This 'back-to-back' 26 day total started in Sydney. Unfortunately, Princess uses White Bay terminal in the middle of nothing. So near, yet so far from central Sydney. Check in and boarding was quick and easy, as with a small ship, there is no crowd. The balcony stateroom was o.k. if not spectacular. The balcony was small and had rust, It was partially obstructed by the ship's aft structure. Attempts to get a regular balcony were not at all met by the young staff at reception, who kept calling the request an 'upgrade', though it was not; as I had not paid for an obstructed cabin rate. The staff at reception have an obvious goal of keeping you from talking to anyone with authority. The bathroom had an unpleasant odor, which despite her best efforts, the attendant could not completely mask. We found the food to be very good, although others who had been on better lines, even other Princess cruises, thought it was not as good. Let's just say that it was a good step up from Norwegian! Several people on both legs of our cruise found our unsmiling waitress unpleasant. We just thought she was hurried and efficient. She 'took ill' and did not finish the second leg of our cruise. The buffet had good choices; I especially liked the 'real' croissants, which were warm under a heat lamp and flaky. The coffee card is a good deal, as besides excellent specialty coffee it also allows for no-charge brewed coffee at any time, instead of the coffee sludge served otherwise.

The tours were not hugely overpriced compared to the dockside private ones available, in either the NZ ports or Polynesia.Entertainment was sometimes very good, but on a small ship there is only so much they can do. We enjoyed this small ship experience. The French Polynesian ports are beautiful, but unless you are at a $1000/night over-water bungalow, there is little to do there after the snorkeling/diving and fishing, which are fabulous. No real towns and not much infrastructure, except for Papeete, a city of 140,000. Virtually all beaches in French Polynesia are private, which is a real drag.

Princess allows you to buy half bottles of liquor from room service on board, which is a real treat; even though their drink prices are not terrible. On this ship, you could also bring wine on at pretty well any port and they did not enforce the no booze rule. Very nice, although we also found their wine list was pretty good and not badly priced for the location. There is confusion between the Passenger Contract, the only legal document, which you must 'click' that you have read and agree to, which says you can take one bottle of wine aboard each and no more; and the luggage tags and e-ticket, which both say other bottles 'are welcome', if you pay corkage. The officer at reception had never read the contract (!!) and had no idea of the discrepancy. The Ports Lecturer could have been much more informative, but at least she did not flog the ship's cruises all the time. She left out a lot of useful information about the ports. The ship is very 'woodsy' which lends it a quiet air of luxury. Tendering was for the most part pretty easy; although sometimes we had to wait quite a while. Having a coin laundry on board is a godsend on a longer cruise. Overall, we very much enjoyed it and would go again.