We decided to take he same cruise on the Golden Princess we experienced in Dec 2015. We came away after the 2015 cruise highly satisfied with the Ship, the staff, the service, the itinerary, New Zealand and the people of New Zealand.

This time - not so much.

The Golden Princess is showing its age in many ways. They had issues with their engines maintaining an appropriate speed - so reversed our itinerary less than 2 weeks before travelling. The whole ship shuttered and vibrated each time they were attempting to dock at the ports. This was usually early mornings so no chance of a little sleep in. The lifts banged loudly day and night in moderate to rough sea's (nights were obviously worse being continually woken up). Water leaked from light fittings, automatic doors often failed to open, Spa's on deck 16 aft were continually out of service - with one having issues with the thermostat making it way to hot to sit in and the other having no jets working. We had issues with our air conditioning barely working - thankfully days were not over hot. People were smoking in non smoking areas and when I complained to the Pursers desk they were blasé about it. Read more