Best start at the beginning. Flying direct from Glasgow to pick up the Azura in Barbados was great, no changing aircraft and once the bags were through we didn’t have to collect them at all, next time we saw them was at our cabin. The charter aircraft was a Dreamliner, comfortable, lots of movies and plenty of room, oh and free drinks!! 8 hrs after leaving Glasgow we were straight off the plane onto a bus and on our way to the boat. Checking inn went really smoothly, or so we thought, and we were on the boat in no time at all.

1st impression? probably a bit underwhelmed. After watching the P&O advert on the tv so many times I was expecting a bit more. You entered into the atrium where there was literally no one to tell you were to go next and it looked a bit dull and dated. We’re no strangers to cruising so picked up a map of the boat and headed to find our cabin. The bags hadn’t arrived yet but the room was what you would expect on a newer boat and very clean and tidy, older boats seem to have larger cabins. Our cabin steward arrived to introduce herself and we asked for the fridge to be emptied so we could restock with our own refreshments (you can bring on 1lt of spirits per person and as many soft drinks as you like) we also asked for ice in our cabin. Next we headed for the Venetian restaurant to get a bit to eat, self service with lots of choice. I think the boat is 10 years old (it was refitted a few years ago) and the layout in the restaurant is where it really showed its age.

I should stress now that we booked an “early saver” had we read the small print we probably wouldn’t have. You can request your cabin, you can request a meal time, you can not change your meal time to anytime dining, you do not get free shuttle buses from the port to town (this didn’t affect us as we knew most of the ports, but there are a few in the Med that it would affect) We were lucky, we got the cabin we wanted we also asked for second dining which we got but would really have liked anytime dining.

The main meals on board were probably the best we’ve ever had on any cruise, really good selection, well cooked and plenty of it!! Pity the same can’t be said for the entertainment, a couple of the “headliner” shows were outstanding with excellent dancers, but over two weeks thats just not good enough. The problem seemed to be that while the dancers were excellent, they couldn’t sing to the same standard as the professional singers and when you mixed them both together it showed. We like live music so went to the shows most nights but people were walking out after a few numbers, and after every show the cruise director came on stage and almost pleaded to everyone to “tell your friends how good the show was”

With us only being able to have second sitting meals meant that we could only physically get to certain shows, during the second week they did put on a few extra shows earlier in the evening. The entertainment was the most disappointing part of the cruise. What P&O did really well was keeping the masses from going stir crazy on the sea days, plenty of music around the ship, up to date movies on the sea screen (Bohemian Rhapsody, Greatest Showman) quizzes and some light hearted games. They also showed football and the rugby. What they didn’t do well on sea days was stopping people reserving sunbeds, they had a couple of young lads going round putting notes on the towels saying they would be removed in 30 mins, none were ever moved. It was pretty much the same with the dress code, while most people kept to it there were always some who dress in the evening as if they had just left the pool and nothing was ever said. Really poor.

It’s the largest ship we’ve been on, 11 passenger decks, 3200 guests and lots of bars, maybe a bit big for us. We don’t need to be entertained 24hrs a day, we’re happy to do our own thing, a good book and some decent tunes, a comfortable sun lounger and maybe a cocktail or two. A special mention must go to “The Everglow Duo” who played 45 min. sets, I didn’t hear the end of a set in the whole two weeks, they just put me to sleep!!

Remember the check inn when it all went smoothly? a few day into the cruise we got a note to say to contact reception. It turned out our credit card hadn’t went through properly, so we had to go and redo it. After many tries it still wouldn’t accept the card, receptions solution was to come back the next morning as the computers on board always worked better in the morning!! No surprise that it still didn’t work the next day, turns out P&O had tried so many times to access the card that it had been locked, a quick call to the uk sorted it out and our card would be available to use from midnight. That wasn’t good enough for P+O and they froze our sea passes till we gave them another card.

One last thing, in one port there was a “domestic” that ended up with a balcony table being flung overboard, try explain that to your cabin steward. They were put off the boat at the next port.

Would we cruise with P+O again? yes, but we would read the small print.