My recent cruise to New Zealand and Australia was fraught with troubles from lost luggage to missed airline connections. My husband and I didn’t experience any problems besides cramped seats on a very long Air New Zealand flight, but hundreds of our fellow cruisers really suffered.
Traveling and troubles go together; they just do. The way to cope with travel troubles is to plan for mishaps, as best you can.
Here are 12 tips to help cruise ship travelers prepare so they can enjoy their expensive cruise, come what may:
After docking relatively early in Port Melbourne, our ship and its passengers had to endure two hours of Australian customs clearance. This included a 20-minute walk through customs complete with a cute little bag-sniffing beagle dog (NO foreign foods are allowed into Australia) and this enthusiastic little fellow will find you out! Even two days AFTER you have had fruit in your bag, as a fellow passenger discovered.
We marched up Swanston Street and arrived at Federation Square, just across the street from Flinders Street Station (what a gorgeous old building in its rich butterscotch hues!). We found the information centre, and were amazed by the expert set-up. This metropolis is so used to dealing with tourists that it has a high-tech help system in place; you actually have to take a number to get assistance. I’m serious. But the place is so well laid out, with brochures catalogued under a variety of titles from tours to theatre, that it was easy to help ourselves. And so we did.
We boarded the tourist shuttle at Stop #2, took the full circle trip, and then advised the bus driver we had designs on the old gaol. He confirmed that Stop #4 would get us there. Now here is the story about the driver.
But failing that, take a cruise up into the sounds. Besides the huge cruise lines that visit the Sounds, there is also a large assortment of 
will bite, sting or kill you in New Zealand.” 
In 1931, Napier’s buildings were destroyed in an earthquake, and subsequent fire. If you are into geological history, visit the Hawke’s Bay museum on the Marine Parade (Napier’s main street) for all the details, and photographs of the event. Following the town’s destruction, immediate rebuilding of the area took place leading to an abundance of charming homes and office buildings created in the art deco style. 
There were numerous ways to get there, but we chose the $5 Airport Bus (the driver supplied us with $2 discount coupons, too).
in order to survive the wind chills in the room.
the mini TV sets in the headrest; they offer recent TV shows and movies to help pass the time. 
An elegant woman reminds us that we should go to tea. Tea? Okay. What’s at tea? Oh my…tiny cucumber sandwiches, tiny lobster pastries and mushroom quiches, lemon-drop cookies, and moist chocolate squares, oh, and yes, tea. Spoiled fat sparrows eye our tasty repast (we are seated outside on a patio overlooking a garden). Their fat bellies suggest they have dined on tea sandwiches before, and so I oblige and share a crumb of my sandwich.