Auckland Cruise Ship Terminal, Auckland, New ZealandWe go on a cruise
Which terminal?
We already checked before and yes,
we can stay in our room until 11 am, still we are ready a bit earlier than
planned but we are eager to go on the cruise. Down in the entry all was full
with Asian people and all will be going on the cruise. Finally we checked out
and then got an Uber. Gine checked this morning and it looked on the Cruise
tracker that the Ship is docked on Princess Wharf which is also in Google the
“Cruise Terminal” (the other day the cruise ship was on the Queens wharf –
which confused us a bit). Today the Uber driver said the big ships are at the
queens Wharf but as we drive by the Princess first he will drop us off on the
one where the ship will be. And we could see the Ship is at the Princess
Wharf!! Perfect, except already the driving through was a zoo!!! Finally, we
got unloaded and:
Can we drop off the luggage???
The lady said we are not boarding
and you can’t drop off the luggage you have to go to the Luggage hotel in #22.
We even asked her again and said but it said that we can drop if off and she
said no. So we walked to the Luggage hotel which means they would charge us 30
$ for the not even 2 hrs of luggage storage – no way!!! Gine said I rather sit
here on the steps –then Paul went to investigate and see there: you can drop
off the luggage and back to the luggage drop off – as we don’t have luggage
tags we need to go to the table and Gine went without the luggage as then you
can sneak through otherwise you wait forever as people are unable to move their
luggage. Tags on – luggage dropped off – done!!
Nice views on the ship
They haven’t started boarding,
that means we go for a walk to the beginning of the pier where the old ferry
building is: from here we have some perfect views on the cruise ship – it is
really a big ship. I think we are not the only once to admire the ship from
here and sit and relax. On our boarding pass it said boarding from 2 – 5 pm, so
we decided that 1 pm is a good time and we walked over toward the cruise
terminal.
We are boarding
As we approach there was a line-up
for the scanner, and before even going into the building you got ask if you
have your boarding pass/cruise ticket, Passport and Australia Visa!! – if yes
you could go inside through the security check first. And yes, the couple
before us didn’t have an Australia Visa and they were pulled aside.
Next the stamp of leaving New
Zealand – no big deal either. Then comes the next line one huge long counter
and we got “checked in” that means they check our booking, our passports (they
get scanned in), our Australian Visa gets checked against the passport if
really all is well and then we get our Medallions and are ready to board. No
waiting here, no blue and green lines, no numbers or letters for when to board,
you come and you go on board and at 1.30 we are walking over the gangway
towards the ship where we scan our Medallions and we are on board – hurrah!!
Checking out the ship
First things first we go to our
cabin!!! Unpack our little backpacks and put them aside – during that time we
have the Safety video running (I don’t really think that we watched it that
well!!) Next stop is to go to the Muster station and now it is time for our
first lunch and here we have a big surprise. As this horizon court is amazing
and huge: there are two stations and each one has two walk/buffets all the way
through to the other side with a side alley – the first court is the light
beige one and the 2nd is the darker one and in between is the Pastry
shop (there is no shortage of food here) it is actually so big, that we wonder
if we are getting lost here. This is definitely the largest ship we were ever
one.
Refreshed we went for a walk:
first we went around the top decks 16-17-18-19 to find the jogging track, the
spots for views. Then all the way down to the main Piazza which is also super
big and wide – we will see on how much time we are spending here. What this
ship misses, is that you can’t walk around on the lower deck – what a bummer!!!
And you can’t stand in the front or back: but it does have on Deck 16 some
super cool chairs out in the back to watch the wake (even you are not as close
as on the other ships).
After a coffee the difficult part
started – as we got our luggage Gine unpacked and repacked (yes we have so much
extra staff from travelling which nearly fills a whole suitcase with staff we
don’t need for the next two weeks) and Paul tried to get on his internet: the
funny part is, Gine could log in right away and Paul’s didn’t connect, but his laptop
did – weird!!! We decided to go to the Internet café to ask for help (with lots
of other people and see there she tried and it didn’t work and as she tried
again, she was ready to ask a co-worker and it logged in – miracle happen!!!
With all the walking around, we
did already find our way a bit better around – and nearly feel at home… and we
discover that as where on the last cruise were a lot of Spanish speaking people
on this are a lot of Asian speaking people. (Still 1200 of the guests as from
the US and 255 from Canada!!!).
The Royal Princess:
- It can carry 3560 guests and we heard tonight that 3350 guests are onboard (that means our ship is nearly full!!!) with a crew of 1356
- Built in 2013 and refurbished in 2018 – the ship is not that old and it is the newest and largest of the Princess ships for us (when it was built in 2013 it was also the largest and most modern ship of the princess fleet)
- It is a Royal Class ship: there are 7 of them and they are built in Italy and six of them belong to Princess: the others are the Regal – Majestic – Sky – Enchanted and the Discovery
- It has 19 decks and our room is on Deck 16 – our favorite deck the Lido deck, very close to the pools and the outdoors
- Those ships have a decreased pool space and more space for other venues – that we discovered right away: it still has 3 swimming pools and a dancing water fountain
- It has 2 sea-walks – which is cool as you can walk out on the side and look down onto the water
Sail away from Auckland
Gine said she wants to see the
Sailaway from Auckland which is at 6.30 with the sail-away celebration, so we
have supper at 6 pm!!! At the horizon food court. And right on time we are back
on the deck to watch the sail away but soon we got a bit side tracked as the
ship is leaving and we had to watch on how it left Auckland in the setting sun.
It was super cool on how it went out into the harbour and then turned nearly
complete around – Did I mention earlier that we are super high up and we have a
gorgeous view on the skyline of Auckland. As we left we had some super cool
views on the city – the harbour – Devonport and the navy ships – we saw some of
the extinct volcanoes of Auckland – we are so excited!! I think the best view
was up from the top as there it was easy to look in both directions.
And I may should mention: the Cruise ship normally blows a horn when leaving the harbour - our cruise ship nearly all the time played the lovesong music and that was something special.
And we even had time to go to the
Theatre and get welcomed to the Magic. Time to head back and then we can slowly
get used to our new home….
“I wanted freedom – open air
and adventure – and I found it on the sea”
“On a cruise ship, the ocean
is your backyard, the sky is your ceiling and the buffet is your dining room”
“Man cannot discover new
oceans, unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore”
“To see yourself, get out
and see the world”
2025-05-23