I have been on a number of cruises and I was interested to try Princess Cruises so my mother and I and four friends took a 13 day Dawn Princess cruise from Melbourne on 29 March 2014. It called at number of New Zealand ports (plus a day in Fiordland) and returned to Melbourne.

Embarkation was easy taking about half an hour. I have always booked an inside room, as I get seasick and would rather not look at the ocean, however we booked a balcony room for the experience. The balcony room we had was comfortable, however was quite small compared to the inside rooms, maybe the extra room was taken up by the balcony. It was a nice experience having the balcony going into and leaving the ports and the day in the Fiordland. During the sea days it was too windy and cold to sit outside. On a cruise to the islands where the weather is warmer it would be a very nice experience. However I can't seem to justify the price of a balcony cabin when you can sit up on the deck and only sleep in it.

The weather in this part of the world is changeable, and there were two days suitable for sun-baking. In all the weather was very good, compared to other reports on cruises in this region. Of course as we headed south the weather was cooler with a few rainy patches. The sea was quite calm and just a tiny bit rocky at night. Read more