Cruise - whose been on one?

Hiya, we went to Vanuatu last year so spent quite a bit of time in Port Vila. It is good for a look around and has a great food and craft market but that's about it. There isn't much in the way of anything to buy there, it's pretty third worldish to be honest, has a LOT of tacky $2 type shops. Still an awesome, interesting place though!

I've done a cruise last year that went to Noumea and Lifou.

Cruise itself is a lot of fun, there is so much to do on board and food is great too. Don't always eat in the buffet restaurant cos you can book in the other restaurant where you get a waiter etc and don't pay any extra. Your kids will love it too. The kids club is great and they are well looked after. Even the teenager will enjoy it as their room has large TV and playstation, xbox etc. Always try to get to the Theatre/music shows at night they are really well done and totally worth it.

Noumea has some day tours you can do and can pre-book through the cruise company. But what I did is waited till I got off the cruise and just as you get off, there are a lot of little companies with desks set up who do all the day tours for much cheaper. Not a flash place at all though.

Lifou was a lovely island, didn't do any tours there, just lazed on beach and went snorkelling.

Hope this helps :)

Little_Red wrote: Hiya, we went to Vanuatu last year so spent quite a bit of time in Port Vila. It is good for a look around and has a great food and craft market but that's about it. There isn't much in the way of anything to buy there, it's pretty third worldish to be honest, has a LOT of tacky $2 type shops. Still an awesome, interesting place though!

Hey Little_Red- can i please pick your brains re Vanuatu? I'm heading there later this year and am busy looking at stuff to do while i'm there... anything you would rate as being unmissable?

ETA sorry Chickaboo, no suggestions from me as you can see i'm in the same boat! hope you don't mind me joining in, who knows we could be in Port Vila at the same time!

Edited by nannikin

Hey nannikin,
We stayed at Iririki Island Resort which I HIGHLY recommend, it can be a bit pricey but it's so worth it. It is an island that is just a 2 min boat ride from Port Vila, so you get the best of both worlds, hanging out in the resort and going into town to look around.

A day trip which I would recommend is Mele Cascades - a huge waterfall that you can swim in. We went on a tour which was really good but I think I would have rather gone by ourselves because we were only given about half an hour to swim when I could have stayed there all day. You can get around really easily but hopping on and off buses.

Port Vila is really interesting but as I said above it's not really a shopping destination. The food and craft markets are right on the waterfront. We sat and ate lunch at the market with the locals which was an awesome experience

Any questions just let me know

We haven't been on a cruise though my IL's went on a P&O a couple of years ago and went to Vanuatu and New Caledonia so it could be the same one - they had a blast and want to go on another.

We went to Vanuatu for our Honeymoon, as Little_Red said there is the market and lots of shops selling souvenirs, nik naks etc, there are a few little arcades with bits and bobs ie clothes, sarongs and LOADS of "new DVD's" and a few expensive duty free type shops and that's about it. There are some lovely restaurants, we were there for 10 days staying a 5 min walk from Port Vila and when we didn't eat at our resort restaurant (which was amazing) we ate at some really lovely places.

We did the glass bottom boat tour which was fantastic, the snorkeling was amazing. We also did shark/giant turtle feeding tour which was so so cool, the place they are kept is amazing.. white sand beach and the bluest of water, we drank from coconuts.. it was fabulous! Also the cascades were fantastic.

It's a great place, but I wouldn't get your hopes up about the shopping there!

Thanks for all your replies - its interesting to hear about Port Vila as people have told me they have great duty free shopping and you can get clothing like Roxy, Billabong and the labels alot cheaper.

Its getting closer (don't want to say totally when on a public board) So excited :-) I wold love to be up graded to a suite so we had alot more room but better not hold too much hope there!

Did anyone take kids with them?> We are wondering about what pram to take.. we have just a small fold out one = great for smooth serface but not so great on 'bush' like surface and big one is so much better for Miss E to sleep in during the day (means I don't have to sit in a cabin whilst she sleeps)

Lifou I have heard is good to just laze around on the beach and snorkling although heard Blue waters or something is lovely and aMUST to go see.

we went on one last year for our honeymoon we went to lifou, noumea & vanuatu - lifou there are no shops or anything so yea you laze on the beach and the snorkling is AMAZING noumea i hated it was dirty and the people were very rude but that was my experience just dont let them rip you off cause boy do they try !! and oh my god i loved vanuatu we hired little scooters and cruised the island but they drive on the other side of the road we had a close call with a truck !! we went on p & o they were amzing so much to do on your sea days and the staff are super friendly heaps of kids on ours and there are kids clubs that the kiddlies can go to the parents barely saw the kids and the kids get friends as well.

i would not hesitate to go again i had the best time ever so great in fact we conceived my little boy on it haha

MrsEmma wrote: We haven't been on a cruise though my IL's went on a P&O a couple of years ago and went to Vanuatu and New Caledonia so it could be the same one - they had a blast and want to go on another. We went to Vanuatu for our Honeymoon, as Little_Red said there is the market and lots of shops selling souvenirs, nik naks etc, there are a few little arcades with bits and bobs ie clothes, sarongs and LOADS of "new DVD's" and a few expensive duty free type shops and that's about it. There are some lovely restaurants, we were there for 10 days staying a 5 min walk from Port Vila and when we didn't eat at our resort restaurant (which was amazing) we ate at some really lovely places. We did the glass bottom boat tour which was fantastic, the snorkeling was amazing. We also did shark/giant turtle feeding tour which was so so cool, the place they are kept is amazing.. white sand beach and the bluest of water, we drank from coconuts.. it was fabulous! Also the cascades were fantastic. It's a great place, but I wouldn't get your hopes up about the shopping there!

Yeah, on our honeymoon we found Vanuatu so expensive we skipped lunch most days!

We also did the turtle/shark feeding tour, very very cool! And went snorkling, it's a gorgeous place!

Noumea has some beautiful beaches too, it's been about 15 years since I was there so can't comment on much else sorry! My favourite memories from there was walking along the beach with Mousse Au Chocolat ice-cream, so yum!