Pacific Jewel Going around New Zealand - 29/01/2011 - 11/02/2011

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Napier Today:

 

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Tauranga Today:

 

 

PACIFIC JEWEL at ShipWatcher

 

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Arriving in Auckland..

 

 

[Kiwi_cruiser]

 

PACIFIC JEWEL at ShipWatcher

[Kiwi Kruzer]

 

At anchor, just off Russell , in the Bay of Islands today.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

 

PACIFIC JEWEL at ShipWatcher

[stanc61]

Its just after 11am and we are sailing due west towards Sydney and will disembark about 8am tomorrow morning. I have taken plenty of pics and will provide a more detailed review when we are home and settled in. I have a lot on this weekend and back to work Monday so you will just have to be patient. Until then!

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Welcome home Pacific Jewel cruisers :D

 

 

PACIFIC JEWEL at ShipWatcher

 

Hope you had a great time around New Zealand :)

[marquisite]

I had a fantastic time...

 

The icy cold winds as we were sailing through the Milford and Dusky sounds had me retreat to the cabin a few times but I was back up on the open deck in a flash. We only went into two sounds, with the 2nd done early in order to progress to Dunedin earlier than planned due to the weather. Although I had an alarm set I slept right through the Milford sound (boo!)

 

As we were leaving Wellington it was really amazing at how many people were waving to us (queuing outside of the stadium for the seven's).

 

Dining at the waterfront for dinner was great. For the first half of the cruise we sat at differing tables but then we got to sit at the same table for the remaining half of the cruise and get to know the waiter a little bit more. It is good that one part of the menu remains the same each day - I usually ordered from that if nothing on the daily special menu took my fancy.

 

Lunch was usually at the buffet for us, although we did visit the waterfront once or twice. The waterfront lunch menu remains the same every day but there's a bigger selection of meals than there is at dinner.

 

Breakfast we always had at the buffet. It was just more convenient for us to have the buffet then a set menu early in the morning. Most of the food was the same each day, although sometimes the pancakes would have something in them like bananas or hazelnuts. The hash browns were yummo but not available every morning.

 

After 13 nights I was unable to try two things that I wanted to do - the chocolate ravioli and the toblerone cocktail. Why? Just too much food!! No room for between meal snacking and drinks :P

 

A big no no though - soft drinks on board are too expensive. $2.75 for a 330mL can of coke is a joke. They stock 350mL cans of pepsi max for the same price but as soft drinks aren't viewable at the bars I was unaware that we could buy these until the third day of the voyage. Once in Christchurch, we bought a box of soft drinks and took these cans to meals. This worked out to be about 55-65 cents a can (in Australian dollars). We planned on doing this in Dunedin however Pacifc Jewel didn't stop there due to the weather conditions.

 

BTW there was a power outage whilst in one of the ports (Tauranga I believe?) for a short while which meant the cruise tracking channel (with the current position of the ship) wasn't working until we got to to the next port which would explain the incorrect info on one of the webcam shots.

 

I did rub shoulders with stan at breakfast one morning - just by sheer luck, too! On such a big ship with so many people it is like a needle in a haystack situation. The lanyard that stan was wearing helped though! :P I had planned on attending the informal get together in the Casbah on the first sea day but I couldn't get there in time.

 

One thing - I'm not sure what to do with the NZ coins I have - about $20 worth that can't be exchanged on the boat or at the Post Office. Souvenir money maybe?

[Kiwi_cruiser]

The icy cold winds as we were sailing through the Milford and Dusky sounds had me retreat to the cabin a few times but I was back up on the open deck in a flash. We only went into two sounds, with the 2nd done early in order to progress to Dunedin earlier than planned due to the weather. Although I had an alarm set I slept right through the Milford sound (boo!)

 

That's a shame you did not see Milford sound and missed Dunedin :(

 

One thing - I'm not sure what to do with the NZ coins I have - about $20 worth that can't be exchanged on the boat or at the Post Office. Souvenir money maybe?

 

Yep keep it as Souvenir money or keep it, and use it if you every come over here again!