We had sailed previously with the Dawn Princess 4 yrs earlier and we really enjoyed the cruise. There were issues from day one with the Golden Princess. When we boarded in Melbourne it was poorly organised, a long wait. lots of confusion and staff giving wrong instructions re boarding. The wharf building was hot, overcrowded and in a state of chaos, After a long wait we finally got to our cabin and it was very average. The bathroom was unclean and in need of maintenance.Our lounge seat had a cigarette burn and the floor had not been vacuumed.We paid extra for a mini suite and were ripped off.For a ship that had supposedly been sanitised because of a previous novo virus outbreak the cabin was pretty grubby. The food was of average quality both in the buffet and dining room.The entertainment was very amateurish and communicating with staff at times was difficult as there was an obvious language barrier. It was obvious to us that on this cruise Princess have reduced their standards to maintain profits. We lodged a complaint and were offered a pathetic form of compensation which we rejected and are still waiting for a fair solution.We have since found out here are better cruise options, we won`t sail with Princess again..
Cabin was average, bathroom was grubby and in need of maintenance. On the plus side it was roomy, had a comfortable bed.
embarkation in Melbourne is a joke, the terminal has difficulty handling large volumes of people for cruise ships.
What a stunning place Auckland is, well worth a visit. We arranged our own tour from Australia online as they are a lot cheaper.
Arranged our own tour online from Oz as its a lot cheaper than Cruise ship prices and what a beautiful place Tauranga is, will be going back to do a road trip.
Just did a walk around, very small place and not far from Christchurch.
Did the train trip through the gorge which we booked from Oz, the cruise ship cost for the same tour was outrageous..Dunedin is an older town but an interesting lovely place and the locals were very freindly