OzKiwiJJ

We booked this cruise relatively late - in June - so we only had the option of Traditional Dining, and chose the late option which is at 7:45pm. Perfect. We'd requested an 8-seater table but have been allocated a very nice 6-seater right by the windows overlooking the stern. We have lovely table companions - a Canadian couple from Victoria, Vancouver Island, and a couple from Auckland. We all talked non-stop all evening and were the last table to leave the dining room. Oops! There was a good choice of appetisers and mains but less choice for dessert. HAL doesn't have the "always available" options like Princess. I had a very nice croquette as an appetiser, then pork fillet which was just on the edge of turning dry but still tasty. I had no clue what the dessert I ordered was going to be but it turned out to be a roulade of soft meringue and thick custard. Light but a bit too sweet. Shock, horror! The Ocean Bar menu only listed Hennessy XO but they actually had enough left of my favourite Remy Martin XO for one glass. The bartender assures me he will have more Remy Martin tonight. 😊 Luckily we have plenty of OBC as it's a lot more expensive on HAL, or rather the gap between the drinks package limit, $11, and the actual price is much bigger than on Princess plus the gratuity is added on top of the difference. Oh well, we've prepaid our gratuities, plus an extra excursion, and speciality dining is included in our package, and we bought an unlimited laundry package as well, so won't have many other onboard expenses so our OBC should cover our excess-cost drinks for the whole cruise.

Akaroa is beautiful, worth going to IMHO and the drive over there is very scenic. Does the tour include the Giant's House?

We prepaid. The exchange rate was very good. I must admit I'd forgotten about those extra gratuities being required. It blew a nice hole in my budget!

Shower experience #1. It's a bit bigger than the Coral Princess balcony cabin showers but ... Everything is on the back wall, including the shower nozzle which, to me, is a recipe for disaster or at least a very wet bathroom unless you're very careful. Luckily it's one of those detachable, height adjustable shower heads so I was able to shower with the water coming nearly straight down not out towards the shower curtain. I cane close to cracking my elbows a couple of times though. The shower floor got very slippery once shampoo or soap had been used. I told Rolf to use the anti-slip mat as I nearly slipped over at one point. He said that worked well. I'm going to try the shower over the bath tomorrow.

The guy at guest services installed the shortcut to the Navigator webpage on our phones. We have to go through that to browse. It certainly makes me realize how good the Princess MedallionNet is. I'm not sure if any of my other apps will work - Speedtest certainly wouldn't. The internet seems quite slow, some photos on another forum took ages to load.

Check-in was very disorganised. We headed up the escalators where we were told to take a seat and we would "be called". After a while we noticed two things: lots of people arriving who were not being told to take a seat, and terminal staff checking people in on tablets in other rows and also those who had just arrived who were queueing. However our row of seats was being ignored. This led to some rather irate passengers who were complaining loudly. It still took another ten minutes for someone to check us in although we did notice that the check-in staff were now being directed to check the boarding times of everyone before starting the check-in process - we were in boarding group A at 12 noon. Finally we got our boarding pass then had to fight our way past the queue. Next they scanned our passports and took photos. Then it was the official passport control. Then security where all phones and cameras had to be taken out of bags (but not Kindles). Of course there is always one guy who tries to go through the arch wearing a coat with the pockets full of keys and coins! 🙄 And the two women who thought it was OK to dump their stuff on top of our bags and try to jump the queue through the arch! 🙄 Finally we could head up the gangway but we needed our passports again along with our boarding pass to step onto the ship, then had to have our boarding passes scanned at another checkpoint. It was close to 1pm before we were fully onboard! We found our cabin and two bags had already arrived. Another arrived shortly afterwards so we were able to get most of our unpacking done. Unfortunately one bag is still missing - it has my fan in it so it's probably stuck in security. Normally I put that in my carry-on but we had a fair walk from the rental car drop-off so I wanted less weight in my carry-on. We have a "Signature Suite" which is a mini-suite. Reasonable storage, US and EU power points and USB sockets in several places - at each side of the bed, and a both desk areas. We have two showers - one over the bath and a separate shower cubicle. Unfortunately the dreaded shower curtains for both. Twin hand basins and tons of counter space. One big drawer and an under vanity shelf. There are three wardrobes. At first it looked like there was no space for trousers and long dresses but the bottom shelf folded up. Perfect! The wardrobes were too narrow for our hanging shoe holder but there was a perfectly placed hook on the wall in a convenient location. Muster stations are out on deck. We went to check in there but the crew weren't there then so we had to go back after lunch. As far as we could tell there was only the buffet open for lunch. It was a bit meh! I got all excited as it looked like there was real pavlova for dessert - large cakes with fruit and cream on top - but, no, it was dry meringue with weird cream but the fruit was nice. The wine list is reasonable at first glance. It appears the by-the-glass limit of our Have-it-All package is $11 which at least lets me have a Pinot Grigio but my favourite Gruner Veltliner will cost extra. I'm already missing the Princess medallion. We had to sign for drinks in the Ocean Bar but not in the buffet. Weird.

I'll try to note the port transfers for you. We've done a few NZ cruises in the past as we use them as a good way to catch up with friends and family in NZ. Apparently our four year old Android phones are too old for the app. I'm not impressed.

The airline was LATAM. Qantas code-shares with them. The business class fare might have been Holland America special but I checked the Qantas price on the HAL website for the exact same flight and it was almost double the LATAM fare. The service was good. No preflight or premeal drrinks but good champagne with the meal. The food was excellent - salmon with a type of large couscous, and a delicious sago, coconut cream and tropical fruit dessert. One of the best desserts I've had on a flight in years.

Thanks, this will be a new experience for us, our first cruise on Holland America.

Apparently Holland America now has a Navigator app. I have no idea what this is as our 4 year old phones don't have a recent enough version of Android. 🤬

We flew to Auckland last Thursday. The flight itself was lovely especially as we'd got business class seats on Latam at a lower price than Qantas wanted for an economy seat on the same code-shared flight. However both Sydney and Auckland airports were chaotic. A nice reminder of why we prefer to cruise out of and returning to Australia. However we have friends and family in NZ, especially in Auckland where we need more than a one day port stop. Since we'd had a rental car while in Auckland we decided to drop our bags off before returning the car. Queens Wharf didn't seem to have the usual obvious baggage drop so Rolf had to go into the terminal building to drop the bags. He said it was a bit confusing. On previous NZ cruises we'd embarked at Princes Wharf with a very efficient baggage drop area.

We're doing Auckland to Sydney but I understand Westerdam is continuing on to Singapore from Sydney. The Auckland to Sydney itinerary is: 20Dec22 - Auckland 21Dec22 - Tauranga 22Dec22 - Napier 23Dec22 - Picton 24Dec22 - Lyttelton 25Dec22 - At Sea 26Dec22 - Port Chalmers (Dunedin) 27Dec22 - Fiordland Scenic Cruising 28Dec22 - At Sea 29Dec22 - At Sea 30Dec22 - Hobart 31Dec22 - At Sea 1Jan23 - Melbourne 2Jan23 - At Sea 3Jan23 - Sydney Originally we were supposed to go to Kaikoura but that changed to Picton a couple of weeks ago. I'm not happy! I was hoping to indulge in some of the best crayfish in NZ!

There was a lot of chat about it in 2016 when Princess were offering very, very advantageous exchange rates and we were doing a repositioning cruise up to Hong Kong - when onboard costs were still USD for those repositioning cruises. I made a nice little profit on the OBC we didn't use as they refunded it at the real exchange rate, not the rate they sold it at.

Onboard costs are in USD on Royal Caribbean so it's a good way of protecting yourself from exchange rate fluctuations, especially if the cruise line exchange rate offered is favourable.

I'm sure Princess still allows factory-packed and sealed bottles of water to be brought onboard. We certainly did that in 2019 as we wanted small bottles for port stops on the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. I just bought a pack at Woollies, stuck a baggage tag on it and it arrived at our cabin with the rest of our luggage.

Bring your own then if they do require a test then ask Guest Services if you can use that.

That's why I think mandatory tests every 2-3 days would be smart.

Yes, around 2000 passengers on Westerdam which is the same as Coral.

We board Westerdam on Tuesday. We're staying in an apartment hotel in the city and have great views of the Queens Wharf part of the harbour over the top of buildings.

Coral Princess leaving Auckland last night.

Extremely selfish given how contagious the current variants are. No wonder it spreads like wildfire with idiots like that onboard.

Of course! 🤣 It's not cold just misty. We're boarding Westerdam on Tuesday but I think we'll be having a rainy cruise. Oh well, we're mostly doing it to catch up with family and friends but not much fun for those you haven't been here before.

From memory these were the prices a few months ago. Elite & Premium 50% discount. Per person per day bought in advance -$14 Per person per day bought onboard - $20 Single day onboard - around $28. You can't buy minutes any more, only by the day.

Look what I spotted in a very foggy Auckland harbour, peeking between the buildings. The "jet engines" are a clue.

The TA we used also has an Australian agency. She used to be a specialist for Crystal Cruises but also books any other cruise line if required. She's very good. I believe a few people here use her for luxury cruises and she was recommended to me by Pushka. We don't use her for local cruises but would happily book through her again in the right cicrumstances.