My husband and I travelled on the Dawn Princess' 13 day round trip from Melbourne to New Zealand and had a wonderful time. This was our first experience of cruising and we really enjoyed it -- the pace is so relaxed and it's wonderful to be handy to everything you need or want to do.
Accommodation. We were very happy with our cabin. It felt small at first, and the decor was something out of the 1980s, but it was always clean and our steward worked hard to make sure we were as comfortable as possible. I think the cabin stewards were amongst the friendliest crew we interacted with and there were several near our cabin who were always ready with a smile or to chat.
Having a balcony was wonderful and I don't know if I'd want to travel without one. It was probably the most entertaining part of our life on board. We went on it first thing in the morning to check out the weather and where we were, and it provided endless entertainment in port as we watched the dock, the city, people boarding or disembarking, the tugs as we left port and the pilot leaving the ship. And that didn't include sitting on it with a glass of wine as we left port or before we left for dinner.
Nice sized cabin and good storage space, very little movement in cabin in rough weather, quiet location between stairs/lifts.