This was a special once in a lifetime cruise for all the family, six adults and four children, this was my husbands and I tenth cruise and fourth with p and o and it was so very disappointing. It is five years since we last cruised on Azura and we noticed straight away, the staff cut backs, the cleaning cut backs, the finesse and class that it used to have and this was before the remainder of problems occurred. They have put up their charges on everything, drinks, speciality restaurants, excursions( watch this as 80% of them are now only half day trips, which never used to be the case) but the quality is gone. Embarkation from Southampton was very busy and cramped but good and reasonably quick we were on by 2pm and cabins were ready, we were all on E deck, E723,725,727, our first disappoint was the cabin, now all of these cabins are superior deluxe, with the extras and supposedly larger balconies, we didn't believe this to be the case as we were on D deck previously and thought those balconies were larger but not that that mattered in the end as you could not use seat on your balcony for half of the cruise without a gas mask due to the terrible continuous stench of sewerage, more on that in a bit. But the cabin decoration was brown/ beige very dull, boring and dirty looking, last time we were on Azura the cabins were beautiful bright and fresh looking, no longer the case, our cabin was very clean but one of our cabins, had not been cleaned properly they found peanuts on the floor, a hair band and as they found out later they were missing a couple of items from their mini bar. The mini bars are now pre stocked you no longer get a choice to choice wine or beer or soft drinks as you did before and if you use anything from the fridge and the Pringles on the top ( they are not complimentary as others thought) you will be charged to your account £1.40 per mini tub, as I said 727 were charged for Pringles and two cokes, which weren't in their in the first place so had to argue that. Personally it is not worth paying the extra for the superior deluxe cabin in compared to balcony, the champagne was nice but you can bring some with you, the binoculars are old and had it, the atlas not required and as for the canapés so disappointing boring and tasteless not worth having, soft soggy pastry and tasteless filling with no explanation of what it is. The kids clubs, the organisation of these is so old fashioned it is laughable, you queue for ages for each child, for each group for hours to just fill in forms and register them, what about computers p and o, online pre registration details, with credit cards for each child to sign in and out - no!! So that took ages registering four children in three different clubs, then there was the queues to get into the kids club and have to sign your child in and out each time and why have different opening times for each club, hence 3-5s and 6-8s, 10-12 closed an hour for lunch , then 1-5 closed an hour for tea and the 6 - 11 but then 9s - 12s didn't open till 10.30 am and was always late in opening so if you have child in each you had to wait, not at well organised!!! So four days at sea before our first stop in Maderia, the weather wasn't brilliant and the alantic choppy and bouncy where some neede travel sickness pills, I wish I had chosen the Med. After four days the captain informed us that due to fires in Maderia we would now not be stopping in Maderia, cancellation of all of our toboggan and cable car rides which everyone was so looking forward to, no compensation, no free drinks, no alternative offered, nothing but another boring day at sea, next stop La Palma, we went to the beach on our own which was very expensive by taxi 15 euros each way and only 10 mins away, but terribly rocky and stony, you need water shoes for beach there, next stop Tenerife, excursion for ten Siam Park, what a total waste of money, they changed our times on tickets, why I do not know, we were supposed to leave at 9.30am, due to their changes in the way they now do excursions, you no longer meet in playhouse and get escorted off separately in time, before joe public allowed off - cut backs again in staffing- you now make your own way off with everyone so by time we got off coach didn't leave till 9.50 it takes an Hr to get there, you queue to get in to find bed, 11.15 settled and were told had to be back on coach for 2.30 why??? When the ship wasn't leaving port till 10.30pm so had three hours there and only got on three rides, 34 euros each to get in what a total waste! Gran canaria lovely day but got stung by taxi driver to go to masplasmomas on this occasion it was cheaper to go with excursions but we got an extra hour and half on beach with taxi but cost 150 euros for four. Lanzarote fine did own thing. Photos were expensive £11.80 each so only bought one. Then came the disgusting sewer smell in Lisbon, it was only at the rear on balcony cabins on deck 8 & 7 and near Manhattan toilets near the doors to open deck, it was horrendous, it made you gag no one could use their balcony, I complained and the deck supervisor firstly came up with the excuse that it was a faulty vent and the way the wind was blowing and as soon as we set sail it would go, everyone was complaining, so we waited, next day Vigo again stink, no balcony and last day at sea, stink no balcony, so complained again! Again deck supervisor came and I took him on balcony and he got it straight away, this time he said it was quarterly maintenance that has to be carried out, apologised for us not being able to use our balconies, offered us a very small amount of obc per each cabin, which was minimal, which I took but had to sign disclaimer not to tell anyone else, totally unprofessional p and o. All the poor stewards now have to bring your luggage and take your luggage from your cabin, where by before there was always young lads to do this, they don't get any help with cleaning either. Some good points the food and service in peninsular was very good, as was the buffet selection and quality, poolside grill was not good quality and pizzas tasteless, food was excellent in Olly Smith and Sindu well worth it but Epicurean, no far too expensive, fancy and rich. The pool sun beds were filthy never jet washed down any more to get chocolate, food and sun cream off and as for the cushions on the sun beds at seascreen yuk yuk! Not washed or cleaned, never saw them clean the ships Windows and glass outside as they always did either. Entertainment utter rubbish, no guest speakers or celebrities as you used too. The poor staff I do feel sorry for I cannot complain (apart from a the very sulky miserable officer in the beach house) they work so hard to please and are very attentive,how much they actually get out of the now daily surcharge of £5.50 per person 12 and over, I dread to think that this doesn't compensate them for their poor wages. Disembarkation was a shambles!!, come on p and o, two people on cruise card machines, two queues for 3500 people to get off supposedly in turn, you can only imagine how much long it took. And P and O have now lost us and my family as customers for now and in the future, personally I can see them going out of business in the next couple of years, they have got to greedy!