An enjoyable cruise but not as good as we have experienced in the past with P&O (8 previous cruises).
The food quality was good but there were areas where there were deficiencies – my wife commented particularly on pastries and puddings not being up to the usual standard and on one occasion I found myself chewing something that felt like a lump of plastic in a pudding which my wife believed to be gelatin which had not dissolved properly.
The port maps/literature left a lot to be desired – that for Oporto mentioned the main shopping streets by name but they didn’t appear on the map(!) whilst that for Cherbourg showed the Youth Hostel and various car parks which are of no relevance whatsoever to someone from a cruise ship.
The emergency telephone numbers whilst in port were printed in the daily bulletin of activities but not on the port maps where they were most relevant whilst the ship’s dock location was invariably not indicated.
(I commented on these issues in the P&O questionnaire at the end of the cruise – they are obviously using “job-lot” maps instead of producing their own).
