We had chosen this cruise primarily because it coincided with the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, which was one of the stops. Until it wasn’t any longer, which caused us to alter our plans and change our flights so we could get to Melbourne for a day. Geelong was a lovely port and we had a great time walking along the shore. Overall the ports of call saved this trip.

To say the food was terrible would be an understatement. I have the simplest palate on earth so standard cruise fare really has to be terrible for me to not like it. It was awful. With the exception of Cagney’s, which was average, and the Tepanyaki restaurant, which was pretty good, nothing was salvageable. I’ve also never seen such a challenge to put the correct food and drink in front of someone. That was the most consistent aspect of service on board. Speciality dining or no.

Our cabin steward never came to introduce himself and it took two days for the beds to be set up the way we wanted them. Sometimes we got a floor mat in the bathroom, sometimes we didn’t. Every day was a Where’s Waldo of what was or wasn’t put in the cabin. Our travel companions didn’t get bath towels 3 times. They wound up hoarding the towel animals so they could shower. There also must have been some sort of pipe backup because throughout the entire cruise the hall in front of our travel companions cabins smelled like an unflushed toilet. Read more