As a family of four with two children aged 8 & 10 we had heard very good reviews of Heron Island from friends with children of a similar age. With this in mind we booked a holiday to Heron Island as a last minute (about a week out) deal in a beachside suite.
About 16 hours before we were due to leave we received a call from Heron Island bookings who informed us that they had made an error and overbooked our room type and that they would either have to downgrade us to an unrefurbished room type, moving us half way through our holiday, or cancel our booking.
Despite already having packed we finally negotiated that we would arrive three days later and have our original room type. In return we were promised that we would definitely get any room preferences honoured (as to whether an upstairs or downstairs room) and that there would be a fruit basket and bottle of wine in the room on arrival. They also waived the cost of our childrens' boat transfers to reflect the cost and hassle of booking new flights. Our children in pre-holiday excitement mode were VERY disappointed.
On arrival at Gladstone the transfer was pretty seamless and the boat crossing was smooth. We disembarked and were taken straight across the helipad to the island reception.
This area could REALLY do with Jazzing up. It is your first impression of the island and frankly, walking past the works area and over a battered up helipad is not a good welcome to Heron, especially given that it really is a beautiful island. It wouldn't take much to make it far more welcoming and a little screening of the works building would help enormously.
On arrival we were notified of our room allocation and were unhappy to see that we were allocated an upstairs room despite the promises of the booking office to honour our preference of a downstairs room. We went to the reception and asked about this, where possibly the rudest staff member I have ever encountered anywhere (a young woman, possibly named Christine?,) informed us extremely churlishly that they knew nothing about the request so there was nothing they could do.
As part of the package we booked it said "free upgrade on arrival if available." so I asked about this too, very politely, wondering if this might be an alternative way to get a downstairs room if there were none in our chosen room type. At this point she looked at me and said "yes, you can get an upgrade, for $200 a night extra" and then turned and walked away, completely ignoring the piece of paper that I showed her that showed the offer we had booked under. We attempted to talk to her, very politely, for another ten minutes but received no help whatsoever, in fact she was downright rude. By far the rudest customer service employee I've ever encountered. Fortunately, at this point, the efficient and friendly manager turned up and actually helped us. As it turned out the only upgrade from a beachside suite for a family of four is the beach house which wasn't available and had a 3 month waitlist (bear this in mind if booking this offer) We were perfectly happy with this explanation as it was given politely. He also said that we could move to a downstairs room halfway through our holiday, but we turned this down as we didn't want to repack and unpack, so we just accepted the upstairs non beach access room.
When we arrived at our room the wine was there but the promised fruit basket wasn't. We never bothered to mention this as at this point we had given up all hope!
The beachside suites are newly refurbished and great for families because the lounge room divides from the bedroom. The daybeds in the lounge become the kids beds and are comfortable. It isn't swish, but they are nice rooms, and the upstairs rooms have a cathedral ceiling and lovely balconies overlooking the beach. Downstairs have direct beach access.
I did snoop other room types and wasn't keen. The lowest room type are close together with overlooking balconies and wooden, up on stilts, meaning a LOT of bird noise as the birds wander around under the floor. We couldn't hear the birds in our room.

The food at Heron is a mix of buffets and a la carte. The food was good, although not restaurant quality. (for instance, the salmon was very overdone etc). Nonetheless as a mass catering exercise it was pretty good.
They are exceptionally good at taking care of allergies etc and went to a lot of trouble over this.
They had a new pizza option when we were there which made a nice change, but the pizzas were very hit and miss. However, all food is included, which is great. We had been told that the food was great so perhaps our expectations were too high. It is fine, nothing more.

The Island itself is spectacular. Really, really beautiful. It has white sand and amazingly blue water as well as the reef. My favourite beach was Shark Bay, which is at the far end of the island. We were fortunate enough to see turtles laying their eggs, which really was unforgettable. This made our holiday. We also saw rays swimming alongside the shore every day as well as turtles swimming near the beach. This was an incredible experience.

The junior rangers club is also amazing. My children, who originally thought it sounded boring, went once and then begged to go to every session. It was also educational, teaching them all about the island. My daughter told me that junior rangers was "better than DIsneyland" which I think is about the highest praise a child could give!

One thing that drove me crazy at Heron was how they charge you for activities. If you've been to Fiji etc where snorkelling trips are free you will be shocked by the prices charged here. Similarly for diving. Also, even if you want to snorkel off the beach yourself to avoid the $40pp per trip snorkel boat fee you have to hire fins and mask at $14 per person per day (or $56 a day for a family of four) so bring these with you if you don't want to waste your money. The semi submersible trip (also usually free at other resorts) is also expensive, but really was worth the cost.

The snorkelling is beautiful here. It is only the cost that is offputting. We were there for a week and for us to snorkel every day would have been over $1000 so we just didn't do it, which was a shame.

The pool is fine, small and old, but the children love it. There were almost no adults in it when I was there, as it was so crowded with children. It is not much bigger than a home pool so I think that they could really upgrade this area, they have a lot of space, but a small pool and not nearly enough loungers when we were there around Christmas.

I think with Heron you have to know what you are getting. Despite the refurbishment this is not a luxury establishment. It is very rough and ready, you will get regularly pooed on by birds, and you won't get loungers etc on the beach (they would upset the turtles). The website somehow gives the impression that this is a luxury holiday and it isn't. The staff are largely backpackers, and they do a good friendly job, but it isn't polished service.
Equally, the island is spectacularly beautiful, but in my opinion they should have half as many rooms as they have crammed into the resort area.

I'm glad that I went to Heron because of its natural beauty. That really made it worth the trip. Also to experience the wildlife and to stay out on the reef isolated from the world, was very special as was the nightime stargazing.

However, you should go knowing that that is what you are there for, not luxury, and then you will be able to get the most from it.