We travelled from country Victoria by train to Melbourne and got on the 109 tram to the ship which was easy and then embarkation was fairly quick. We had a great time on our second Princess Cruise and we only missed one port (Gisborne) because of bad weather. I wish it had been a longer cruise. The entertainment was mostly very good and we went to it every night. It was much quicker getting out of the Princess Theatre at the end of the shows than it had been on our last cruise on Dawn Princess. We went a couple of times to boot scooting and also to ballroom dancing. Bingo twice too. I also went for two visits to the acupuncturist and It was extremely relaxing. It took us a while to find our way around without getting confused. One thing we thought would have been better, would be to be able to get the speciality coffees, etc in the Horizon Court as well as on deck 5.

At the first port we just walked to the centre of Auckland and went up the tower there. Very good views. After lunch we did a tour around on the hop on hop off bus. We walked from Wellington also and got on the cable car to the Botanic Gardens then had a look at the museum. We went on a tour from Tauranga to Rotorua and that was good even though there was some rain. It was perfect weather at Akaroa. Loved it there. The other tour we went on was from Port Chalmers where the bus took us through Dunedin and then on to Lanarch Castle. We had morning tea there before the tour which was interesting. Past some beautiful views on the way there too. We then came back to Dunedin and went to Olveston House which was also very interesting and worth visiting.

Scenic cruising in the fiordland was wet, but that meant many waterfalls and was very impressive. Disembarkation was a quick and easy process too. The service onboard was great and we are thinking of going again on Golden Princess in November this year.