Exactly what we wanted and what we thought it would be! This was our longest cruise to date (We did a transatlantic a few years ago and other 12 night cruises) but we felt like it lived up to what we were expecting. Sydney is an amazing City (our first experience in Australia) and well worth the 4 days we spent there before getting on our ship. Our Bridge Climb was one of our "bucket list" items and lived up to the hype. We walked almost 25 miles in the four days so we were ready for some R & R on the ship!

Embarkation worked great for us (right time, right place!) as they called for Diamond and above just as we dropped off our luggage so we went right in and were sitting in an almost empty windjammer for an hour or so just looking at the Opera house and the Bridge. We had been on explorer before but before her referb. I can say that I think they did a great job freshening up the ship, both the cabins and the public spaces. We found the crew very friendly and accommodating, including the fairly crowed Diamond lounge in the evening (They took over the nightclub on deck five because of so many experienced cruisers). They were VERY good at keeping food available and getting drinks was also fairly easy. I have read some of the "complaints" about how the Diamond concierge acted, but we found him fairly good with a LOT of people to make happy (some folks will always find things to complain about, but considering all that went on with swarms of Diamond and Diamond Plus cruisers, he was on top of it.)

This cruise is about the cruise and the experience, not the ports. Sydney is fantastic and Hawaii is one of our favorite places on earth, but the islands in-between were good for stretching your legs but nothing very memorable. Read more