P&O Pacific Encounter Window Cabin 8706

Booked a guaranteed window view cabin in July this year for a sailing in October when I found a special price deal. A month before we were allocated our cabin. As the majority of window cabins on Encounter are obstructed view cabins, that it what we expected. Cabin 8706 can accommodate up to 4 people, we had 3. The beds were pull up bunks and that made the bottom bunk lower to the ground than the single - weird but they were comfortable and great for sleeping.

Unless one books a suite, most cabins on Encounter are tiny, but they are only used for sleeping, right? We certainly prefer a larger balcony cabin, but do not mind the smaller one if the price is good, as long as we are on a cruise.

The cabin was opposite the aft lifts, straight up to 14 for the Pantry and Adults only area, and pools. Straight down to deck 7 for Black Circus and deck 6 for Dragon Lady.

It was surprisingly quiet for being at the entrance to the lifts.

We were in the cabin next door Cabin 8708 on a cruise to Melbourne in 2022. We expected an obstructed view, and again we were surprised that we didn't have a tender right in front of the window blocking all water views.

The cabin had 2 Australian power points.

The muster station was D and is in Black Circus.

 

Our YouTube Petalli Travellers Cabin Tour

P.S. - I thought the fridge was fine without opening the outer door 😁. 

 

Please Visit our YouTube Channel

Petalli Travellers

 and LIKE, SHARE and SUBSCRIBE

P&O Mocktails and the Refreshment Package - Pacific Encounter

We started our cruising adventures paying as we go for our drinks - way too expensive, then we would get the alcohol package, and it was well worth it back then. The most we ever paid was $65 a day. Certainly can't drink $100+ a day now. So now it depends on the cruise lines. We were particularly impressed with the new eco friendly take away coffee cups. Often the tops were hard to put on if a staff member didn't help.

For P&O Peter buys as he goes. Jon gets the soft drink package and I get the refreshment package which includes mocktails. My favourite is Sweet Tooth. So much better now that we can get mocktails at any bars.

P&O has changed a lot in regard to mocktails. Now mocktails can be obtained at any bar. There is a new mocktail menu at the bars - above. One can also order the old  menu mocktails and sometimes, if you get the right bar staff any cocktail can be made as a mocktail. 

I like my cocktails, and if I feel like one I just buy it. However, I'm finding I sail more often not having any alcohol at all. On P&O the refreshment package is all I need. As with other cruise lines, there is no consistency with the mocktails. Passion Pop was my go to for meals as it was easier to order rather than another mocktail...... but no consistency.

Morning specialised tea or coffee, mocktails and water bottles throughout the day.

I especially like the bubble tea available now at Charlies Bar. Evening is a mocktail or two, then hot chocolate before bed - and another water bottle.

Here are the other drink menus:

 Follow PetalliTravellers on Instagram  and YouTube

Pacific Encounter Queensland Cruise

 

Early this month we went on a 7 night cruise to Airlie Beach and Cairns. We booked a guaranteed balcony cabin when at the beginning of July I saw a special deal. 

Guaranteed means we don't get to choose the cabin, the cruise lines chooses it for us. We were allocated the cabin 12408 (see cabin blog here) on 9th August - 5 weeks after booking and 3 weeks before we sailed.

The last time we were on Encounter was May 2023. Prices have been insane, so we have cruised other cruise lines that had better value. In saying that, the ship is beautiful and it was good to be on her again.

This cruise our son wanted to try the Edge activities, he enjoyed them so much, and the staff were so accommodating to his special needs, he is going to do the Extreme level next cruise in a few weeks. I'll do a dedicate blog to the Edge activities then. 

P&O Australia are the budget cruise line here. The food is great, but not a lot of variety. One needs to be inventive. However, one thing P&O Australia do the best is themes. We have been on a Halloween cruise, a Christmas cruise, a Melbourne Cup cruise and now a Fathers Day Cruise - all great decorations all around the ship. On this cruise was Fathers Day and there was Fathers Day jokes at the trivia, and decorations around parts of the ship.

P&O and Carnival do the best 'Sail Aways'.

The trivia is pretty good. We like it in the Black Circus as more people that want to do trivia can get in - 

 and get there early enough to get front seats.

When Trivia is in the Encounter Hotel, it can get quite crowded and very noisy from passengers not playing trivia but socializing. On port days it is easy to get a seat.

We enjoyed sitting in the Atrium listening to the artists playing each night before dinner and after the evening show. So many good performers. It's like a piano bar but not always with a piano player.

The Blue room after dinner was also good, and plenty of seats at the back.

The shows were good. We had seen some of them before. Went to One again. We went to first performance of One, and just wanted to see if it had changed and made more sense. It still didn't. Good songs and the first half is about saving the environment, the second half is about love.

We did go to a magician, there seems to be one every cruise now. He was entertaining.

We also went to a culinary demonstration.

In the cabin on the tv, one channel has the cruise map and the details of weather, speed, temperature, speed, and position.

Also on the cabin tv there are two sports channels 'Sports 24' where we watched the NRL games. The games were also shown on the big screen of the pool deck.

And don't forget the towels animals. Some people don't like them, we do.

Hiding and finding ducks is becoming more popular on Australian cruises. We found our first duck in 2019 on Ovation of the Seas. This one was the tiniest duck I've ever found. Found it in a elevator and had to ask a crew member to reach it for me.

Another trend becoming popular in Australia is door decorating. Didn't see a lot this cruise, but we weren't looking either.

On the last seas day we won a prize in the cruise director trivia. It was a $30 bingo voucher. The Bingo was interesting but very quick. The only other time we have played Bingo on a cruise was way back in 2009 on P&O Pacific Sun. We didn't win, either time.

One new to us this cruise was the reservation of tenders. We sailed to Airlie as a tender port and docked in Cairns. As I was looking at the app while on board I came across reservations for tenders. I chose a time for us and it was booked. Much easier than getting up early in the morning to line up for tender tickets.

A beautiful ship. We have three more cruises booked on her and it will be interesting to see what changes will happen once she is rebranded Carnival. Hopefully food choices and variety will be like Carnival, but I will miss the refreshment drink package on P&O.