We boarded the Royal Caribbean ship, Voyager of the Seas, and headed for Vanuatu. After two days at sea, we were gradually getting to know our way around the ship, and most evenings there was a theme. On the third night it was ‘70s’, however, as we came down to the lounge, we saw ‘pirates’ everywhere (clearly not 70s), and they were having a great time doing a pub crawl.
Apparently, the 'pirates' had come from all over Australia, previously unknown to each other, intrigued by the idea of
cruising on this ship. And that night was their main ‘get-together’ as pirates.
One of their group sat with us for some time and chatted; turned out he was
from the Gold Coast, just down the road from us at Highland Park!
Our first port of call was Mystery Island, a tiny uninhabited paradise only 15.9 hectares in size. It is known for its white sandy beaches and beautiful clear water. Many of our fellow passengers swam, snorkelled or took advantage of local massage whilst we walked, from the wharf to where we had tendered, along the foreshore and through the quirky local markets.
That night we attended Ice Odyssey, a wonderful celebration of dance and acrobatics on the ship’s very own ice-skating rink. Having just watched the ice skating at the Winter Olympics, it was lovely to see those fabulous moves and costumes live.
Our second port of call was the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila, on the island of Efate, which we cruised into late in 2023. In January that year Vanuatu experienced a major earthquake (7.0 magnitude) which killed fourteen people, followed in March by two category four cyclones. When we cruised in our ship had docked at the wharf and we were ferried across to the city in local boats. There we saw the utter devastation of the city, much of which was still boarded up awaiting repair, or demolition
Then in November 2024 another even bigger earthquake struck (7.3 magnitude) and another fourteen people died. This time in Port Vila at least 10 buildings collapsed, including embassies, and there was a major landslide above the main wharf.
So, on this cruise we couldn’t dock, instead we anchored offshore and tendered to shore in the ship’s tender boats. Then we took a shore excursion. We were picked up in (thankfully) an air-conditioned minibus (one of many) and our driver was a local named Glen who sometimes worked in Townsville. He drove us at great speed up into the hills and dropped us off. We transferred to an open-air jeep that took us the rest of the way up the mountain on unsealed road. Years ago, we did a driving safari across the sand dunes in Abu Dhabi in a 4WD – this trip was reminiscent of that adventure, and equally as disturbing ...
The next morning we docked at Vanuatu’s second largest city,
Luganville on the island of Espiritu Santo. Like the day before, the temperature was
in the 30s and humidity was around 90%, but we decided to walk into town, about a kilometre. On the dock we were welcomed by a group of local musicians who sang and played 'drums' on what looked like giant sets of pan flutes. Then we walked through about 100 metres of brightly coloured market stalls before we reached the main road.
The Vanuatu earthquake of 2023 had its epicentre on this island and there were still partially collapsed buildings in the main street. We went into a hardware store and also a supermarket, impressed by the size, layout and stock in the stores, then we walked back to the ship. Along the way two police motorcycles, in front and behind a ute, passed us with lights flashing. As we reached the police station a military drill was taking place in honour of a dignitary who had just arrived… presumably in the ute.
And then it was out to sea for another two days, headed back to Brisbane. That evening we saw a fabulous show called The Australian Eagles, a tribute to The Eagles from the 70s and 80s, and the next evening it was Music in Pictures with unforgettable songs and scores from the movies over the years.
But the highlight entertainment this cruise was Brisbane impressionist Jonathan Clark who did 'accurate' impressions of famous singers like Neil Diamond, Michael Bublé, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Elvis Presley. He had us in stitches when he 'did' Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, just to name a few, along with his remarkable impressions of cassette tapes rewinding and running down. A very funny and entertaining man who once had a resident show in Las Vegas.
