We have just returned from a 2 night P and O cruise to Zeebrugge - we thought we would try them out with a mini cruise, as we have cruised a few times with Princess and Celebrity and wanted to see how P and O compared. We were aware that the Aurora was soon going in for a refit, and expected it to be a bit tired, so that wasn't a problem. Our issue was with the food in the Orangery. It was like a very poor work canteen, for both breakfast and lunch. Neither of us were able to find anything that we liked for any of the meals. The selection was very limited and the hot food sloppy and badly cooked, with very poor ingredients. There wasn't even any decent bread to be able to make up a sandwich or roll as an alternative. We are used to lots of different options on Princess or Celebrity, with fresh fruit, smoked salmon, decent pastries etc for breakfast, and interesting salads and a wide selection of high quality meat, fish, and vegetarian dishes for lunch, and were expecting something similar from P and O.

The food in the main dining room on the first night was very nice, and we went to the Bordeaux Café on the second night where the food was very good but there was no atmosphere as it was virtually empty. The entertainment was fine. Unfortunately the inedible buffet food is enough to put us off going with P and O again, especially on a longer cruise.