Four of us travelled on the Pacific Jewel. My 90 year old sister, feisty and healthy and my two nieces. We shared adjoining cabins on Deck 9. We had a ball - more or less entertaining ourselves. Staff superb - can not fault their desire to please, our two cabin stewards gave excellent friendly service. Entertainment ranged from average to superb. Deck entertainment awful - no deck quoits spaces, only a shuffle board area and not much done there. The screaming music all day and night on the pool deck was too much for us - how people could stand it sitting there sunning, I will never know. Early hearing aids after 11 days of that!

Food was very good and once again, dining staff great. So, you might wonder why I have to write this sad tale. We decided to do our own thing on every island except for the last stop, Santo Espiruto. We wanted to go and see a Blue Lagoon and swim - one look at the dock side of our port made me think it was perhaps best to join a P&O Shore Tour this time. We booked 4 spots and were loaded into a mini van and drove at harrowing speeds (half an hour) to our Blue Lagoon. We were "dropped" there by our guide who took off with the driver and we did'nt see them again. So there we were, two mini bus loads in the middle of a jungle scene with the water looking blue and inviting., We changed in fairly primitive chambers, but that was OK - we had been warned in the literature that this was "basic". It also mentioned that "steps leading into the lagoon made for safe entrance". This is where it all went wrong. The facilities at this particular lagoon were well below standard. Steps were slimy and slippery and loose, and my sister would not negotiate them. My niece leapt in, the other niece found it all too dangerous and I very carefully managed to get into the water,.

Someone pointed out a sloping ramp into the water and this was the ramp my sister used. Little did she know that just below the water line a plank was missing on the ramp, and her leg slipped through the hole, landing her in the water with her leg jammed. She was screaming in pain - and my niece and I managed to get to her, and in half a panic, I grabbed her foot, had to twist it to get her foot out of the hole. It was a terrible experience. But now we had another problem - how to get her out??? Across the lagoon where a little cafe was situated we saw some more modern wooden steps, and so this brave 90 year old swam across the lagoon with each of us at her side. Read more