Was hesitant in booking with P&O but thought since all the problems with Covid they would be on the front foot so to speak in attracting customers to their cruise line. Having been on 10+ cruises with other cruise lines…Carnival, Royal Caribbean etc, etc I don’t expect 5 star accommodation or dining. I would be totally happy with a 3 star experience. I must say this cruise was 1 star at best…..

Embarkation: P&O have time slots for boarding the ship and we chose 12.30pm. On arrival and entering the cruise terminal at 12.15pm I soon realised something wasn’t quite right. There were people everywhere and when I asked a P&O representative I was told they decided to let everyone in at the same time. We queued in line for about 1 hour and 20 minutes before boarding the ship. I was concerned for several of the elderly people queuing as they had been standing in line for over an hour just like us.

Cabin: At first glance everything looked normal but that’s where it ends. The mattress was like lying on a wooden door….I have a firm+ mattress at home but this was ridiculous. The pillows were exactly the same. I asked my room steward and he said that all rooms had the same mattress’s and pillows. First night sleeping…..we had fairly rough weather but nothing outrageous but every cabinet door, draw and cubby were rattling loudly and sleeping was not an option. My partner and I found as much paper and cardboard we could find to fold up and lodge between the doors and drawers to at least minimise the problem. On further inspection in the morning there were several magnetic catches missing hence the terrible noise. So a wooden door bed, rock pillows and a cabinet symphony…well I’m sure you get the picture! However, we didn’t have it quite as bad….a couple we were with woke up around 3am with the floor of the cabin soaked in water from rain coming in from the window section of their cabin…everything they had on the floor was soaked. Read more