Majestic Princess, Sunday 3 February, Fiordland Cruising

It was a chilly and slightly rough start to the day. Overnight I had felt the ship moving more than it has the whole trip, nothing too dramatic but definitely bigger swell was about. We're heading into Fiord land today, one of the highlights of the trip and one we were all really looking forward to. There's always a big chance that this part of an NZ cruise gets cancelled due to unfavourable weather but we were in luck! Even though it was a little rocking and rolling to start it turned out to be a perfect day.

I got a little motion sick so sat on our balcony for a little while, very rugged up as it was chilly, before heading upstairs and having something to eat. One of the great benefits of a balcony is even if you're feeling a little off you can still enjoy the gorgeous scenery and get some fresh air. I love having a balcony!

Our first fiord we were heading for was Doubtful Sounds and were due there at about 10am. With the first two fiords/sounds we could go in one end and pop out the other a bit further up while Milford we would go in and come back out the same way. We thought all of the sounds were like Milford so it was cool when we realised we could traverse the whole thing.

Doubtful Sound

We sat out the back for most of the morning enjoying a few danishes, cups of tea and the view.

Blankets were on hand and we made good use of them. Once we starting heading into Doubtful Sound we headed back to our cabin and enjoyed the view from our balcony. The clouds we still around so it was still blanket weather but boy was the scenery spectacular and it just got better as they day went on.

Doubtful Sound

We had lunch in the buffet before reaching our next fiord.

Yummy lunch! Yummy bread rolls!

For the next fiord, Dusky Sound, we headed up to the Lido. The clouds were almost gone by then and the weather had warmed up enough to discard our blankets.

Dusky Sound

Our first waterfall!

Sailing through here was just amazing, everywhere you looked was impressive. So incredible that cruise ships, especially such big cruise ships, can sail through here. I highly recommend doing a cruise that includes the NZ fiords!

Our third and final fiord was the one everyone was most looking forward to and the most famous, Milford Sounds. We had been here about 30 years ago as a family doing a driving holiday. We did a cruise on Milford Sounds but in a much much smaller vessel than the Majestic.

There was a few hours between leaving Dusky and getting to Milford so we headed inside and checked out some of the places we hadn't yet visited on the ship. It's so big I don't think we still did go into every area of this ship. We had a bit of a rest, from all that looking, in the Crooners Lounge before heading back up to the Lido to enjoy the views and sun. 

There's snow on some of the higher peaks

A ship was just leaving Milford as we were arriving, we later found out it was the Azamara Quest as we passed it the next day and then it followed us into Sydney (a few hours after us).

Azamara Quest leaving Milford Sounds

We made ourselves comfy back on our balcony and enjoyed sailing through Milford! Spectacular!

Milford Sounds

Cruise cam - this is where we are heading!

We think we saw some seals but aren't a 100% sure, they could have been rocks but we're sure they were seals. We didn't see any dolphins which we thought we may have. There were a few smaller boats on sightseeing trips and a couple of sailing boats but other than that there we just lots and huge mountains, some with snow. Beautiful, beautiful place. Throughout the whole day we had commentary from a fiordland expert which was great having someone tell us what we were looking at and the history of the place.

Snow!

 Once we went as far as we could go we spun around and went out the way we came. This is why we stayed on our balcony for Milford as we knew we'd see both sides!

The pilot boat collecting the pilot - his job is done

Once we were passed all the tricky stuff the pilot left us and we headed for Sydney, our cruise is almost over! We do have two more sea days but that's it for New Zealand - she didn't disappoint and gave us the most perfect weather we could hope for. I think we were very very lucky!

Dinner was again in the buffet even though it is much fancier than a 'buffet'! The food was always delicious and the waiter service top notch! A couple of my cabin mates weren't feeling 100% so we made our way back to the cabin and a good nights sleep.