Iainmac

I can't see any mention of the date that you will be in Auckland but I would like to remind you that here in North Island we had a recent disaster and lots of roads damaged that will be months to repair. With this in mind you will have to stay clear of Coromandel and the east coast of North Island with all roads going north from Napier closed. The Taupō to Napier road is badly damaged in two places and they are working on temporary bypasses and the main road into Coromandel is restricted to essential traffic as it is also badly damaged. If you want to see the real New Zealand then can I suggest you stay off the main highways as you will see nothing but nose to tail traffic. From Auckland, take the motorway to Pokeno and turn right to Tuakau and if you have the time head to Port Waikato, if not then keep heading south to Raglan then south again and if you must go to Rotorua than head for Te Awamutu, Putaruru and Rotorua. If not doing Rotorua then keep heading south to Te Kuiti and at Pio Pio take the coast road to New Plymouth or stay inland to Stratford then to Hawera, Patea, Wanganui, Foxton, Levin and at Waikanae consider going inland to Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt and Wellington. The driver does not see much while driving so I suggest you time your trip to fit in with the rail journey from Wellington to Auckland and sit back and look at the scenery. The railway line takes in many sights and places that you will not see by road.

I recently cruised on Coral Princess and not having an iPhone I could not download the Medallion App. There were no guide notes in the cabin or any form of welcome for an Elite. No longer any toiletries, pen, paper or tote bag, just the usual shower gel and a little bar of hard (and useless) soap. The mini-bar had been supplied, so someone new we were Elite, but the refrigerator did not work. The cabin steward organized a replacement refrigerator. We joined in Auckland and over the next few days notices were delivered to our cabin with other people's names and we let the steward know and remove them. After Brisbane yet another package delivered to our cabin and yet another name. Next day I went to the Customer Service Desk only to be told that the Loyalty desk dealt with this and was not manned that day and to come back tomorrow, which I did. The lady at the Loyalty desk said they were having a problem with this and corrected it on her computer. I don't think they knew who was in this cabin. I will mention at this point that we were disappointed with the cabin ( A315 ) and it had to be the worst cabin on the ship and at nz$460 per night. My fault for booking a guaranteed cabin and not fully realizing what I was booking, but I did mention the cost at the time of booking and before paying the final invoice and did not receive any reply. With not being on the Medallion App it was fortunate that a paper copy of the daily activities was delivered to the cabin, but never any invites to Elite events, so we miss out on a lot these days unless you are really clued up. Being elderly (82), scooter rider and with only limited hearing in one ear, communication can be very difficult. On arrival home we both tested positive for covid the next day. There was quite a lot of covid on the ship and people in isolation. We were pack to negative after four days but ir took me weeks to get back on my feet. Soon after arriving home we requested a final statement as we did not agree on the refund and can't figure out where the money went. I won't go into the details of this total credit, but there was also $200 compensation to spend on board. (Coral Princess was one of the first to have the hull cleaned before entering NZ and we missed two ports through this oversight ). You would think this would be a simple request, but many emails sent over the last eight weeks and no replies suggests that they do not want to admit to the creative accounting used here. Here in NZ we have laws governing this sort of behavior, but with Carnival not being a NZ company there is no way this can be enforced. This is becoming a bit long winded so I will end by saying "this is a great way to treat elite guests with some 17 cruises with Princess and quite a few with P&O".