My mother and I recently attended one of your "FOOD & WINE" cruises out of Sydney on the 29th April 2011. I had booked this last July 2010 as a surprise for my mother for her 60th and was very excited to give this to her for her birthday January 2011 as I know how much she has enjoyed previous cruises she had been on with other companies. I knew it was a large amount of money to save and since we are from Perth I would have to book air fares and accommodation as well. So January came around and I finally got to give her this as a gift and she was so excited and told me about the other cruises she has been on with Rhapsody of the Sea and Virgo. By now I knew I had spent my hard saved money on a gift my mother would truly love and what a way to celebrate her 60th with.

The afternoon on the 29th we boarded the Pacific Jewel and were very excited. We went upstairs for the opening party and enjoyed a few cocktails. We were very excited about leaving the dock so we could see the stunning harbour as we left and this being my first time in Sydney I thought how lucky I was to be able to see it from a ship leaving on a cruise. We didn't sail when we were supposed to - I believe there was an announcement that said we would be sailing a little late. I think "a little late" was around midnight - this was disappointing because I wouldn't see Sydney Harbour and the Opera House - one of the best views I believe from any Harbour in the World - but at the time I thought - I'd probably see it coming in - but guess what - we docked in the wee hours of the morning so we didn't even get to see this.

We thought we would try one of the restaurants for dinner, so we went to the Waterfront Restaurant on our first night and were seated very fast. I was excited to see the menu and we started to look at the wine list, then another two ladies (travel agents) were seated at our table. I had no problem with this as I am a very social person and it was lovely to meet new people. The waiter then came over to ask if he could get us anything to drink, we let the other two ladies order first and half way through ordering a bottle of wine the waiter walked away and said hello to other people on another table. We all were a little shocked at this behaviour and thought it very rude. While waiting for the waiter to return back, if he was coming back, the ladies informed us that the main restaurant Salt Grill with chef Luke Mangan had been booked out for the whole weekend. We were shocked to say the least as the boat hadn't even left the harbour and the restaurant was booked out for the next 3 days. At no time were we advised the need to book restaurants in advance or at least when we arrived at the wharf. Eventually the waiter came back to our table and took our food and wine orders. The food was very average but I thought maybe this was just one of the less popular restaurants on this "FOOD & WINE" cruise. I said to my mother we will try another restaurant tomorrow night. Read more