We booked this holiday at the beginning of 2008, a suite at the rear of the ship on deck 9. That's where we wanted to be. Unfortunately when we arrived at our suite, we realised what a huge mistake we had made. The view from our balcony was diminished by this incredible amount of steel designed around the rear of the ship. It was probably the largest balcony we had ever been on, but unfortunately it was also overlooked by deck 10, so we had no privacy and very little sunshine. Considering we spend allot of time on our balcony when cruising, this was a major disappointment. We did speak to the concierge about changing room but this was not possible.

We went for dinner that night, we were in the Romeo and Juliet restaurant on deck three, we were astounded to find there was no silver service, and the food served plated reminded me of school dinners. I ordered a rare steak, it came cremated. I ordered the same meal for three nights and not once did they get it right. I complained every night, I didn't eat the food and on the third night when speaking to the resturante manager, I was comparing the food to P&O's. I said how incredible P&O's food was, he said to me "that's because you have to pay more money with P&O." I have cruised with P&O 6 times, and this cruise was the most expensive I had ever been on. We tried one more night in this restaurant giving it another chance and the food was worse than the previous nights. So we all agreed that it wasn't good enough. It seemed the only time we experienced quality, was when we got off of the ship, because this restaurant had none.

The first full day of cruising, we took our 3 year old daughter to the children's club 'Aquanaughts'. We stood in a narrow corridor for 10 minutes in a queue. When we got to the entrance there was a rope across the doorway and a 6ft 3" male greeting my child. My daughter was petrified and immediately started to cry. I asked the gentleman on the door whether there were any young females around, the only other person there was another rather tall male. When we tried to leave my daughter with them, she wouldn't stop crying. When we asked if we could go into the club with her to see if we could calm her down, they would not allow any adults in. I said "how do you expect me to leave my child in a state of fear with you?" He sarcastically replied "You don't have to." I tried to explain to him one of the main reasons we cruise is because the other cruise lines we have been on offered incredible child services. Which P&O do. His reply was "this is not P&O." I spoke to the manager to make my complaint, in her defence; she told me all of her staff were qualified. I asked the question "why would you employ such large males to look after such small children?" All she could say is that her staff was qualified. Needless to say our 3 year old child didn't go in the children's club at any period of the holiday. So that left me and my wife no longer had the holiday we thought we had booked. Read more