Decided to take hubby on a 14 day cruise to NZ for his 60th birthday and had a great time. Our room A302 [Aloha Deck] While small had everything we needed [an amazingly comfy bed, lovely balcony to have breakfast & drinks out on & PLENTY of storage for all our gear...I had packed for winter & summer as we expected NZ to be cold, but apart from 1 cold day and 1 bitterly cold night , the weather & seas couldnt have been more perfect] Ariel was our wonderful guy who looked after us , he did a wonderful job ! Negatives with regards to the room were aircon seemed to mysteriously turn off for a few hours overnight, making it quite stuffy in the rooms....heard a lot of guests complain about it[we ended up sleeping with the balcony doors open] towels in the shower need to be upgraded to AT LEAST the size of the pool towels[we just use to take clean ones up from the pool] . And a small design fault in our room where the chair didn't fit under the desk, taking up valuable floor space. Food in Horizon could sometimes be a bit hit & miss, but their was really so much that you could always find plenty. I did notice that when it was sushi day & ramen noodle/choose your own stir fry day this was very popular. Maybe sushi on the cold selection side could considered[also where was the kewpie mayonnaise...a must with sushi] Traviato dinning [we chose any time] was always delicious , we sat with a different table every night and got to realise that some people really love cruising...sat with a couple that were on their 3rd back to back & another couple that have done more than 50 cruises and have 5 more booked for this year] Our wait staff were exceptional. A few negatives , Curtis Stone where were you ? On a 14 day cruise we had a repeat of just 3 of his dishes[seafood stew with fennel...amazing, chicken & leek pot pie, just as good & pork belly...sorry pork belly just doesn't cut it without the crackling& where were the crispy potatoes advertised?] The price of wine/alcohol in general was through the roof...they were out of stock of a number of the bottle's of wine right from the start of the cruise. We ended up buying a couple of bottles of wine on our winery tour and were happy to pay the $15 corkage & have them with our dinner.Think also the wait staff should also include in their nightly talk[specials etc] If any one needs something explained please ask , I am more than happy to explain it to you. We sat on tables a number of times where people didn't know what an item was on the menu[beef wellington with truffle, madeira demi glaze...the lady next to me didn't know what any of it was , until I explained Also pork & duck rillettes was a stumper for some people ...I love cooking & eating , so was more than happy to explain when I heard anyone a little lost] , but were a bit intimidated to ask. If the wait staff included this I am sure they would get some inquiries. Its also time to can the old traditions[like the bomb Alaska parade...fake bombs with candle don't hold a match to the real thing with flames] and maybe start to invent some new princess traditions.

We went on this cruise purely to relax, so the entertainment was way down on our to do list, but I do think the number of people playing the Grand Piano was excessive and even the older ballroom dancing generation barely got up on the floor. Mosaic was an excellent bank on board the ship as were the 2 girls that played the electrical strings. The rest we gave a miss, happy to catch movie under the stars most nights [2 checkerboard man shows were great]

Shore tour were mostly good though very expensive...think I would go more research about private tours in future as I saw many tours on land advertised significantly cheaper than we paid . Though Princess did throw on complimentary shuttles at nearly every port, which I thought was very good of them. Read more