Pacific Dawn Port Vila

This week, our Travel pics series is C, for Cruise Ships.

The images will all be shots we have taken in, on or of cruise ships in our travels. Most we’ve actually traveled on – but a couple were passing us by.

The first for the week is the first cruise ship we ever sailed on .. P and O Pacific Dawn.

This vessel’s a quarter of a century old, and originally sailed as the Regal Princess before she was transferred to P&O and renamed the Pacific Dawn.

With exteriors designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano – and I have to say I love her lines – including the somewhat bulbous nose that others seem to find less attractive.

At the time of her launching, the ship we now know as the Dawn was one of the larger cruise liners afloat – although with her passenger manifest of 2000, she’s now only a mid-sized ship compared to the latest generation which can carry two and three times as many.

Based in Brisbane since 2009, the Pacific Dawn was mostly restricted to the South Pacific route … but with the addition of new ships to the fleet she now does a variety of routes – including up and down the Queensland coast, down to Melbourne for the Cup, short break Music and Comedy cruises … but its still the South Pacific that seems her natural home.

Our picture today comes from Vila, in Vanuatu – the ship was moored at the dock as almost all the 2000 passengers were in Port Vila, buying souvenirs and cheap alcohol – somehow seems appropriate since the majority were, of course, Aussies!