First cruise. Pleased with the look of the ship. Very clean and sparkly. Pleased with cabin, it was compact but had lots of little drawers and shelves so all our stuff had a home.

Buffet was like being at school! You were presented with a tray with napkin and cutlery and you queued round the counters, Horrible! You made your own coffee/ tea and then found a table. Staff in bars, atrium, shops and restaurants were generally uncommunicative, at times surly and curt and NEVER friendly or smiley. We ate in the Ligurian each night. Good, tasty, well cooked and well presented food with lots of choice but again, service very poor. Slow, careless and frustrating on the whole. We had to ask repeatedly for things like sugar, milk etc. We had the Champagne breakfast in our cabin which was lovely. Way too much food for two people and we had to leave an almost full basket of rolls etc which was a shame. Such a waste of food. We had a meal in Cafe Jardin which was very good and worth doing. The Formal nights were good and it was lovely to see most people dressed to the nines. Cabin steward was the exception. She was happy, friendly and did a great job. Went to Pilates session. The instructor was miserable as sin. He failed to ask if we had done Pilates before and more importantly, if we had any injuries or weaknesses he should be aware of. Appalling practice! He spoke as though he despised us both (there were only two of us) and didn’t want to be there! It was like a gym workout and when I asked him to explain a position again for me he just pointed to the other person as he was in the required position! How rude!! He was however, much more friendly when he led a seminar on improving your metabolism but that turned out to be nothing more than a sales pitch!! No wonder he was friendly! Entertainment was good and in fact was better than we expected. We went to the theatre group’s shows, the magic shows and enjoyed all of them. The public spaces were nicely kept and always very clean. Our big problem was that there were way too many people, big noisy groups in the bars which were always packed. The main pool area awful!! We nicknamed it Benidorm! The sun beds were so close they seemed welded together! Adult only area was quiet but soooo windy and had no shade. We did not take any of the excursions on offer so I can’t comment on them. Nor did we take part in other activities such as ballroom dancing, but people seemed to be enjoying them. So all in all, I’m sorry but this was nothing more than an all inclusive family holiday on water. Glad we did it but really don’t see why people get hooked on cruising and can’t wait to boast about how many they have done! Lol. There are lots of nicer, quieter ways to spend your hols. Maybe P and O aren’t a luxury cruise line, I don’t know. We won’t be repeating the experience.