Neptune suite was great and he Neptune Lounge is fantastic. No waiting in line at the front desk and terrific concierge help at the Neptune suite. First three/fourths of the trip was great. But at Napier, New Zealand, we broke down. A defective thruster. We were supposed to leave Napier at 4:30 PM. That departure time came and went and we stayed there at the dock overnight and NOT ONE WORD from anyone on the ship. Nothing from the captain. The next morning, captain announces the thruster is fixed but we will continue to stay in Napier another day and not depart until 10:30 PM. As a result, he announced we will skip the next two ports of call, which were Bay of Islands and Auckland! Compensation was $100 a person OBC and 20 percent off your next cruise.

Concensus among the passengers was that we could have at least stopped at Bay of Islands, since it was a tender port.

Next: food on the Lido deck is prepared and individually served, usually by one person. Limited seating. Lines were usually ten to fifteen minutes long, even for toast. Could they not have two people preparing the meals??? Lido food service closed at 8 PM every night. Food in the DR is good but as the trip progressed, there was more and more soup, such as apricot soup, peach coconut soup, mushroom soup, potato soup, parsnip soup, carrot soup, and my favorite-- meatball soup. As the days went on, there was less and less fresh fruit, such as strawberries. At one point, the wine steward charged someone else's drinks to our account. When I pointed this out to the front desk, I was told it had to be investigated (?) I protested and on the spot, the purser took it off the bill. Read more