Like everyone else, this cruise was a big event for our family. We had high expectations. Having recently done a couple of Carnival Cruises, I was very excited to try out P&O. After all it's part of the Carnival Cruise Mother Company and with a Shiny refurbished ship - it is bound to be perfect. Or NOT as the case turned out. Sadly, I don't think I met one guest of board who felt like ever returning to P&O. I know I NEVER will.

I hardly know where to begin. It would be easier to list what's right with it (shorter) than list what's wrong, but I will try.

First of all, don't be fooled by the idea that it is completely refurbished. It isn't. Unlike other ships I have been on, there is no "wow" factor as you walk into the atrium. It's nice, but nothing special. We quickly found our room which by the way had been allocated on a completely different floor to the rest of the family despite our request to be close by each other. Whilst it looked acceptable, the furniture obviously wasn't new and had a decent amount of wear and tear. Never mind -it's ok - just not as sparkly as I had hoped. But then as I looked to see if my case would fit under the bed, I discovered an extensive amount of rubbish that had been missed by the housekeeper. There were bits of paper, foam, cocktail sticks and ground up biscuits. Urgh. Not a nice surprise. Then in the bathroom I discovered other peoples hairs still on the walls and left over soap and scum in the soap dish that hadn't been cleaned. Alarmed by the severe lack of cleanliness I asked a nearby housekeeper if someone could give our room another once over. She told me it wasn't one of her rooms but would pass on the message. I think it was about day 7 when I got on my hands and knees and picked up all the rubbish under the bed and broken biscuits. I too washed the foreign hairs down the drain as it appeared nobody on board intended to. Read more