Sailed from Valletta to Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes, then back to Valletta. Oceana itself despite the refit, is a tired old ship. The Captain summed it up - a tired old lady with her heart in the right place. Main areas were fine, our cabin was ok, a little TLC needed and most definitely on the balcony - the floor was warped and uneven and could have been dangerous. However, it was comfy, we slept well, and the balcony was big enough and allowed us decent views when we enjoyed our early evening aperitif ! Our cabin steward Merlin was very good, and most of the staff were very friendly eager to please. Room service - breakfast - wouldn't do that again, sent us coffee instead of tea, the panini wasn't hot, we could have rectified by asking but we were on an early trip so that was the whole point of room service ! Did 2 excursions - Santorini - Akrotiri - well worth the cost and had an extremely good guide so very enjoyable. Athens - not impressed with the funicular and fab views trip - wasn't as it was made out to be so we complained to the excursion desk, within an hour we had a letter of apology and bottle of wine in the cabin so not all bad. Couldn't get round the main pool in the day as it was heaving with sunbeds completely filled up all day, it was like that most of the time around the rest of the ship, if you didn't get there first thing then you had no chance. How P&O would rectify this I couldn't guess as the sunbeds were inches apart in any case ! Food very good in all areas, and wine prices reasonable - you could get a decent bottle of Chilean Merlot for around £16 or £17. There was plenty of time in ports to enjoy the day. On the whole I would choose P & O again but a newer ship. the precision of P&O on the embarkation / disembarkation and manouvering of luggage etc from the airport was exceptional, they must have had army training ! Faultless ! Read Less

I have read some reviews of the Greek Island cruise I was on and clearly I was on a different ship to some of these poor reviews. This was my third cruise and funnily enough all on Ventura. I certainly agree that it does need a bit of a refit and new carpets as some of cabins and areas are looking slightly tired. However on the whole the cruise was superb and one of my best yet. We met some lovely people and on the whole everyone had a good time. The staff worked tirelessly and we met some really nice staff who are a credit to P&O and still makes me feel slightly uncomfortable at how hard they are worked. It staggers me and how many people have the daily charge removed from their bill and do not leave any tips whatsoever. They are usually the same people who are rude and obnoxious to the staff and they wonder why staff come across rude to them. I am always friendly and pleasant to staff and it goes a long way to getting a friendly service back. I constantly saw such rudeness and superior attitude from passengers towards staff and it is unacceptable. It was a very busy ship as was a school holidays cruise as clearly advertised so again if you compain about kids on a boat knowing this then more fool you. There was never a problem getting sun beds unless you wanted to sit right on top of the pool which we did not. Food was top class once again in Baytree and also Sindhu, Epicurean and Glasshouse was some top class service from staff. All the staff in Metropolis were amazing and miss them already as we were in there until late most nights and they always looked after us. We did arrive in Gibraltar 6 hours late but this was explained by the Cpt and we did really well thanks to the staff to make up time and make Gib at all. Clearly with 3000 people wanting to get off the boat at the same time at 1pm it was chaotic but not sure what P&O could have done about this and there was a short delay getting back on board but we gave ourselves plenty of time to return to the boat and got straight on. Others who came back 30 mins before departuer quite reasonably found themselves in a longish queue to get back on board. Entertainment was superb even though I have seen a few of the Headliners shows now but enjoyed them again and they put so much effort into their shows. Read Less

Chose this cruise to celebrate wifes birthday, daughters birthday and our golden wedding. Generally very good but a number of noisy kids whose parents just were not interested in their activities. Carpets on cabin quite dirty, bed had broken spring, shower head very old and ineffective. Ship needs a bit of an upgrade. Cabin steward (Racquel) was first class and workerd very hard. Food quite good but they have cut down on choices. Entertainment quite good, Headliners as usual very good though we have seen some of the routines several times before. All in all a pleasant cruise to Greek islands and was very hot. Value for money? Yes, but the daily charge we cancelled and the £98 per person was cancelled. The photographers were not professional and did not have a clue about composing the shots, Also the prices for photos is just getting stupidly expensive. £17.99 for a 8 by 10 is just too much. Holiday cruise families turned this into Butlins afloat in some instances. We will niot do this again in july!! Read Less

We choose this cruise because we have been several times with RC NWL and other companies, and thought we would try a British ship, never again! the food was hit and miss, there was curry served every single day, with meat and 1 lot of veg for an alternative. The fruit display was not changed for the whole time we were sailing, which resulted in hundreds of fruit flies flying around the sweet selection, I passed this on to 2 staff members, and still nothing was done,The waiters and waitresses whipped your tray away the whole time before you had even finished your'e meal! we had to tell them on several occasions to leave our tray alone! We were supposed to be sailing through the Menai Straites but didnt for some reason? we also landed at Gibralta 6 hours late! The ship was okay inside, but very drab, the entertainment was okay but the shows lasted 30 mins each evening there was little else to do, unless ballroom dancing, whist or bingo is your'e kind of thing? the staff look like they didn't want to be there, and just stood about talking between themselves most of the time. The embarkment process was laughable! it took 25 mins at one port, the hottest part of the day (40 degrees) and they couldn't even be bothered to meet you with a glass of cold water, I could go on and on, but after contacting P&O to complain I can see they are the kind of company that will never take criticism, constructive or otherwise! the lady that rang me was down right rude and very condescending! telling me British people like currys! she had a answer for everything, not a good experience at all! serves us right really? we should of saved the thousands of pounds this cruise cost us and gone with our very favourite, excellently run RC! Read Less