Our cruise on the Golden Princess to New Zealand roundtrip from Melbourne Jan 10-23 had both good and bad points.

First, the good. We enjoyed mostly mild seas and very good weather — there was sun and highs in the 70s F in every New Zealand port. We felt lucky, because the ship’s previous sailing to NZ had rough seas —they missed one port due to that —and rain. Our time in Auckland was reduced from a full day to a half day because the ship had to reduce speed due to “mechanical problems.” We booked direct with Princess, so got an email 2 weeks in advance telling us our circuit around NZ was changed from counterclockwise to clockwise, which changed the days we were in different ports. Our ship excursions were all automatically adjusted, but some people had no idea the itinerary was changed until they got on the ship, and they had to scramble to change private tours or plans to meet up with friends/family in NZ. Some passengers also had their ship excursions cancelled due to the change.

We heard that Auckland will be removed from cruise itineraries for the rest of 2018 due to dock construction. Read more