We have cruised a number of times before with Azamara, Celebrity, Holland America, Thomson & Royal Caribbean, all offering different things for different travellers but always providing 1st class service and never having given us any reason for complaint. Due to the fact that we could fly from our local airport into Barbados we thought we'd give P&O a try - what a mistake that was.

Embarkation - the cruise started off so well, our flight was on time and after an uneventful flight we were met by a fleet of coaches that took us straight from the plane to the ship, no customs and after probably a 1/2 hour queue to complete the check in procedures we were on the ship, compared to some of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale check-ins we have experienced this was fantastic and we were all set to go!!

THE CABIN - as always we booked a balcony cabin, on deck 12, mid ship and port side. When we walked through the door our initial impression was that the cabin was both dark and quite small compared to what we were used to, the decor looked old and tired and there was no sofa to sit on, just a couple of chairs. However, we had the balcony so we could live with the cabin being 'functional' - and herein lies the problem!! Basically our cabin neighbours turned out to be what can only be described as chain smokers and every time we went on to the balcony they were both there smoking! We like to take breakfast on the balcony and if the balcony is in the shade we like to sit there and read i.e. relax and enjoy our cruise. I went to reception on our 2nd morning to ask if anything could be done, I didn't know smoking on balconies was allowed but as it obviously was our neighbours could not be told to refrain but I asked if there was the option of a)moving cabins or b) could they give me some sort of other solution. The member of staff told me the ship was unfortunately full so we couldn't move but he would speak to his manager and come back to me ASAP, he did not contact me at all and I also completed the mid-cruise questionnaire where again I stated the above. There was also no response to this, we did not want to constantly moan about this issue but basically we spent about 3 hours on our balcony over the length of the cruise -P&O did nothing to try to assist us and I have sent in a formal letter of complaint as they have charged me for something I was unable to use!! Read more