Artemis - that bad??

[thames_side]

A couple of awful reviews of Artemis in the Members reviews section. Mind you they were both American and new to P&O so not totally surprising. Anyway we are aboard for the first time (although not the first time on P&O)in May so can anyone cheer me up with news of the good side of Artemis?

Doug

[Druke I]

We sailed her four times, while she was Royal Princess, and she remains one of my favorite ships. She has an extremely easy to follow deck plan.

 

Many (but not all) Americans don't care for British food. Although I'm an American, my dad was a Brit, and my Norwegian/American mother cooked food for his tastes; I'm one Yank who does like some British food.

[mancunian]

We sailed on Artemis in the summer of 2005 and really liked her. Slightly shabby in parts, but in others had been refitted. No complaints about the cabin other than the bathroom was a little tired but great having a bath in one of the cheaper cabins.

 

We also thought the food was good - in fact for me I would rate it as very good as there was always plenty on the menu I could eat. The shows were excellent.

 

We are going again this summer on a different cruise. Hope this cheers you up a bit.

[thames_side]

Well that's encouraging. Thanks

Doug

[papagena]

Hi Doug,

 

We sailed on Artemis last summer and, apart from the extremely uncomfortable beds, it was a really good cruise. The food is nowhere near as bad as the reviews suggest and the Indian food is fantastic; every lunch time there's a different curry option and it's far more varied and sophisticated than you'd find in the average UK Indian restaurant.

 

Overall we prefer Cunard, but we did have an excellent holiday on Artemis and would certainly go with P&O again.

[Mounty]

Hi Doug,

How was your cruise on the Artemis? Like you we have read the reviews and still really don't know what to think. We like the idea of a smaller more intimate boat having cruised on Fred Olsen's Black Watch earlier this year. We dont need the 'glitz' factor but good service and food is important to us. We are thinking of an 84 night mainly South Amercian cruise including Christmas and New Year 2007 sailing from and back to the UK. We would appreciate feedback on your recent experience if you have a minute as you obviously have had similar misgivings to ourselves. Hope it was a good one.

Best Wishes,

Mounty

[jo-b]

Mounty

 

We went on Artemis and really enjoyed it.

 

Yes there are some areas (bathrooms) that needed updating, but I understand that a lot of work has been done on them. And they were only a little tired no problem with them.

 

She is due for a major refit in November.

 

We are booked on again in January so she can't be that bad!!

 

some photos on http://www.thebloors.photosite.com

[Mounty]

Hi Jo,

Thanks so much for your comments and referral to the photos which were very helpful particularly the one of the toilet!

Mounty

[thames_side]

Mounty

 

Artemis

OK here are the thoughts of a 70 year old cruiser who has cruised mostly on P&O but also Cunard, Swan Hellenic and Saga.

Boarding – was a dream, checkin desks opened at 12.15, we were at the front of the queue and were on board by 12.30. As we were in a suite we were directed to the Starlight Bar for sandwiches and champagne. Others were directed to the conservatory.

Suite – more a mini-suite really. 425sq ft including the all-important balcony which was furnished with a teak table and two chairs and two teak steamer chairs, all with comfy cushions. The cabin had a reasonable amount of hanging space but with clothes for 25 nights we filled it all. Plenty of drawers and shelves. Nice big bathroom – marble top – good size bath with very powerful shower over. Separate WC. Fridge – tiny safe tucked in the back of a cupboard behind all the clothes. Good size TV, DVD and CD players. Quite comfortable although very firm bed. Quiet, we heard very little from our neighbours. Butler service of course. First time for me and as far as I can see it is just a matter of splitting what the steward did before between two people (and hence two tips). The butler will serve meals in the cabin, but this is only really practicable on the balcony as there is no dining table inside the cabin. We had breakfast on the balcony almost every day and that was great. So we were very happy with our suite and after peeping through open doors as we walked along the corridors decided we would be happy with a stateroom. Not sure about the standard cabins though – didn’t really like the layout.

Public rooms – mostly on one deck (deck 3). Excellent show lounge with generally good sight lines – I much prefer watching shows in a show lounge to a theatre – a more intimate atmosphere, and of course you can have a drink. It is also easier to creep away if the shows are awful. However on this cruise the shows were first rate. The Stadium Theatre Company were excellent – best I have seen on P&O. Sadly they were breaking up at the end of that cruise. However most of the other entertainers were pretty good.

There is a proper cinema – unusual these days. Very comfortable. Used for lectures as well as films – I much enjoyed Ken Varg’s ship lectures which were packed. Alongside the cinema is a card room. This was a bridge themed cruise I believe and there was certainly a lot of bridge lectures and bridge playing going on on sea days.

The main bar/lounge, Tiffany’s, at the centre of the ship was a nice room built round a mini atrium leading down to the dining room. Big windows either side looking out to sea, an excellent cocktail pianist playing in the evenings and very good service from the bar stewards. The only downside was that the actual bar was quite short with only about half a dozen bar stools so those that like to perch at the bar for a drink before dinner in the evening had to get down very early.

Aft of Tiffany’s were the shops – usual stuff – a fair sized casino, computer room and quite small library. The library also sells paperbacks.

Aft on 3 deck is Starlights, the dance hall. I thought it was a bit of a messy room but I am not a dancer so I didn’t spend much time in there. It has an associated bar on the port side which is a nice long bar but somehow was not very popular and seemed to be mostly used as the waiter station for the stewards serving round the dance floor.

The dining room is on the deck below – deck 2. A nice warm coloured room with lots of wood. Only one deck high though so quite noisy. Best tables are round the edge near the windows and are allocated to the earliest bookers. These are raised up slightly so the tables in the central section are in a bit of a pit! We had table1 right by the door at the forward end, a really nice table usually for 4 but we had it for 2 – good for watching everything going on and well away from the rather trying vibration at the aft end. Our two table stewards were first class. The food, however, we were disappointed with. Meat was generally tough and over all the choices on the menu seemed a bit strange and unappealing. Best were in the little subsection entitled “Best of British” which had good simple dishes like cottage pie and sausage and mash which are hard to do badly! On several occasions we didn’t fancy anything on the menu and either went to the Trattoria for a pizza or had the “always available” sirloin steak which wasn’t bad if you asked for it rare. Obviously this is subjective and we talked to some people who said the food was better than last time, so hopefully it will improve a bit more.

The Conservatory buffet is quite pleasant and the crowds not as bad as most ships but, as always, hard to find a table at peak times. It seems to be always open – breakfast – brunch – lunch – tea. In the evening it splits into two. The Grill on one side charges a £7.50 cover charge, the menu changes every three days and concentrates on steaks and seafood. The food is very good and worth the extra charge in my opinion. On the other side in the evenings is the Trattoria, no cover charge, serves pizzas, salads etc and is a popular escape from the main restaurant. Also very popular with the crew and the entertainers. Twice on our cruise the whole Conservatory was given oven to curry evenings. Very good curry but rather slow queues – isn’t it strange how when people have had to wait a long time to get to the counter they then take hours to make up their minds what they want and serve themselves with complete disregard for the rest of the queue behind them!

Open decks. Lots of proper teak decks including a full wrap around promenade and good traditional cascading after decks. Plenty of sunbathing space on several sun decks at the top and we never found any difficulty in finding a vacant sun lounger or comfortable chair. Good sized pool forward with a deep end a shallow end, filled with warm seawater. Also some rather strange circular plunge pools midships and also a paddling pool, not much used on an adults only ship! There is a gym, spa, hair salon and sauna – all looked very smart but of no interest to me.

There is no Crows Nest but above the sun deck around the funnel is the Horizon Lounge with windows that look out aft and to the sides but not forward. Didn’t somehow work very well and didn’t have the atmosphere of the Crows Nest on other ships. Tiffany’s was far more popular. The Horizon Lounge was used for the syndicate quiz at 10.30 in the evening and I believe became the nightspot for late night dancing after that. I was in bed by then!

Fellow passengers were inevitably pretty long in the tooth and zimmer frames and wheel chairs were much in evidence – pleasant enough crowd although we didn’t come across anybody on this cruise that we wanted to exchange addresses with and meet up after the cruise.

Disembarkation also went very well. Southampton seems to have improved the baggage handling. We were off at 8.20 and on our way home at 8.45.

Would I cruise again on Artemis? Perhaps, if the itinerary was interesting, it is getting harder to find reasonably priced ships under 50,000tons and I do like cruising from Southampton. However I would have to read reports of improved food first.

Feel free to ask any questions

Doug

[daiB]

Mounty

 

Artemis

Butler service of course. First time for me and as far as I can see it is just a matter of splitting what the steward did before between two people (and hence two tips). The butler will serve meals in the cabin, but this is only really practicable on the balcony as there is no dining table inside the cabin.

Doug

 

 

Hi Doug,

 

Glad you enjoyed Artemis,

 

We had a butler for the first and possibly last time on Arcadia, last October. When we had breakfast in the cabin a dining table appeared as if by magic and covered the coffee table. Our butler was excellent, arrived each night with the canape's and served us our G&T's booked restaurants and generally organised things for us including a drinks party.

 

As it was our 30th anniversary it was wonderful to be pampered.

 

 

:)Happy Cruising:)

 

 

:cool:

 

Dai

[Mounty]

Hi Doug,

Thank you so much for the comprehansive information you provided upon your return from your cruise on the Artemis. I am glad that you enjoyed it. We have now booked our cruise for December. May have questions later but you have reassured us that the cruise was suitable for us. You do I think also have to consider the cost (especially for longer cruises) and hence value of the cruise and like you we like the smaller ship. Have you thought about putting your report into the members reviews to balance the other two negative reviews. The concerns with the Artemis do seem to come up quite often and when reading the reviews it is useful to have a number to compare and contrast and see if you can find any 'like minds'? Once again thanks and happy cruising.

Mounty

[thames_side]

Mounty.

Done. http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=29433

Doug