Day 9 - Sun Princess S405, At Sea.

Thought I'd take some time to talk about the kids club on board the Sun Princess. Children between the ages of 3-12 can attend the kids clubs, it can be split into Princess Pelicans (3-7) and Shockwaves(8-12) but as there was only 28 children on this cruise they kept them all together. The kids club on sea days opened from 9-12, 1-5 & 5-10. On port days the times changed a little, however children could stay on the ship in kids club while their parents went on shore, which was handy if the parents wanted to do a tour or activity that was not suitable for children, or if the children didn't want to go.

 

We used this for Mystery Island, after swimming some of the Dwarfs didn't want to go back to look around and asked to stay in kids club instead, some returned to the island with us. This is the Dwarfs 3rd cruise and we found they enjoyed this kids clubs better than they had before. Some of the reasons for this is they could all stay together, on the other cruises they had all been split up. The smaller number of children meant they could enjoy more of the facilities without having to wait long for things, such as gaming consoles and they also got to know and become friends with all the kids.

All the activities on Princess cruises in kids club are included, an example is on their previous cruises if they wanted to do t-shirt colouring there would be a cost and if they didn't want to use their pocketmoney for it they missed out. Each day on Princess there would be a theme such as pirates or country and western and the Dwarfs would return to the cabin with various items relating to that theme, for example on pirate night they returned with a pirate hat, had had their faces painted with a beard and pirate patch, made a paper sword and had a bag of treasure (candy necklaces, bracelets).

 

The girls were old enough and responsible enough to sign themselves in, however were told straight out by the staff that if they misused the privilege it would be promptly taken from them. This thankfully never happened.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8 - Champagne Bay, Vanuatu

We didn't arrive in Champagne bay until 10am in the morning. The advantage we had on other days is the Dwarfs had us up, dressed and fed by 7am and so by 8am we were ready to board the tenders, while other people were still waking up. Today every man and his dog was waiting and by the time we got out tickets, we were 1141-1149. We didn't reach Champagne Bay until almost midday.

 

Apparently only 200 people live at Champagne Bay, when we arrived there were people setting up crab nets, some where offering to take us on a tour and most of the others were selling things at their market stores. We went for a swim, the water was crystal blue, very little in the way of seaweed or coral and no fish to be seen. It was the perfect swimming spot, however the water was so salty that you could just lay back and float. Only problem was making sure you didn't accidentally swallow some sea water, get it in your eyes or if some went up you nose because it really irritated. After swimming we once again changed on the boat and returned. The Dwarfs bought some souvenirs, C got her hair braided and they all had their photo's taken with green lizards on their head.

 

 

Day 7 - Mystery Island, Vanuatu

 

We caught the first tender out to Mystery Island early in the morning, it took some time to get everyone on to the tender as the waves were so big, sometimes there was a 1-2 meter distance between the ship and the tender. We were one of the first people on and spent 20 minutes in the tender being slammed into the side of the boat. When we finally made it to Mystery Island, we found a good spot on the other side of the island to swim. The water was crystal clear with coral scattered under the water. By the coral was all kinds of tropical fish who were not the slightest bit afraid of people.

Some even came up and started sucking on our feet and legs. After swimming for 2 hours we headed back to the ship for lunch. We returned to the island after lunch and had a look around. In the centre is a lot of hut stores selling all kinds of souvenirs, the girls had their hair braided and we enjoyed drinking fresh coconut water. After looking around the market we followed the sand tracks to see more of this usually unhabituated island. No one lives on Mystery Island, but people from the near by island travel there when they see a cruise ship in port and set up their stores. Australian money is an accepted currency through out Vanuatu so there is no need to exchange money. Although we were disappointed to miss Fiji but glad we got to see this port.

 

 

Day 6 - Port Vila - Vanuatu

Pre booked a shore tour for this port not long after booking the cruise. I booked the glass bottom boat and snorkelling around Iririki Island. We met in the Princess theatre at 10:10am before heading down the gangway to Port Vila. A short distance away awaited the glass bottom boat which took us around the bay before stopping close to the island so we could snorkel. All the Dwarfs absolutely loved it, there were tropical fish, coral and ocean animals everywhere. The Dwarfs were given bread rolls to feed the fish who came right up to eat it. The boat took us back to the shore. We boarded the Sun Princess, got into some dry clothes, had lunch in the buffet before heading back to Port Vila.

 

 

 

We had planned to just wander around the markets and let the Dwarfs buy some souvenirs, however a limo drove past and offered to take us around the city for an hour. We drove to Parliament house, war memorial, reserve bank and a few other places. The Dwarfs stopped and talked to some of the local children. We returned to the ship at 3pm where we learned that there was bad weather in Fiji and we were no longer able to visit these ports. Instead we would now be visiting Mystery Island, Champagne Bay, Mare and Isle of Pines.

Day 5 - Lifou, New Caledonia

We arrived at Lifou around 8am, our tour was booked for 11:30am. The tour was called the Cliffs of Jokin, we caught a tender boat from the Sun Princess to Lifou before boarding the bus that would take us on the tour. We first visited the Vanilla plantation where we were given a tour and told about the history of how the vanilla plant came to be on Lifou. we were given samples of vanilla beans to look at and smell, and some of the others in our group where given some vanilla coffee and tea.

 

We then boarded the bus again and travelled to the Cliffs of Jokin. Before heading down the 100 steps, we were given a coconut to drink from and some lemon juice. At the bottom was cliffs and crystal blue water. There was a Tarzan rope which the locals used to jump off the cliffs and a boat ramp with some small dinghy's. We then travelled back to the village where there were some markets with souvenirs to buy, some of the Dwarfs used their pocket money to purchase some before heading back to the Sun Princess via tender.

 

 

 

 

Day 4 - Sun Princess S405, At Sea. (Formal Night)

Tonight was formal night. We attended some of the ships activities including trivia and watching Captain Phillips in the Princess Theatre through out the day. At 4pm we collected the kids from kids club to begin getting them ready for dinner in all their formal clothes. This took 2 hours and we were very late for dinner. Before dinner we snuck in a photo, E wasn't very impressed and getting a good photo was a little difficult.

 

Most of the adults were lining up for a photo with the champagne fountain, a pyramid of champagne glassed and people would pour some more champagne into the top glass. The Dwarfs created quite a stir all dressed up in the little suits and pretty dresses, quite a few people asked to have photo's with them. During dinner, seeing my family dressed to the nines and my children feeling as if they were prince and princesses made me realise it's these moments in life that make all the hard work we do daily so very worth it.

 

So here is my very favourite video of our trip.

 

 

 

 

Day 3 - Sun Princess S405, At Sea.

(stay tuned, still working on my sun princess tour video :) )