We sailed from Auckland to sydney on the 4th January. We chose Aqua class mainly for the private dining and cabin service. We have cruised many times in most parts of the world and wanted to introduce a family member to the joys of cruising so selected this particular cruise. The ship presented well. Furnishings were excellent. The areas of disappointment were:

. A wasted space having the lawn club and glass blowing. One viewing of the glass blowing was sufficent and the pressure was applied to buy. The wasted area of the lawn as it was not used by any guest the whole cruise unless a game of bouche was being played. Obviously due to lack of space they positioned the table tennis on deck four inside, which created a blockage as it was positioned in a throughfare! There was a lack of outside activities which would have been very difficult for families. As we had quite a few sea days activites are very important. In conversations with a few guest everyone was feeling a bit bored and happy to be leaving the cruise. This has never happened to us in the past -we have always regretted the end of the cruise.

. Entertainment - we are not a big lover of the Vegas type shows so select the guest entertainer to entice us to the theatre. Some were good. The most disappointing of the cruise entertainment was in the general area of the ship. The Martini Bar seemed to be very popular and yet they had no entertainment in this area. We have always enjoyed pre dinner drinks and look forward to a small music group to entertain us and have a dance. This happens on all the other cruise lines we have been on. As the main age group is 40+ and people are making an effort to dress this is something they would enjoy. It also would make sense from a financial point of view as people would linger and spend more money on drinks! A latino style of music works really well to get people energised. We also felt that after dinner music was also lacking and the Ensemble lounge was the only place to go other than the night clubs, more suitable for the younger age. This lounge was a throughfare and there was no great area to dance. The other area they seemed to place entertainment was on level three in the main foyer near the staircase. This was not inducive to the right ambience to have a drink and dance. They also decided to do a Zumba class in this location one morning. No consideration was given to the above decks with reading chairs (people were inside as it was not a nice day out) and the loud music resonated throughout even into the Library and games room. Very bad planning. We couldnt but compare this to the Voyager RCL which we cruised on to Mexico. A very well laid out ship and certainly knew the type of entertainment people were wanting including activities. Having three formal nights and the delight in dressing was marred when you realised that nothing different or extra organised to warrent the effort of dressing up. Read more