We boarded the ROTS in Honolulu in September with the prospect of 11 days at sea and 3 days in French Polynesia before we got to Auckland, New Zealand. The length of time at sea I must admit I thought would be a bit daunting and I wasn't sure how it would go. Suffice it to say, that we arrived in Auckland and were very reluctant to disembark and just wanted to keep sailing. It was wonderful.

My husband was worried about our cabin before embarking as we hadn't chosen it ourselves and with our luck thought we would have a closet very aft or very stern. We were delighted with our midships ocean view stateroom on deck 2. One "lady" in the lift asked us "What's it like down there?" but we found it wonderful - quiet, not too much rocking and rolling when the swell was up, our room was well serviced and the view from our big window perfect. There was plenty of storage and the bed was very comfortable.

Our days at sea were easy to fill. My husband would get me a Starbucks coffee each morning about 6 and we would watch the morning show with Casey to see what was on each day. That was always amusing and honest - Casey, not the coffee. Breakfast at the Windjammer was fabulous. Get a table out the front and you can watch the ship plough through the water while eating your porridge - doesn't get much better than that. There was always something on - table tennis, lectures, music, games, swimming, sauna, reading. You would be hard to please not to easily fill your day. The lunch in the restaurant was fantastic. We loved the salad bar and it helped remove the guilt of eating way too much because the food was so delicious. Meeting new friends in the Victory Crown Lounge at 5 for cocktails before dinner became a daily ritual. The cocktail of the day was only $6.25 - how good is that - and we enjoyed sampling them and talking about our day. Read more