This cruise was part of a 30 day extravaganza to celebrate a good friends 60th birthday as well as my 65th birthday and 40th anniversary. The core part of the trip was the cruise which was picked due to its itinerary and "Solstice" style ship which meant we could travel "Aquaclass".

First we had to get to Auckland from Boston. We decided to break the air flight into pieces and spent one night in LA and then 6 nights in Tahiti (Bora Bora was fantastic). This really made the flying reasonable and we would recommend this approach for all South Pacific cruises.

Once we got to Auckland, everything went smoothly in getting on the ship. Our stateroom was 1610 which is on the "Hump". Again I think most readers would like the hump staterooms on this class of ship as they offer a larger balcony and give you some great view forward as the ship sails. We never had a wind problem. Read more