My kids and I stayed at Bruce's apartment over the summer and had a great time exploring Southbank, the CBD and South Melbourne. Being right near the river is great for getting out to run or walk, and it was always easy to find a nice coffee or something to eat!
It was a difficult summer weather-wise and with a lot of smoke and haze from the bushfires, so we were inside a lot, but we got a great view of the fireworks on NYE and made good use of the gym and pool.
We had some issues with the space - it is not exactly as the listing showed at the time I booked, as there were two double beds and a sofa bed instead of a double bed, a bunk and the sofa bed. Practically this meant we had to set up and put away the sofa bed every day, which is a drag. Also only one of the double beds is in a room separated from the living space by a door, so it's hard to avoid disturbing each other if you keep different schedules. In my case I was trying to keep in touch with the US east coast and needed to make late night and early morning calls, so I had checked the room layout and photos when booking, and was disappointed to find they didn't match reality.