Review of our New Zealand cruise on the Dawn Princess 6th - 19th Feb, 2010

[cazz0069]

PART ONE :Let me go on record to say, i really do love Princess. Bearing in mind i dont really have anything to compare it too, so therefore i am somewhat biased on my thoughts towards the company. Having said that, this cruise i was far more aware of some of the companies downfalls, but at the same time, at any point that i felt they lost a point for something, it was made up in other areas.

 

We arrived, somewhat enthusiasticly, at Station Pier around 10.30 only to find out that we couldn't board the ship till 1pm. So we waited patiently at the top of the pier, at the coffee shop with our new BFF (best friend forever) Paula, who was the original member of our roll call. As it turned out, they opened the gates at around 11.40. Including the walk to the terminal, the entire check in process took no more than 20 minutes, and it was about 12.10 when we sat down to lunch in the Horizon Food court. The check in was simply that quick. I was amazed at how quick it took. The staff at check in were great, as Eric, my partner was on crutches, after a recent fall, they offered to get a wheelchair for him if that made his embarkation easier. They could not have been more helpful.

 

Sailway we met up with our roll call buddies. Tom (Shiraz49) had made us all up lanyards with Cruise Critic on them, so we all tracked each other down at the Oasis bar, to enjoy our sail out of Melbourne. May i say, soon as staff saw the Cruise Critic, they would instantly ask if we were reviewers, we were honest and advised it was just a website where people swap pointers and ask questions etc, but resulted in several free drinks during the cruise. My suggestion is do this for your roll call and your bound to get some type of freebie courtesy of staff wanting to create a good impression.;)

 

Our cabin was C341 a balcony on Caribe deck, which was fairly close to midship. The cabins are small, but plenty of space for our 4 bags. And always immaculately cleaned by our rather dull cabin steward. He did his job well, but none of the flair that some of the others showed. Not a complaint, just an observation. However as some of you may have read in my other thread, we had terrible problems with noise in this cabin, which we later found out was the hydraulic systems from the lifeboats that appeared to run right under the cabin and on the first morning at sea, at around 5.30am, this went off for close to 2 hours!!!! To give you an idea of the sound, our cabin steward said it was actually the horn of the ship, as it must have been passing through fog. Even he relinquished on that idea when A. it was not coming from outside and B. it just didn't stop. So they had someone from maintenance come and check it whilst we went for breakfast. The noise had appeared to have been fixed...or so we thought. From the 3rd night in, it went off, up to 3 times a night, for about 2 minutes at a time. We reported it to the front desk, and the supervisor could not have been more helpful. He made it his absolute mission to get it fixed, and it was only around Day 8, he had to admit defeat and say he was unable to get it fixed and offered us both $280 on board credit as compensation. This was not expected but was very touched by the gesture. And it would ensure that we would definitely sail with Princess again. But word of warning, i am not sure, if it was a fault or actually something thats there all the time, if the latter may i suggest, avoiding that area all together when booking on Caribe deck.

 

The staff are once again the stand out for me. From staff remembering your name and cabin number everytime you ordered a drink, or just the 1000`s of good mornings you get as you walk down the corridor. And this is taking into account that i didn't wear my special cruise critic lanyard alot of the time. The Cruise Director and his crew, were a multi cultural bunch, compared to the bunch of Britons that we had on our last cruise. I was perhaps a little harsh of Gavin Chandler on a previous thread, as he did seem to be a little more conspicuous later in the cruise. But i will stick to my guns and say he was certainly not as present as much as others. Overall, with the exception of a couple, the majority of the cruise director staff were a little on the dull side...they were good, but have had better.

 

An interesting observation though was that on our cruise on the Sun Princess in April where the gratuity for drinks was added on top of the drink price for eg, a cocktail was $9.95 and with gratuity, it came to $11.00, whereas on the Dawn, the drink prices where inclusive. The advertise price was $10.00 and when you signed the receipt it would show the drink was actually $9.09 with an 0.89 cent gratuity added. I am not sure if this has changed across the board, but certainly made drinking at least a $1.00 cheaper on each cocktail i had, which was many:p

 

I was also told some wonderful Upgrade fairy stories, from a couple who got upgraded from an inside cabin to a balcony to another couple that were on a wait list for an inside cabin, then got a call 2 days before the cruise from Princess who offered them a mini suite for $4200:eek: . I suppose one of the advantages of waiting to the last minute.

 

Eric registered for the Ultimate Ship Tour...this is a behind the scenes tour of the ship at a cost of $175. It also included a glass of french champagne on the bridge, professional photos, a chefs jacket, a fantastic fluffy robe and personalised stationary. Eric highly recommends it. Be early in registering though, if it gets more than 12 people who are interested it goes to a ballot. In our case, more than 50 people had registered. I am not sure if Eric was just lucky or they acknowledged the fact he was the first to book, but either way he had a great time.

 

 

Some of the dissapointing things on this cruise, would be the fact that almost every TV show on board, were all repeats of shows that were showing when we travelled on the Sun in April. I would have thought in the time that passed Princess could have updated their play list. I also thought that there appeared to be alot more Princess related channels that did nothing but push the product down your throat.

 

Alot of the venues like the Vista Lounge and Princess Theatre, would only have 2 or 3 drinks waiters on, so it was not unusual to completely miss out on being served or the very least having to wait 15 mins to get served. The other thing i noticed was some of the staff certainly went into shut down mode on the last night. Our dinner waiter who was so attentive all cruise definitely decided that he wasn't really going to put much effort into anything at all. I`d like to think maybe he was just having an off night, as opposed to him not giving a sh*t.

 

Ok, i have too many things running though my head at present, so i am going to collect my thoughts and post Part 2 tomorrow. If anyone can think of anything you want to know, please ask, and i shall add it to the next part. I will write about the ports of call and anything else that pops into my head. Hope you enjoyed...cheers Jas :)

[Sandielle]

Thanks Jas, I enjoyed Part 1 :) - will have to read the rest when we come back.

[cazz0069]

Thanks Jas, I enjoyed Part 1 :) - will have to read the rest when we come back.

 

Have the most amazing time Sandy. Heres a heads up. They actually have rent a cars at the port in Tauranga. I would suggest rather than doing a tour, hire one of these when you get off, and go to Roturua at your own pace. We did this, and it was just the best. Looking forward in reading your review when you get back. Huggles Jas :)

[Sandielle]

Thanks very much for your good wishes, Jas. :) I will remember about the rental cars at Tauranga - we haven't booked a ship's tour there. It just seems like yesterday you were leaving - hope ours doesn't go that fast.

Talk to you when we come back - best wishes for your injuries.

 

Regards

[stki]

However as some of you may have read in my other thread, we had terrible problems with noise in this cabin, which we later found out was the hydraulic systems from the lifeboats:)

 

Wow, we had the same problem in our cabin C324, but this was on the Dawn Princess repositioning cruise from San Fran to Sydney in Sept 2008!

 

DH, complained on numerous occasions. No one believed us. After about a week, they fixed it. Thank goodness, as it was a 30 day cruise.

 

They did offer to move us to one of the front cabins on Caribe, which we didnt want, as we were midship. No offer of OBC though.

 

Strange to hear its still going on, after all this time.

 

We had a great cruise, met some wonderful CC friends, but I must admit, prefer the real Princess ships. We have been on the Diamond, sapphire, Emerald & Golden & they are a class above the Dawn.

 

Cheers

 

Tanya

[Kinkacruiser]

You're just too efficient, Cazz. What a great read . Echo your sentiments re the "shut-down mode" of staff on the last night. I notice this more on the last morning.

Cheers,

Anna

[cazz0069]

Part 2 - I also meant to mention we were pleasantly surprised to find out that despite everything onboard being in AU dollars, our OBC was converted to US. We had $100 each allocated from our previous cruise and then $100 each from the TA. So we were expecting $400, and was stoked to see that converted to $502 in total. Although when they gave us the additional amount to compensate for the noise that was in AU. Very confusing, but me no complain:)

 

Movies under the stars, is a great feature, but due to the weather being quite cool at night, we didn't try. But they cover up all the deckchairs with covers and blankets and waiters bring around free popcorn etc. I can imagine it would be great when sailing in the tropics. Princess states that alot of films are first run, but i doubt that considering everything they showed was available on DVD.

 

We popped our heads into The Sanctuary and it was quite busy, but it was closed alot due to high winds. This area is an adult only place, where you can get massages, facials and just be generally pampered. I think the fee for this was $10 per half day.

 

The food overall is fantastic. The majority of meals were great, with them only missing a few times during the entire cruise. Breakfast was usually eaten in the Horizon Food Court, which is always packed. My suggestion is on a sea day, get there before 8am as anything after this, can be difficult to get a table. The restaurant has an ala carte breakfast and service can be a little slower, but if there's no rush, i say go for it. Most of the days all the restaurants and food court, will have themes, such as italian, thai, japanese so you will get the chance to experience the full gauntlet of what's on offer. Dinner at night in the restaurant, is similar in themes but food is obviously fancier. Be sure not to miss out on the Lobster and Prawn night which is usually the last formal night.

 

We dined at the Sterling Steakhouse which was the night they decided to move it outside to the grill above the pool area. This was great, just being wined and dined as we glided across the ocean with the stars coming out and the balmy evening all enhancing the experience. The only downfall is that they had actually had a movie on the big screen. Makes things difficult to try and concentrate. The Maitre`d did advise usually when they do the alfresco they will play Pavorotti in concert but had to stick to the movie as it was promoted in the `princess patter`. The food was great, and at a nominal charge of $20 well worth it. Eric had a 14oz rib eye, and i had the 10oz Eye Fillet.

 

We didnt see alot of the production shows but the ones we did see, were great. Be sure to get there early, as its not uncommon for all performances to be packed out. In the Vista Lounge they had performers, magicians etc. I found these to all be very average. The thing i found is they all tended to be long winded and did not appear to stick to their speciality. For example, the magician, who was quite good, tended to drag everything out in his performance, for the sake of an extra laugh or round of applause. A fun 30 minute show turned into a dragged out 1 hour 10 minute show. The same went for the female singer who impersonated various sex symbols.

 

Eric and i both had massages. Eric had a deep tissue and i had a hot rock massage. These are great, but very expensive. My 75 min massage came to $215. Be prepared too, as the staff will go the very hard sell on products, such as creams and moisturisers. They can be quite pushy, so my suggestion is to write really clearly on top of your form `PLEASE NO PITCH FOR PRODUCTS` I even went the step further and told them at the beginning of the massage not to go down that road. But i heard several stories of people coming out having spent a further $300 on products they probably didn't need.

 

We didnt do any of the Princess tours, they are far too expensive, and we had a enough know how on where we were to plan our own things to do. Some of the tours were almost triple what they would cost if you orginised them yourself. For example the train in Gisbourne was $35, but if you booked it through the ship ii was $129. The train only trip in Dunedin was $239, whereas booked directly through the provider it was $76 Admittedly the ship added extras on like drinks and lunch, but with the money you save, you could quote easily buy the added extras yourself. One tour that was on offer in Auckland, was a private car and a driver for the day. For maximum of 4 people, that was $900!!! There was no inclusions on that, other than the car, any extras had to paid for by the passengers. Its up to you, but if you are wanting to save money, join a roll call, make friends and just rent a car and do your own thing. A bonus surprise was at the port of Tauranga they had rent a cars on the dock, so we literally got off the ship booked a car and went off for the day. Alot of people had pre booked cars and found out they had to go to the Airport (20 mins from port) to pick them up.

 

So overall, we had a great time. Made possible by the awesome roll call members we met. The wonderful staff on board, and the overall quality that is Princess. Only a couple of drawbacks that i previous mentioned but if thats the only thing to grizzle about, i think we are doing ok. Please feel free to throw any questions at me and i will do my best to answer them. I will keep updating as things come to mind.

 

Take care everyone...cheers Jas:)

[kaseyoz]

Great review and glad you managed to get on the Ultimate tour.

Also to confirm that the price of drinks did include gratuity on the Sun Princess as you mentioned.

[cazz0069]

Great review and glad you managed to get on the Ultimate tour.

Also to confirm that the price of drinks did include gratuity on the Sun Princess as you mentioned.

 

Thanks Karon. Do you know if that has been a recent change with both ships or do they actually operate differently in relation to drink charges? I was quite surprised to see the prices all inclusive. As i said though `me no complain` :p

 

I was also disappointed to see my favourite spirits Ouzo and Pernod were not on the drinks lists in any of the bars. These were available on the Sun, but not the Dawn..odd:confused:

[Lizard©]

Love your review...thank you!!!

You really had a great time by the sounds of it.

This has convinced hubby to do this cruise in 2012......... :D

I'm so happy, haven't been on this years cruise yet and I now have another one to look forward to in a couple of years :)

Lynda :D:D:D

 

 

edited due to many typos!!

[cazz0069]

Thanks Lynda. We really did have a blast. Its a great itinerary too. And just long enough, i think i would start to go a little stir crazy at anything longer than 13 nights...but we were really happy with the length and ports, despite not being able to get into Wellington....

 

I have to say though, the thing that really made it, was the people on our roll call. There was about 13 in total, but 7 of us in particular really got on famously. Made a world of difference :)

[cazz0069]

Another thing i wanted to mention is that Princess seem to be even more customer service orientated these days. With satisfaction surveys everywhere you look. The Cruise Directors staff in the last few days will even mention in their daily spiels about how important it is if we have recieved good or bad service to fill out the surveys so staff that deserve it, gets credited. To me its a proactive way for the company to keep their finger on the pulse and find out exactly what the passengers think. Our last cruise, just had the survey in our rooms, where now its delivered to the room with our names on it. There are also cards in the dining areas where you can supply feedback on your food service waiters as well...:)

[wildweston]

Fantastic review Jas. I am happy you both had a great cruise. Cross that off your list and start looking for your next cruise. :)

[cazz0069]

Fantastic review Jas. I am happy you both had a great cruise. Cross that off your list and start looking for your next cruise. :)

 

Hehe thanks Cheryl. I am doing that as we speak. I am wanting to fly to Hong Kong or Singapore and do one around Asia i think. Any suggestions? Really want to do the Diamond, but i dont think its sailing in that area in Feb 2011. RCL has a 5 nighter on Legend of the Seas that seems quite good, a tad short though.

[wildweston]

Hehe thanks Cheryl. I am doing that as we speak. I am wanting to fly to Hong Kong or Singapore and do one around Asia i think. Any suggestions? Really want to do the Diamond, but i dont think its sailing in that area in Feb 2011. RCL has a 5 nighter on Legend of the Seas that seems quite good, a tad short though.

 

I'll have a look around and see if I come up with anything. On to it now

[cazz0069]

I'll have a look around and see if I come up with anything. On to it now

 

Thanks Cheryl, my parents did a good itinerary on the Volledam around Vietnam, Thailand etc but that was in October...as mentioned before though, half the fun is looking at all that's on offer and then trying to decide. I just need a few more options :p

[bronte2]

Hehe thanks Cheryl. I am doing that as we speak. I am wanting to fly to Hong Kong or Singapore and do one around Asia i think. Any suggestions? Really want to do the Diamond, but i dont think its sailing in that area in Feb 2011. RCL has a 5 nighter on Legend of the Seas that seems quite good, a tad short though.

 

Just a suggestion - have a look at Azamara Quest. We have previously sailed on Princess out of Sydney and also Diamond from Auckland to Sydney. We wanted a change of itinerary and didn't want to do NZ again so bit the bullet and thought we would try Azamara. The ship is the same size as Pacific Princess and so can sail right up the Saigon River almost to the centre of the city. Diamond has to stay at the mouth of the river and so it's a 2 hour trip into town!

 

The cruise was 14 days and started in Hong Kong and finished in Singapore.

We had a fabulous cruise and have booked again for next year in Feb.

Check out their itineraries/ ships. It might not be what you are looking for, but it's an option.

Azamara is in the same family as RCL.

[cazz0069]

Just a suggestion - have a look at Azamara Quest. We have previously sailed on Princess out of Sydney and also Diamond from Auckland to Sydney. We wanted a change of itinerary and didn't want to do NZ again so bit the bullet and thought we would try Azamara. The ship is the same size as Pacific Princess and so can sail right up the Saigon River almost to the centre of the city. Diamond has to stay at the mouth of the river and so it's a 2 hour trip into town!

 

The cruise was 14 days and started in Hong Kong and finished in Singapore.

We had a fabulous cruise and have booked again for next year in Feb.

Check out their itineraries/ ships. It might not be what you are looking for, but it's an option.

Azamara is in the same family as RCL.

 

 

Thanks so much for that. I did see the ship mentioned but hadnt heard alot about it. I will do a bit of research. Thanks for the tip :)

[kazzdee63]

Wow what a great review loved it all. Looking at doing NZ in late 2011 on either Diamond or Radiance of the Seas just waiting for the itineries to be released. Your review has really got me excited!

[rkmw]

Wow what a great review loved it all. Looking at doing NZ in late 2011 on either Diamond or Radiance of the Seas just waiting for the itineries to be released. Your review has really got me excited!

 

hi kazzdee, we just got off the Diamond after doing a b2b to NZ and its a lovely ship and if you pick that one you wont be dissappointed......the staff are excellent

 

rkmw

[rkmw]

hi cazz0069, i liked your reveiw and when you got off in Melb we were on the Diamond and there was close on 5000 paxs at the dock waiting to go their own way......if you get the chance go on the Diamond

 

we had a friend meet us at the dock in Melb and they took us over the Westgate bridge and we couldnt see the Dawn parked at the pier as it was blocked by the Diamond

 

rkmw

[cazz0069]

hi kazzdee, we just got off the Diamond after doing a b2b to NZ and its a lovely ship and if you pick that one you wont be dissappointed......the staff are excellent

 

rkmw

 

I think thats what i am looking at for the next one....Have to see if i can negotiate some extra time off so i can do the one that sails around China...it was in port the day we got in...it looks like an amazing ship:)

[barnsey1802]

Hi Jas,

 

I really enjoyed reading your review. we are travelling to New Zealand on the Sun Princess in December. I too intend to do my own tours, as I think the ships tours are usually too expensive. So I was wondering did you just get off at each stop and decide what you wanted to do then? or did you prebook any tours directly?

 

Deidre.

[cazz0069]

Hi Jas,

 

I really enjoyed reading your review. we are travelling to New Zealand on the Sun Princess in December. I too intend to do my own tours, as I think the ships tours are usually too expensive. So I was wondering did you just get off at each stop and decide what you wanted to do then? or did you prebook any tours directly?

 

Deidre.

 

 

Hi Diedre, we just got off and decided on the day. We had a few things in mind that we wanted to do, for example, in Rotorua we really wanted to go to Hells Gate, and have mineral and mud baths etc, so we just jumped in a rent a car, and headed into the right direction. Alot of the times we would just go to the tourist infomation and browse.

 

My suggestion for Dunedin, is if you want to do the train journey, get a cab or shuttle directly to the station, providing you are there by 9.30am, you will essentially get the same tour thats offered to the cruise passengers for $76.00, rather than the $245 that the ship charges....:)

[cazz0069]

hi cazz0069, i liked your reveiw and when you got off in Melb we were on the Diamond and there was close on 5000 paxs at the dock waiting to go their own way......if you get the chance go on the Diamond

 

we had a friend meet us at the dock in Melb and they took us over the Westgate bridge and we couldnt see the Dawn parked at the pier as it was blocked by the Diamond

 

rkmw

 

 

That was absolutely diabolical was was taking place that day. You had people getting off the Diamond and the Dawn, you had all the buses trying to get in, you had all the cars and vans trying to be loaded onto the Tasmania ferry, and absolutely no taxis. We had to walk down the Beach Rd, and find a taxi that way. Otherwise we still would have been there now:mad: