Ventura N401 3rd January 2024.
We were informed to delay our arrival time at Southampton by 2 hours, from 12 noon to 2pm.
This was due to an extra clean throughout the ship because of the norovirus bug onboard.
We arrived at 2pm only to find absolute chaos.
Nobody was guiding people to the correct baggage handling areas, so everyone was walking up and down causing congestion with trolleys.
Also to add to the problems the queues were so long that they were impeding access to the baggage handling areas.
We then joined the queue and waited for over 45 minutes.
In the meantime my wife enquired of a P&O official if there was a priority queue for Ligurian customers She said she did not know.
Then after another 15 minutes another P&O official came along saying “all 12 noon and 12:15pm boarding passes to follow her to the priority queue”.
We finally boarded just after 3:30pm.
As the special luncheon had been postponed we then went to the Waterside for a drink and something to eat.
We walked all the way around the area including the Beach House only to find not a single seat available.
Eventually we asked a member of staff to help us find somewhere to sit, which they did by getting other customers to move up.
This in all our 24 years of cruising with P&O has to be the worst embarkation ever.
So much for our Ligurian status.
My complaint is not about carrying out what was necessary to get the ship ready for sailing, but at the lack of thought, management and control of the whole situation.
Fortunately once we were onboard and had managed to get to our cabin and unwind, things improved.
The crossings both ways across the Atlantic were good.
Generally the weather was good, not forgetting the usual “liquid sunshine”, as they call it in the Caribbean.
We could not get into St.Kitts due to extremely high winds (over 40mph), although 2 other ships that had the ability to handle the high winds better did manage to dock.
All our port visits were most enjoyable and the sunshine just made them even better.
The staff onboard, as always, were excellent and really went the extra mile to make our holiday special.
We were in the Baytree Restaurant and our Waiters were especially brilliant.
One issue I do have with P&O is with the additional menu tucked inside the main menu.
This is offering an extra meal at an overall cost of £14.95 pp.
The type of meal they are offering is what we always used to have as an included meal during our cruises.
To do this is an absolute insult to us.
So will P&O now be dropping the words that fine dining is included.
Fine dining now only applies if you pay extra for it, because this suggests to me the included dining is now of a lower standard.
Overall the quality and standard of the food was much improved over last year, which as I reported was absolutely terrible.
We did not go to many of the shows, because of the ones we were interested in, by the time we arrived the venues were full.
We did not get out of dinner until after 8pm and by this time it was too late.
We ate a number of times in the speciality restaurants which were generally very good.
However, on one occasion 5 of us went to the Glass House.
One ordered the Bouillabaise, 4 ordered fillet steak surf & turf.
When our meals arrived we received one fish & chips and 4 cold steaks.
All were changed but it meant we were waiting over 2 hours before eating our main meal.
To me it appeared the waiters lacked good training and the Head Waiter was not watching and guiding them appropriately, as we have noticed in the past.
This time we decided we would try self disembarkation, so had packed suitable cases to allow this.
We disembarked at 7:35 am and had collected our car from CPS Parking and were on the road by 07:50 am.
We will certainly be doing this again.
So after a bad start and one or two minor hiccups on the way we had a lovely and memorable cruise.
We met a number of past fellow cruisers and staff members, plus a lot of new ones.
Looking forward to our next cruise in May, booked for our 50th wedding anniversary.
