N615 - we're back

[maxx]

Had fun, will post review soon, have heaps of photos. We ate far too much, but it was amazing food.

[suexxx]

Maxx, lolliepollie,tommyh2006 and friends. How was the cruise? I hope it was what you all had hoped for. Looking forward to pictures and reviews.The weather looked ok most of the time. Did any one get sea sick? Which decks were you all on and room no. I would like to look them up on the deck plans. Will you do more cruises? Enough questions for now and welcome home.:)

[kaseyoz]

welcome back all. look froward to hearing all about when you get your landlegs back....and all the washing done.LOL

karon

[lolliepollie81]

hey guys, back at work now! great review maxx. glad u guys had a good time. im not doing a review as was really disappointed with a lot of things and dont want to spoil the mood for everyone.

[maxx]

hey guys, back at work now! great review maxx. glad u guys had a good time. im not doing a review as was really disappointed with a lot of things and dont want to spoil the mood for everyone.

Sorry to hear that. I didn't have anything to compare with so I thought it was great. There were some grumbles around but I took no notice, someone even complained that the engine was too noisy. I planned to have a good time & I did. I'm interested in your opinions if you care to share with us. I'm back at work on Saturday.

[lolliepollie81]

sure. i just dont want to sound petty. i had a couple of gripes. here goes.

 

It was disappointing that there was nothing on at night on the outside decks other than island night. it would have been great to have had a dance and drinks outside in the fresh air rather than being couped up inside where it was really stuffy with all of the smoking (im a smoker and I hate smoking indoors). There is so much space out there that doesnt really get utilised.

 

The food looked great in the restaurant but I didnt find it to be that good. It was either under cooked, over cooked or didnt taste that great. The buffet was ok at lunch but we kept getting sick (not sea sick). my partner was in the toilet on lido deck near the buffet and a crew member from the lido buffet area was in there doing his business and did not wash his hands afterwards. we were really turned off and refused to eat there after that.

 

Room stewards were ok... one was really lovely... the other was a bit arrogant and you could tell he hated his job.

 

James the CD was good to start with but got to be really annoying and we found the entertainment staff to be quite up themselves.

 

I know i probably sound really whingy but we really didnt have a good time and we were so looking forward to our holiday. we will cruise again but probably not with p&o. (i did have other gripes but these are just some i can think of right now)

[Suncoaster]

I have to agree that I thought the outside areas were wasted at night.

As we prefered to be outside, and in fact we lost weight on the cruise, not because we did not eat but because we spent so much time walking around the decks mainly at night.

Though we are Qlders and love the balmy, humid tropical nights, we unfortunatly can not go out at night where we live as there are so many mozzies. So to be outside at night was heaven.

We had no problems with the food except for the chicken, be it in the restaurant or Lido lunch, we found that too dry.

But give me a ticket and I'll go again tomorrow, I got the new brochure and am studying it already, though no plans to go till end of next year.

Val

[howsthis]

sure. i just dont want to sound petty. i had a couple of gripes. here goes.

 

It was disappointing that there was nothing on at night on the outside decks other than island night. it would have been great to have had a dance and drinks outside in the fresh air rather than being couped up inside where it was really stuffy with all of the smoking (im a smoker and I hate smoking indoors). There is so much space out there that doesnt really get utilised.

 

The food looked great in the restaurant but I didnt find it to be that good. It was either under cooked, over cooked or didnt taste that great. The buffet was ok at lunch but we kept getting sick (not sea sick). my partner was in the toilet on lido deck near the buffet and a crew member from the lido buffet area was in there doing his business and did not wash his hands afterwards. we were really turned off and refused to eat there after that.

 

Room stewards were ok... one was really lovely... the other was a bit arrogant and you could tell he hated his job.

 

James the CD was good to start with but got to be really annoying and we found the entertainment staff to be quite up themselves.

 

I know i probably sound really whingy but we really didnt have a good time and we were so looking forward to our holiday. we will cruise again but probably not with p&o. (i did have other gripes but these are just some i can think of right now)

 

Hi Lollie, so sorry you found some parts disappointing, it's sad that you didn't enjoy it as much as a lot of us have. Our cruise n614 was so incredibly great in every way that I realize we must have been really lucky compared to you. Every meal we had was perfectly cooked, the grilled chicken breast was a favourite, I did see one lady ask for the waiter to take her steak back and cook it longer, that was in the Outback Restaurant. I found the entertainers we had were very friendly and talkative when they were doing their other jobs like craft and library etc. Our room stewards were so nice as were our waiters. I haven't cruised before so maybe I was easy to please. I honestly cannot thing of one thing that annoyed me on the ship. Not long enough was my only gripe!

[lolliepollie81]

i guess because i had such a good time on the last one that i expected it to be just as good. just so disappointed with the changes i guess. maybe if it hadnt rained so much and we got to spend more time outdoors the mood may have been lifted a bit. we didnt have a completely bad time- some things were great too.. just seemed the important things were lacking a bit. i am glad though that it was a relatively older cruise (people wise) as there were no real disturbances to passengers.

[Skyrules]

i guess because i had such a good time on the last one that i expected it to be just as good. just so disappointed with the changes i guess. maybe if it hadnt rained so much and we got to spend more time outdoors the mood may have been lifted a bit. we didnt have a completely bad time- some things were great too.. just seemed the important things were lacking a bit. i am glad though that it was a relatively older cruise (people wise) as there were no real disturbances to passengers.

 

There's no rule that you have to enjoy every minute of your cruise - there's always things you're not going to like, or find disappointing. As long as the good things outweighed the bad things, then overall all should be good.

 

As for food - I think it's a very personal thing - there was six of us at our table and I could guarantee each of us came back with a different opinion of the food. As for the food handling side, maybe they are getting a bit lax because there hasn't been a full on outbreak on one of the Australian ships for awhile. I know I noticed that they weren't as vigiliant about warning passengers of the risks, and encouraging hand washing etc, on Pacific Star as they had been on previous cruises.

 

You're right though - in the evening's they don't utilise outside too much - but then again on Pacific Sun and Pacific Star there isn't that much space to do anything with! Champagne Waterfalls out on the open deck are great - they've done that on two of the 3 cruises I've been on - and the one that they didn't do it on was the least exciting of the 3 (Pacific Sun - it was done in the Terraces in the Grove).

[howsthis]

You are right about the weather, because we had absolutely perfect days with only a sprinkle of rain for about an hour.

[TommyH2006]

Just thought I'd put my 2 cents worth in.

I have to agree with lolliepollie on this one. I, too, was going to do a review, but decided against it as I didn't want to spoil things for others.

I think once you have cruised with other lines, especially outside Australia, you will see that P&O don't really come up to standard. Having said that I still enjoyed the cruise. probably because my expectations weren't too high for it.

As for the review: I might do it anyway. After all, this site is called "Cruisecritic" :)

[TommyH2006]

Forgot to mention:

Great photos Maxx :)

[Skyrules]

Just thought I'd put my 2 cents worth in.

I have to agree with lolliepollie on this one. I, too, was going to do a review, but decided against it as I didn't want to spoil things for others.

I think once you have cruised with other lines, especially outside Australia, you will see that P&O don't really come up to standard. Having said that I still enjoyed the cruise. probably because my expectations weren't too high for it.

As for the review: I might do it anyway. After all, this site is called "Cruisecritic" :)

 

I think a little bit of competition on the Australian market might do P&O - and their passengers - good and it might help improve their shoreside customer service at least.

 

I don't doubt that other cruise lines overseas are of a higher standard - but they are also aimed at a different market.

 

Kym