On board the Pacific Sun: The Beginning

Kia Ora, (sent by e-mail to subscribers and posted after return)    A mist fell as I boarded the Pacific Sun in Auckland on 24 March. Like an obedient lemming, I stood and shuffled in a queue for an hour before climbing the gangplank into the vessel and found my cabin on the lowest passenger deck. A week before sailing, my travel agent called to tell me I was offered a complimentary cabin upgrade for a $50.00 fee. Complimentary? Well, had I booked at the next level it was almost $1,000 more and the big draw was a window. I snapped it up only to regret it. This cabin with the lovely big window is just fine except for one thing. It seems to be located either right over the engine room or next to a kitchen clean-up area. I hear a lot of loud rattling (dishes? bottles? chains?) and very loud hammering on metal. At intervals. At night. I finally called the pursar about 5 AM and asked what am I next to and what was I hearing. She didn't answer my questions, but apologized profusely, said there had never been complaints from this cabin before (yeah, right! A sign on the crew door next to the cabin reminds crew to be quiet next to passenger cabins). Anyway I heard someone go by, open the crew door and the noise stopped. Too late, I didn't get back to sleep. Ah, well. This is the kind of Surprise! I actually expect in international travel. Besides, nights were quieter after that call. On this ship, one cannot go from here to there directly. There are areas where one takes the lift up, goes either forward or aft and descends one floor to find the dining room. I met a lot of passengers wandering around as confused as I trying to find a shop or cafe'. Having traversed the more turbulent Southern Ocean a year ago, I find this ship's motion gentle. Not so for others as sea sickness seems to abound. The motion makes me slightly sleepy and being in bed is akin to being in the womb, I should think, or being rocked. I rather like it. The drone of the engines becomes white noise. The big bonus is finding that I can connect via satellite internet for $0.55 / minute. And that is because I bought a 100 minute plan. Otherwise it is $0.75/minute. More about the ship later .....   Cheers, Kiwi Traveler