Boarded Azura on April 27th; P&O usually do boarding very well and I was on the ship about half an hour after arriving at the terminal. Luggage arrived quickly and I was soon unpacked, had lunch and in the library choosing books and arranging internet time which is glacially slow and expensive but no more so than on any ship.

For the first lunch you are forced, unless you have done over 25 cruises or so, to use the "Snatch and Grab", my name for the buffet restaurants, as nowhere else is open unless you are a VIP passenger. The Azura versions of the Snatch and Grab are Venezia and Verona, the latter slightly less crowded. It is difficult as I was sailing alone to get something to eat and to secure a place at a table. This is one reason why I only used it once or twice for the whole cruise. If you are alone, no one wants you to sit at their table. It's better to go to the main dining rooms where sharing tables is an accepted fact of cruise life and the waiter simply places you with others. Actually I met a lot of nice people that way.

Free champagne at sailaway as I had gone up a tier since my last cruise, which was nice, but I missed the sailaway bands which lent atmosphere to the departure. Being low down in the ship, on P deck near the atrium, I found that at the safety drill I actually had a seat; that's never happened before as I've always had to sit on the floor! Read more