OzKiwiJJ

Napier is famous for it's Art Deco buildings, built after most of the city was severely damaged in an earthquake. My mother was actually there at the time and even the slightest tremor terrified her after that. There are usually walking tours available, either guided or I think you can get a self-guide tour sheet at the i-Site. I think there are also vintage car tours available but I'm not sure how you book them. Otherwise wine tours are popular - Hawkes Bay is one of NZ's premier wine regions.

It was certainly very interesting and better timed than most port arrivals, which are usually too early in the morning for me! We love watching the sailaways though and NZ has some very interesting ones. If the ship travels from Tauranga to Napier overnight it will be a short visit like we have now as it's a long way around East Cape. Often itineraries have a sea day between Tauranga and the lower North Island ports so then you get a longer stay in Napier, as we did on Celebrity Solstice a few years ago. Since it's so close to Christmas we're having our first sea day between Lyttelton and Port Chalmers on Christmas Day.

Yes, we did our pre-embarkation RATs the night before and took photos of the negative result. We were asked to show the photos during check-in in Auckland as I hadn't managed to get them to load into Verifly. The instructions from HAL differed from what Verifly wanted.

We have finally docked at Napier, an hour later than originally scheduled. It was fascinating watching the ship enter the harbour. We approached the container wharf part head on, then turned to back into the harbour where the ship had to make a 90 degree turn to dock against the wharf. Very impressive! The ship has only now (11:40am) been cleared for passengers to go ashore. Since Napier is a working port we can't walk off. Shuttle buses will be provided to take passengers to the i-Site information centre close to the city centre. We've been to Napier a few times in the past so aren't going to rush to go ashore, especially as it's a bit cool and showery. We'll have lunch in the buffet then see what the weather and shuttle queues are like. All aboard time is 5:30pm which probably means looking at queuing for a shuttle back around 4:30pm.

I think reporting the numbers is a great idea. It makes people more aware of what is happening onboard. I wish they had done that on Coral Princess during our various cruises o her recently. Too many people are getting too complacent. One additional bonus of having a mandatory RAT this morning is that you feel a bit more comfortable when the maskless idiots walk past you onboard, for the rest of today at least.

Princess Live is an area with lecture theatre type seating that has replaced the Explorers Lounge on Royal Class ships, like Majestic. It's not a good space for trivia.

We've just done RATs on Westerdam. We had to return to our cabin by 9am, the test kits were issued by our steward and checked once completed. I'm very interested in hearing the Captains announcement later today as we leave Napier - he has been announcing the Covid numbers onboard. Last night only two, both crew members.

Meanwhile lots of people on Coral complain because the International Cafe isn't on deck 5 in the Atrium. 🤣🤣🤣 I thought the Coral location was good but it should have a wall between it and the Casino to cut down the noise.

It will be interesting to see which cafes / restaurants survive now the majority of the cruise ships will dock in Lyttelton instead. It's still a popular NZ holiday town though, and an easy day trip from Christchurch for the locals.

The Gala dinner last night was nice. Fillet mignon, rack of lamb and yellowtail fish were the prime options - I had the lamb and it was beautiful. Lobster was available at extra cost. 😡 Everyone at our table dressed formally but some people were very casually dressed. We really do have one of the best tables in the Dining Room. We scored the window seats last night (we all agreed to take turns) and had wonderful wake views. Tonight we're going to Canaletto for the first of our included speciality dinners.

We have done our RATs, both negative, and are now sitting in Explorations overlooking the bow as we head into Napier. Great views but the coffee is still bad despite trying to ask that they actually espress the coffee directly into the espresso cups. Their barista needs training badly! I miss Aljay who made the best espresso on Coral Princess! We had breakfast in the buffet this morning. It's mayhem! People barging everywhere. Some of the food is served to you but other items are self service and things are all over the place. The tea/coffee area is also messy - mugs middle left, teabags to the right, hot water in the middle, bin for used teabags on the far right, milk middle left but half & half far right. Of course I guess I could make my tea American-style - get the mug, add hot water, get the teabag and add it to the now slightly less hot water, then dispose of the tea bag and add half & half to my tea. Yuck!

The defaults are probably Queen Bed and Open Dining so easily missed if that's what you want.

@SilvertoGold Tauranga port info. Tauranga is a walk off port. Make sure you take photo-id ashore with you for when you come back through the port entrance. The wharf is actually in Mount Maunganui with shops, restaurants, and beaches a short walk away. There is an i-Site information booth just inside the port gates and you can get tours through them, including the HoHo bus. There is a new ferry that runs from the wharf just outside the port gates (just past the ice cream kiosk) to Tauranga. It will operate until the end of March. Tauranga is the port for day trips to Rotorua (NZ's main thermal area) and Hobbiton. There are walking tracks up Mt Maunganui, and a thermally heated swimming pool complex at the bottom.

We have mandatory RATs this morning. We all have to be in our cabins by 9am when the test kits will be delivered. Once we have done the RAT we have to show the result to our cabin steward. The captain is announcing Covid numbers during his daily announcement. Yesterday just before departing Tauranga there were two cases onboard - both crew members. It will be very interesting to hear his report this afternoon. 🤔😁

Strange. Maybe they've changed things but we only booked this cruise in June which is why I thought Open Seating must have been full. The dining choice is usually just before or after where you choose the bed configuration from memory. Similar to Princess.

I imagine Open Dining was booked out by the time we booked this cruise. We've done Anytime Dining on Princess and all their dining is like that now. You can reserve a table for a set time each night but it doesn't always work out. Anyway we're happy to have the later dining time at the moment, we prefer to dine later.

Yes, there is quite a comprehensive wine list. It reminds me a bit of Princess wine lists before 2019 but with even more choice by the glass.

Rolf got a proper, and quite decent, espresso in the MDR with breakfast. But the obes in the supposed speciality cafe/bar were pitiful. I never drink lattes onboard ships. They usually use long-life milk which tastes nasty to me when heated.

We're on Westerdam, not Noordam.

It just came up as one of the selections when we booked. I think it only had two options, Early and Main, but there is apparently Open Dining as well.

We spotted the Lincoln Centre Stage this morning. It looks interesting but we might not get a chance to go there until the sea days. We went up to the Explorations Cafe for coffee. Really bad espresso. Made into a shot glass then tipped into a cold espresso cup to serve so the crema was lost. It was very noisy there too, especially as the woman sitting next to us kept making phone calls.

I reckon!

I'm very impressed with the laundry service on Westerdam so far. We put in a very well-stuffed bag of laundry last night - left on the bed for our steward to collect during evening turndown - and it was back in our cabin by 10am this morning. That has to be an all-time record for ship laundry services!

Daytime temperatures are often hot in Australia at that time of the year. Our native animals have evolved to sleep during the heat of the day and are more active at dawn and dusk when it's cooler. Koalas, like cats, sleep 20 or so hours a day and are mostly nocturnal.

I can't see us getting to any of the shows on this cruise. The times just don't fit with Traditional Dining times. The early show is 7pm - we could just make it to dinner afterwards but it would be a rush and we'd run the risk of delaying our table for service. The second show is 9pm, possible if dinner service is very fast and we rush through the meal but that would annoy me too much. We really enjoy relaxed dinners onboard.