Early in April of this year my partner and I felt like getting away for a few days. Since neither of us had ever cruised before we decided to give it a go. So more or less on the spur of the moment I booked a suite (at a super bargain basement price of $1,699 pp) on the April 26 P&O Pacific Aria cruise to New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands.

Only after I had made the booking and paid did I read all the horrible reviews on Cruisecritic. Undaunted, my partner and I adopted the attitude that our cruise would very likely be a disaster but that the worst thing that could happen would be that it would put us off cruising fore ever more.

In the event nothing could have been more opposite. Everything was utterly perfect, from the orderly priority embarcation at White Bay in Sydney to the equally smooth departure from the ship 10 days later. Read more