For those of you who have taken this trip, do you have any suggestions as to requesting a particular room (we have to have a bunk room bc there are three of us); the meals; or clothing? Anything else you'd care to pass on? We have reserved April 9th.

We did this a few years ago. I think we enjoyed the food but it is long enough ago that I have no specific recollection.

Make sure you have good waterproof clothing as when we went it was very, very wet!

Unfortunately our cruise was canceled due to an insane amount of rain which washed out the road. I believe it does not happen often...

But I wanted to agree with john2003 and say BRING RAIN GEAR! Especially rain pants, rain jacket with hood, waterproof shoes.

I have never ever been as wet as I was in Milford Sound and also on the Otago Coast. I had to throw my Nike shoes in the garbage.

Have fun!

We did this trip in late October 2007 and it was fantastic. We, too, had 3, but lucked out and got the quad share without the 4th person. Very tight quarters, but we were hardly in our room.
Meals were good and do take advantage of the kayaking.
It poured the whole time and was quite foggy so our gor-tex got a workout. The rain, however, made the waterfalls even more spectacular. We also did a day trip to Milford and enjoyed the comparison between the two. Enjoy!

If you want to go kayaking, be ready as soon as you get on. If there are a lot of takers, you may have to do the second shift, which was not as good.

If you want a good place to sit and have supper, you should get to the dining room early. The good seats get taken.

The lecture after dinner was great, as was the sunset and viewing on deck after dinner.

As I remember, the tour started around noon at the Real Journeys dock near Manapouri. We left some luggage at the starting point, so as not to carry them onboard. There was a good place downstairs to get a sandwich before getting on the first boat.