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Saturday Feb. 13 Todays Weather 21

At Sea: Speed 17.4 Knots Slight seas with long/low NE’ly swell

After breakfast in the Donatello Dining Room, James went for a swim and I went to the Welcome to Princess Presentation in Wheelhouse bar at 9.15am. You learn about Princess Loyalty programs with Alessandra the captains circle host. I was the only passenger who turned up. Told you I wanted to do everything. Lol I had both girls (forgot the other girls name) talk to me about the program. Told them I was going to do a cruise review on CC and they said got to take a photo of us as they love that on CC. Very fun. They were really nice girls. They gave me my Princess passport and two pins.

Now that we have completed our first cruise we have become a Gold Member. Which gives us access to a Circle Host onboard, free cruise photo contest, Members only onboard events, the passport and pins, magazine, pricing offers etc.

After their talk, I rushed to the Princess Theatre for a Shore Excursion Live Tour Presentation which begun at 9.45am. What was I doing at this talk when we had all our excursions booked you may ask? It was a senseless act on my part, now that I think about it. But I am one of those people who have to do it all. I can’t miss out. Just call me crazy. I give you permission. It was a very good presentation by the way. However I hate to say this, but I knew it all. Smart arse!

After the presentation, met James at the Wheelhouse Bar for cappuccino and hot chocolate and a read. This bar has a nautical theme with a wheel, pictures of ships hanging on the walls and model ships on display. I loved all the dark seating nooks to hide away in.

I wanted to try lunch in Donatello dining room but as usual James got his way, and I accompanied him to the Horizon Court. I had various meat cuts and cheeses and those to die for bread rolls. Yummy! I could live off Princess Bread rolls. James had some hot stuff. Unsure what it was.

We never did get to eat lunch in the Donatello DR. Damn hubby once again!

After lunch we both had a snooze out on Deck 15 until 2.45pm where I headed to the Canaletto Dining Room on Deck 6 for a Maitre d’ Wine Club wine tasting. This cost me $34 AUD James didn’t go he doesn’t drink wine. Beer is his preferred form of drink. It was a lovely formal presentation with three guys speaking about the wines and how to choose a wine. There were 6 wines to taste and you also got to eat canapés and cheese. They were very funny men. The only problem I found was all the canapes were seafood and I am not really into seafood, so I wolfed down the cheeses. On the very first day of the cruise there were stuff going around selling this wine tasting as well as tables set up around the ship. Very easy to find out about it as they want you to part with your money.

During the day, there was the usual happy hour buy 1 get one for $1….trivia, Karaoke, bingo, art auctions, 60 second frenzy, music, pop choir rehearsal, destination presentations, dance classes, (phew… so much to do) seminars run by The Lotus Spa such as Wrinkly Remedies with Dr. Mona Yacoub. Should I have gone to that talk? I am getting older perhaps her talk would give me some ideas but somehow I knew it would more than likely be a sales pitch so didn’t attend.

Did you know that Princess Cruises came from the name of the first vessel first chartered from Canada in 1965 – the Princess Patricia owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway? I didn’t know that. Gee you learn something new every day.

Thanks for the updates, keep them coming.:D

thanks MicCanberra...sure will

Loving this review!

Thankyou Dickinson.. Its taking a while but I will get there

so enjoying this review i wish i could have done mine like this too but i am not the best at this sort of stuff sadly

Hi Hawka

Thanks for the kinds words. My hubby tells me I talk to much so I guess I am doing the same here. I hope its ok but I had such a wonderful time and want everyone to know it..:D

Sorry I have jumped all over the place for my first sea day. I should have begun with breakfast.

In the morning we went to the Donatello dining room for breakfast. Here they serve breakfast from 7.30am TO 9.30am every morning. We are early risers back home and I wanted to sleep in on this cruise. But hubby cannot sleep in ever. Bloody male! I guess it’s all those years working on a farm rising with the sun. So we were the second couple to arrive when the doors opened at 7.30. All the staff line up to great you with “good morning madam.” It is rather embarrassing. I felt like a lady from Downtown Abby. I think I said “Morning” 10 times. We were taken over to a table for 6 by the window. We met two retired couples from Geelong and Melbourne. There was a great choice on the menu they handed to you. Lots of juices, cereals, toast, eggs, bacon, salmon, breads and pastries etc. Not a huge selection as in the Horizon Court. But that was fine by me. We can’t be too greedy.

We managed to have breakfast in the dining room every second day. For some reason James loved Horizon Court. If it wasn’t for my persistence we would have ate at HC every meal. I love the idea of being waited on like a lady. Don’t get that at home! Smiles.

On that first sea day we went back to the Donatello Dining room for afternoon tea, which is available on sea days between 3.30 and 4.30pm. No charge. WOW! It was amazing but so much food. We couldn’t keep going at this rate every day, so we decided to forgo afternoon tea in the dining room. We had done it once and that was enough especially for the old man. I could have gone back again, not for the food but for the first class service. I love being treated like a lady. There was scones, little sandwiches, pastries, seafood … you name it you could get it.

Sometime in the afternoon, I went on the internet on my iPad up on Deck 14 and informed all our private tour operators about the change of days and could we alter our tour with them. They all got back to me by the next day to let me know that they already knew of the Golden Princess’s change of course and all but one couldn’t give us a tour on the new date. More on that later.

When we booked this cruise we decided to take anytime dining. 6-6.30 was our usual time to head to the Bernini Dining room on deck 5 which was assigned for anytime dining from 5pm to 9pm. There was never any wait if you were happy to share a table with others. We loved that idea. It was usually tables of 6, 8 or 10. If you wanted a table for 2, you usually had to wait. James is not really a big talker…surprise surprise. I Ioved the idea of sharing a table with others. I could chat to these privileged (smiles) people instead of sitting in silence after 10 minutes with the hubby. Poor man! He does get tired of all my chatter.

After dinner, we headed back to Deck 14 and got ready for MUTS. The movie, Bridge of Spies began at 7.30pm. The waiters brought around popcorn then cookies and milk. We never had the milk, but said yes to the popcorn and cookies. I love MUTS. Sitting up on deck with a blanket and popcorn is just a delightful way to pass the evening. You could even watch the sea and the sunset. There is much activity on Deck 14 before the movie starts. The pool deck hand guys (some were cute in their shorts) place red covers on all the lounges ready for the evening movie. Then out come the blankets and if you take any you have to leave your room number and they cross your number when return the blankets.

We actually found the sound travelled better up on Deck 15 so if wasn’t too hot we usually watched the movie up there. The movie finished at 10pm and we located our butts to the International Café for dessert and a pot of specially tea. Haven’t we had enough to eat by this stage, apparently not?

Then it was off to bed. And thankfully, Gary our lovely room steward had put on the egg crate that I had asked for. God, these Princess mattresses are hard. Last night I did not sleep due to the mattress. At home we have a soft mattress. Tonight our clocks will be set one hour forward.

In the evening, there was the usual Dance parties, Ballroom dance favorites, happy hour and performers but we didn’t go. A spotlight/Showtime starring Rock violinist sensation Katei was held in the Princess theatre. Everyone said she was great.

Partying the night away is not really our scene.

P.S. Every evening in our cabin guess what we did? Come on guess! It wasn’t what you all think. Get those minds out of the gutter please. This is what we did. James snored beside me while I watched THE LOVE BOAT. Gee, I loved that show back in my youth. So I made a point of watching at least one (sometimes two) episode every night before I went to sleep.

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

By the way Tracie

What did you think of the Victoria Anna- Yangtze River Cruise 7/10/11

That is on my list. I have read perhaps 2 on here on this cruise. I wish more would post

Maureen-

I have mad respect for you. I have been on CC for years, posted a few times, written a live from or two--- AND STILL CANNOT POST A PICTURE! You are amazing to me! My new hero!

 

Thank you for the fun start of what will become an epic review---

 

Can't wait for more!

Tracie-Lynn:)

Hi Tracie

I have read all three of your Alaskan cruise reviews in my research. Loved them all. Posting pictures is so easy. If I can do it anyone can. Please give it a go.

There are plenty besides me on CC who could help. This is the link I followed to learn how.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1234944

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1234944

I love looking at all the pictures, I think that is why I want to go to Alaska so much after seeing all the pictures on Glacier Bay and Ketchikan

Other places we had to visit for that stamp where:

The Art Gallery – I was really impressed with all the lovely art but I didn’t buy any. Most nights when we returned to our room we always found Art Auction Pamphlets and cards inviting us to these. But we never went.

The Photo Video Galley. Here is a place I haunted a lot. Silly me, didn’t listen to all those reviews I read here about what a waste of time buying the photos is. I was told that you could always ask someone to take those pictures for you. But since it was our first cruise I had to buy our photos. I didn’t get the photo package at $199 I felt it was too much money. So instead I brought 7 photos each ranging in price from $11.00 to $30.00 most being $14.95. I love our photos and can’t wait to frame them. James got really mad at me for dragging him along to get these pictures done. But how could you refuse sweet old me? Being the sucker I am, I also brought the Reflections DVD (2 Disc Set) for $64.99 This DVD was on the actual cruise and all the ports we visited. Some passengers even appear in this DVD. I know, I am a bloody fool. We didn’t even appear in it.

The Grand Casino - We used the Casino many times. Not what you all think! We don’t gamble. But the Casino was used for a muster drill and I walked through the Casino to get to the Princess Theatre.

Shore Excursions Desk: Never lined up here as I had booked all our excursions online either through Princess website or privately

I didn’t just lie around the pool all day, I also ran around collecting stamps on my Treasure Hunt Card. You had to visit certain places throughout the ship and get your card stamped. There was a $1000.00 prize draw at 12.15pm but you had to be present to win and silly me forgot.

Places to visit for the stamp were the Lotus Spa.

I discovered the Fitness Centre and Salon next to the Lotus Spa but never returned. Once again Shock Horror!

I never visited the Lotus Spa but did get a free 10 minute shoulder massage while taking photos. And felt guilty I didn’t go back.

Friday Feb. 12 Todays Weather 23

At Sea: Speed 19.7 Knots Slight seas with short/low SW’ly swell

Today was another first for us - our first sea day. While planning a cruise, I wanted to experience a number of sea days. Reading Cruise Critic, I discovered that you either hate sea days or you love them. What would we be like? I am sure James would love sea days as any chance he gets he goes fishing and sits on the Murray River for days. Me I think that is so boring, I need to be doing something at least for part of a day. So I thought that while James sits by the pool doing nothing, I could explore the ship, join in any activities and just people watch. This holiday should cater for both our needs.

In Australia, we have this travel show called ‘Getaway’ and I can remember years ago watching an episode where they were on a P&O cruise to the South Pacific. It wasn’t the beauty of the Islands, or the beautiful sunsets that I remember, it was watching 100’s, and I mean 100’s of passengers hanging out on the pool deck with countless children jumping over the sun lounges disturbing someone’s quiet time. Hell what quiet time could they be having on that overcrowded pool deck? No way would you get me on a cruise or sitting by the main pool I thought back then.

While planning I asked questions like – “Where is the quietest place besides your cabin to sit on the ship?” The response - Terrace Pool; some areas of the Promenade deck and Skywalkers nightclub during the day. I studied the ship map so I could familiarize myself with these places. I didn’t want 100’s of people ruining my quiet time on board.

I have mentioned that James is a smoker. So when he wakes he usually heads straight to Deck 15 beside the Tradewinds Bar. This is where you will find all the smokers. Also on certain parts of the Promenade Deck (deck7) they are allowed to smoke. If I lost him, I usually head up to Deck 15 and sure enough he was up there chatting to one of his unhealthy kind. Jokes! I shouldn’t be awful as I have an addiction to – chocolate and coke. And over the years I have put on weight. But my addiction won’t kill others I tell him.

We spent most of our first sea day (and everyday) on Deck 14, by Neptune’s Reef and Pool. Such a wonderful stimulating place to sit and watch all the action around me. Shock Horror, say what?! I loved our time spent on Deck 14/15. OMG! Can you believe what I am saying? It’s such a cool place. I only saw around 10 children on this cruise and 5 of them loved swimming in the Calypso Pool. They were all well behaved children.

Deck 14 – Neptune’s Reef and Pool

Deck 14 Prego (pizzeria), Sundaes (ice cream bar), Trident Grill (hamburger bar)

So what action did I discover on Deck 14 that has me raving about this place?

1. People watching - I was in my element observing others. The kids think I am rather rude watching people but its fun and half the time I am making up silly stories about each of these nice folks. Lol If they only knew some of stories I had invented about them, I would find myself being chased around the ship by an angry mob. Smiles!

2. MUTS – Movies under the Stars (or Sun) was heaven. I am a movie buff, so if there is a movie on board that’s where you will find me. Today’s movies were Kate and Leopold and Star Trek: Into the Darkness. I had seen both so didn’t bother watching them. 5.15pm James Taylor live at the Beacon Theatre concert was shown on Muts also. A great concert.

3. Entertainment – There was plenty. Besides the above two, they also advertised a Wet Wild and Wacky Pool games but no one entered. Pumpin’ Poolside tunes with DJ IV Real began at 12.30pm and at 2pm was Poolside Jam with Mosaic. These guys were a great band who sang some cool songs. At one stage people were up dancing to their music. We enjoyed Mosaic a number of times throughout the cruise.

4. Atmosphere – It just had a great vibe and was a fantastic sun deck to work on that tan, read or snooze. If the sun got to hot (which it did) you could sit under the roof line in the shade.

5. Almost forgot – It was close to all that terrific food. On Level 14 there was the Horizon Court (buffet), Prego Pizzeria for delicious pizza, Trident Grill for hot chips, hot dogs and burgers and Sundaes Ice Cream bar for soft serve ice-cream in a cone or cup. All this yummy food was included in your cruise price. You could get drinks at Sundaes (milk shakes) and at the bars – Tradewinds and Calypso. Drinks where charged to your card. Also waiters came around often asking if you would like a drink. Like I said heaven!

Calypso Bar

I love your review so far and will enjoy following along!

Thankyou Pkt

Thank you for posting your review. We are doing Sydney to aukland next year. Can you please post your patters if you still have them. Also can you tell me what tours you took at these ports. It would really help

Hi Bapaleg. I will post the patters as I kept them all. I live in the middle of Victoria and our internet is sooooooooooo slow. The ships satellite internet is much faster. I didnt realize it would take so long to do this review. I have to resize all the pictures then add them to photobucket then put them on here. and I work off the farm so its a slow process.

I will do posts on all the ports and what we did.

Oh you're a crack up! I've only just read your introduction and I'm hooked!

We've mist booked a short MEL/SYD Cruise on Golden Princess next month so will enjoy hearing ..and seeing what you have to say about her!

 

By the way I wouldn't worry about terrorists on your journey, I'd be worried about those kiwis and their sheep lol!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

QE2_Fan love your comment about the Kiwis and their sheep. very funny.

Finally it was time for our dinner reservation. My father is Italian and I love Italian food so I was looking forward to eating at Sabatini’s. I had read so much about this restaurant here on CC. Sabatini’s was like my little bit of an Italian Villa. It was a beautifully decorated restaurant. I adored the paintings of the Italian countryside decorating the walls. This place reminded me of my beloved Italy.

Remember I told you that James and I visited the International Café for afternoon tea, Horizon Court for cheeses, sliced meats and those yummy rolls that Princess make. Confession time… we had the cheese and meats twice. So by this time our tummies were full and we had to have a dinner at Sabatini’s. Not any easy feat, I’m telling you.

The waiter sat us done and gave us the menu. We told him we only want the mains. You should have seen his face. He was shocked. “Fancy not wanting to eat our beautiful Antipasti or Pasta. You only want Secondi Piatti? Unbelievable!” He was not a happy man.

He told us we had to start with their Herbed Focaccia Grissini, Rosemary flatbread with Prosciutto and marinated green and black olives. We moaned and said OK. Just to keep him happy we ate it. I must say it was yummy.

Then out came our mains. James had Tris d’ Aragosta – Lobster 3 ways. He said it was delicious. I had Petto di Pollo con Asiago e Pomodoorini – Chicken supreme stuffed with eggplant, asiago and sun dried tomatoes. The waiter came back and asked if we enjoyed our meal. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I thought my chicken was dry. So I smiled sweetly and lied. It was delicious. There were not too many other people. Around 10 of us were having a meal here tonight.

Then we were asked what we would like for dessert. I sunk down low in the chair and said no dessert. He nearly fell over with shock and tried to talk us into having some. He even brought over the head waiter and told him how we were not eating much. Both men thought we were silly Australians. They told us to come back another night for dessert, but we never went back. Next time, I hope to go to Sabatini’s with an empty stomach or pray that we do not have the same waiter again. Still, the staff were lovely and the surrounds were impressive.

After dinner it was a quick trip to the outside area of the Promenade Deck for a smoke (James, not me) and then we called it an early night. We are not party people so we never made it up to the 17th deck for nightclub dancing.

The night’s entertainment was MUTS movie – The Walk and A Walk in the Woods and Leap Year were playing in the Princess Theatre and Vista Lounge.

Welcome Aboard Show at 10pm with Comedienne Jo Little. Apparently she was a funny woman but we were too tired to attend.

So on that first day we got to know the ship. I must say she is a magnificent vessel. I read somewhere once that some elderly lady lived on a cruise ship full time, travelling from port to port. What a way to live those few remaining golden years. If only I could have my fur baby, I would do the same thing.

Our captain, Heikki Laakkonen was born in Finland and we only saw him once. We were out on the Promenade deck one evening, I wish I could say having a romantic stroll but no instead hubby was having an unhealthy cigarette and I was standing next to him breathing in his harmful smoke - naughty boy! I don’t smoke. James began a conversation with a man in a white uniform. Funny that, there were many men with white uniforms. James was asking him about something that was announced over the speakers??? And he told James he was the captain. Where we impressed? Not really. I was hoping he left someone in charge on the bridge who knew how to steer the ship.

Anyway that was the only time we saw him. But we did hear his voice often informing us of the weather conditions regards the cyclone. James was a good boy and stopped whatever he was doing to listen to these announcements. Me, I kept talking through them and a few times he told me rather rudely to shut up, he was trying to listen to the captain.

Another thing I did while exploring the ship was to head to Sabatini’s and book dinner for the first night on board. Thank you all at Cruise Critic for that tip. I booked this for 8.30pm rather late I know but I thought with Sail away and everything, we would be rather busy so I told James to eat up during the day so he wouldn’t be hungry as back home we always have dinner at 6pm. Big mistake on my part, but I will tell you about that later. The staff at Sabatini let me use the phone to ring the Crown Grill and I booked dinner there on the second last sea day.

I had planned on booking a day at the Sanctuary, the chef’s table and Ultimate Ships Tour when we first stepped on board, as I wanted to participate in the whole package. But someone on a Princess cruise lovers Facebook page that I belong to gave me some good advice. And surprise, surprise, I listened. She said to take things easy, relax and try not to do everything on your first cruise. Good advice were I am concerned and hubby though so to.

Anyhow, back to our first day. We were extremely tired but the day was still fun. We ate, walked around, ate, lazed on the lounges up on deck 14, ate, drank, ate, unpacked, ate…You get what I mean. We ate that much food on that first day. Had to try out International Café, the Horizon Court, Sundaes Ice Cream Bar. What happened to that good advice I was given about taking it easy. It went straight out the window on that first day and onto my hips. Not used to having food available 24 hours a day without having to prepare it.

We also, or rather, I got personal with Princess at Sea Messenger App. What a great little app. I developed a little crush on this app. So easy to use. James finally sent a message (his first on day 9) to me…his words “deck 15” a man of few words! It has the events for the day, (like the ones on your princess patter) so you didn’t have to carry around your paper copy. You could check your state room account; there was the deck plan map, a messenger service where we could talk to each other. Also port guides, same as the paper copies. Such a handy app. Oh and you can also log into the ships satellite internet. Being the technology lover I am, I just adored it. James hated it…surprise, surprise!

I was very impressed with the Satellite Internet through Princess. We could even use it while in the middle of the Tasman Sea. The delay with the web browser opening was like 2 minutes and as I use Messenger (facebook) chat with the kids it was almost instant. Loved being able to keep in touch with my kids.

Below pictures of Princess at Sea

Doing our planning, I brought a Café Select coffee card for James $39 AUD and a Unlimited Soda and More Package for me - $7.00 per day. Both cards were great value. James card allowed him to have his (15) cappuccinos, lattes, hot chocolates and specialities pots of teas that we shared. My soda card allowed me unlimited soft drink, mock cocktails, hot chocolates, juices.

At 3.30 we went to the Passenger Muster Drill in the Casino. Our life jackets had to come with us and at one stage we had to put it on. Then after the Muster Drill over 2,600 passengers all wanted to head to their rooms. Oh boy, this caused a traffic jam at the elevators. It became quicker to climb the stairs but climbing from deck 4 to deck 14 was not much fun on the old knees. I learnt to hate those stairs by the end of the cruise.

After the muster drill, we headed up onto Deck 14 to gather for Sail Away party. We stood by the rails and watched the Golden leave Melbourne and sail down the channel out of Port Phillip Bay.

Goodbye Melbourne – See you in 13 days.

Later we headed to the Promenade Deck outside area and watched the Peninsula pass by. 25 years ago we lived on the Mornington Peninsula so knew the area well. I was worried at one stage when we headed towards the heads, which is the narrow entrance into the bay which we call the Rip. It’s a dangerous stretch for ships and you could see where the rip started but we passed through safely and headed out into Bass Strait and on our way to New Zealand.

Then we took that romantic walk around the Promenade Deck. We promised ourselves that we would do this walk every day. Did we keep that promise? No, we only managed to complete the walk twice again. We even took our first selfie to send to the kids. They thought Mum and Dad were rather childish. See kids, the old folks can have fun too!

Great review so far. Maureen, thanks for taking the trouble to post. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

 

LOL similar scenario for me - first cruise, literally dragged hubby kicking and screaming (err, well not quite) onboard the Sun Princess a couple of years ago. We are now preparing for our 4th cruise which will be on the Golden Princess next month. Very interested to read your thoughts on her.

 

Incidentally, LOL, after 3 cruises, my hubby now can't wait to board ... what did your hubby think of the cruise experience?

LC1950 I will tell all later.

Forgot to mention but look what was waiting for us in our room. Wonderful children aren’t they. The little darlings also gave us 110 minutes of internet. I have always stressed to our kids that they must ring us when they arrive at their destination so we know they have gotten there safely. They still do this as adults. They range in age from 30 to 20. So the old folks had strict instructions to only use the internet package to keep in contact with the kids while at sea. They wanted to know what us oldies where up to. As if we would get up to any mischief at our age. Wink Wink! Oh and they also gave us a Godiva Chocolates 14-piece Heart Box. Did I tell you I love my kids? They were very yummy and the chocolates didn’t last long.

Cr8tivI Yes she is a beautiful ship. I loved being on her.

Can you imagine what it must be like for a first timer to step on board one of these gigantic ships? Of course you can as 90% of you have been where I was on that day. I was so eager and thrilled to take that first step off the gangway onto my ship. LOL

I could barely breathe, and I am sure I nearly purred with pleasure like my cat does. When I look back at that first day, I was all wound up, saying silly things and sweating like a pig. Do pigs sweat? Anyway it took me a couple of hours to calm down. And in those hours I explored most of the ships 16 floors. First up was our cabin. There was no wait to get our cabin B325 interior.

Gee! I was surprised at how much storage there was in the cabin. People often say on CC to take one of those shoe things that hang over the door for extra storage, but in my opinion it’s unneeded. We had too much storage space.

After opening every drawer in our room and with our blue cruise cards around our necks, we headed out to discover what would be our home for the next 2 weeks.

The Piazza, my favourite place aboard the Golden was where James would find me in the mornings either trying to read a book on my iPad or people watching. I became its happy prisoner unable to leave at times. Most afternoons James and I would have our afternoon tea here - the aroma of cookies and coffee was divine.

Did I tell you that I ate 3 or 4 of those yummy cookies every day! Shame on me but they were lip-smacking delicious.

Ar150 You can't have her back, she's ours now and have read Bimmers. Love his reviews.

Unc84 This cruise wasn't on our bucket list but I am glad we did do New Zealand. Such stunning views.

Thanks Woobstr and Tigerlily

Hi all. I have just completed a cruise to New Zealand and was unsure were to add my cruise review. So added the review to the Princess Cruises Forum as I traveled on the Golden Princess. Below is the link

Golden Princess New Zealand 11th to 24th February 2016 - Complete Picture Review!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/showthread.php?t=2322939

Thanks Maureen

Hello and welcome all to my first cruise review ever here on CC. First off – this is going to be a LONG review. Can’t help that as I have Irish blood flowing through my veins – I have the gift of the gab. ! Once again, this old bird is a virgin - My very first cruise!!!

Melbourne to Melbourne 13-Day Voyage – New Zealand

Thu 11/2 Melbourne

Fri 12/2 At sea

Sat 13/2 At sea

Sun 14/2 At sea

Mon 15/2 Auckland

Tue 16/2 Tauranga

Wed 17/2 Gisborne

Thu 18/2 Wellington

Fri 19/2 Akaroa

Sat 20/2 Dunedin (Port Chalmers)

Sun 21/2 Fiordland National Park (Scenic cruising)

Mon 22/2 At sea

Tue 23/2 At sea

Wed 24/2 Melbourne

I loved this itinerary as it allowed a good mix of sea days and port days. Our total distance travelled will be 3,908 Nautical Miles = 4,496 Statute Miles = 7236 Kilometres. Very smart I am to know this. Not really! Princess supplied a ‘Log of the Cruise’ with this information.

Introducton

To begin with who are we: My name is Maureen (57) and hubby is James (58) and we are Aussie sheep farmers living on our property in the Mallee country in the state of Victoria. We have four children and have just become empty nesters. Another first for us!!! We have travelled a lot around our delightful country. Hubby and I were also given as a gift, a week’s holiday by Motor home in New Zealand (not enough time). And I have explored Italy (another obsession) and journeyed to Singapore and Switzerland.

For roughly three years, I have cruised around Cruise Critic filling my hunger for travel. I have an ache inside me that yearns to travel this beautiful world. That’s something else I can’t help – nursed this hunger since I was a child. Cruising never interested me until I started to explore CC. Who wants to spend days on a boat barely seeing anything of your destination? How wrong I was.

I read many cruise reviews (let’s be honest here – I think I have read 1000’s) from every part of the globe. I examined photos of ancient buildings, snow-capped mountains and magnificent wildlife. I learned that these dazzling boats, or should I say SHIPS, are like small cities where food is available 24 hours a day and I could fulfil another of my favourite interests – people watching. I was hooked! I became obsessed with learning all I could on cruising.

I was driving my family crazy with all this talk on cruising. I grew into a walking encyclopaedia, with all this knowledge I was storing in my head. I knew the difference between traditional and anytime dining, I knew what MUTS and the love boat dream was. They were calling me a bloody show off! I’ll show them I thought and decided to go on a cruise. How easy was this going to be, I thought to myself. Wrong! What a nightmare I had just created. I had two important decisions to reach. 1. Which cruise line was I to sail on? 2. Where in this wonderful world I wanted to go… so many amazing locations to choose from – Mediterranean, Arabic Peninsula, America’s, South Pacific. Where could we go on our first cruise? Then one day I read a cruise review on Alaska and viewed pictures of Glacier Bay and the towns of Ketchikan, Skagway and Juneau and I was unable to stop thinking about the 49th state of USA. I had to go!

So why have I cruised to New Zealand you may ask. My hubby could answer that for you, if he could master the computer. Fancy reaching the ripe old age of 58 and unable to use a computer! Since he can’t I will answer for him. Hubby hates the idea of traveling outside of Australia. He likes to think he is a macho man but he is really a big scaredy cat. What’s he afraid of you may ask? -Being blown out of the sky, terrorists storming into his hotel complex and shooting everyone. I shouldn’t laugh as it is a real threat in our modern world, but like I say to him “A plane could drop from the sky and kill us while we sleep or we could burn to death in a house fire, so why not travel.” Morbid lot aren’t we.

After much debating I decided to choose a cruise that left from our home port of Melbourne. This will keep James happy (no being blown out of the sky). There are not too many cruises that leave from Melbourne - New Zealand, South Pacific and Tasmania being the only ones. So the land of the long white cloud it is. I’m happy as I will get to finally cruise. With our destination finally picked I had to decide on the cruise line. Can I please say BLOODY HELL!!!! I was more confused than anything. I read countless reviews on each cruise line and not one cruise line had a 100% happy rating. It was either bloody awful (there’s that word again) or fantastic. I became so disheartened. Why were there so many different ratings for a cruise line? The food was appalling, the entertainment was terrible…I can go on and on. Why do people cruise then, I asked myself? Should I give cruising a go? So after weighing up the facts, I made the decision to ignore all that I had read and to just pick a cruise line that sounded right for us. I selected Princess Cruise Line.

Now with these two important decisions out of the way, I could concentrate on researching all the ports and the Golden Princess. I was happy once again and what fun I had. Boy! Do I love researching. My laptop became my best friend for many months. I studied the deck plan of the Golden Princess. I admired all the photos of the ship and I hungered over the food **** people added to their cruise reviews. I longed to step foot onto the stunning New Zealand towns I had learnt about. I logged onto the Princess website every day and watched the numbers fade away – 150 days until your next cruise, 110 days, 85 days, 50 days, 25 days, 10 days and then it wasn’t long before I had a week to go. Excitement followed me everywhere.

As usual I made lists. I am extremely content when I get to make lists. LoL! There were lists on what to pack, lists on what to expect on the Golden Princess, lists on tours in each port. AH! I was in list heaven. We decided to book mostly private shore excursions with only two through Princess. I could have chosen to do all the excursions privately but I wanted to see how Princess handled their shore excursions. More on that later.

I began packing 4 weeks before the cruise, that’s how eager I was to get on board. We organized for our daughter to take us to the port of Melbourne and since we live three hours from Melbourne I didn’t want to gamble on anything happening so we arrived at Stacey’s place the night before. She lives one hour from Melbourne. I couldn’t sleep at Stacey’s. I tossed and turned all night. My worst nightmare had happened…I became my hubby. I couldn’t stop worrying about what could go wrong while on the cruise ship. I had visions of the mother of all tidal waves bearing down on the Golden Princess (after all we were heading to an earthquake area). It will be the last thing I see before the ship is turned upside down. I will drown in my stateroom.

Photo credits: https://torrentbutler.eu/503-poseidon

Don’t forget I was a teenager in the 1970’s who had a happy appetite for all those disaster films of the 70’s. Then I worried about seasickness. Would I suffer this? I couldn’t do much about that 100 foot wave but I could pack motion sickness tablets and wrist bands to help.

Then I worried about Norovirus. My fear of being locked in my inside cabin for a few days, crawling around on the floor puking into the toilet was not very appealing.

Thursday, February 11, 2016 - Embarkation day.

Finally the day had arrived and I was so excited but oh so tired. We headed to Station Pier Cruise Terminal around 10.30am. As we crossed the Westgate Bridge, I got my first sight of our ship. Boy! She is a big ship. Eager to get on board, I dragged everyone (daughter number three came along to) towards the ship that we would call home for the next 13 days – The Golden Princess

We could start boarding at 11.45am. Waving good bye to the girls at 12.15, James and I were through customs and on the ship by 12.45. It was easy. When we arrived at the desk to show our cruise tickets, we were given a letter explaining about a change to our scheduled itinerary. Because of two developing tropical low-pressure systems to the north of Vanuatu, one of which has been upgraded to a Tropical Cyclone (struck Fiji on February 20 and 21). So for the safety of guest and crew, the captain adjusted the order of our ports of call. So we will be dong the cruse in reverse, beginning with Fordland National Park. At first this didn’t worry me because who wants to sail into rough weather. Not me! But then I remembered our private excursions. I would have to inform them of the change of direction and days.

Because of the Captains decision we had amazing sea conditions and weather and we never missed a port. As we headed towards the gang way, I dragged James over kicking and screaming to get our embankment photo taken. Don’t forget it’s my first cruise so gotta get our photos taken.

Next up Our first few hours on board the Golden Princess

P.S. Sorry this review is so long, but I did warn you!

sorry for some reason I have two posts on of the same cruise. Unsure how that happened

Hi Zxc

I just returned to. Was on the Golden Princess and did a reef walk with stingrays