Princess Cruises, Dawn Princess Alaska

Four of us (around 50 year old) girlfriends did the New Zealand 13 night cruise on 24 January 2010 and had the best time of our lives.

Entertaiment was interesting and varied, with lots to do, particularly enjoyed the line dancing lessons (though too many people - they should make you book in and limit the numbers in each class). Couldn't see much - difficult to learn the steps.

Venetian Restaurant first class with excellent staff who treat you like royalty. Nothing is a problem for them, if you don't like what you have ordered, they will change it with no hassles. The menu every night had excellent choices and the food suited my fussy taste - no fat, lean, tasty, light and healthy. I ate four courses every night and never had a bad dish. Nor was the menu ever boring. The Maitre De coming around to the table telling us his nightly jokes was also a crack up.

The Horizon Court Buffet was Ok to get food at most times, especially at breakfast. Lots to choose from.

The grill where you could get burgers, chips, yummy kebabs, each afternoon was also excellent, as was the Pizza Parlour which makes the best pizzas - light and crispy, the way the Italians meant them to be. We eat pizzas in Carlton a lot, and the Dawn pizzas were better than most of them.

Love the way they offer a different cocktail every day and they were all very delicious and relatively inexpensive. Try the Mango Magic and the 3 berry frozen daiquiri. Lots of fun. The staff were great, especially the bar staff on the Riviera Deck (hello Henry - "lovely jubbly") who were extremely attentive and good natured.

Had lots of fun in the disco at night - Jammers - though the music could be better. The Wheelhouse Bar was good for a quieter boogy with a live band - old fashioned but fun.

The excursions were good and well organised - easy to get on and off the ship. Except for the Cadbury factory tour in Dunedin - complete waste of time and money. Yes, they took us around the factory but we did not see any chocolate being made - the machinery was either broken or the workers were at lunch. But woo hoo we did get to see some empty crates in the warehouse! Do not waste your time on this tour.

The cabins were clean and serviceable - but very small. Could be because there were 4 of us in a 4 bunk cabin -however, the bunk beds were extremely comfortable and we slept well. Cabin was cleaned by the gorgeous "Jesus" twice a day.

During the cruise there were two formal nights where we all dressed up and a couple of "party" nights - which were a lot of fun. Especially "island night" on the outside Riviera Deck with the band, all the staff and passengers, balloons, streamers, etc. dancing the night away under the stars. Fabulous!

We met some superb people and hanged around with them throughout the trip - every day we would meet more and more wonderful people. This cruise was full of elderly people - 70 plus - and this was fabulous because they were a lot of fun with terrific sense of humour. There were always many laughs to be had riding in the lifts with them.

Overall, we had the absolute best time, would thoroughly recommend this cruise - and are very sad that it is over. We want to go back (if only to get the delicious jam or custard donuts that are baked every day by the pastry chef!). Well done Princess!

The Dawn Princess is a beautiful ship, with great service. Food, bad food, really awful food, in fact disgusting food. Did I say bad food! Great service, nice roomy room. Nice entertainment but OMG bad food!

Princess Cruises, Dawn Princess was the most poorly run cuise I have been on. Food was mediocre at best. Off shore tour guides speak heavily accented English. Very difficult to understand. Embarkation and disembarkation very poorly run. Luggage lost, people cooling their heels for hours. Ship docked too far away from cities. Bus rides to port (with a charge of $10-20/passenger) were long and poorly run and required if you wanted to leave the ship. Most movies on board were sports-oriented and repeated monotonously. Very boring. Too many complaints to list. This cruise was run like they just started in the busines. Never again with Princess.