The Staff was fantastic, but the ship should be condemned. There were roaches everywhere, the ship is filthy and in disrepair. The owners of this ship should be ashamed of themselves. There were broken windows, mold in the rooms, stains on all the fabrics. Beverages were not good, and we not served cold. The water in the shower dribbled out, and was ice cold. Even though we all complained, we were told to let it run. I let it run so long, the hot water was coming out yellow, and still ice cold. Doors did not close, some were warped, others were so rusted, they were about to fall apart. DO NOT BOOK THIS CRUISE!!!
We "won" this cruise at a fund raiser for the Savusavu Hospital. We were place in Suite 317 which is right next to the Yasawa Lounge. I was concerned that our room would be noisy. Imagine my surprise to discover it was probably the best room on the boat. Far enough back that I never heard the anchor being retrieved. Right next to the Lounge and Purser so finding out "what's next" was simple. We slept very soundly, much better even than when we are at home.
Our first night dinner was excellent. Our first stop was a cay that looked like it would have some amazing snorkeling, unfortunately for us, the weather did not cooperate and we were unable to get into the water. Luckily the next day was sunny and we got in two snorkels. The first had some very health coral and was fun, but it was on a sea mount so that there wasn't much interesting terrain. The second had the interesting terrain but the coral wasn't as healthy. We enjoyed both experiences.
Breakfast was always good. You can get an omelet or choose from the buffet. The bacon is "Fiji" bacon so remains delicious especially when compared to the "hard tack" one gets when American Bacon is offered at a breakfast buffet.
Drinks are kind of expensive. Consider bringing along your own bottle. You won't find out the price until you pay when checking out.
The 3-night cruise is perfect. It actually is the same as the 4 and 7 night cruise, where the ship returns to Denarau to swap out 3-night passengers for 4-night passengers while the 7-night passengers take a day off in Denarau.
We stayed at the Sofitel the night before the cruise and at the Hilton the night after. I think I preferred the Sofitel, but you are unloaded from the ship at 9AM, the Hilton was able to get us checked in by 10AM even though the standard checkin is at 3PM.
It is an easy walk from both resorts to the Marina for dinner. The Bone Fish served a nice meal on the boardwalk away from all the music. Cardo's steakhouse was great for our 5PM meal start where we had a great table on the water's edge just far enough away from the soft music that it wasn't bothersome. The Kokoda was to die for.
I think some of the criticisms of the ship are unfair. Anyone who expects to use a hot tub at any public place is nuts.
My wife and I, along with our two teenagers, recently took the 3 night Captain Cook Mamanuca and Southern Yasawa Islands cruise. While we had high expectations, sadly, we were disappointed. First off, however, let me say that the staff and crew were kind, helpful and wonderful to be around. But, in spite of the wonderful staff, the cruise experience itself was far less than advertised. The ship is old, run down and badly in need of updating. Cracked panes on the top deck viewing windows were common. The water in what barely passed for a 4 person hot tub was green. Doors were rusted and warped and, in one of our cabins, the bathroom door wouldn't even shut due to that rust.
The food - the breakfast buffet was decent. The spartan lunch buffet was average to poor. Worse, though, the ship often ran out of certain foods. My wife and I don't eat meat and, on one of the lunch buffets, there was fish and chips, which would have been fine. But, after about 10 minutes, they ran out of fish and chips and we were told that there was no more to put out. All that was left to eat for us were some green beans. Dinners were decent, but no better.
Cruise stops - The Captain Cook website advertised idyllic stops at beautiful beaches. On our cruise, that was only sporadically the case. The first afternoon after departure, the stop was a sand cay in the middle of the ocean that measured perhaps 30 x 20 meters or so. Even if the weather had been good that afternoon (it was raining), I can't imagine that stop being all that interesting. The morning of the first full day, we arrived at what looked to be a great beach on a sunny day. But, the captain got on the speaker and said that stop was being cancelled due to low tide. Well, low tides exposing the surrounding corals reefs in Fiji are commonplace. One would have thought that the cruise line would have had a plan B stop where we could have landed instead. I guess not. We ended up being trapped on the ship until mid afternoon before we could finally get off at another island.
On the positive side, the stop at the island where the movie "Castaway" was filmed was very nice, although too short (about 90 minutes). The stop the next day to see the boarding school and take a village tour was well worth our time.
In sum, though, our entire family agreed that we would have been better off just using a resort in Port Denarau as a base and take one of plentiful day trips our of the marina to see some of the outer islands. Overall, while the rest of our Fiji adventure was great, this cruise was not a good experience.