I've waited nearly a year to write this so it didn't become an r,optional reaction. We chose this cruise as it was P&Os newest ship and there was a lot of hype about how good it was. The embarkation was terrible. I'd phoned up to double check the boarding time and wephen we got to Southampton had to sit there for 5 hours. The cafe didn't take cards; we won't make that mistaken again. The staff were surly and unapologetic about the mix up of boarding times. We were in a Balcony Cabin which was smaller than most of the other ships we've been on and the balcony was tiny; there wasn't room for two of us to sit in the chair on it at the same time. Luggage space was tight too. We did a mix of pay-per dine meals, the main restaurant and the buffet. The pay per dine meals were exquisite. The main dining room; we had a bingo game going of who could spot the kidneys and mangoes on the memo first. If you wanted these two items they were available at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The buffet was very poor quality food; akin to school dinners- filling but low quality and often bland. We did like the all day deli but found this opening at 11am an inconvenience as the take away items weren't available if you were going on a morning tour. We ate burgers from the poolside grill several times which screamed frozen and low budget. The pay per afternoon tea was more of a timid than anything. We ate in the premium restaurant one nite, were kept waiting 15 minutes before being sat in an empty room and the service was the slowest we had ever experienced. My husband is a quiet unassuming man but felt he had to say something about this on e way out and the reaction of the maitre d was appalling. We drank coffee in Costa a lot, which was the only place you could get a decent hot drink and I resented paying for this; many other cruise lines include this. Entertainment was good but the seats were very small and my husband couldn't sit a whole show without having to stretch his legs. The port excursions were rushed trying to get on the busses, despite arriving in plenty of time and were very crowded. On disembarkation day we were there a couple of hours early and told to go to costa coffee and wait (what a surprise, get more money from you). No announcements were made s d we were chastised by the crew for being on time to leave. The service was a clear split down the middle. Every foreign crew member couldn't do enough for you and every Brit crew member we met was off hand and seemed harassed. We will certainly will not be travelling p&o cruises again. We have our usual Celebrity cruises trip coming up In a couple of weeks. I've been on Cunard too. Both are superior in every way to P&o. It was like a package holiday at sea: the type of patrons, the constant shelving out for expenses. It was very poor value for money. Thumbs down.