Voyager of the Seas Picture Review Dec 2012 Australia & New Zealand Cruise

[Iluvcruising2]

Sirloin Steak Oscar. This was fantastic.

[demodawn]

Great review! Keep up the good work!

[Iluvcruising2]

Sweet endings. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the dessert menu this evening.

[Iluvcruising2]

Now, where is this? Oh, I remember. It is on the ship. But I shan’t say more. Let those who have yet to go on Voyager class look for it when they board. J

[Iluvcruising2]

Some pictures of the Royal Promenade that evening.

 

[Iluvcruising2]

The Pig & Whistle was popular, as usual. In late evenings, they have a guitarist cum singer performing at the Pig & Whistle. I notice he was very well received and the pub was rather crowded.

[Iluvcruising2]

There’s the watch shop. Back in June, the watch shop looked a lot more modest. Looks like they have upgraded the watch shop, sometime between our June and Dec cruise.

 

[Iluvcruising2]

Plenty of duty-free alcohol on sale on board.

 

[Iluvcruising2]

Shop onboard with Dreamworks goodies.

[Iluvcruising2]

Don’t miss the men’s toilet at Deck 11 just outside the Windjammer.

[Iluvcruising2]

Day 11 – Auckland! Ship was scheduled to arrive at 0630hrs. Nice and early.

[goodycruising]

I want to add to all the others saying thanks for the time you are puting in here. We are going on our 3rd RC cruise soon and are very interested as ours is quite a similar route. Could I ask how much the hire car in Tauranga was worth for the day? No offense if you don't want to say.

[Iluvcruising2]

I want to add to all the others saying thanks for the time you are puting in here. We are going on our 3rd RC cruise soon and are very interested as ours is quite a similar route. Could I ask how much the hire car in Tauranga was worth for the day? No offense if you don't want to say.

 

We paid NZ$ 140 for the car rental (the Nissan Pathfinder SUV). This included the GPS, 2 booster seats, standard insurance, pickup and return at Salisbury Ave, very convenient.

 

http://www.rentalcarstauranga.co.nz/

 

My wife did all the work in terms of emailing the company (a guy called Neale), getting the quote and providing all the information. We found them to be friendly and reliable.

 

As with all car rentals, make sure you have a working mobile phone and get their mobile numbers plus roadside assistance numbers, in case the car breaks down. Not that this car was in any risk of breaking down. The Nissan SUV drove very well for is age. I couldn't detect any problems at all.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

AUCKLAND

The good Captain got the ship in on time. This was taken at 5:48am as we were moving towards the dock.

[Iluvcruising2]

Here we are, docked right at Auckland City Centre.

And we are docked right beside Hilton Hotel.

[Iluvcruising2]

It was to be a cloudy morning. The Auckland Sky Tower is shrouded in cloud.

[Iluvcruising2]

We would take room service breakfast that morning before heading to shore. The all aboard time was 3:30pm, so we didn’t have too much time to spare.

[Iluvcruising2]

Just outside the pier, along the main road, there was a Visitor Centre & a Hotel. This was 7:45am.

[Iluvcruising2]

From all that we had read beforehand, Auckland was a very walkable city. Therefore, we decided to walk. Our first stop was to be the Skytower. This was the Voyager from the main road.

[Iluvcruising2]

The walk to the Skytower was easy to do. Just go up a straight road (can’t remember the name). Took us about 20 minutes. Along the way, we passed this -

There is the tower.

We got there by 8:10, and it wouldn’t open till 8:30am.

[Iluvcruising2]

The sky tower complex has a hotel, casino and restaurants and other stuff.

[Iluvcruising2]

When the Sky Tower opened, the counter staff kindly informed us that it was all white at the Observation Deck. Completely white and nothing could be seen. This was 8:30am. After waiting about 10 minutes, we decided to give it a miss and move to our next stop, since it didn’t look like the clouds would clear up within the next 30 minutes. We took a cab from just outside the Sky Tower complex and headed to Kelly Tarlton’s. It was a 15 minute or so ride, cost was $25NZ.

[Iluvcruising2]

We were quite early (9:20am) and there were no crowds at all. This replica of Captain Scott’s Hut was very interesting. I can’t imagine living here for 3 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Falcon_Scott

[Iluvcruising2]

You’d be living off lots of canned food and dried stuff.

 

 

[Iluvcruising2]

Interesting point about naval discipline.