The end

Day 105 - 13 September - at sea
We are back to rock n roll again, although it is more to do with the big swell rolling across the South Pacific.  Still overcast and the temperature is down to 17°.  Tonight is the *final* formal night & Black and White Ball with the Atrium & Crooners decorated black and white. I am pretty sure that the majority of the passengers don't realise that this is in honour of us Kiwis!!  

Following on from my last post, there are no other "final events" being held after Auckland, so tonight we had the Captain's farewell speech to everyone.  As he explained, with some 350 new passengers getting on in Auckland, tonight is the only night to acknowledge passengers on the World Cruise.  I think that there are still some Aussies who think they are being short-changed. 

Day 106 - 15 September - last day at sea
Well, Friday 14th did not eventuate and suddenly Auckland is a lot closer than it seemed yesterday.   As we actually crossed the Date Line yesterday, it would have been better to have skipped Thursday (as was on the original itinerary) to give us more time to adjust!  However today is definitely the "bag packing" day, with our cases due outside our stateroom before dinner.

The temperature has dropped to 14°, with cloudy conditions, but thankfully the big swells have eased as we still power along at 20kts.  We had the bags packed after breakfast before going down for coffee, although this wasn't easy.  We had a Cruise Critic group photo before our final CC lunch, which was well attended.  The Maitre 'd arranged a special cake, which was a nice touch.

Our final dinner was fun, as usually at the end of each sector the dining room has been subjected to "Waltzing Matilda" & other Australian favourites.  This time we got to sing Pokarekare Ana and were delighted when our Aussie neighbours joined in.  A fun evening to finish on a high, with the Captain shouting everyone a glass of wine (unfortunately Elliott at our table had also shouted a couple of bottles of bubbles!)    Thankfully, we get back our final hour overnight.

Day 107 - 16 September - Auckland (the end)
We docked early around 9.00 and Auckland turned on a great sail-in.  As with all cruises, it was pretty much a bitter sweet moment as we vacated out "home" after  breakfast and sat around waiting for our turn to get off.   So all good things must come to an end and we are quite excited about seeing our real home again and of course family & friends.


Summary
By far, the majority of ports were superb and we particularly enjoyed the new experiences in the Adriatic, Italy & Canada, and of course adding Greenland to our "countries been" list.  The passenger experience unfortunately was not as good as anticipated, but perhaps it is just us.  The crew overall were very good, from our excellent cabin steward, Agnelo, to the room service staff who knew our early morning tea order recorded without having to say anything.  Similarly, the staff at Crooners had our coffee order memorised - no mean feat.

We are not alone in saying that this was our last World Cruise, and that we will not be sailing on a Sun class ship again.  Don't get me wrong, we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and do like the smaller ships, but this cruise has highlighted the inadequacy of passenger/lounge space.  The OTT sales promotions of jewellery, art & photos was a real negative.  Sadly, the dining experience was not up to our expectations and I believe that if Princess wishes to capitalise on it's (captive) Australasian market, a re-think is needed.

Finally, I have been amazed to see that there have been nearly 7,500 blog views during the course of this cruise and I hope that you have all enjoyed it or been informed a little.  To those I know & those I don't,  thanks - apologies to any who commented and did not get a response - as regular cruisers know, satellite internet is not the best and there are lots of "black spots" out there.

Now for something entirely different, feel free to follow us in January 2019 on our journey to Antarctica.   We fly out to Buenos Aires on 5 January and jump onboard the Azamara Pursuit for a 17 day cruise down to the Antarctic peninsula and back.  Should be fun - don't forget to put on your thermals if you come on here though ☺😊😀.