Just back from a short cruise to Sydney for Australia Day. My wife and I are moderately experienced ‘cruiselings’ having been on a couple of other P & O/Princess cruises. All to date were enjoyable. We were a bit anxious and tentative about the Aria as the majority of the reviews had been so negative. We resolved however to go with an open mind.

From the first moments we were impressed. We dropped our bags off at Brisbane’s Portside at the appointed time and 15 minutes later were in our balcony cabin. The speed and streamlining of this embarkation experience were the best ever. Our bags arrived minutes later.

All the crew we encountered were obliging and seemed to go out of their way to ensure we had an enjoyable experience. Read more