We were leery of this ship because we had heard good reviews and bad reviews. I will make my review as short as possible!
I had never cruised before so I had no expectations. I will say for first timers, the ship is nice and even this time of year we only had one rough night. The weather was arm and enjoyable. We were on deck 2, in the front most part of the ship and could hear every bang and crash and ping, but it was still ok. Our cabin was actually bigger than we expected and was clean and our cabin steward was very accommodating.
We weren't able to take advantage of or participate in many of the ship's activities as we got the flu - the full blown flu - on day two, and spent most of the rest of the time in bed.