Beautiful area, caught ferry to Russell and had lunch. Avoided expensive ship cruise.

Bay of Islands

The good aspects are:

- Great headline entertainment in the main theatre

- Friendly and energetic staff

- Spacious on-board health centre, including hair salon

The bad aspects:

- Onboard 18 per cent service fee for food and beverages came as a shock to us, most cruises out of Australia/NZ do not have this

- Toilets didn't work in our cabin and even in public areas on some days

- Power plugs not configured for Australia/New Zealand plugs and no onboard adapters available

- Drinks service on busy nights very slow and disorganised, wait up to 30 minutes

- Lack of available fresh juice, including in cocktails

- Kid's club had an excessive age range of 2-12, and therefore didn't adequately cater for over sixes - mainly a place for toddlers.The main Palm Court bar is set aside for loud entertainment and the main lobby bar's setting and feel is damaged by a large video screen

- Extra 15 per cent goods and services tax added to goods when out of port, although it is hard to know when this tax will apply (when do we cross territorial waters boundary?

Explorer Dream Review

Very disappointing

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Bay of Islands

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