Hello valium - another Mar 2010er to say you're a nutter perfectly sane 
Interesting thread...I did NCT classes and found them excellent - it was 16 hours, spread over 8 sessions, so we got to know each other while still having loads of time to cover things in great detail (we're all still friends now, and will keep up the friendships as we start to go back to work).
We covered all forms of pain-relief and interventions in details, including c-sections (crash, emergency and elective). We did a role play, acting out a c-section, so who would be present, and where they would be in relation to the mum and dad etc. We also covered all the forms of pain relief possible, pros and cons, as well as what was actually happening hormonally and physically at each stage. We had a specific babycare class, that included nappy changes on dolls (hilarious!) and advice on bathing, dressing, amount of bedding, room temp etc and included "timetables" the teacher had had former students do at 3-6-8 weeks old (basically seemed to be "feed, change, feed, change" with some things like "walk in park" thrown in ). There was also a female only class, where we covered tears/episotomies/pelvic floor exercises and anything we felt too squeamish to ask about in the regular class (mainly questions about sex, twas like being a school girl again!). There was also a specific feeding class, which included the usual how to diagrams and was a v interesting exploration of feelings about breastfeeding (we had to talk to our own parents about how we'd been fed) and revealed that all the dads were v pro-BFing (as it's the best start to life) but the mums were much more ambivalent (what if it doesn't work?)...anyway, I digress!
Of the 8 of us, there were 4 sections (1 crash, one emergency, two elective for medical reasons), 3 inductions (2 for overdue, 1 for pre-eclampsia), 1 forceps (after an awful labour that led to long-term bladder damage), 1 ventouse and 2 water births (one of whom wouldn't have even considered it without the classes). We all felt the classes reasonably prepared us for this, especially as the teacher (an independent midwife) kept reminding us that the birth plan was about preferences only, as you can't "plan" labour!
We also booked in a reunion before the classes had even finished, so even if we hadn't have bonded we would have had a chance to "meet each other on the other side" so to speak.
Personally, I would have liked to see more about induction and going overdue. Three of us were induced, two at 42 weeks (me included) and 6 out of 8 of us went overdue (to 41 weeks plus) and we all struggled with it psychologically and I v much felt like a failure for not going into labour naturally.
I would also have loved to have had new mums come in and talk to us/show us their babies. Although having given birth myself I'm not sure how much I'd have liked to go in front of a class and be gawked at by a bunch of NCT first-timers!
I would also have liked a reminder that things do get easier. The baby grows up, the couple grows into becoming parents, and everything passes. . I know this is my personal bias, but I would have liked to feel more prepared for the psychological torment that was going overdue!
But all in all, I think the NCT classes were money well spent - I have great friends from it (can't imagine how lonely my maternity leave would have been without them!), I learned a lot, and I don't think I'd have come to terms with the reality of my birth (induction, hyperstimulation while strapped to a monitor on my back, crash section due to decelerations) when my desired birth (home water bith with hypnotherapy) had been so different...
OK, ramble over! Off to get some tidying up done while DS sleeps!