We chose hits cruise because we wanted to see more of Australia and also wanted to visit family there. We took the 30-day Sydney-Sydney trip leaving Monday Oct. 17th, 2016. The ship is old. It has been cosmetically refurbished but the "guts" of the ship are still old. Leaks, leaks and more leaks. Carpet had to be replaced in several rooms near ours because of water leaking. Rust -painted over rust-everywhere. And illness.....probably 80% of the ship was sick (including the ship's doctor we were told.) 3 strains of flu which were alien to this years flu vaccine and lots of upper respiratory illness. Unfortunately, instead of staying in their rooms most of the sick passengers freely roamed the ship spreading illness to everyone else. We witnessed a medical emergency in the Horizon Court during breakfast. It appeared a female passenger was having a stroke or heart attack. It took at least 10-15 minutes for anyone from the medical dept. to reach her.
Overall, we were happy about a few things, the beds were new and very comfortable, the bar staff was always friendly. It took our cabin steward about 3 hrs to get to our room each morning even when we left the sign out to refresh the room. It took us 8 hours to get someone to fix our TV when it went out on us. The ship only has 10 washers and dryers and the coin dispensers never worked. Plan to wait several hours in line to get a wash done. This was not a cruise we would recommend although it does go to some good ports. On disembarkation in Sydney there were no carts or anyone to help with bags. Having 4 huge suitcases it wasn't easy. We have one more cruise planned on the new Majestic Princess next summer and then we plan never to cruise with them again. Time to look at some other options like Holland America or small ship cruising. Have been sick for the last 3 Princess cruises we've done!
The cabin was what we expected. Small. The bed was comfortable which was important because we have bad backs. All in all just ok. Our steward was sweet but slow. Some mornings it took her 3 hrs to get to our rooms which was inconvenient. The TV was old and did not work well.
We did not take a ship sponsored tour but spent 3 days on our own in Sydney. We loved it.
We did not take a ship-sponsored tour in Brisbane but met friends there who took us to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We loved it.
It was Sunday and nothing was open.
Went into the city center and shopped. Nothing out of the ordinary.