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Britannia

Ventura

Azura

Arcadia

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Iona

Arvia

2 years ago FABULOUS. 1 year ago GREAT.  This year OK

Skagway

Embarkation was quick and efficient - aircraft landed at 2.30pm and we were in our cabin by 3.45pm.

We were looked after very well by our cabin steward on D deck..

We were Freedom Dining in the Peninsular restaurant and enjoyed the menu choices most evenings.  We had an Eric Lanlard Afternoon Tea in the Epicurian Restaurant which I thought was good value at £15 each and quite tasty, although the scones were not up to Mary Berry standard!  We also had dinner in the Epicurian one evening which again was very good, although we felt the service was a little slow.  Also had steak cooked on a hot lava stone in the Beach House excellent value for money.  Particularly enjoyed the Tandoori and Indian Nights menus in the buffet restaurant. Generally found the crew to be friendly and helpful

Comedians Mike Doyle, Paul Eastwood, Peter Piper and Manuel Martinez were good as was the Tina Turner tribute act.  The Headliners shows need to be updated as we have seen them several times now.

Enjoyed the ports of call but had visited all except Amber Cove and Martinique before.  Amber Cove offers a free swimming pool and sunbathing area as well as bars, restaurants and shops.

Didnt want to come home and wish I was still onboard

Really enjoyable cruise

We wanted to explore the Caribbean and had heard some good reports about P and O.  The ship and holiday largely met our expectations. 

However,In our opinion there were too many formal nights....four out of fourteen is surely over the top.....

The public areas were all very good.  My partner was really impressed by the clothes shops and thought they were the best on any cruise line we have experienced.  He was delighted with the two pairs of shorts he bought!

We thought the food was excellent, apart from the toast and coffee....P and O chefs really need lessons in toast making.  In the buffet it is left lying under what appears to be a heat lamp.  This is lazy.  Toast should be made on demand...as it has been on all other cruise lines we have used.  The coffee is stewed. Yuck.  

Restaurant service In the buffet and restaurants, apart from the speciality ones, was disappointing.  The waiters often disengaged, sometimes unfriendly and very rarely smiled. This is the only line we have sailed with, where tea, coffee and water have not been brought to the table when eating in the buffet. There were one or two exceptions to this, showing that a few of the staff had been properly trained.

We thought the management of our luggage at the beginning and end of the cruise was excellent.  It was a stress free experience to check in our luggage at the airport and see it next outside our cabin....disembarkation and return flights were done in the same way.  We were allowed to use ship facilities until we left for the airport. All of this would certainly encourage us to use this line again.  Well done P and O.  The Thompson Dreamliner flights were extremely comfortable.  We sat in the economy cabin.

Overall we enjoyed the cruise. It was an extremely relaxing experience. We loved the islands we visited. We would consider using P and O again.

Relaxing experience

We went on a Caribbean cruise on the Ventura in 2014, and loved it and we decided to do another in the near future.

This year we chose the Azura.

It would have been good if someone had shown you how to get to your cabin, you are  basically left on your own and hope that other passengers can point you in the right direction.

No complaints at all about food, staff or the ship itself. Everything 10/10!!

We ate in the Oriental restaurant every night, the food was amazing!!

However it would have been nice to have some different biscuits in the cabin, we had the same biscuits on the Ventura 3 years ago! 

Entertainment on sea days was poor.

We went on several P&O beach trips which were quite disappointing,On one beach trip in particular, the Orient beach break, the beach was filthy.  I have written to P&O  about this.

Not as good as the Ventura

This was our fourth Caribbean Cruise with P& O over the past six years and our second time on Azura. We were not intending to go this year as we are already booked on Azura in Jan 2018, with a group of friends. I saw a late deal and we decided to go for it and absolutely no regrets.

We have previously sailed on Ventura and Britannia in the Caribbean and both enjoyable.

We have always booked a balcony, but on this occasion the deal was for an inside cabin which would be a new experience for us.

We flew from Manchester on the Dreamliner and had a very good flight both there and back.

The embarkation at Barbados went of very smoothly and we were quickly on the ship.

We proceeded to our cabin which was in a good location on B deck, near the forward lifts.

We were very pleasantly surprised with our cabin, it was very clean and tidy, yes it was small in comparison to the balcony cabins, but in reality we don't send much time in the cabin, Our cabin steward Dency introduced himself and could not do enough for us, he was friendly, efficient and always had a smile on his face, nothing was too much trouble for him. This high level of service from Dency continued throughout the cruise.

We walked around the ship on the first day and in general found it to be in a good condition considering the amount of sailings it undertakes. We had no complaint in this department.

We were on Freedom dining, which we had requested which suits our style of holiday and we found the service and food to be of a good standard for the amount of people passing through on a nightly basis, compared to previous cruises on P&O.

We tried the speciality restaurants, Sindhu, Epicurean, The Glass House and The Beach House. In all cases the food and service was excellent and in our opinion worth the additional cost apart from the Valentines Night meal in Epicurean, the cover charge was excessive albeit the meal was very nice. it appeared P&O were up to their old tricks of taking advantage of an occasion for additional profit.

Usually before dinner we would go to the Planet Bar for a drink and met a very friendly and helpful bartender called Simpson, from the first night to the last he always made us feel welcome and would start serving preparing our drinks as we walked in.

I have to say that throughout our cruise all the staff we encountered were smiling, friendly, and helpful even more than other P& O ships we have been on. This really did make the cruise. There is no doubt in our opinion that the Azura is a happy ship and this was reflected in the atmosphere around the ship.

In relation to the entertainment, Jimmy James was up to his usual high standard and highly enjoyable, We3 were excellent. Both acts performing in the main theatre.

The Freddie Mercury and Elton John tribute acts were good but have seen better performances by other tribute acts on previous cruises. Again in the main the entertainment was good.

The activities on sea days are not our scene and we had no problems finding a sun beds at the front of the ship, spending the day relaxing.

We booked three excursions, the river tubing in Jamaica which was great fun and well worth the experience. On St Lucia we booked the catamaran trip to the Pitons again another great trip and well worth doing.

On our final port of call at Dominica, we booked the Rib Experience Adventure, with a snorkelling experience over Champagne Reef, unfortunately the sea was a running a bit rough near the coast and we had to forgo this experience, but still managed to snorkel further along the island. Again another enjoyable trip well worth experiencing.

We have previously been to ports on this cruise, but being the Caribbean we enjoyed them all and explored new locations within the island. Tortola is our favourite, St Maarten is a good island to explore and this time we decided to go to Orient Beach for a change, magnificent, one of the best beaches we have been to, tried the Kon-Tiki bar, hired sun beds and enjoy some food and drink, excellent and highly recommended.

Sorry if I have gone on a bit but this really was an excellent and enjoyable cruise, which exceeded our expectation.There was only my wife and I this time as we normally have a group of friends join us but it was nice to enjoy our own company.

I appreciated this a personal opinion and other people may have had different experiences but for us this an excellent cruise and full credit to P&O and the staff of Azura for making it so.

Excellent Cruise and First Class Service

Recently arrived back from Azura cruise 21 Jan-4 Feb 17. The cruise was generally fine but there is much that can be improved. The 65% reviewers approval rating is a fair assessment.

We had a bad start to our holiday on the flight to Barbados. We paid a lot extra to be upgraded to Premium Economy which is not value for money. The Premium cabin is no different from the Economy cabin apart from a curtain to divide the two. A couple of free drinks does not compensate for the extra money paid. Legroom, seats, food etc is the same AND many of the TVs did not work for the flight duration.

The cruise itinerary was fine but we could have done without Amber Cove which is not much more than a Carnival play park.

The entertainment on board is below average. Using individuals from the on board team will only work if the individuals are good enough. An exception was Paul Rudd? the lead guitarist from Jet Set (the ships' resident band) who was very good.

The food at breakfast/lunch was fine although the servery was a bit of a scrum.Food at dinner was, in my opinion, not up to standard. The chef seems to think that the British only eat warmish British food and bases his menus on this. Try other food, we can take it!

The gym is very good. The variety of classes needs to be looked at. It was noted that classes that demanded a fee were a bit thin on the ground towards the end of the cruise.

My wife liked the line dancing but not in the Atrium! A lot of other guests turned up there just to watch which made some participants who were still learning routines a little embarrassed. Other ships use the theatre.

Trips organised by the ship are very expensive. Many passengers used the local taxi/mini buses which are not as comfortable but half the price. They all go to the same places!

Drinks in the bars are not cheap. Spirit measures are minute! Buy a "double" to get more than one sip, that will cost around £8.00! BUT the wine list, quality and prices in the restaurants was very good. Well done.

I had a stomach bug for 48 hours which was reported to the emergency number as instructed. I was told that I would get a call from one of the medical team ASAP but never did. I chased it up later and was told that the call receiver had written down the wrong cabin number so I could not be found. I can guarantee that no other person on the ship had the same surname as me so finding me should not have been a problem. 

This has to be sorted.

Tips, as on other cruise ships are automatically taken from individual on board accounts. This practice should be stopped. I am still convinced that it is not legal.

The weather was not great. Rained for a short time most days but still very warm.

Lots of moaning here but all in all the cruise was mostly enjoyable. Well, we were on holiday!

Other ships do it better

We cruised for the 1st time on Azura last year ( canaries) and loved every second so we were confident on booking with P&O  and Azura again this time.

Flight  from Birmingham supposed to be a Dreamliner but wasn't . They tried hard to compensate but it was not great. Transfers. To ship excellent, quick and efficient. Embarkation swift. Felt like coming home,  Balcony cabin ready as soon  as we arrived, clean and comfortable, complimentary water and tea and coffee . All great. Phew!  

But then we realised the Bon voyage package we booked hadn't been deliverd fully.....the champagne was there as were the flowers but no bathrobes or vouchers for spa or champagne breakfast or photoshop. the spa package also hadn't been delivered then we realised the mini bar wasn't fully stocked ( as in items hadnt been replaced from the last occupants usage)  worse to come the air con wasn't working and the sink was blocked!!  A quick and meaningful telephone call to reception had the maintance crew, the cabin steward and the spa manager rectifying their mistakes. (TIP: If anything is wrong get right on it, don't leave it to the end to complain, staff are always willing to help but you must not be backwards at coming forwards, a polite but firm insistence that you want something fixed right almost away always yield results!) 

You never know with your cabin steward how good they will be and they really can help make or break your holiday experience, Our last cabin steward was excellent and we never ever, not once had to ask him to redo anything he never forgot anything our cabin was always ready and clean when we needed it as he asked on the first day what we liked and he was always discreet. This time our steward was terrible! So unorganised and her standards of clean were NOT ours.  Our cabin was often not ready when we returned during the day after excursions and even once when we came back from our evening meal 10.30pm!! (0/10).   We often had stained of damaged 'new' towels hung up, but they were always changed when asked ( point is we shouldn't have had to) 

Once again we had freedom dining which we loved. All food was excellent, except The Glass House ( tough steak, cold food and snail pace service) and  sadly this visit to the Epicuran ( still the same menu as last year) the food was poor, and luke warm, the staff were as bored serving it as we were eating it. We cancelled the pre booked second visit. However by comparison The Beach House was EXCELLENT. Food wonderful and varied, The staff were happy and the restaurant manager ran a very happy and efficient eating venue. We had excellent meals in the meridian and Peninsular main restaurants too.  The buffet were all good if you managed to avoid busy the periods.

 The entertainment was very hit and miss, the sail aways were appalling, shrieking British  compares, music more fitting to a kareoke pub.... fat somebody's vindaloo song... really painful. Get a grip P& O. There were some great acts and a very funny comedian but the 'entertainment' team by the pool were an embarrassment. ( except Accent the Caribbean vocal act, they were excellent) Sadly you coud not avoid the entertainment team  even on our balcony you could hear their patronising comparing as they had their mikes up full. 

Hiring young adults to entertain 40-80 year olds is a daft idea, what do they have in common....very very little. Also,  showing football matches on the sky screen was truly dispiriting. ( nothing against football, and why not show it in Brodie's a sports bar, rather than subject the entire mid ship to the noise).

Excursions were great and good value for money we did 3 catermaran trips all excellent. All the others we did our own thing as taxis both car and boats, were cheap and plentiful. 

Oasis Spa

Total, utter, shambles, the management of the spa on Azura are APPALLING. 

The girls and the treatments they give are exceptional, still too pricey but good, and thank goodness they are less pushy with the hard sell of aftercare products these days.

We booked a spa package for both of us, we were so disappointed as stated previously the spa bathrobes were not delivered, the spa promice to contact you to before you cruise so you can prebook your treatments and retreat days never happend. Having to QUE in a line like school children to be given your bands to enter the retreat was an insult how hard an it Be to organise different colour bands for different days to be given to clients at the start of the cruise or another colour for those who have booked passes for the entire cruise?

I use the spa a lot and love having the treatments but the billing is AWAYS wrong. P&O need to have a long hard look at the company they outsource the spa to. Standards are slipping very badly.

I love cruising, I love Azura she is a beautiful ship, I love the wonder of opening the curtains each morning and being in a new place, I love being so well looked after, I love sea days and the formal nights. P&O are good value for money but I am becoming less enchanted with the mixed standards on the ship, it sounds awful and very snobby but there are more and more passengers these days who's manners, decorum and general politeness leave  ALOT to be desired. 

In conclusion would I book with P&O again, maybe.but I'll be watching the reviews very closely.

The good the bad and the ugly, and the case of the missing (American) captain...

arrived in barbados all ok, till at the terminal and as we had book a suite there was no fast track book in till we complained,

suite had badley ripped draw curtains up patio window again till i complained nothing would have been done,

decks around the coral pool never been cleaned as there was cigarette end on the stair case for 3 days and still not cleaned up.

bar staff around pool areas walk around with blinkers on as it took us an hour to get a drink.

food in cafe buffet at lunch time i.e roast dinners was always cold, when complained was told they only had hot plates on bottom gr gr.

full complaint will be going in to p & o as that was only a small part of a very poor cruise

as it was for our 25th anniversary. and was very disappointed in the tresatment we received.

Treated like dirt

This was a special treat for a birthday.

The activities on board were very poor with an emphasis on darts, bingo, selling diamonds and cosmetic procedures.We had hoped there would be talks on the Caribbean etc but the only "expert" offered Nutrition as a subject!Yoga and Pilates for example cost extra.

There was a constant hard sell of excursions, watches, visits to the kitchen (£25), visits to the Bridge (£25) and Wi Fi cost about £30 a day for the package which allows e mails.When the ship docked everyone found a cafe on shore.Nearly everyone we spoke to on board was incensed at the rip off price of the Wi-Fi.

Food (apart from the Epicurean) was very ordinary and several passengers had made complaints to the Catering Manager.

The itinerary included an awful place  called Amber Cove in The Dom Republic.It took a 3 day detour to get there.We hit a force 8 gale and many people were sick.The place was just a tacky, purpose built resort with no character at all offering a  string of new shops selling overpriced souvenirs.And for that we had faced bad weather and heavy seas!Again many complaints on board.

We joined the Cruise Choir, a kind of Gareth Malone affair led by two young singers from the ship's theatre.About 40 passengers spent 4 hours rehearsing for a performance and 10 minutes before  the concert we were told that the pianist was ill and so we had to sing without any music! Nobody from Entertainment came to explain/apologize to us and the audience and left it to the two singers to handle a very embarrassing situation. I felt that another pianist should have been found in a ship of that size.After all,the whole concert only lasted about 15 minutes. The next night the ill pianist was back on form playing for one of the acts in the theatre.I complained to the  Entertainment service and nobody even got back to me.They took no interest whatsoever in the Choir but then we were just passengers, not professionals, so we didn't count!

Finally, we heard rumours of chest infections on board but nothing official was announced.On the plane home I started to feel very unwell with a hacking cough and I have been in bed since I got home.The Doctor tells me it is a viral chest infection, probably caught on board.

So what an end to a disastrous cruise.Never, never again!

Never again!

The flight was terrible worst seats ever, we were told it would be a Dreamliner and ended up with a 767-300.Arrived shattered same on the way back P&O note change airlines.

Embarkation went better than normal as we were the 1st plane in so the queue was short.The ship was fine as always, Cabin B315 was good we have used this grade before and find it suits us cabin staff were good everything done and very unobtrusive.

Food was good as was service in the Oriental, exceptional from Roby Restaurant Manager to assist my wife with her dietary needs. we also ate in Sindhu, Glasshouse and Epicurean all were excellent. The small plate in Glasshouse is really good value.

Entertainment was pretty good overall though we have seen most of the guest acts on previous cruises (time for a change).

We got into all ports no problem and they were all good. we only had 1 excursion from P&O on St Kitts to the plantation house, everything worked to plan and we had an enjoyable few hours.

Unfortunately the wife was ill with Flu like symptoms 4 days from the end there was an awful lot of this about bad throats and coughing apparently this was a hangover from the previous cruise and needs looking into, we hardly left the cabin after this and she is still unwell now 3 days after arriving home.

All in a decent cruise spoilt a little by the flights and sicknss, we have done this or similar cruises for the past 3 years so feel a change is needed now.

Flights and illness spoilt it to a degree

We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise.  P & O looked after our luggage, once it was checked in at the airport the next time we saw it was at our room and the same on the way back,

We flew on the Dreamliner which was very comfortable. 

 Everything to us was great. Food lovely staff so friendly, very helpful and entertainment was very good but like most things you heard moaners  around the ship re weather, food and entertainment .  Sometimes I wondered if we were on the same ship. 

The islands that we visited were stunning, each different in their own way. 

We hired our own taxi and did a tour round some on the islands, the drivers are very good and know where to take you. 

We would definitely book another cruise on the Azura and I'm sure it will not be too long till we book our next trip.

Lovely cruise

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