The objective of our first cruise was to get to places best accessed from the sea and to return to past haunts: the destination, not the journey. Thanks to the reviews on this site and elsewhere we had a good idea of the ship and how things worked and did not have to figure out much from zero.
The destinations worked out well, we had great snorkelling on Conflict Is, Kiriwina and Gizo. Lots of tropical fish, even if the coral not as spectacular as what we saw in Fiji.
Paying an outrigger canoe on Kiriwina worked well to take us away from the landing beach where coral was badly damaged. Dive Gizo took us to their private island 20 minutes from the main harbour, with good snorkelling and diving and a delicious local lunch of grilled fish and veges. Tooling around in a dugout canoe made me appreciate how much easier modern watercraft are to use.
Good location in general, but enough banging noise from the promenade deck above around 5:30 to wake us.
Cabin, sorry, "stateroom", was the size of a smallish motel room, functional but tired. The cracked basin in the bathroom indicates the level of attention this ship is getting before its impending sale in March 2019.
Reasonable snorkelling, not that much more to do.
On the last day we dropped the suitcases at the airport locker and went back to town for a sumptuous lunch at the Ochre restaurant. Still an institution, as good as 20 years ago, great food with Australian native meats and vegetables. Considering the quality, it is good value.
Out for the day with Dive Gizo, pre-booked ourselves. Highly recommended.
A beer at the very atmospheric quayside bar of the Gizo Hotel was a great end for the day.