FunforGin

Ooooh! Thats sooo naughty!!@$*** :)

Great idea, thanks for that! Will look into it:)

Get someone to bring them?Good thinking batman!

I did ask our room steward if we could buy them onboard...she said no:(

Love it! Now I have to go look at a world map (if I can find one) to see where they all are!:)

All 3 in our suite were included:)

Super disappointed!

Went to order the fantastic Princess feather pillows and covers, only to discover shipping to New Zealand is going to cost more than the cost of the items - unbelievable!

Now, I understand that it does cost more to ship to "down under" but that has to be the most excessive shipping cost I have ever been quoted!

Apparently Fedex isn't linked for international shipping on their website so I contacted customer services to get a quote, this is the response I received:

"Thank you for that information. The cost of the products would be $259.92 USD. The cost to ship would be $348.49 USD additional to the cost of the items, plus any duties or taxes paid upon arrival."

My response was:

"Thank you but I'm not going to buy anything that costs more to ship than it does to buy the items:) "

Okay, I'm sad now:(

There was a change recently regarding complimentary speciality dining for suite guests on cruises less than 7 (?) days. Apparently it was removed for the shorter cruises. However, I recently returned from a four day cruise on Golden Princess and on arrival there was a letter in our suite inviting us take advantage of the complimentary speciality dining offer - was so happy to see that as I had booked long before they removed that perk for short cruises:)

Ginny

Was thinking today, I bet some of you CC family members have cruised on lots of different oceans, I would love to know!

Wanna name them all?;p

CC has really helped educate and inform me (as a newbie) and so when I experienced my first cruise I kinda knew what I was in for (except the weather!) and that really helped my OCD for 'planned spontaneity' :)

Hey Sue,

Welcome home!

I'm so sorry to hear the weather was wet and cool but at least NZ turned it on for you in Fiordland - the most important part of the cruise for you IMHO:)

Yes, I think the crew were amazing considering they have to work, we just had to survive and show up at meal times!

Totally sucked we didn't get to use the awesome balcony on this cruise, but I'm hopeful for next cruise, will be lower down on Dolphin, aft suite...already looking forward to it, and planning on what to do in Adelaide when we debark....going to stay there for four nights before flying back to Kiwiland:)

Yay! Go for it!

Am looking forward to next cruise in Jan 2018 on Golden again! ☆☆

Heck I like Princess Cruises so much I named my six chickens after their ships!

Goldie

Ruby

Saphie

Emme

Coral and Dawn LOL!! :)

No got back 8 days ago. We debarked in Auckland but she continued around NZ then returned to Melbourne. I'm spoilt for any other ship now too. Seems a lot of people who have cruised on her love her:)

Ah! We are debarking at Adelaide and staying for four days there before flying back to Auckland. I'm from Manawatu-Wanganui area. You? :)

I know theyre best pillows I've ever used. They used the larger pillows in the suite.....sooooo snugly.....sigh:)

Yep its the same one! Im believing it will be smooth sailing (she said hopefully!)

Sure, here it is:)

https://www.princessluxurybed.com/pillows-comforters/

I totally forgot to mention in my review, how fabulous the new pillows were in the suite. Princess had installed the new beds in the suites and along with that were their premium pillows - OMG how amazingly comfortable are those pillows?!!!

The three of us wanted to buy them, I didn't think they would be available, but after returning checked on Princess website and I see you can buy their standard and premium pillows along with the linens. Am definitely going to buy some:)

Just returned recently from a short cruise with Princess in a suite - you will LOVE Sabatini's breakfasts, they are amazing, and service is top notch - as someone has previously stated, this is probably one of the best perks you get when cruising in a suite:)

Gee you guys are so encouraging, thanks:)

Yeah, loved the views and it was quiet up there. It did take me a while to learn which elevators to get into to get us to where we needed to go LOL!!

I really loved the Golden Princess and there was a couple on the cruise who love the ship so much, they choose to cruise on her wherever she is going even if they've cruised to that destination before so they've done the NZ cruise five times already!

My next cruise booked to Tasmania and Adelaide early January 2018 is on the Golden; looking forward to being on her again, hopefully without the 5 metre swells! This time will be in an aft suite on dolphin deck:)

Yep, felt a bit guilty splashing out but seriously, I would rather go without plenty of things at home to do one short cruise a year in a suite. Something special to look forward to:)

You must be excited to be looking forward to 14 nights in a suite - how awesome is that? :)

This has been posted in the review forum, but wanted to share it with other Princess cruisers:)

Myself and two friends (also newbies) just finished a four day re-positioning cruise Melbourne to Auckland.

EMBARKATION

Embarkation went very smoothly and we were on board pretty quickly. The only issue we had was one Princess Cruises staff member saw our blue cards (newbies) and told us to take a seat and wait to board. He failed to see we were staying in a suite and were entitled to priority boarding. However, we asked the lady sitting next to us if she had priority boarding and she said no, so we promptly got up and when through immigration and were on-board in no time.

ACCOMMODATION:

Stayed in Grenada suite on Sun Deck 15 S707 twin beds and fold-away couch.

The suite was beautiful - with a lot of the finishes in elegant wood grain throughout and marble floors and counters in the bathroom.

The beds were brand new but my two friends like soft beds and found them to be a little bit too hard, so they asked for a mattress topper to be put on and they found the beds super comfortable after that. I slept on the fold-away bed and I was sooooo comfortable. I prefer a firm mattress so this suited me well. It was probably the most comfortable fold-away bed I have ever slept on.

The suite had everything we needed and it was nice to have space to move around. Our sailing experienced very bad weather throughout the entire journey so were virtually unable to use the balcony at all, which was disappointing as the balcony is a good size and it would have doubled our 'living' space.

THE WEATHER

I wanted to include comments about the weather and the effect it had on our overall cruise experience. The ship had to take a wide diversion from the planned route to avoid the worst of the storm (hence our very late arrival into Auckland) but even with that diversion we still experienced 5 metre swells and 130km/hour winds. The ship handled the high seas well given the severe conditions.

Princess Cruises can't control the weather and I have to say, all of the crew were amazing and worked hard to ensure we still had a great experience. Many of them were suffering with sea sickness along with the passengers. The difference was they still had to work, and in spite of their own discomfort, they really pushed through to provide a high level of care, attention and service throughout the cruise.

The high winds blowing right onto our side of the ship had a really bad effect on the balcony doors as the wind howled day and night and there was no way to dull the sound of it until evening when the curtains were drawn which helped just a little bit. As soon as the wind direction changed, the howling wind sounds dissipated quickly.

The location of our suite on (aft on deck 15) also meant that the lurching and extreme bumping was more pronounced than if we had been on a lower deck. One of my friends felt quite under the weather for about 36 hours but gradually recovered. I'm one of those fortunate people who doesn't experience sea sickness so that was probably a good thing.

When venturing down to lower levels where most of the activities were happening the movement of the ship was much less noticeable and being closer to water level, it was quite amazing to see how big the swells were and just how well the Golden Princess handled the rough weather....incredible!

ENTERTAINMENT

There was a vast array of entertainment available onboard and we were never bored even though we couldn't do any of the outside activities due to the extremely bad weather.

SERVICE

The service from all levels of staff was excellent throughout the ship. Smiling, friendly and helpful. Their ability to manage and anticipate the expectations of their guests is pretty awesome. One can have the best of accommodations, best of foods, best of entertainment, but if the staff aren't amazing, then it doesn't matter how great the rest of it is. People are the key, and it is evident Princess Cruises understand that and also ensure that their staff have ongoing training so they can deliver their best.

Our room steward Jalena and her assistant Windy were just lovely people and really looked after us supremely. It is the little things that count isn't it? For example, I like to have the mattress slightly raised up under my head and so I had put small cushions under the mattress. The next evening when I returned to the suite to go to bed, I found that they had put the small cushions back under the mattress for me, how cool is that?

In particular, we found the staff at Sabatini's (specialty restaurant) to be pretty amazing. Led by Kim, with his team - Marko, Bobby, Pravin and others, sorry I couldn't remember all of your names guys! They all worked hard to make a visit to their restaurant a special and memorable event - their quick wit and unobtrusive service was great!

We dined there on our first night on-board, and as we were suite guests, we were able to have a very special breakfast there each morning. I had read in other reviews that this was a favourite perk of suite guests and now I understand why. Actually it would be fair to say that the most enjoyable mealtimes for us were the breakfasts at Sabatinis as the guys were just so friendly and funny whilst remaining professional at all times - not an easy thing to balance in the service industry:)

FOOD

I had heard that the food was really great on Princess Cruise ships and that's exactly what we found on the Golden Princess.

Freshly baked breads, cakes and pastries, sauces cooked from 'scratch'. That is what you expect to experience in a restaurant right? But when you think about the sheer volume of food required for 2,600 people for just one meal in multiple venues on-board the ship, then extrapolate that into three meals a day; the fact that they can still do it all from 'scratch' is pretty amazing.

The temptation would be (I'm sure) to use pre-prepared sauces, par-baked breads etc when catering to those numbers but it's clear that Princess doesn't approach their food from a 'catering' stance, but rather from a 'restaurant' stance and that's what makes the difference. I have read other comments here on this forum that the quality of food has dropped, but IMHO it's still pretty good!

We dined in both specialty restaurants - Sabatinis and Crown Grill. Simply beautiful food presented well and full of complex flavours. Very tender meats, full flavoured sauces - yum! There were comments around the table at the Crown Grill that it was the best steak they had ever eaten.

DEBARKATION

This was a disappointment. Primarily because there were only around 274 people getting off the ship in Auckland and 274 getting on - it was a shambles. I shudder to think what it would have been like if all 2600 passengers were getting off the ship.

We were informed that we would be debarking at 6.30pm. We eventually got off the ship at about 7.20pm, once outside the arrival terminal, we boarded the princess transfer coach to go to the airport. However, because of the messy debarkation, two of the booked passengers for the transfer were missing. We had to wait another 30 minutes before they finally showed up. Not their fault, but very frustrating anyway.

WOULD I CRUISE AGAIN?

Absolutely.

I probably won't do a trans-tasman cruise again though, it's a bit of a gamble - that stretch of water is notorious; it can be calm as glass or stormy and wild and you never know what you're going to get.

WOULD I CHOOSE PRINCESS CRUISES AGAIN?

In a heartbeat.

In fact, I've already booked a cruise with a friend for January 2018 on Golden Princess, in a suite again - I'm spoilt now, can't even imagine cruising any other way.

And.....I've also purchased a $100 future cruise deposit for a Princess cruise in 2019 with an aunty (just waiting for itineraries to come out for 2019)

And.....my two friends I cruised with this time, are up for another cruise with me in 2020.

As you may have guessed, I'm a planner:)

Ginny

PS: There had been some discussions on the forums here that the first night's complimentary speciality dining for suite guests was no longer available for cruises under 7 days but when we arrived in the suite, we found a letter inviting us to take advantage of that offer - which we did! I was so pleased to see that we were offered that. We were also given the blue princess tote bags, which were apparently not being given out on all Princess cruises.

Ive looked everywhere but cant seem to find this out. Just wanna know if were going to have to buy internet time or not:)

So, I'm just a few days away from my first cruise, and I was wanting to buy future cruise deposit for myself and my aunty as I want to treat her to a cruise in 2019. She won't be on the ship with me on this first cruise. Does that mean I can't buy one for her?

Yes its acceptably nice - and some brands are better than others I guess, but what I would say is that it doesn't quite have the depth of taste that a regular wine has. But if you don't want to drink alcohol but enjoy the flavour of wine, its pretty close INHO:)