i would say the pods control is more or less realistic, especially that they move slowly. but beyond this there are so many bugs that its no joy to sail her. bowthrusters are way too strong, accleration way to quick, service speed not correct. there is simply no feel to steer a nearly 300m crusieliner, so absolutely no fun.
Well I'm not sure I agree, the bow thrusters on these ships are in fact very powerful, keep in mind there are several of them. 3 is not unusual, and if they operate all of them at full power the ship's bow really takes off. Vstep just turned it all into one
The main reason for all the bow thruster power is simply the wind, a large cruise ship acts like a giant sail, and when gale force winds hit the side it actually needs all that power to be able to turn the bow against the wind. So if you only got a light breeze 20-30% thrust is realistic.
The acceleration is not too bad, when leaving harbor at 5% thrust she accelerates slowly just like a real ship. At sea it depends on the wind and sea conditions of course.
I'd say the Ocean Star is more or less pretty realistic, if I'll point on something it must be the thrust lever reaction time. The pods react immediately when moving the levers, on real ships there is a delay.