In all the years I've been a member of Cruise Critic I have never written a disgruntled and poor review but this time, the Pacific Dawn deserves my wrath. Apparently P&O have cut crew numbers down and this is very apparently everywhere you went. Our cabin was only cleaned once, not a big deal, we all managed but there was no night time turn down which I've always enjoyed. The worst problem was their food let down by unhappy staff who were poorly trained. There were no 6pm and 8pm dining times which is OK with me but every single night, every person on the ship had to either phone up or stand in a line to be allocated a table. A long queue outside the Waterfront restaurant which caused chaos as other people were trying to enter the restaurant. Plus all of this was written by hand, no computer. If you were too slow you didn't get a choice in times. One lady I met had a small child and she never got to eat in the dining room as she could only get a late sitting and by 8pm her child was asleep.

The only words I can use for the food was plain, boring and repetitious and rarely served with a smile except the odd waiter. Thank you to Dora for making our dinning times passable! There are no chefs on board the Dawn or at least staff that know how to cook to order. eg Steak, medium to well done continually came out bloody. Sometimes the entree was larger than the main meal. The ravioli was always undercooked and not even warm in the middle, cakes were always dry, boring and repetitious, duck was overcooked and dry, fish was tasteless, pavlova means 3 meringues, 1 teaspoon of cream with a circle of strawberry jam, yes strawberry jam!!!! I'm insulted that anyone, let alone a chef on board a ship thinks this is an acceptable dessert!!!!

I think I could go on forever but I think you understand that we are not happy cruisers and there is no way I would ever recommend P&O.