New Zealand was on my husband's bucket list for a long time. We decided the best way to get a feel for the country is to do a cruise & sample as many ports as possible. So we chose Holland Americas 14 day cruise with 8 ports. It was fantastic. Lots of stops in the South Island and also on the North Island. Unfortunately, because of large swells in the port of Christchurch where we were mooring because of damage to the wharf from the earthquake, we had to skip this port. It was unsafe to transfer to/from a tender. But everything else was fairly smooth sailing. The upside was that we were able to spend another 3/4 day in Dunedin & we saw a castle that we wouldn't have otherwise seen! Yeah!

Food was delicious in both the Lido and main dining area. We did not try the "pay" restaurants, but hear good things from others.

Entertainment (with the exception of 2 acts) was the only area that could use improvement. The Noordam singers/dancers were not the caliper that we are used to on Holland. Also the "other" activities on sea days could have been improved. No free popcorn for movies...boooo!!! Read more