Hi Everyone
My name is Captain Neil Turnbull and I have recently been given the honor of taking command of the 
wonderful, friendly and welcoming P&O Cruises Australia superliner Pacific Dawn, which is currently offering a variety of spectacular itineraries out of the beautiful port of Brisbane.
I hail from a little known Australian dependency in the northern hemisphere called ‘England’ and I recently obtained permission from queen Kylie (of the ‘Minogue’ household) to transfer from The P&O Cruises UK fleet to the Australian fleet ( I find this little elaboration makes the ‘Aussies’ more ready to accept me as the new ‘POME’ on the block??).
I am 38 + valued added tax (which is currently a stifling 15% in the UK – but don’t get me started on that!!), I’m married to the beautiful and my beloved Jayne and we share (well, are ruled by actually) our life with our 4 wonderful children ; Ben (6), Luke (4), Jack (3) and the apple of my eye, Charlotte (2). When home, We live an extremely happy, albeit somewhat hectic, life in a converted Dairy, on a farm, in the wilds of rural Derbyshire.
I have been at sea for some 26 years, initially as a cadet and junior deck officer working my way up through the ranks on a variety of cargo ships, tankers and high speed craft before moving to P&O Cruises UK and Princess passenger ships in 1997. I was appointed my first command in 2009 onboard Aurora and in February 2010 took over command of Pacific Dawn. As Captain, I consider myself to be extremely fortunate in that I am able to do a job that I love, and along with my valued crew, am charged with taking people on holiday and, hopefully, provide them with a wonderful cruise experience and some happy and long lasting memories – and I get paid for doing it – how good is that?
Although having occasionally visited Australia and New Zealand over the past 26 years on various ships, these previous visits were inevitably and always fleeting visits associated with calls during P&O Cruises UK ships annual world voyage cruises and my younger days on cargo ships – it would therefore be presumptuous of me to suggest that prior to now, I never had the opportunity to properly experience (and understand) the Australian culture and lifestyle. As such, It was with great trepidation that I left the snows of rural Derbyshire in Mid February to take command of Pacific Dawn thousands of miles away in the sundrenched port of Brisbane. Putting things in perspective, my expectations of life ‘down under’ were mainly based on what I had observed through my teen years by a combination of characters and plots portrayed through ‘Neighbours’ , ‘Home and Away’ and ‘Prisoner cell block H’ – those ‘wonderful’ TV series that Australia incessantly inflicted on us in The UK through the eighties’ and nineties’ (which I believe may have been Australia’s revenge for us previously inflicting on them all those series of Benny Hill through the seventies’ – Touche ??). Sufficed to say, these were all traumatic experiences of my youth that I don’t like to talk about and have inevitably scarred me for life!! Having now arrived, and I believe to be adjusting to, life in the Southern hemisphere, I am delighted to concede that The wonderful people of Australia would appear to be more akin to those cast members of Neighbours and Home and away as opposed to Prisoner cell block H – this, much to my relief, appears to be particularly true with regard to the ladies.
Since arriving on board I have found that both the crew and passengers of Pacific Dawn have been unquestioningly warm, welcoming and accepting of me, the ‘boy’ from Derbyshire, and I very much look forward to the remainder of this and my future tenures on board the magnificent and happy Pacific Dawn, where I know we will make and share those happy and long lasting experiences and memories for her valued crew and passengers.
One final note, just to clarify from day one, I’m The Captain, it’s my ship and as such, I don’t have an accent, it’s the other 2700 persons on board that have the accent 
Neil Turnbull – Captain
Pacific Dawn
P&O Cruises is pleased to advise that Pacific Dawn has not been affected and passengers are safe following Tsunami warnings in the South Pacific region.
Pacific Dawn was due to call into Napier today, however the port of Napier has been temporarily closed. As a result, Pacific Dawn is now enroute to Tauranga and will arrive as planned at 9:30am Monday 1 March. Both Pacific Jewel and Pacific Sun are also safe.
P&O Cruises is monitoring the situation closely with the relevant authorities and will update this message if the situation changes.
Thank you.
P&O Cruises
Saint Valentine’s Day (commonly shortened to Valentine’s Day) is a celebration of love and affection between intimate companions. Traditionally the day that we secretly send cards, wishes, messages, flowers and gifts to our loved ones.
The passengers and crew on board the Pacific Dawn also celebrated Valentine’s Day whilst we cruised around the South Pacific.
Three couples renewed their wedding vowels on February the 14th with the ship’s Captain, Captain Christopher Wells.
Many started their day with a romantic breakfast in bed.
Others may have received Valentine messages, cards or even gifts. I’m aware that several of the Ship’s crew had exchanged cards, some were purchased whilst others were creatively made by the crew themselves, each of them with their own unique messages.
I checked my pigeonhole and there was nothing there for me!!!!!
Our Palm Court Dining Room and other venues around the ship shared the love and created the atmosphere by decorating the rooms with colour’s of pinks, whites and reds.
Enclosed is a funny story
In 1992 whilst cruising around the World on board the SS Canberra, I was reveling in the ports of call and experiencing the tours and in general having a great time visiting so many places. My mind was focused on work, rest and play, not at home which then explains how I managed to forget to send Valentine wishes back home to my wife at that time.
My wife, of course, is at home thinking about Valentine Day. There was no getting away from the day that February 14th was a special day as this was promoted in all the papers, radio and on the television.
Whilst she was having a coffee morning with her friends at home, they were exchanging thoughts of what they had received from their husbands. My wife was cursing me for not delivering any flowers or even a card to acknowledge the day. Her friends left and the day went on. She stares at the fire place where the flowers would have been if she had received them chanting to our daughter how could he forget.
Our Daughter shouts to her mum that someone was knocking at the door and in haste my wife looked out of the window and saw the florist delivery van, she ran to open the door losing a slipper, almost tripping over the cat and saw a man in a cap holding a great big spray of flowers in front of him gracefully wrapped with red foil and ribbons of colour tied carefully into a bushy bow. The flowers themselves smelt like perfume and full of beautiful red roses, her favorite flowers, similar to the ones that she held in her hands on our wedding day.
As the door opened the delivery man spoke “sorry to bother you, however I noticed your car on the drive and thought that someone might be in. I’m new to this area could you tell me where house number 91 is please.” We lived at number 7.
All was not lost. I received a telex to the ship (we didn’t have mobile phones in those days) from her coffee morning friends to prompt me and sure enough before the day was over, 24 red roses arrived on her doorstep just like the wedding day posy.
Alyn Baker
Food & Beverage Director
Hi from Cruise Director Sandy.
It’s great to be back on Pacific Dawn after recently disembarking Pacific Sun following some great itineraries from Fremantle. I took over last week from Zoltina-J who is enjoying a well earned break.
What a great time to join Pacific Dawn as my first voyage was our inaugural ‘Comedy Wave’ cruise. My sides still hurt from laughing!
This three day floating comedy festival featured some of Australia’s finest comedians – Mick Meredith, Fiona McGary, Joel Ozborn and Tom Gleeson – plus amazing comedy magic from Australia’s number one magician James Galea. There were non-stop laughs at our very own Comedy Wave Gala, the ever popular adults only Sit Down Comedy Club, the Bogan Bingo Show and the All-Star Comedy Panel show. Our guests also enjoyed live comedy street theatre on deck and could also take part in a comedy workshop to learn the tricks of the trade from the experts. This culminated in the P&O Gong Show which saw some very entertaining passengers try their luck on stage in front of our panel of comedians. The gong was hit a few times! We didn’t find Australia’s next comedy superstar but it did make for an afternoon of hilarious fun.
To celebrate our Comedy Wave cruise we also presented a spectacular seafood buffet on deck on our first sea day. The weather was perfect, so many people were out to soak up the atmosphere along with some great music from our resident band Hit Machine. This was followed by a beer tasting presentation where our on board Food and Beverage team gave some great tips on what to look for in a good beer.
It was a jam packed entertainment schedule as we also presented lots of our regular features including the Vizion Laser Show and Laser Dance, the Pacific Entertainers starring in Motor City and all of our fabulous bands and musicians.
Our next Comedy Wave cruise will be on Pacific Jewel in July, so if you like a good laugh then this is the cruise for you.
Sandy
