We have cruised many times with P & O, preferring Azura for Caribbean holidays, but decided to try a smaller ship, i.e. Oceana. The price was reasonable and as a seven night cruise was a good way of deciding whether we would like the ship, we booked it - Genoa to Venice. However, on reading some of the reviews before leaving, we were wondering just what to expect as some were very off-putting.
Flying from Newcastle (which is rare for P & O), on the plus side we never saw our luggage until it appeared outside the cabin. Transfer to the port was ok but there was confusion at check-in when they said the cabin we were booked into, wasn't assigned to us on their database, so we had to chase this up with Reception on the ship. Eventually it was sorted and we received a note apologising for the error.
We had an outside cabin on D deck, which, for a week, was fine. There were no problems with noise and was within easy reach of the lifts, theatre and shops. On longer trips we would book a balcony. It was clean and adequate, although the shower area is too small but serves the purpose. Shower gel, shampoo and conditioner are supplied. After previously doing a Thomson cruise where the towels are grey and thin and the shower area was in need of maintenance, this was luxury!
There wasn't a lot of hanging space but quite a lot of drawer space. The carpets were clean and slippers were provided. Adequate size for two people.