Our holiday started at Birmingham airport with a two hour delay with our Thompson flight to Barbados. On arrival in Barbados we had a very quick transfer to the ship. Unlike others, our baggage was waiting in our cabin within an hour or so of our embarkation. When I made our booking for this cruise eighteen months ago, I was told by the Portunus rep (I was aboard the Ventura at the time)that the cabin I was booking was a cancelled cabin and thus the only cabin available. As this was an inside cabin I requested to be contacted as soon as an upgrade became available. After contacting P and O on several occasions during the eighteen months, I am sorry to say that no-one ever contacted me. I was therefore very annoyed to discover that offers of balcony cabins on this very cruise had been offered to passengers on the previous cruise - at a great deal less than I had paid. If upgrades had become available, then why wasn't I contacted about one? Other passengers I spoke to had also been in the same position - This was our 15th cruise with this company - so much for loyalty to P and O!!

My main concern about the Azura was the overcrowding in the Playhouse. During several performances the theatre was greatly overcrowded with passengers adding chairs, standing in aisles and sitting on the stairs. This is my opinion contravened Health and Safety. As many of the people were also drinking if anything had happened passengers would not have been able to exit the theatre safely and would have had to contend with the additional hazard of broken glass. I mentioned the dangers of overcrowding to several crew members but I'm sorry to say it fell on deaf ears! Obviously the safety of passengers is not top of everyone's priority list!

I think that Entertainment staff, as well as greeting passengers as they enter the theatre should also be counting them in and stopping people entering once it is full to capacity. Read more