Booked this as a family Christmas cruise (11 people including two kids). Supposed to do three island ports but a few weeks before the cruise I was informed by my agent that one of the ports had been cancelled and Port Kembla was the substitute only an hours drive from where I live in Sydney and Sydney is where the cruise started and ended. This is by far far the ugliest port i have visited and I been to several ports in places like India and least they look terrible are interesting. The excuse was the jetty (for tenders) was not "finished". Anyway too late to change and we were give $100 non refundable shipboard credit for the disappointment.
Because of the large group my wife nad i booked a suite for entertaining the mob. What a mistake the suites are all under the pool deck and you can hear chairs and tables being dragged over the deck day and night in fact up to 3am on some nights. Being Christmas we had planned through our agent to have a table for all us for Christmas dinner but onboard the situation was different it couldn't be done so the real purpose of the cruise was wasted
No doubt the facilities are good for kids but with so many people averything involves lining up not really my idea of a relaxed holiday. The one good point was the embarkation and disembarkation which was really good given the 4000 passengers. I am not sure if i can mention the agent but if does get through the sub editing it was Cruise 1st who confirmed the family dinner when we finally got a response. I found this agent most unhelpful so it is the last booking they get get from us (we had booked with them previously with slightly better results). My wife and i are cruise junkies this was our fourth cruise and fourth cruise line for the year so we have some experience by which to compare.
Good size and layout but does not compensate for noise and little sleep