Poorly provisioned, poor quality food, shabby public areas.

Celebration cruise my 70th and my wife's 69th birthdays.

This ship was under provisioned for the entire cruise. The following were poor quality, meats, juices, salads, burgers and most of the time no bananas etc. The food on board was poor quality in all dining areas; meat in particular was of the lowest quality and inedible most of the time. There were no sauces or condiment to accompany meat or fish courses. No Sorbet available on the first night and only one type of ice cream although they were listed on the menu. No provision for Lactose intolerant guests, no soya, ice cream, cream, butter and a poor selection of meals and sweets available in all dining areas. I was informed the sorbet even contained milk to cater for the South African guests which was unsuitable for lactose intolerant guests. Soya milk was obtained after a protracted period with some negotiation. This was my 39th cruise and it was the worst I have experienced after 564 days at sea.

Served with poor quality beef at the buffet fat inedible, the first portion was all fat, the second portion contained one folk full of meet. I discuss this issue with the restaurant management who conceded the meat served was fat and unsuitable for consumption. Room service was variable sometimes items missing either with food or utensils.

Reported health and safety issues at reception the end caps on some of the hand rails on deck 8 outside our cabin were missing with the ends of the tubes exposed which caused scuffs and abrasions whilst trying to pass cleaning carts. I counted 8-10 missing. Although there were approximately 200 missing throughout the ship reported by one of the staff

The menus had many items list that weren’t actually available. The poor staff serving the dishes had to report that they weren’t available, this was embarrassing for them and infuriating for the guests.

Public areas: The furnishings were well passed there sell by date and uncomfortable in most public areas which were shabby.The theatre was in adequate for the number of guests on board. The booking system had its faults and I found it was difficult to obtain a seat if a show was popular. The theatre seating was poor and the layout caused problems for actually viewing the artists some of which were mediocre. People reserving seats was a problem allowing some guests to arrive minutes before the start of the performance in prime positions which blocked the view of people who had sat in their seats approx. 45 minutes before the show started?

The reservation of sunbeds and chairs on open decks was a problem. Often people reserved 2 or 3 items in sunny and shaded areas sometimes on different decks also the reserved items were not used for 3-4 hour periods.I spoke to many people of various nationalities on board and they concur with my observations.