Reviews

generally excellent all round, kristiansand we were only in port for four and a half hours.

first time on oceana, really lovely ship.

Entertainment needs to be sorted out

My wife booked this holiday and would have swapped it for a week down a mine when I found out about it but reluctantly went and was one of the best hoildays I have ever had in the end fantastic

great cruise but you have now offered a exclusive offer for on board spending for cruises of 2 to 22 nights, I would love to do 2 back to back cruises but why do you charge over double for a single person to cruise with you on a single supplement. and not allow them to take up the same offers as other travelers. I have cruised with my husband for years but feel very let down now i am on my own and would still like to cruise more often. please let me know why this is that singles are charged so much its unfair and a rip off. If the offer price is £399 I could expect to pay £798 but no i have been quoted £1089 and like wise with a 17 night cruise in May which is £899 I have been told I would have to pay £2649! Why is this please be fair to single travellers. and please let me know if this is correct.

Had the dreaded flu while onboard ... sorry got to go again missed this one as i spent most of it in bed and lost 10lb on return1

Benzil, our cabin steward went out of his way to help us, even to the point of obtaining a board for the bed as it was a little too soft. Was always nice to see a smiling face when we left the cabin. In fact the entire crew were excellent, and I wish I could always sail with them.

Excellent cruise, excellent ports of call. Wonderful sights. Only downside, smokers in the next cabin always seemed to be on their balcony at the same time as us.

Another great cruise with the Kids on the wonderful Oceana – regrettably I fear it may be our last with P & O for a while but I’ll come to that later. This was our sixth cruise and our fifth with P & O. We sailed on the Oceana last April and found that in general, the staff (probably P & O’s greatest asset) seemed a little happier this year. Perhaps they’ve got used to the new tipping system as they would have had to sign on again fully knowing the terms of their employment. Highlights were the fantastic food, the great people we met on board, the kids’ club and the great swimming pools. We didn’t notice any great changes since last year in terms of Decor apart from new curtains in our cabin and the refurbished ‘Le Club’ which was nicely done. I guess £1 Million doesn’t stretch far on a ship of this size. Our kids (six and eight in years) had a great time – they enjoyed the pools and spending time in kids’ club to the extent we had to drag them out sometimes! We really enjoyed Manuel (‘Gary’) Martinez who was a fantastic magician / comedian on board with a Cuban act. The rest of the entertainment was a bit hit and miss. The Headliners shows were perfectly watchable if a little ‘shouty’ in singing style but then I am no Simon Cowell to judge them. Our biggest gripe was that despite being a family orientated ship there seemed little entertainment suitable for those born later than 1970! This was perfectly summed up by the band ‘Power Supply’ claiming to “bring things right up to date” before launching into a cover of Take That with Lulu and ‘relight my fire’.... from about 1995! You couldn’t make it up. The constant piped music in all public areas seemed to annoy after a week. I am sure they could have mixed up the CDs a little – I now know all the words to ‘Maggie May’ by heart! Whilst most passengers on board were friendly towards the Children it did upset me that some seemed to look down on them. Why do they travel on a family friendly ship if the sight of little people annoy them? A couple of comments were aimed at us to tell us that our Children should have been at School – how rude! If they had bothered to tell us directly then I could have told them the school holidays were different in Wales so we could take them out school. Perhaps this is why there were so many Welsh on Board? On the subject of other people’s behaviour I did find it odd that other passengers would infiltrate the kids’ tea at 5.15pm and try to hoover up the nuggets and fish fingers. The Head Waiter had to turn people away! There were a few things that did go wrong on this cruise. We, along with all of the forward section of the ship, had no cabin lights for a few hours caused by an electrical fault when leaving Palma. This was quickly resolved and caused us to leave a couple of hours late that day. No huge problem. More of an issue was the most foul and offensive smell in the corridors of E Deck that lasted 24 hours – it was absolutely vile. Our shower also failed and it took several visits to reception to fix this. Don’t think this is a negative review – we had a lot of fun and the ports of call were excellent. We had a great time in Barcelona, Cannes, Civitevecia, Naples, Palma, Cartagena and Gibraltar. P&O are also to be commended on the alcohol pricing and allowing passengers to bring their own wine on board from the ports. Would we cruise with P & O again? Yes – if given the opportunity. It seems P&O are making the children’s pricing structure very restrictive from now on. I am not saying that they should be free but how many families can afford to pay 50%, 60%, 70% of adult fare for Children? I do fear P&O could be biting the hand that feeds them – they offer excellent family holidays (and have obviously spent a lot of money on the Children’s club infrastructure) but unless the price is right we’ll go elsewhere and we’ve cruised with P&O every year for the last five years! I know I am not alone as we spoke with many families who felt the same on the cruise.

PORT CALLS Cadiz: 9.00-17.30 Malta: 8.00-16.00 Haifa: 7.00-18.00 the next day Limassol: 8.00-16.00 Alexandria: 7.00-20.00 the next day Piraeus: 8.00-17.00 Katakolon: 9.00-16.30 Messina: 9.00-16.30 Valencia: 9.00-16.30 Lisbon: 9.00-16.30 Our East Mediterranean cruise visited an impressive list of ports, but we were mostly required to be back on board at the early time of 4.30pm. Moreover the itinerary with Monday & Tuesday stops in Israel was changed to Friday and the Sabbath, when the country is as closed as on Christmas Day in the UK. We thus felt obliged to book an all day coach tour : Jerusalem & Bethlehem with lunch (£125), and join 27 other coach loads of P&O passengers. In Egypt Port Said was deleted in favour of a 2 night stopover in Alexandria. This suited us perfectly! We organised our own excursion to Al Alamein on the first day, and spent the 2nd day exploring Alexandria. The sea was very turbulent on several days, pitching uncomfortably and causing sea sickness. A seemingly ample stock of aspirin in the ship’s shop had sold out by the end of the cruise!