This cruise was our 1st cruise and reasonably short, but long enough to know if we would enjoy cruising. Being a Chinese owned ship, it was mostly Chinese workers where 1/2 of them would wear face masks (which made it very hard to understand someone with an accent let alone wearing mask also). Two of the three free restaurant were often full as they didn't sit people together!!!! We had a table for 6 more than once with just the 2 of us. The pavilion did a banquet which was all brought out together and never kept hot. The dream dining room had the same seating arrangements and a choice of 3 meals from set menu. These guys were so busy that the plate was taken out from under you and next course given when you hadn't finish last mouthful. The food in all restaurants was Luke warm. GST +18% SURCHARGES were placed on all non inclusive items. Read Less

My wife and I booked this cruise on impulse on a one day special. This ship normally operates in the Asian market The Ship had been recently upgraded and was overall good. Lacked a quiet lounge for reading, relaxing.and conversation. The ship has upmarket palace rooms, they have there own exclusive restaurants and pool area. The other cruises we've been on have the expensive rooms but don't rope off parts of the ship. Has an us and them vibe. The included food was in three dining areas, European, Chinese, and the buffet. The food ranged from very good to very average. We generally avoided the buffet, I'm sure passengers made use of the specialty restaurants, but quite expensive. I guess they can't make the included food too good, else why would you go there. I would say the included food was better on all the other cruises we have been on. The entertainment was some of the best we've seen. Don't be late, or you won't get a seat. The crew were great for there helpfulness and attitude. Language was an issue at times. The main thing that made this cruise enjoyable for us was the weather and the ports. we really hit it lucky with beautiful hot clear blue skies. We did one ship excursion.( Wildlife Dunedin)It was a fascinating and fun day with knowledgeable tour guides. we looked after ourselves for the other ports. Mid cruise questionnaires would help the Management learn our market faster and fix niggling problems on the fly. In conclusion, this ship isn't that far off the mark. They will need to improve more in the australasian market. There is a lot of competition. Read Less

To be honest, we chose this ship for the price of the cruise (circumnavigating NZ) and the beautiful decor shown in photos. We were not disappointed! The decor is top quality - everything on the ship is the very best. Some may complain that some carpets were not replaced in the recent refurbishment but then some people have to find fault with everything! Best cruise we have ever experienced. Loved every minute and would go again tomorrow! We ate in the 'Dream Dining' room for every meal. Great food and the waiters very professional. All staff were great. There was a big choice of restaurants . The Zodiac theatre - huge! The entertainment, as good as any in Las Vegas. Huge casino! Embarkation and disembarkation quick and flawless. Fire drill well organized as was the organization of everything on the ship. Many spa pools and plus the large ones and a decent sized water slide. Bars and BBQ close by. We were able to walk around the entire outside of the ship - good for photos, especially in the 'Sounds'. I would give the cruise 91/2 out of 10. The other half taken off because of the lack of NZ news on the TV - all Australian (as is the currency used). Also, broadcasts were difficult to understand re the accents and sound volume. Daily newspapers were very informative. **If you have a bad back - take an inflatable support cushion as not one seat on the ship has anything but a straight back - with no support. The ship is fast at 25 knots full speed - to get around NZ in 7 nights, a lot of the shore excursions were necessarily quite short. For example if you can catch the first tender off at 9am (need to buy tender tickets the day before) the last tender leaves the shore at 12.30pm. It wasn't possible - apart from Bay of Islands stop to have time for a worthwhile paid excursion. People complain about the price of the drinks package. BYO - we did in our luggage - which was not checked at any stage! :) Strangely - being school holidays, there were very few children to be seen anywhere. We are two sisters on the wrong side of 50! Treat yourself to cruise on this beautiful ship. Read Less

1. Entertainment and Activities: Excellent evening shows of high standards. Amazing staging and costumes. Plenty of daytime activities to suit all tastes. Needs a quiet area to relax away from other activities - the designated Palm Court lounge was always busy. Note singer Wesley claimed he was an ex Commodore not from the Stylistics as noted in other reviews. 2. Dining. Disappointing. Only two western food outlets ( restaurant and pizzeria). Meals lacking vegetables and very small portions served on oversized plates. Western food cooking techniques need improvement. All other restaurants Asian and at additional cost. The Lido deck buffet selection was poor, more Asian based, although free. Free fruit drinks were powder-based. Fresh fruit drinks, carbonated drinks, and alcohol incurred an additional charge of 18% plus GST of 15%. This is on top of an inclusive gratuities charge paid with your fare. Who's profiting? 3. Service. Excellent most of the time. A few exceptions include some alcohol and food service. 4. Cabin. Clean and tidy although dated. The steward could not have been more helpful. 5. Ports. The time allowed in ports was extremely limited. Visits starting at very early mornings (amenities not open) and leaving early afternoon. Not acceptable. 6. Overall. Embarkation and disembarkation smooth. This company needs to up its game for Western customers or other cruise lines will benefit. Read Less

We went on the Explorer Dream Christmas cruise around New Zealand. We were attracted to it because it looked different and made an early booking. Then as reviews rolled in about the initial cruise to and around Australia we grew apprehensive. We needn't have, we thoroughly enjoyed the week. Highlights included the excellent service and friendliness provided by the crew from restaurant staff to the front office team, ticket office, casino staff and our cabin steward. The staff were most concerned about my wife having to spend a day in bed after a rocky trip around north cape, and offered a range of treatments. That storm was nothing to do with the ship, it could have happened anywhere and the bridge did what they could to avoid the worst of it (a tip, try not to book a forward cabin as high as the 11th floor where we were, the ship's motion is accentuated running into a storm) The second highlight was the shows, we attended all we could and they should not be missed. Thirdly the food was good in all the venues we attended, the Lido buffet, Dream Restaurant, the Pavilion (highly recommended Chinese), and we didn't mind paying for the Mark Best seafood platter, Teppanyaki and Blue Lagoon (very good value). And of course our visit to Milford and Doubtful Sounds was a highlight. Dream Cruises have obviously responded to criticism received about earlier cruises. An example, disembarking in Wellington was reported to be chaotic on the first visit. For our cruise a system of ticketing was introduced which worked very well. No delays at all, nor were there with embarking and disembarking in Auckland. "Cons" might be the short time in some ports which limited what you could do. Also the cabin we had, while very comfortable in the main, you could tell where the makeover started and stopped eg the tiles over the bathroom basin were about to fall off the wall. Also while we willingly paid the "compulsory" gratuities for the crew's sake, Dream Cruises need to recognise Kiwis like Aussies don't like paying these and its policy should be the same for all Australasian cruises. It currently isn't. We found the "classic" drinks package was good value, although the range of wines hopefully will include more NZ ones in the future. Overall a most enjoyable trip, thank you to the crew of the Dream Explorer! Read Less

There is nothing luxurious about the Dream Explorer. Despite the millions advertised spent in renovations, most guests will not feel it because a good bulk of the renovations went into the palace suites that 95% of the passengers will not be able to see or experience. Regular rooms remain old, outdated, small, and oftentimes dirty. The casino, VIP palace decks, expensive non-inclusive restaurants, and smoking areas occupy way too much valuable space on the ship that the majority will not be able to use. The rooms are old, average cruise ship sized, and dirty. The bed was small but comfy, the bathroom is tiny and really old will be a problem to get into if you are overweight. I am 180cm, 72kgs (Tall and slender) and the bathroom was way too tiny for me to get in and out. Pillows were absolutely filthy with years of stains if you, unfortunately, have to take a look under the pillowcase. Walls and ceilings squeak at night when the ship sways back and forth. The sink and shower have trouble draining, the bathroom cups don’t get changed the entire week. The shower and bathroom have mold, the hallways smell, the balcony is small with a tiny rusty stool looking table that can only fit an ashtray. Walls are thin and you can hear outside the halls. At times, the rooms smelled inside from other passengers who were smoking from the balcony. Overall, very poor, dirty, and outdated rooms. Couldn’t wait to get off the ship! The food from the 3 inclusive restaurants will get tiring quickly despite daily rotations. The food is very average at best with some days below average and quite disappointing. Afternoon “all day” snacks are very cheapo, consisting mainly of French fries and one other Coscto-type fried frozen food. Drinks outside of coffee, tea, water, and the apple juice machine are not included. It seems like the staff is constantly trying to sell you something everywhere you turn whether it’s drink packages, discounted watches, perfume, tickets to paid shows, overpriced “duty-free” liquor which you can’t even open on the ship, and of course day trip excursions. This can be tiring to see. The worst part of the cruise is no doubt the other passengers. Consisting of 1400 guests primarily from Mainland China, Australia, India, and Southeast Asia, these are some of the loudest, poorly mannered, and rude people to be stuck on a boat with. Many are inconsiderate, greedy, wasteful and don’t know how to follow directions. The safety drill on the first day was a clear sign that the ship would be unable to handle an emergency as many of the passengers during the safety drill could care less and didn’t know how to follow directions. Meanwhile, the staff has a hard time enforcing any rules from dress code to safety. Also note, there are several smoking areas onboard which can be bothersome to non-smoking guests. The staff is very young, energetic, and pleasant to be around. There’s about 1000 staff primary from Southeast Asia. They may be a bit inexperienced at times, but extremely attentive and overall looked happy to serve. Entertainers from singers, dancers, and other performers came from all around the world. It was truly an international cast at a high caliber of talent. This was probably the highlight of the trip. The cruise director did a fantastic job. The new Sydney to Auckland route has stops at Wellington, Dunedin, Gisborne, and Auckland. Pretty much all these port stops were very unexciting for those who have already traveled the world. It’s definitely more of a convenience cruise for those who already live in Australia and can easily board the ship. Gisborne has almost no tourist attractions at all besides a few statues on the beach. The small run downed town is very quiet and not very catered to tourists. The wine in the city's "wine center" is horrible. Dunedine has limited sites and it's claim to fame is having the worlds “second” steepest residential street and an old railway station. Wellington is of course the capital and a pretty normal city with nice views from the the top of the cable car ride. The best part of the cruise was passing by Milford Sound early in the morning. However, it is not a port stop. Where the boat shines is high-quality entertainment. There’s a different show every day and a wide variety of music choices that will keep you entertained. Shows consists of magic, and several original productions that consists of acrobats and dancing. They’re all very good. There's a very talented couple called Twice As Nice with the husband, Westley Stevens claiming to be a former member of The Stylistics. He supposedly also worked with Lionel Richie and many stars to write several hit songs including Sister's Sledge's "We are family" etc. However, once you go home and google him, there is absolutely nothing on the internet that proves that Westley Stevens was an original member of The Stylistics. There's even quite a few internet posts claiming he is a fraud, yet Genting Cruise lines continues to heavily promote him as a former member of the Stylistics etc. Overall, I will never go on another Genting cruise. It is basically a mass-market cruise that fails to break into the luxury market. Given the many choices in luxury cruises, there are far better with higher standards. Read Less

This review would mainly be based on ‘The Palace’ which I would highly recommend. 14 nights, Singapore-Jakarta-Bali-Darwin-Cairns-Gladstone-Sydney. As this was a maiden voyage of this cruise line touring out of China, communication was the biggest hurdle. Once we got to the right port, check in seemed very unorganised. We chose a Palace Suite which was an upgraded package, and was advertised "A boat within a boat, with VIP treatment". This entitled us to a different check in lounge and process different to standard. After standing in lines that weren't moving and checking twice that this was for "Palace guests" and being told everyone checks in here we finally saw other people being ushered to what seemed where we should be, and sure enough, we had a separate area to check in, which was what we expected finally. Once on the boat, we went straight to our room to check it out. Room 09212. Centre back of boat. Old, but clean and tidy. (The new refurbishment didn't make it to this part of the boat) We did however change rooms after 1 week as our room vibrated and was very noisy with a heavy propeller noise at full steam ahead (which with earplugs was more tolerable) but once we knew more rooms were available after Darwin departure we got moved to Room 10022 which was so quiet, we then realised how bad our old room was! "The Palace" was an area for guests who splashed out, and we thought highly worth it. Own pool area, bar, restaurant and casino. (I wouldn't recommend for children) The service and food was flawless, the staff were amazing and all food and drink (including spirits) was included in this package. Took us a while to work out our butler service and she did struggle with English, but everyone was so helpful and on call to please us. The night time shows were spectacular, but were repeated. Easy to get a seat at with reserved seating for Palace guests, but also seemed fine for everyone else. The daytime entertainment lacked in having much to do at sea days, and when they did have something on it was badly organised, much due to lack of knowing what an out of Asia market would want. We didn't hold back in telling them and they were very eager to make changes and we did notice them become more organised as the trip went on. (The chaos sometimes added to the entertainment!) We didn't stray to far from our Palace entitlements, as when we did it did look very chaotic and we had spoken to a lot of others who weren't quite happy with the standard service. The free restaurants on the boat were 'The Lido’ which got the nickname 'the piggery' as it was a bit of a snatch and grab no manners ordeal. Food was standard buffet style. Free tea and coffee water and juice was available at all times.’Dream Dining’ was great food but service very slow. ‘The Pavilion’ was authentic Chinese and the Chinese loved it. Heard that the alcohol was very expensive, would recommend a drinks package if you want more than a few. There looked to be a fantastic kids club, (we didn't take our children on this cruise) but there were no kids!! Saw about 3 the whole time. The excursions were a bit of a let down, as the ones we wanted to do never seemed to get enough interest to get opened and go ahead. So we were always in limbo if we were on our own or at the last minute they would say 'we got enough people'. We didn't quite understand with 1800 passengers, why they couldn't scratch 35 people minimum together. Because the ships passengers were mostly Chinese, we found out they weren't interested or they went on the Chinese speaking tour and they didn't get enough numbers for the ones we wanted to do. However we had a blast hiring private drivers for the day in a group we made friends with on our own, a piece of cake to do in all ports we stopped at. Overall "The Palace" experience made our trip amazing. I would say it would have been average if we had choosen to go main stream. Improvement was happening as the cruise went on, and all staff were helpful and friendly. Once they nail the communication, organisation will get better! We will be back to sail again another day! Read Less

The destinations were numerous and interesting and the 14 days to relax after a 9 day tour of China was very inticing. The price was exceptional. On board the cruise staff were warm and welcoming. They did everything possible to make sure we had a happy and interesting time. Nothing was too much trouble. The dining options were numerous and varied. The food was beautifully presented and of a very high standard. The service was excellent provided by dining staff who did all they could to ensure we had a great experience. Our inside stateroom was very comfortable. We had tea and coffee making facilities along with a fridge. Our room was serviced daily and kept clean, with fresh towels and linen provided. We loved hanging out in the Palm Court, relaxing and enjoying a drink and a chat with the staff and other travellers. There were many inside and outside areas to visit and enjoy. The pool area was beautiful. We had many enjoyable experiences with cruise staff. We went to as many of the shows as possible. They were of the highest standard with world class acts. We also enjoyed the many other musical and other activities available. We had a wonderful time and would thoroughly recommend Explorer Dream to our friends and family. Read Less

Went on 5 day cruise from HK to Philippines. Unfortunately, there were some changes to the itinerary prior to sailing ( Borocay closed by the government so went to Subic Bay instead, and Manila docking changed from 8am until 11am which was a bit annoying ). Embarkation in HK brilliant - mainly because so few people get on here, so no waiting time and pretty much straight on the ship. The downside to that is that you have a 3-4 hour wait in Nansha both ways to pick up and drop off the majority of the passengers, given this is an Asian ship catering for the Chinese market. We had an inside cabin and it suited us fine. It was spacious enough for 2 single beds, has fridge and safe and TV and kettle and all the things that you require in a cabin, apart from a view. Beds comfortable with nice pillows. Turn down service most nights, but no towel animals. As a vegan I always struggle on cruises. We ate in the Lido each meal and found a wonderful food manager, Burhan, who went out of his way to make sure that we had a hot vegan meal each night. The salads were some of the best I have seen on a cruise, with plenty of variety and although I struggled with breakfast only being able to eat fruit, there was ample choice for those that eat a full diet. The main dining rooms unfortunately offered very little in the way of vegetarian or vegan options. We did not eat at any of the speciality restaurants. Entertainment was once again great, with 3 different shows on our cruise, which you have to book once on board ( no charge ). The only issue we repeatedly find on this cruise line is the passengers come in late, stand in the aisle, talk and then leave before the show ends or the house lights come on. Staff did a good job trying to control this but they are fighting a losing battle. Cruise staff brilliant. Godie and his team on this cruise were fabulous and provided a variety of activities, with lots of fun and smiles. They really know how to make you feel welcome and how to get people involve and enjoying themselves. We did a Behind the Scenes tour, which is run by the cruise staff, and found this well worth doing and very interesting. There was dancing and a real party atmosphere most nights. The ship is lovely, and having also travelled on Genting, I liked this ship more. There are less poker machines and while the casino does spill out a bit, its not as bad as on Genting. The place is spotlessly cleaned, with staff constantly cleaning. Only issue is smoking is allowed on board in the casino, and the smoke does waft through the casino and the area around it. After 30 minutes sitting at a poker machine, which is a non smoking area, my clothes smelt of smoke. Although this is a ship designed and staffed for the Chinese market, we may have stood out but never felt left out as Westerners and everything we went to had both a Chinese and an English speaking staff member. We found all the English speaking staff very friendly and found more of the Chinese speaking staff making an effort on this cruise compared to previous cruises. Overall, we had a fabulous time on this cruise, mainly thanks to the cruise staff and how exceptionally nice they are and the generally nice Asian hospitality. Read Less

Just did a 6 days Hong Kong Vietnam Cruise, 2 adults with kids 9 and 11. It was our second cruise. Very glad we choose the PALACE SUITE upgrade, and this particular World Dream cruise-ship. The room is fantastic with a huge bathroom, much storage and an easy-to-fold down sleeper for the kids while the ship is less then a year old having cost almost a billion USD (build in Germany). The Palace VIP upgrade comes with many perks, e.g.: • Personal butler for your room available 6 x 15 hours. Can call her/him from anywhere on the ship to sort out small issues/make bookings/a lost bag/etc. • access to the VIP/PALACE area which covers about 1/3rd of the ship in the front. Economy class passengers do not have access to this area. The buffet restaurant (breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper till 2am) is fantastic with great views/service/food. No need to queue here (while in economy obtaining a lobster requires strong elbows and immaculate timing Read Less

We cruised in a Palace Suite as the All Inclusive offer appealed to us and the cruise fare was not much more than a balcony cabin. The Palace is a private ship within a ship concept, complete with Butler service, drinks included, Palace speciality restaurant, free wifi and a chance to dine once at the other speciality restaurants on board We pretty much tried everything on board and loved the private Palace pool area which has a huge amount of loungers, mini cabanas etc all of which are hardly used so make for a nice peaceful sanctuary. There are 4 spa pools, two hot and two cold also in this area and there is no shortage of service around the pool area with drinks replenished on a regular basis. The Zook beach club is a neat area and they hold lively parties there at night, a bit like being in a top beach side night club. The ship is 2 years old but still has that brand new immaculate feel about as she is very well maintained. Try the water slides, they are a total rush with various speeds and hair raising drops for the adventurous Read Less

Most of the crew members have a bad attitude. Felt like they just wanted to complete their jobs and get out of there. It's 6 days of nightmare but we tried to stay calm and minimize any need to request for a service after several bad experiences on the first day itself. We took the cruise from Hong Kong to Japan. Most stops in Okinawa are very brief and shore excursions were mostly filled with shopping trips at local pharmacies or tourist gift shops! Food at the main dinning were average at best so we resorted to dinning mostly at speciality restaurants. We also tried late breakfast and lunches to avoid the crowd and lack of proper arrangements to help guests get a table. The ship is pretty new and very well designed. It's unfortunate the service didn't made the experience rather poor. For the prices paid, it's not worth it. Read Less