THINGS ARE SELDOM WHAT THEY SEEM

This is a large modern vessel only a few years old and it has many facilities and quite a number of pleasant places where you can get away from the rest of the passengers if that is what you desire. We had a cabin with a balcony on deck 10 . Our cabin looked rather tired and the balcony furniture certainly looked dirty and well used and the carpets throughout the ship looked soiled although I suspect their dull colour did not help. We had a very good and attentive steward whom we rewarded ( in addition to the relatively small amount that P & O add to the shipboard account). The food was quite good if somewhat unimaginative and very “British”. The wine packages were reasonably priced and the better ones certainly had some quite decent wines. We were on the P & O version of anytime dining which works well provided you are not pressurised into eating a 5 course meal and coffee in about 70 minutes. The wine waiters also did not seem to understand that it would be nice to know what you are going to eat before you chose a wine . The waiters on occasion provided you with “pudding,” cheese and biscuits and coffee on the table at the same time presumably for them to get you away from your table as soon as possible. This is not the sort of “elegant dining” you be might be led to expect and we never thought we would see a passenger on a P & O vessel eating peas from the edge of his knife – incidentally we can never ever remember peas being on a menu but it does fit in to the way the dinner menu’s have been reduced in quality.

If anybody was looking for the sort of peace and tranquility that was once associated with cruising we suggest you look elsewhere. This was more like a floating Spanish Costa, some of the passengers might well have transferred directly from Benidorm. However,we are absolutely certain that many thoroughly enjoyed themselves and after all it is now a very cheap way of having an all inclusive holiday. We availed ourselves of some of the shore “trips” which all seemed to include visits to some rather tacky places for the usual tourist souvenirs.

We have been to this area before ,cruising both ways from Southampton on the Oriana and also a fly cruise on Arcadia which incorporated some of the ports of call and a transit through the Panama canal.

We are reasonably experienced “cruisers” and we have made some quite long voyages, this year we will complete probably our 50th cruise. We will cruise again with P & O on one of the smaller ships and not to this particular part of the world. I think P & O and other lines have “dumbed down” the experience as they have huge ships to fill and in the end this is all about Carnival Cruises making money. We have two further cruises arranged for this year one around South America and another in the Med,both with Princess and they will hopefully prove to be as good as they have been in the past.

The experience has not put us off cruising as quite enjoyed our selves and we visited some very interesting islands,particularly Tortola, but it certainly makes you wonder if the other holidays we enjoy are now a better option.