Marcie, I haven't been to NZ, and that was one of the things that appealed to me about the PG cruise initially -- we were planning on doing at least a week or more of pre-cruise in NZ. If we do the Mariner, due to the length of the cruise it means we won't get nearly much time in NZ, but at least we'd have a couple days.

As for sea days, it appears we actually have a full 10 of them (if I'm reading this right -- crossing the International Date Line has me a bit confused). So in terms what we'd be doing besided the actual islands, it is definitely a mangoes-to-breadfruit comparison -- w/ the PG we'd spend the additional days touring NZ, w/ the Mariner we'd spend the additional days lounging on the ship. Both of which hold tremendous appeal to me!

AAAUUUGGHHH!