We chose this cruise as the itinerary suited us, and the length of time on a ship. We chose to embark in our home town of Melbourne, as I didn't see the point in paying for two air fares just to sit on the ship for two extra nights. I suffer from motion sickness, so I didn't want to risk starting my holiday on a bad note. Embarkation went smoothly, and although we were welcomed, we didn't receive any of the fanfare our Sydney cruisers received.

The ship itself was beautifully laid out, and very easy to get around, and get oriented. Every part of it was beautifully decorated, and it definitely had a luxurious feel. Our inside cabin was very comfortable, although the bathroom could have been a tad larger. The airconditioning worked well, and we slept well every night ( apart from one night when we were both unwell)

Dining was interesting; on our first night, in spite of the fact that nearly 10% of the passengers had been ill on previous cruises, we were allowed to serve ourselves in the Ocean View Cafe ( Buffet restaurant). On the second night, I heard rumours that more passengers had become ill; interesting that nothing was ever mentioned about any staff being ill), and we were served by the staff in the buffet restaurant. This created some congestion around the buffet stations, and I couldn't believe the number of people who became quite rude over the place in the queue..what queue? There was no system, but I would have thought that common sense and common decency would have allowed a fair go at the buffet!! After the second night, I was feeling a bit seedy, as the Tasman crossing was a tad rough; we decided to eat at the Restaurant rather than the cafe, and had an a-la-carte meal. The food was ok, but not hot enough for my taste. As the nasty virus continued to do it's worst, we both finally succumbed, but only a mild dose that laid us up for 24 hours. Following our bout of the bug, we decided to be more particular with the food we ate, and preferred the freshly cooked stuff such as the hamburgers at the outdoor grill, and the freshly BBQed meat in the Ocean View Cafe. I was nervous about salads and fruit, so steered clear, and instead had roast or grilled meats,plain vegies, baked potatoes rather than the options of stuff sitting in heavy sauces etc; just our preference as are not consumers of heavy salt or flavour. For us, the blander the better as we felt safer. We did love the icecream bar, and had some lovely gelato and ice-cream from there, but my husband became ill after having the pasta as the sauce wasn't hot, and we don't know how long the sauces sit in their pots. The pasta wasn't anything to write home about, but the freshly cooked pizza was quite satisfactory. I think the key to our dining, was getting to the buffet early, and getting as much freshly cooked stuff as possible. The drink variety was excellent, and they even had lactose free milk for our cereal. The desserts on the whole were very good with lots of variety, and the breakfast menu again was great if you had eg fresh omeletes or eggs cooked fresh. One day I grazed for hours ( must have been a sea day), and quite enjoyed the food in the Ocean View Cafe. Read more