just off Ovation yesterday...

[NumnuT_OZ]

Gday Guys,

A few reflections of our 12 nights to NZ cruise, in a balcony, GS was too steep for us!

embarkation was a breeze 25 mins to be onboard. 👍

 

First cruise as Diamond, worked out the vouchers after I wasted one voucher on a barista coffee!

really enjoyed the Diamond Lounge.

Tradition dining was great in The Grande!

 

Shore excursions were hit & miss, 2 vineyard trips,

1st had beautiful cellar door & wines & a great lunch.

2nd had average wines and limited cheese and biscuits, not nearly enough for all the wine tasting.

 

Weather was just about perfect,

hardly any swell at all for the first 10 days, Sadly a nasty 3m easterly swell in Bay of Islands cancelled the shore trips, bummer!

 

Only issue was we had to go to guest services 3 times to confirm our CC details, as card used at checkin was not saved.

 

they kept trying to use the card that was used 18 months ago to pay the cruise deposit that had expired 6 months ago.

 

All in all a great cruise, really looking forward to the "Suite Life" on Brilliance in Dec 2023.

Cheers

Craig  

[KylieHva]

Do you know if you had the new menu in the main dining room?

 

There has been a lot of talk about the changes, but from what I can see our app still shows what appears to be the "old" menu.

We sail in just over a week from Sydney.

[M-H-B]

How cold was it? I'm doing NZ but the South and am expecting to be pretty cold, just wondering how bad 🙂

[MicCanberra]

Tha n ks for the feedback, welcome to the Diamond club.

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, M-H-B said:

How cold was it? I'm doing NZ but the South and am expecting to be pretty cold, just wondering how bad 🙂

We've just got back from an NZ cruise and the weather was great apart from one showery day at our Napier port stop. Fiordland was the warmest I've ever experienced in four NZ cruises. However that doesn't mean the weather will be great for your cruise although I hope it is. NZ weather is very variable. You could get temps in the high 20's Celsius, or it could be much cooler. It would be unlikely to get below 10C at this time of year though. Take layers plus a warm fleece/jacket and a good rain jacket. The scenic cruising in Fiordland can be chilly in the morning, partly because of the wind generated by the ship's motion. I always pack a warm hat, gloves and scarf and have had to use them in the past.

[NumnuT_OZ]

16 hours ago, M-H-B said:

How cold was it? I'm doing NZ but the South and am expecting to be pretty cold, just wondering how bad 🙂

Cold & wet is par for the bottom of the South Island, but was a balmy 24 degrees with blue skies.

We were very lucky with the weather, basically no swell & next to no wind for the first 10 days.

 

A nice 30 knot easterly pushing us all the way back to Sydney.

[NumnuT_OZ]

18 hours ago, KylieHva said:

Do you know if you had the new menu in the main dining room?

Not sure what menu we had, we were traditional dining 8pm in The Grande.

 

food was great, had several lovely steaks, curries, etc, waiters were great too

 

There was always 3 or 4 different entree & mains each night plus the usual classics.

 

I'm pretty sure my wife has the shrimp cocktail every night, so our waiter gave her 2 shrimp cocktails on the last night.😁

 

Chefs table was an awesome night with superb food & a great bunch of guests.

 

Christmas night special in Chops, was basically an open bar + anything you want from the menu.

 

we both  had beautiful rib eye & half a maine lobster...delicious.

 

[NumnuT_OZ]

14 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

welcome to the Diamond club.

Cheers Mic,

 

Diamond Club was great, nice location next to Royal Theatre which was handy.

 

Was packed on the first night, then no problems getting a seat after that.

 

Looks like the daily 4 drink vouchers for Diamond are working well.

 

Danilo the concierge was a great bloke.

 

With all of the above being said, really looking forward to the GS suite life on Brilliance in Dec this year

 

😁

 

[paulvdb1]

14 minutes ago, NumnuT_OZ said:

Cold & wet is par for the bottom of the South Island, but was a balmy 24 degrees with blue skies.

We were very lucky with the weather, basically no swell & next to no wind for the first 10 days.

 

A nice 30 knot easterly pushing us all the way back to Sydney.

For us we (back last Monday) had coolish weather in the southern ports but quite hot days in the north - sunburn risk is VERY high. Overall I could have packed some more hot weather clothing - I obviously packed for every option but only used my jacket once from memory. I do like cooler weather though. We had perfect seas in both directions but seeing some different weather this week so could be completely different

[MMDown Under]

38 minutes ago, paulvdb1 said:

For us we (back last Monday) had coolish weather in the southern ports but quite hot days in the north - sunburn risk is VERY high. Overall I could have packed some more hot weather clothing - I obviously packed for every option but only used my jacket once from memory. I do like cooler weather though. We had perfect seas in both directions but seeing some different weather this week so could be completely different

Yes sunburn risk is very high in NZ.  Always use suntan cream even if the weather is overcast.