Glimpse of the Caribbean

Our First Cruise:

For our 40th wedding anniversary we thought we take a cruise as many friends/family said 'We'd Love It'....... Well it was just about tolerable.

We embarked at St.Lucia, the one island of the six I was most looking forward to. Well, it was off the plane, into a mini-bus, register on baord then set sail. St. Lucia for 3 hours. This first island should not be included on the itinerary. Much misleading but lack of research on my part.

We splashed out for a balcony cabin (G107) allocated. This cabin balcony was part of steel construction of the ship and when sitting on the balcony you were below eye level, could not see a thing..... In fairness we were after a request moved to F deck midship with this balcony being much better. The cabin we found was adequate but you do have to think about clothes and case storage. The guy who looked after us, Sagar, was very good and very accommodating to any request.

Dining:

We chose 'Freedom Dining' which allowed us to dine anytime between 6.30 and 9.00 in two restaurants and in truth the food you could not complain about, it was overall very good. Drinks prices were as expected, reasonable.

As said in other posts, having to pay a further £25 per person to dine in the prime restaurants is a step too far in having to budget for additional or so called better dining.

Sun Decks:

It was the day at sea that sealed it for me that I will highly likely never cruise again.

3,000+ people on board and all decks were totally jammed and very uncomfortable. The only way you could get off a sunbed was to sit up and slide down to the bottom of the bed. And if you stretched your arms whilst lying down you were likely to give the person next to you a black eye.

Maximimising space, maximising profit.

Entertainment - Simply average, save for the one night we did dine in the Limelight Club and saw Jackie Graham. very talented 80's prominent singer.

The Headliners Theatre is a very good theatre but the artists were nothing special in truth.

The Crows Nest - A lovely bar to finish off the night in relaxation.

The Live Lounge - No real comment, popular music but you will do well to find a seat after 9.30pm.

Facilities - Why in this day an age there is no free WiFi especially when docked is beyond me and to charge approx $10 a day for this privilege is a disgrace.

Maximimising space, maximising profit.

Islands - Because you're limited to less than 10 hours the expense increases if you book through the ship at P&O extortionate prices and after two or 3 they all look the same.

I appreciate that the majority of people on board enjoy cruising. I'm just glad I didn't book a two week cruise as it would have been 'man overboard' after a week. I wish I had the £3k+ it cost me to spend elsewhere.

As stated above.