Instead of our usual 7 night mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean, this year we elected to book a 4 night P&O cruise to France and Guernsey. I assumed that whilst it was a shorter cruise we would still have the same level of service and facilities that we had experienced on other P&O cruises.

Sadly this was not the case and since P&O changed their gratuity system the staff don't seem to have the same attitude to service. As there is no longer an incentive to 'go that extra mile' they don't! We found that any request outside of the normal menu was met with a resounding "No". There was no offer to find alternatives, and in the main restaurant it was even too much trouble to find a milkshake or a non-alcoholic cocktail for my son as he doesn't drink fizzy soft drinks. The food in the restaurants was incredibly poor on two nights, and very good on the other two nights. Each time I chose seafood it was overcooked and lacking any flavour. The potatoes, in any form, were always full of grey bits and the vegetables were tired and flavourless. The coffee was so strong and stewed I couldn't drink it.

Entertainment on the ship seemed to be geared to the older generation, and adults only. There were no family activities such as a quiz or bingo, as they were all adults only. There were tournaments of deck quoits, shuffleboard, table tennis etc but again adults only. I would have preferred to have family tournaments that my 12 year old could participate in, but instead if he wanted to do any activities he had to go off to the Kids Club. The evening entertainment was, quite frankly, not worth bothering with. There was no 'show' as such, just a load of 1980's hits with groups of dancers performing to them. Not my idea of entertainment. I thought this was a cruise ship, not a cheap version of Butlins. Other reviewers have commented on here that the entertainment in general all day was no great shakes and they would be correct. Read more