Embarkation was at the newish Brisbane cruise terminal. We arrived at 12.20 for our 12.30 check in. It was teeming with people and hard to see where to drop bags. There was no marshal and nobody guiding you. Also nowhere to sit. We did find where to drop the bags and then we were called for our check in, which did go smoothly and we were on the ship by 1pm. Staterooms were not ready so we had a walk around the ship and went to the Solarium Bistro for lunch avoiding the mad house of the Windjammer buffet.

There were some aspects of the ship we liked such as the butterfly wall and animal frescoes in the lifts and also along some walls. There is no central atrium.

We had a balcony cabin and were pleased with the size of the balcony allowing us to easily stretch out with plenty of room to rest our feet on foot stools. The depth of the balcony was better than some other ships we had travelled on, with other cruise lines. We were also very pleased to find a kettle in our stateroom enabling us to have a cup of tea anytime we wanted, particularly first thing in the morning. On other cruise lines we have been on, the only option was to telephone room service for a steward to deliver tea to our stateroom. Read more