane 5 hours after the scheduled time, needless to say many passengers missed their conncting flights.

One morning at around 01h30am we were woken by a terrible noise outside our cabin, I found a staff member vacuuing the carpets, needless to say he was asked to vacuum at a more appropriate time. 3 or 4 times day, often in the middle of the night there were terrible noises like the moving of chairs and tables above our cabin. I went upstairs on 2 occasions to investigate but could not find the cause of the noise. I asked the staff about the noise but noone was able to tell us the cause. Thi noise woke us up on at least 3 occasions.

The basket ball court was above the main restaurant with constant noise of the ball banging on the ceiling throughout breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner. The main swimming pool was drained of water for the last 2 days at sea due to " Health & Safety Issues". We found th staff either very efficient and friendly (As our cabin staff were) or totally rude and disinterested in their job (Bar staff at the main pool for example). Read more