Embarkation was in Venice and one of the ports on the trip was Rome. I so wanted to see both these places and P & O were going there. Never go in October, the sea was rough and instead of having 2 days at sea and 4 days in ports, we spent 4 days at sea. Kotor was the first port we missed, we were so disappointed, too rough to land. A we didn't visit Kotor, a non EEC country, we were unable to purchase duty free goods after that. We visited Corfu {which was lovely} but they couldn't sell us duty free goods. Our last port was Monte Carlo. When the captain announced he had tried to land but couldn't, for our safety we were all so very very disappointed. The worst thing was, we could see another P & O ship that was taking passengers ashore on their shuttle boat. We complained as did many people but were just fobbed off. There was absolutely no compensation whatsoever. Back in UK, I wrote to P & O stressing my disappointment but they said they had a NO COMPENSATION POLICY. Rob Bryden can swan around on those adverts, I am sure at the expense of P & O but Mr and Mrs Ordinary get nothing. I tried complaining via emails and was told that the captain had tried to land at alternative ports but couldn't, this was not mentioned in the ship's log. I don't think they really did try. I will never book a cruise with P & O again if I can help it.

Also, I found they seem to charge for everything and most goods on board were quite expensive. Every lecture or demonstration I attended always involved some form of payment should I wish to take it further. I have been on 2 other cruises and found them marvellous in comparison they seemed far more generous than P & O.