25 day B2B on Spirit Auckland~Sydney~Papeete detailed review

[luckybecky]

Hello cruisers! I have a long trip report for you. I have a problem with writing overly long detailed trip reviews. Well, this cruise was 25 days so our longest cruise ever. Hence my trip report is going to go on forever. Sorry. Join in if you like. I’ll have many photos and menus and more.

 

We booked this cruise in Oct 2023. The itinerary looked amazing. Twelve days in New Zealand and Australia, and then we booked the B2B cruise, 13 days from Sydney through the South Pacific ending in Tahiti.

 

Price at booking was $4459 (1^st leg) and $4151 (2^nd leg). A couple of price drops, went down to $3821 and $3812. Also added a $50 OBC to the 2^nd leg, and had $215 Costco card for each leg. (Inside cabin)

 

Balcony price was exorbitant. About 4 times the cost of an inside at the time we booked. No way to justify that. Balcony prices did come down, but still very expensive. On Nov 20, lowest balcony (not gty) for Mar 28 was $8348 – still more than double an inside.

 

On Nov. 8 we were notified that Lyttelton (Christchurch) port had been replaced with Timaru. We couldn’t find any shore excursions for the new port. Someone on the NZ board was aghast, saying Timaru is a poor replacement, not much more than a potty stop when traveling the area.

 

On Jan 4, we received an email notifying us that the port had been changed back to Lyttelton. 🙄

 

Note that we received an email when NCL changed the port completely. But when they just changed port time I didn’t get any notification. I just happened to notice on the NCL trip planner that our Wellington port time had changed from 8am-6pm, to 9am-5pm. So shorter by 2 hours. Likewise, Lyttelton changed from 9am-7pm, to 7am-5pm. Not liking this earlier back aboard time! Important to know when planning excursions!!

 

On Jan 23, we received yet another itinerary change notice! This time, they dropped Raiatea and added Bora Bora. So we canceled our booked tour in Raiatea. The replacement, Bora Bora, is an amazing port! (Unlike, say, Timaru for Lyttelton/Christchurch which was not an equal swap) But we had been looking forward to going to a new port – Raiatea - that we had never visited before, and where we had reserved an excursion that sounded fantastic. But hey, it’s Bora Bora. We’ll take it. :)

 

We also had a changed arrival in Papeete. Arrival time was confusing. It was going to be 8pm, then 4am, then changed back to 8pm the night before debarkation. This was REALLY annoying, because there was a 7:40am flight from PPT to LAX that we wanted to take. I called NCL to ask if we would be able to debark in time to make that early flight (since we were scheduled to arrive the night before) – the rep told me no. She could not assure me that a gangplank would be open with staff to debark us at that early hour. And now we are apparently doing just that. Grrr. This cost us a lot of money as we booked a day room at significant expense (more on that later).

 

I have never been on any other cruise line that had these port changes on such a regular basis. This has only happened to us on NCL. It really makes planning difficult – and I’m a big planner. It’s frustrating to spend many hours researching our ports and booking excursions, and then have the cruise line continually changing ports, and port times. Obviously I understand that weather or mechanical issues can change a port, but this is not the case here.

 

In the months and weeks leading up to the cruise, I researched and booked excursions for every port. We got our visas for New Zealand and Australia.

 

I did not book any NCL excursions. Even with the $50 per cabin excursion credit, the NCL excursions were very exorbitantly priced compared to very similar (in some cases, identical) excursions booked privately. This has been our experience on our two previous NCL cruises. The excursion prices are just ridiculous.

[luckybecky]

Tuesday March 12, 2024

 

Finally it’s time to go! We flew from San Antonio to Dallas for a 10:45pm flight to Auckland. The very long flight went smoothly. About 14.5 hours flight time, but we were on the plane for at least 16+ hours for boarding, taxi, and deplaning took a very long time. It would definitely be worth it to book a seat with extra leg room for this long flight if you can afford it. Our seats were VERY tight and uncomfortable. (American Airlines) The seat belt light stayed on the ENTIRE flight, and I was twice told to sit down by flight attendants when I went to the rear galley area to stretch my legs.

 

NZ is very strict about bringing any biological materials into the country. No fresh fruits, vegetables, honey, or meat products. We had to fill out a declaration form, be interviewed and show our snacks that we had in our carryon, and just for good measure had our bags sniffed by a beagle on our way out of the airport. Sealed, packaged items like cookies and crackers are OK.

 

We had reserved a shuttle to our central business district hotel. $20 per person. It’s about a 40 minute drive, a little longer in our case since it was a shared shuttle that stopped at 4 hotels and we were the last one.

 

It was about 9am or so (Thursday March 14 in Auckland, even though we had left home on Tuesday) and our room was not ready. We went to the nearby Auckland Art Gallery, an excellent free museum that was well worth the visit. We had a sandwich at the cafe there. Then walked to the waterfront which honestly wasn’t that scenic, at least not from where we were.

 

Very tired, we went back to the hotel around 1:30 and they were able to get us into a room. We napped a little, went out for dinner and then back to our hotel early.

 

I highly recommend Avani Auckland Metropolis hotel. Great location in the central business district, very close to the Auckland Art Gallery and Albert Park. Very nice room, with living area, separate bedroom, balcony, and a small but full kitchen with stove, microwave, dishes & utensils, fridge, and a washer and dryer. It only has weekly housekeeping but that wasn’t a problem for us. It cost $373 USD for 2 nights. There is a nice grocery store about 2 blocks away and many places to eat.

 

 

Our room at Avani

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from our balcony

 

 

 

Kitchenette. There is also a washer and dryer.

 

[luckybecky]

Friday March 15

 

We got out of our room a little before 9am, and caught the Hop On Hop Off bus nearby. Rode the bus to Bastion Point which has a nice memorial and scenic views. Unfortunately today was dreary and rainy. Although we hit several nice viewpoints, the photo opportunities weren’t great due to the gloomy weather. 

 

 

 

After Bastion Point, we reboarded the HOHO bus and rode back to the CBD. We exited the bus at the Sky Tower stop and took in the views from the top of the tower. It was $47 USD for two of us (your price may vary depending on exchange rate at the time you book.) Gorgeous views but it would have been even better on a clear day. 

 

 

 

 

We had a good pizza, one was large enough for us to share, at the nearby Chill and Grill cafe. It was about $16US for the pizza and one bottle of soda. We are noticing that prices seem really reasonable here. 

 

Next, we returned to the HOHO bus stop. Waited more than 40 minutes (buses are supposed to run every 30 min). Some people were already there before us and had been waiting longer. 

We rode to Mount Eden, an extinct volcano. It’s a bit of a steep hike up but not far. A drizzly day; it started raining hard just when we got to the top. Normally the views would be spectacular and I’d recommend going here but when we were there, it was very misty and rainy.

 

 

Here we are trying to make the best of it. 🙂

 

 

We waited for over an hour for the HOHO bus to return. Started chatting with a couple who had been waiting even longer. The bus never came. I finally called an Uber and offered to share with the other couple because they weren’t getting service and couldn’t call a ride. Mt. Eden is too far from the city center to walk and nothing else around. Not nice to be stranded there in the rain by the HOHO bus. I do NOT recommend this service. 

 

The bus should be a great way to see the city, giving you the opportunity to cover all the major sites and lots of ground in a short time. But not if you spend all your time waiting for buses that do not come even remotely close to on schedule. Don’t waste your time or money.

There was a large grocery store near our hotel. We got some wine and sandwiches there, and had a leisurely dinner in our hotel room. We were too tired, and tired of the gloomy weather, to go out again.

 

Here's a shot of the tower, I think taken on a different day

 

 

The view from our balcony at night

 

 

[luckybecky]

Saturday March 16

 

Embarkation Day!

 

We had to check out of our hotel at 10am. Our check in time for the ship wasn’t until 1:30.

 

We checked out just before 10 and left our luggage at the hotel. We found a McDonald’s nearby and had a breakfast sandwich. Then walked along Queen Street and browsed a couple of department stores. But we aren’t big shoppers so tired of this quickly.

 

We retrieved our luggage and walked from our hotel to the port around noon. We were directed to sit and wait because we were early. They were enforcing check in time. There were two women asking every person who entered what their check in time was, and directing people to wait if they were early.

 

At about 1:15, the ladies said that everyone with a 1:30 check in time could join the line. Then we waited in line for about 30 minutes before actually checking in. It was around 2pm when we got on board.

 

We dropped off our hand luggage at our cabin. The cabin was a little disappointing at first. It was tight. Especially the access to the bathroom. You have to shimmy along the wall at the foot of the bed to get to the bathroom. Storage is very limited. The deck plan is very misleading. It shows our room in a different position, and shows it as a longer than average cabin. Not true at all. But this is our home for the next 25 days so we will make the best of it. Later, I realized that we actually have a bit more open space than the average inside cabin. It’s just a different layout.

 

There is one huge plus to our cabin. We are the ONLY cabin on our corridor. There is zero traffic outside our stateroom, so no noise whatsoever. In my experience, the door is always the weak link when it comes to noise. With zero traffic outside our room, we never hear a peep. And we are very close to the aft pool, jacuzzis, and bar. And just 2 flights of stairs directly to the buffet. So our cabin has a very convenient location.

 

 

 

Went to the bier Garden to meet other cruisers from Cruise Critic and Facebook. That was fun!

 

At about 5:30 the horn sounded for sail away. We got some great photos from the back of deck 12.

 

Went back to our room to unpack. We are going to have to be Tetris experts to make this work for the next several weeks. Then went to get a bite at the buffet. We ate quickly and then went to the comedy show in the main theater. The comic was OK, not great. A fun diversion.

 

Back to our room where we tried to finish unpacking and getting organized.

[luckybecky]

Here are some more photos of our first day on board

 

 

The cabin

 

 

 

Meet and Greet at Bier Garten

 

 

 

 

Sailaway

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Sunday March 17   Tauranga, NZ

 

Up early for a tour. Breakfast was a madhouse. No seating anywhere. We took some eggs and bacon back to our room.

 

We had a private tour organized by a CC member. Just six of us! I always prefer small group tours whenever possible. This one was expensive but worth it.

 

We were picked up at the port around 9am. We had a drive through the city with a short photo stop at the beach. Then a brief stop at a Maori meeting house. We only took pictures from outside the grounds, over a fence, because it is considered disrespectful to enter the grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to a small kiwi farm which we all enjoyed. The plants were heavy with fruit, ready to be harvested within a few days. They harvest only once per year, and we were there just in time to see the bountiful crop just before it disappeared.

 

 

We stopped at McLaren Falls for a short walk through the lush forest. The walk and falls were lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

Our guide took us to a little pub in a tiny town – no tourists here (except us!). We had toasties (grilled sandwiches) and beer. The pub propreiter was a hoot – very nice and fit the part perfectly.

 

 

[luckybecky]

Then, on to the main attraction: Hobbiton. I am not a big fan, and have not read Tolkein’s books or seen the movies. But nevertheless, Hobbiton was absolutely charming. Such a lovely green pastoral setting, with lush rolling hills and sheep and cows. The Hobbiton village was lovely, with flowers everywhere and many Hobbit houses which made for great photos. It was very enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 18 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

Back to Tauranga after the 2.5 hour Hobbiton tour. We got back on board, refreshed, and went to dinner in the Windows dining room. The food was very good and portions were plenty to fill us up. I had a spinach and artichoke dip with chips, french onion soup, and bacon and bourbon chicken breast. All excellent. Paul had a cobb salad and parmesan crusted pork chop, and ate every bite. Service was very slow.

 

We wanted to see what was on offer for dessert, but no dessert menu arrived. We waited 15-20 minutes after finishing entrees before giving up.

 

The show tonight was a magic show. It was fun but we were tired. Went back to our cabin as soon as it was over.

 

 

Parmesan crusted pork chop

 

 

 

Bacon and bourbon chicken breast -- very good

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Monday March 18 Napier, NZ

 

Docking time wasn’t until noon so we slept late. Went to the buffet around 10am for breakfast. Busy and crowded as always, but we were able to find a table.

 

We were ready to go as soon as debarkation began. You have to take a free shuttle bus to town, about 10 minutes. The port is a working port and there is no pedestrian access.

 

We had a lovely walk along the beach to a viewing platform. There are pretty gardens along the way. We spent a little time at the MTG museum but did not have time to see it all before our tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

We had a prescheduled walking tour of the art deco district. Sorry to say, it was something of a drag. Our guide was very knowledgeable but had a very dry, pedantic delivery. The two hour tour just seemed to go on and on. The same tour could (and should) have been accomplished in half the time. And a guide with some wit or personality would have helped.

 

We wished we had found another way to spend the day. But you can’t win them all, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our tour ended at 4pm. The sunny, warm weather we had enjoyed earlier turned cold and blustery with light rain. We might have spent a little more time in the town, but instead we headed to the shuttle bus due to the rapidly deteriorating weather. The shuttle was fairly quick getting us back – a long line, but it moved fast.

 

We freshened up and then spent about an hour in the beautiful forward observation lounge, “Spinnaker”. This would become one of our favorite places on board.

 

Tried to go to dinner around 6pm at Silk, but they had a half hour wait. So we went to Windows MDR. Slow service again.

 

Seated at about 6:15. A lady (not our server) came at some point late into our meal and asked how things were, asked if we wanted more wine. We said sure, that would be great. More wine never came. Hey, don’t offer if you can’t do it.

 

It took over one hour to get from seating, to entree being served. A half hour after that, we were given dessert menus. Nothing appealed to us and after the long dinner we just gave up, same as last night.

 

 

 

BBQ Mixed grill

 

 

 

NY Strip Steak

 

 

 

 

Many people were eagerly waiting for the casino to open, which finally happened maybe around 9pm?

 

Seas were very rocky! And got even more rough overnight.

 

Edited April 18 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

Tuesday March 19 Wellington

 

 

We had a city tour, started with a nice drive up to top of mountain for scenic views. It was windy and cold. The weather in NZ seems to change by the minute. One minute it will be sunny and warm, then five minutes later it’s drizzling and windy. Definitely dress in layers. This was true in almost all of our NZ ports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at Weta workshop for a quick bathroom break and photos with some trolls.

 

 

 

 

This is the bathroom at the Weta workshop

 

 

 

 

There was a VERY long line for the cable car. Fortunately our tickets were pre booked as part of our tour so we got to skip the ticket line and only had about a 15 minute wait for the cable car. It’s a very short ride to the top and not especially scenic, at least from the side I was on. I’m not sure that it would be worth the wait if you don’t have pre-booked tickets. However there is a botanic garden at the top and you can get to Zealandia from there.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a little free time for shopping and/or lunch before returning to our tour for the ride back to the ship. We had a delicious steak and cheese pie.

 

[luckybecky]

Went to Spinnaker for a bit before supper. It’s one of my favorite places on the ship. Beautiful big windows with forward facing views.

 

Views from/in Spinnaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

Went to Le Bistro for supper. It was good but not my favorite of the specialty restaurants.

 

 

French onion soup

 

 

Endive salad

 

 

Sea bass, I think

 

 

Roasted pork chop

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marquise au chocolat -- delicious!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the Social Club for the Yes or No game. Paul played and only lasted a minute. It was fun and entertaining. We liked all the game shows on this ship.

 

For anyone who wonders if the staff is excited about finding ducks: we hid one in the Social Club before the yes or no game. No one was there except two crew members who were setting up for the game. Paul wasn’t very discreet in his hiding and they caught him, prompting a friendly rivalry of who could get to it first. They both wanted it and the one who got it thanked us.

 

We saw the comedian in theater. The same comic as before but different material. Again, he was funny but not the best I have ever seen.

[barcelonauta]

Amazing report! Thanks for posting it and for the extended description of your first days on board. Two bucket list cruises put altogether in a B2B mode. WoW Impressive! The itinerariy changes before cruise ( including the shortened stays in port) even if anoying seem to be acceptable this time. Last Christmas they removed 2 Australian ports before the sailing, so we just cancelled our booking. 

[lizygirl3]

2 hours ago, barcelonauta said:

Amazing report! Thanks for posting it and for the extended description of your first days on board. Two bucket list cruises put altogether in a B2B mode. WoW Impressive! The itinerariy changes before cruise ( including the shortened stays in port) even if anoying seem to be acceptable this time. Last Christmas they removed 2 Australian ports before the sailing, so we just cancelled our booking. 

13 hours ago, luckybecky said:

Hello cruisers! I have a long trip report for you. I have a problem with writing overly long detailed trip reviews. Well, this cruise was 25 days so our longest cruise ever. Hence my trip report is going to go on forever. Sorry. Join in if you like. I’ll have many photos and menus and more.

 

We booked this cruise in Oct 2023. The itinerary looked amazing. Twelve days in New Zealand and Australia, and then we booked the B2B cruise, 13 days from Sydney through the South Pacific ending in Tahiti.

 

Price at booking was $4459 (1^st leg) and $4151 (2^nd leg). A couple of price drops, went down to $3821 and $3812. Also added a $50 OBC to the 2^nd leg, and had $215 Costco card for each leg. (Inside cabin)

 

Balcony price was exorbitant. About 4 times the cost of an inside at the time we booked. No way to justify that. Balcony prices did come down, but still very expensive. On Nov 20, lowest balcony (not gty) for Mar 28 was $8348 – still more than double an inside.

 

On Nov. 8 we were notified that Lyttelton (Christchurch) port had been replaced with Timaru. We couldn’t find any shore excursions for the new port. Someone on the NZ board was aghast, saying Timaru is a poor replacement, not much more than a potty stop when traveling the area.

 

On Jan 4, we received an email notifying us that the port had been changed back to Lyttelton. 🙄

 

Note that we received an email when NCL changed the port completely. But when they just changed port time I didn’t get any notification. I just happened to notice on the NCL trip planner that our Wellington port time had changed from 8am-6pm, to 9am-5pm. So shorter by 2 hours. Likewise, Lyttelton changed from 9am-7pm, to 7am-5pm. Not liking this earlier back aboard time! Important to know when planning excursions!!

 

On Jan 23, we received yet another itinerary change notice! This time, they dropped Raiatea and added Bora Bora. So we canceled our booked tour in Raiatea. The replacement, Bora Bora, is an amazing port! (Unlike, say, Timaru for Lyttelton/Christchurch which was not an equal swap) But we had been looking forward to going to a new port – Raiatea - that we had never visited before, and where we had reserved an excursion that sounded fantastic. But hey, it’s Bora Bora. We’ll take it. :)

 

We also had a changed arrival in Papeete. Arrival time was confusing. It was going to be 8pm, then 4am, then changed back to 8pm the night before debarkation. This was REALLY annoying, because there was a 7:40am flight from PPT to LAX that we wanted to take. I called NCL to ask if we would be able to debark in time to make that early flight (since we were scheduled to arrive the night before) – the rep told me no. She could not assure me that a gangplank would be open with staff to debark us at that early hour. And now we are apparently doing just that. Grrr. This cost us a lot of money as we booked a day room at significant expense (more on that later).

 

I have never been on any other cruise line that had these port changes on such a regular basis. This has only happened to us on NCL. It really makes planning difficult – and I’m a big planner. It’s frustrating to spend many hours researching our ports and booking excursions, and then have the cruise line continually changing ports, and port times. Obviously I understand that weather or mechanical issues can change a port, but this is not the case here.

 

In the months and weeks leading up to the cruise, I researched and booked excursions for every port. We got our visas for New Zealand and Australia.

 

I did not book any NCL excursions. Even with the $50 per cabin excursion credit, the NCL excursions were very exorbitantly priced compared to very similar (in some cases, identical) excursions booked privately. This has been our experience on our two previous NCL cruises. The excursion prices are just ridiculous.

 

[lizygirl3]

Luckybecky was on the Spirit with you guys for this back to back. I am enjoying reliving our journey. We were the 2 couples from Alabama. Spent most of our leisure time on the 8th floor Martini bar if not at shows, dinner or excursions.

 

[vacation44]

@luckybeckyThank you very much for taking the time to post this report on what sounds like an amazing adventure.    I appreciate your how you are writing up your daily summary with a nice amount of added pictures.   I will definitely go back and read your other trip reports.

[luckybecky]

8 hours ago, barcelonauta said:

Amazing report! Thanks for posting it and for the extended description of your first days on board. Two bucket list cruises put altogether in a B2B mode. WoW Impressive! The itinerariy changes before cruise ( including the shortened stays in port) even if anoying seem to be acceptable this time. Last Christmas they removed 2 Australian ports before the sailing, so we just cancelled our booking. 

 

Ouch, sorry they removed two ports. I agree, that would not be acceptable. The same thing happened on our Panama canal cruise. They dropped one port completely, giving us an extra sea day, and changed one port for another that we thought was not a fair exchange. 

 

This definitely was a bucket list cruise with many excellent ports. We really liked the itinerary. There were almost 300 passengers doing the same B2B that we did, and some continuing on the Hawaii!

[luckybecky]

So when I left off we had finished our day in Wellington. 

 

 

Wednesday March 20 Christchurch/ Lyttelton

 

We had a pre booked tour. You must take shuttle from ship to town. You cannot walk from the pier to town.

 

The cruise shuttle let off exactly where our Viator tour picked up. We had a great tour guide who gave nonstop commentary on our city tour. It was really nice. Visited a pretty botanical garden. We had some free time in the city center. It was a good day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I said we had a meat pie yesterday. I was wrong; it was today. Apparently they love these and eat them all the time in NZ. It was affordable and delicious.

 

 

 

 

A few more photos from around town

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Back on board, spent some time in the hot tub. Dinner at Silk. Better than I remember. The last time we were on Spirit several years ago, everything about Silk was pretty disappointing as I recall. Better this time. Hot and sour soup and dumplings were very good. However the meat dish had literally 2 small bites of meat. That’s it. Tasted good but was almost all noodles and very little meat. Paul’s dish was the same. Very little shrimp. Go early. We got there at 515 before 530 opening. They started seating people early about 520. filled up very fast.

 

 

 

 

Hot and sour soup

 

 

Calamari and dumplings

 

 

Spicy seafood udon noodles

 

 

Beef Chow Fun, very light on the beef but tasted good

 

 

Crispy chestnut and red bean triangles. I honestly can't remember how we liked these

 

 

 

Panda salad was good

 

 

 

 

 

7pm Went to Boots country show. It was fun, high energy. Go early to get a good seat. It filled up quickly.

 

The casino took forever to open. We lost a little money and went to bed early.

[luckybecky]

Thursday March 21 Dunedin

 

We had a tour of town and the Otago peninsula. It was very pretty. We stopped at the train station which had some pretty stained glass. Scenic views of the harbor. Then went to a lovely beach which was almost completely deserted except for a half dozen or so sea lions napping here and there. Very cool to see them in their native habitat. The drive through the countryside was very scenic.

 

The train station

 

 

 

 

This humorous sign was along the roadside. Our guide said someone had bought oceanview property next door, and then immediately began complaining to the town council about the smells and sounds from the farm. The farmer replied with this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if this guy was waving at us, or telling us to bugger off as they were trying to nap. 😄

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Upon returning to the ship at Port Chalmers, which is about half an hour away from central Dunedin, we got back on board for lunch and then went back off again to check out the port. There is a pretty church, which unfortunately was closed so we couldn’t go inside, and several cute shops. There was a local artisan market with several vendors selling jewelry, souvenirs, knitted items, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

We went to dinner a little before 6pm, I think at Windows.  Dinner actually moved quickly for a change, and went even faster when we mentioned we were hoping to finish in time to make the 7pm show. Everything was good.

 

 

Meatball appetizer

 

 

Baked brie salad

 

 

Braised lamb shank

 

 

Turkey medallions with couscous

 

 

 

 

Tonight’s show was acrobats. They were very good. Unfortunately they don’t allow photos at any of the shows.

 

Next up, the Majority Rules game show which was fun. We had another short spin in the casino. I actually won a little. 🙂

 

Some pictures from sailaway

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Friday March 22 Cruising the Fjords

 

Today we did not have a port stop, but cruised three fjords at the southern tip of New Zealand. They were breathtaking. Everyone commented on how rare it is to have the fine weather that we did. It was cloudly in the morning, but not raining, and the sun came out as the day went on. Even our cruise director said that it was the best weather she has seen there, where apparently it is often rainy. The forward viewing areas were very crowded. You need to go early if you want to secure a good spot.

 

We went to dinner early again. I forgot to take a picture of the menu. We had a blue cheese soup, chicken salad, turkey cutlet, and NY Strip. We finished in time to get to the theater and snag a good seat. The comedy juggler James Bustar was hilarious. Don’t miss his show if he’s on your ship. He had to modify some of his act because the ship is rocking so much.

 

After the juggling show in the theater, we quickly ran up to Spinnaker for the Perfect Couple game show, which was a lot of fun. And then we finished off the evening with a spin in the casino as usual. We don’t gamble large sums of money, and if we are losing we stop. But tonight we did OK.

 

New Zealand was lovely. Now we are headed to Australia. We had been discouraged by some people on this board from taking a NZ cruise. Almost not worth our time if we aren’t going to see the interior of the country, seemed to be the consensus. I could not disagree more. Of course we would have loved to see even more of the country but our ports were lovely and I would enthusiastically recommend a cruise here.

 

The stunning fjords:

 

Dusky Sound was first

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, Doubtful Sound

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, Milford Sound which may have been the most spectacular of all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Saturday March 23 Sea Day

 

We turned the clocks back an hour last night so we gained an extra hour of sleep, which we needed! We are both tired after going strong for several days in a row. We slept well, then got up and went for a 30 minute brisk walk doing laps on the promenade on deck 7. The weather was chilly and damp.

 

Then we had a light breakfast and kind of a lazy morning.

 

We’ve had rocky seas! Captain says this is actually mild for the Tasman sea; it could be worse. It was rocking all night. The same in Wellington. This is probably the rockiest cruise I’ve ever been on. Thankfully neither of us is bothered by sea sickness.

 

We had a Cruise Critic Meet and Greet at 1:30. Many people had signed up for this both from CC and another social media site. About 30 showed up. The cruise director and several department heads came and introduced themselves.

 

Two couples at the Meet & Greet said they had been fined $400 for failing to declare prohibited items upon arriving in New Zealand. In their case it was half a sandwich, and some leftover pizza. Remember I mentioned the cute beagle sniffing bags at the Auckland airport? He’s adorable but he means business.

 

Duck hunters, tell me AITA.

So I’m walking through the Local and see a duck sitting on a table that had been abandoned (still with dirty dishes). I picked up the duck, thinking whoever had dined there had left it for wait staff or anyone to find. So I pick it up and keep walking. Then I see this old fat guy walking aggressively straight toward me, looking me right in the eye, with his hand out for the duck. Really?

 

He insists I give him the duck. Said it is his wife’s. I guess I could have fought him for it but I’m not that kind of person. I handed it over. It happened fast and I was taken aback, so I just gave it. I made a comment about “finder’s keepers.” He didn’t care. Turned his back on me and walked away without even a please or thank you.

 

Sorry, but I think he’s the ***hole in this situation. I would never do that to someone. I mean, it’s not like I found his wife’s wallet or something – which of course I would make every effort to return to its owner. It’s a freaking duck that wasn’t even hers in the first place. It soured me on the fun of duck hunting.

 

We had dinner in Taste. Service much faster than in Windows. Well paced. I had gnocchi with Italian sausage, and creamy spinach soup. Both very good. Grilled pineapple chicken for my entree. I think this is my favorite dish so far. It was delicious. Paul had ravioli in lobster sauce, which is on the menu frequently. I wish they would offer it with some variation of the lobster sauce. Would not be that hard to change it up and offer it with a marinara sauce once in a while.

 

 

Ravioli

 

 

Gnocchi

 

 

Seared swordfish carpaccio

 

 

Grilled tilapia

 

 

Grilled pineapple chicken

 

 

 

 

We went to the Broadway Cabaret show in the main theater. It was disappointing. We thought it would be a big production show with the full cast. No. It was three people (and band) singing songs from various shows. Some songs were more recognizable than others. The singers were good. No dancers or anything else.

 

We also participated in the Crowd Trivia game show which was a fun diversion. The sea continues rocking hard all day and night. People staggering around looking like they’ve had one too many glasses of wine.

 

 

[luckybecky]

Sunday March 24 Sea Day

 

Today there was a meeting in the theater for Back to Back cruisers. There are 283 people continuing on the next cruise from Sydney to Papeete. They gave us info about procedures for immigration, getting our new key card, etc.

 

Then we went to a Q&A with the captain and two senior officers in the Spinnaker lounge. It was interesting. The seas continue to be very rough. This is the rockiest cruise I’ve ever been on. The captain says that the Tasman sea is typically quite rough and in fact, the seas are better than average. Wow. I’d hate to see what it’s like on a bad day. The navigation channel on TV was showing apparent wind speed at 53 knots (61mph) one time when I looked at it.

 

Not sure how well my video shows it, but the sea was choppy.

 

 

 

 

We went to a black glass wine tasting in Le Bistro. We had signed up for this a couple of days ago. It was fun and informative. Cost $22 per person. Lasts about an hour.

 

 

 

The afternoon was slow. Not much happening. The casino opened at 3:30 so we went there before supper to try our luck. So far, we are both up! Yay for us! Spent some time in our favorite spot, Spinnaker.

 

 

Went to dinner in Taste again. Service was again prompt and well paced. I forgot to take a picture of the menu. I had the NY Strip. It is just OK, definitely not steakhouse quality, but edible. There was a good brussels sprouts salad, and potato soup. Paul had some kind of fish. Dessert was a salted caramel chocolate torte – fantastic. Very rich and chocolaty. Paul had a no sugar added chocolate cake which was also good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to the Battle of the Sexes game show in Spinnaker while Paul slept off dinner. The game show was very fun and entertaining. Then, I met up with Paul in the theater for the 9pm show with Paul Suha, a violinist. He’s amazing.

 

 

[luckybecky]

Monday March 25 Melbourne

 

We were instructed to wait until our deck is called in order to be processed by Australian immigration authorities. It didn’t take long. Our group was called second. We got off the ship I think around 8:30am. We got through passport inspection quickly. Then easily bought bus tickets to get us to the central city. Very friendly and helpful Aussies willing to help.

 

We took some pictures around the iconic train station, and made our way up to the Victoria library. It is beautiful, and free to enter and also has good clean bathrooms. So a good stop. We had a free walking tour that departed from here at 10:30am.

 

Here are some photos on the way to the library, and the library itself which is beautiful.

 

 

The train station

 

 

The library