Pacific Dawn Review
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Why can't their be an area that is not focused on alcohol. What ever happened to family dance night where there is no bar or alcohol involved. As a family we love all activities. We paid for the gold tickets for the adventure park and our children couldn't use their tickets because the adventure park office didn't open until the third day of cruising. We have one adult daughter, three teenaged youth and one under 12 child. We don't drink neither do our children. We participated in all the dress up parties but they were overcrowded. If you had children you had to sit it out because they couldn't come join in the fun it's not appropriate to have alcohol around them. Every floor had a bar and the cruise parties were alcohol focused and we didn't want our son or youth around that. We took our son up to the children's den and there was nothing up their for him to do. Overall, the food, staff and accommodation was good but it would have been perfect if there were options for non-alcohol drinking adults and there adult children. We wanted to listen to the comedy but that was in the bar.
We wanted to watch a family movie but there was bingo in the auditorium. Disappointed with not enough options for families. We went swimming after breakfast and guess what everyone is drinking alcohol. Went to spend time in the spa pool, well they were drinking their too. My son wants to cruise again soon, but the alcohol focus is a turn off for me. Our bathroom had built in dirt in the hand basin. Two adults in our group complained about hitting their head on the upper bunk bed. No towels for the swimming area. Including myself.
Cabin Review
I don't remember our cabin numbers we discarded our tags. The cabins were cleaned well everyday and we were very thankful to the staff, very polite and hard workers. The only bad review was not being able to sit up in the bunk bed when getting in and out of bed. I tried moving my bottom bunk out from under but was told by staff not allowed. The hand basin had dirt stuck along the edging of the hand basin which is really easy to remove with the right cloth and spray.
Port Reviews
Noumea
We took the bus through the town to the motel area and stopped for a meal at the local pub, family members went swimming. It was really nice to sit in a cool area. The weather was warm too. Next time we will walk through the town and look for options.
Lifou
Family members walked around the island. Took photos. In total 25 family members traveled together to celebrate my nephews 21st birthday. Those that did leave the boat say they had a great time on the island.
Port Vila
It's a real shame that the transport drivers hassle tourist to travel with them. There should be an area for the local market stores to sell their goods and another area for the transport drivers to sit and wait. We wanted to take our time to shop at the local market stalls but we were hassled and haggled by the transport drivers. We did not have as much time as we wanted to freely buy off the local market stores. Really sad. We asked the driver to take us to some tourist areas, The Lagoon and Turtle Cave then to the local market to eat but instead he took us to the most expensive restaurant selling us a small bowl of raw fish for $17 at lunch time prices was crazy.