Our family just celebrated my husband's 70th birthday. We are world travelers and have been on over 40 cruises. It's difficult to gather together two grown kids and their families in the month of October. This cruise fit the bill - on a weekend and just 3 days. One family is from Sacramento, so they flew in on Thursday evening to surprise dad and the other family are local, as are we. Wish it could have been longer, but nevertheless we had a great time.
The group consisted of 6 adults, and 3 kids, ages from 5 - 9. The water slide and park were absolutely wonderful for the kids. We thoroughly enjoyed this cruise. The staff was hard-working and the food was really good (and this is from a couple who have traveled on the QEII, as well as other "lux" lines. It was not really a "party" cruise, as can happen on this short 3 day during the summer and spring break - but was still a little "loud" in some respects. I can't fault the cruise line for this.
Yeah, there were some obnoxious people, as happens, but that didn't spoil our trip. The ship was nice, the crew, wonderful, and the food good.