In the main dining area, the meals are not a buffet but served by staff behind high glass windows. This means queuing for a bread roll, then another queue for salad, another queue for meat, then battle to find a table to sit with your family. When I went to get a drink my meal was taken by the waiter! This eating experience is a logistical nightmare when you have two children. So we tried to book a table at the restaurant on the first day, only to be told to come back in half an hour as the reservations manager is not here...then still not here come back in 20 minutes...then told to just wait until she returns, then queue again. The restaurant phone was engaged all afternoon and was told they take the phone off the hook and won't take bookings til 5 pm, although the instruction to passengers is "Reservations are Recommended, open from when you arrive on board". I went to reception to ask for help...was I doing something wrong? No help was given. We spent an entire afternoon on this task, and finally were placed at a table with another family.

The facilities are terribly inadequate. The advertised facilities and services such as the flying fox and water slide are only open at unpredictable times depending on staff availability, so constant disappointments. The pool area is very small for the number of passengers and was always difficult to find a place to sit. You had to hover like a vulture waiting to swoop. The staff all looked very over-worked and had trouble keeping up with picking up dishes and rubbish left behind as people moved on, so the pool deck looked like a clutter of rubbish for much of the time.

My family ended up passing the time in a bar playing Uno and card games for the entire three days. Remember, once you are on board you can't get off. Extremely unhappy prisoners of Pacific Dawn. We have cruised before with other companies and thoroughly enjoyed it, but never again with P&O.