Spain & Portugal

Overall we were quite disappointed with this cruise. Whilst the staff in the dining room were very pleasant and polite (as were most of the ship’s staff) they were hampered by the fact that they were rushed off their feet due to the fact that there weren’t enough of them and many of those who were there were still in training. There seemed to be little or no organisation. The My Holiday app didn’t work properly and when trying to book a table for Freedom dining it said that there weren’t any tables available but when we went to book personally we were able to do so! Some of the meal portions were quite meagre to say the least. The buffet arrangement in the Horizon in some cases resembled something from Butlins. We walked the length of the area 2,3 and 4 times in order to find a table for four people – hardly satisfactory. The food in the buffet generally was ok but many of the desserts although looking attractive were tasteless to say the least. The lifts generally were inadequate and at busy times we waited up to 20 minutes +. The cleanliness of the cabin though not dirty as such, things like shelves in the bathroom had not been cleaned and water runs down the door not cleaned away, resulting in a mould like deposit in the bottom edge. Again this is no reflection on the staff – there just aren’t enough of them to do a proper job! Most (though not all) of the entertainment in the theatre was mediocre/amateurish and far too loud . There is a serious lack of organisation aboard this ship. We used the shuttle bus to go to Valencia and although it did drop us where we were told it would, we were not told it was a good mile and a half to the old town which is where people wanted to be and no maps were provided either! We walked quite some way before we came to a small cafe. Bearing in mind that many of the people on the bus were elderly and not very mobile, this should not have been allowed to happen. Incidentally despite walking a considerable way we never did find the old town and ended up getting a taxi back to the boat . We again used the shuttle bus to go to Lisbon . This took us on a 45 minute journey round the most run down derelict part of Lisbon imaginable and dropped us off in the square. It was then realised that the square was only a 20 minute walk from the ship. Why weren’t we told this – at 4 euros per person a nice little earner! This is just a sample of what ails this ship and it’s organisation (or lack of). We have cruised many times before (sometimes with P&O) and it has to be said this is the worst experience we have had, and doubt whether we would go with P & O again in the foreseeable future. One other thing I would mention though not directly to do with the ship – we are heartily sick and tired of being constantly emailed with advertising for P & O cruises, mainly from Bolsover Cruise Club with whom we booked this cruise. Please, please will you stop this practise – I really am not interested at this moment in time in cruising in 2004/5/or 6,