We had a day in Noumea, so we took the 10:45am 2 hour Tchuo Tchuo train and did our own thing in the afternoon. As this meets you on the container pier (Spirt is too large for the Ferry Teminal), we should could have gone for an earlier trip to have more time in the afternoon.

The little train is a good way to get a view across the island and provides an overview of what you might go back and see in the afternoon.

We had lunch at one of about 4 cafes at the ferry terminal, all took Credit Cards, AUD or CHF as well as French and English menus.

For the afternoon I picked up a $5 all day hop-on hop-off shuttle ticket from the ferry terminal.  They have a range of stops around the island and run every 20mins all day.  

I took the shuttle bust over to the Aquarium (15-20 mins), very similar to the Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour, but only costing $10 AUD when bought bundled with the shuttle ticket.  The acquarium had both large and small tanks with information signs in both English and French.  Large tanks where about the size of a large bedroom, not like the underwater walks in Sydney, but providing nice examples of the local fish, coral, sea snakes and reef sharks. 

At the main beach there was also windsurfer hire which might have been fun if I had started the day a little earlier.  There were probably also more interesting places to eat further away form the Ferry Terminal.

Noumea

We had a starboard window room amid ships on level 1, the bottom deck, with ample space for two adults and one child (9 years).  The single bed folds out of the roof like a bunk. The room was small, but comfortable with enough space and storage for the time we spent in it.  No noise from above or below.  Minimal engine noise.  Expect there would have been more noise towards the back.



Inside the room there is a free safe and one Australian 240v powerpoint.  We brought a traditional double adaptor on board, but were unable to use it due to the position of the plug. Ie it was nearly flush with the bench height.  No sign of power boards being prohibited.  iPhone particularly search aggressively for network, so best to consider Airplane mode and then just enable WiFi.

INTERNET ACCESS
Two cruise long plans where available

   * $50 for a single device
   * $120 for a plan you could move between devices

Upload and download speeds where quite reasonable ~170Kbps, very viable for email, posting photos Facebook, iPhone games etc.  There were notes about the blocking of Skype / YouTube and other high bandwidth apps, but these controls didn't appear enabled on our cruise.

With either plan you need to log in again roughly once a day. i.e. When it stops, you just login again.

As to closure due to wind, both the Green Thunder and Twister are high up in the air at the back of the boat, so quite cool in the breeze even on a still day.Being a seven day tour, with only three planned onshore days, this left us feeling a little like a third of our holiday was whisked away even though we could look out the window and rationalise why getting off the ship was going to be a dangerous prospect that morning.

Carnival Spirit Review

Carnival Spirit - Sydney to New Caledonia (Noumea, Mare, Isl

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