Being our first cruise it did take a few days to settle in and 'get it'.
Boarding in Sydney was a breeze and we were on board having lunch in under 30 minutes and our bags didn't take much longer to get to the room.
The cruise was quite good. Pros included just about everything in NZ. Certainly a lovely destination. Wellington, Picton, Dunedin and Milford Sound were brilliant. The cruise buffet at the "Windjammer' café was very good (but a little crowded). A constantly varied menu with a good choice. I can't recall anything bad about eating there. The headline shows were very good as too the cruise Director, John Blair. He was extremely entertaining and so was his Neil Diamond tribute show.
As mentioned, being our first cruise it's a little hard to know if it was good or bad? It was certainly clean and the stateroom attendant (Eka) did his job well. The bed was very comfortable. We found towards the end of the cruise you couldn't use the balcony because of the salt wash covering the railings, chairs etc.
The TV channels were terrible. I mean REALLY terrible, whoever decided that Sky News was the best news option to represent Australia need to be drawn and quartered.
The shower was very small and did take some getting used to.
Another odd thing was the cabin creaked all the time. I think the noises came from the old timber cabinetry but I'm not 100% sure.
Level 9 was a good height and I'd certainly recommend the level, but maybe a little more toward mid ship.
I live in Sydney so it's a little hard to review other than to say it's an outstanding place to visit once the State Government finish the myriad of construction projects currently underway.
Maybe hold off your visit until 2025?
Great little place. Wonderful people and well worth a visit. Had a nice coffee and purchased some jewellery at the local markets for half the price we paid in Sydney.
Awesome city. Loved the day spent walking around the city. Great shops, great cafes and great buildings. Easy to walk the entire city and the locals were so friendly. every time we opened a may someone would walk over and see if we needed a hand.
With two ships in at the same time and both needing tenders to get ashore it was way too crowded. Not a whole to see. If you get a choice, give it a miss and maybe do a trip to Christchurch instead.
Beautiful city. Plenty to see and do Shopping was OK and once again, easy to walk everywhere. Sadly the Cadbury factory is now closed which was a shame.