It is a long flight from Kentucky to Sydney so we got in one day early to acclimate. That went well. We stayed at the Russell Hotel right in The Rocks and it was just a short walk to the ship in the morning. It was so convenient also that Princess has an early check-in for luggage at 9am. We dropped off our bags, took a walking tour and had a great lunch. Our checkin time was 2pm, and we loved that. We hardly ever waited and were in our cabin by 2:30, unpacking our bags which were already there. So easy.

We love doing trivia on ships and that need was filled well. We like it when trivia is in the same venue as happy hour, which it wasn't here. We enjoyed the port presentations, but we did get some incorrect information about a shore excursion we wanted. We worked around that. We were disappointed that we didn't get to see many shows. We don't stay up long enough for the late ones, and the early ones were always full. As always, however, there is always plenty to do.

As for the ports, this is the problem. There just isn't enough time. We were in Auckland at noon and left at 5:30. We tried the Hop-on/Hop-off bus and really got a bad deal because it quits some pickups at 3:30. I think the only thing you can do there is shop. Tauranga was great, we had lots of time to see the vicinity. Napier arrival was at noon also, until 7pm. We got around but it is a charming town that would have been fun to see more. We missed Akaroa completely for weather. Then Dunedin was a true screw up by Princess. We arrived at 8, our tour was to begin at 9 so we were real near the front of the line. We didn't get off until nearly 10 due to some issue about buses taking us to the terminal. Several people missed tours. We saw the area, but Princess made it a really hecktic day. The tour through the Fiordland National Park was great, and the park ranger who joined the cruise did a great commentary. Read more