We wanted the to escape the gloomy Scottish weather over Christmas and New Year and relax in some Caribbean sunshine. The cruise didn't start well with a near 4 hour flight delay from Gatwick with P&O's chosen charter airline - Thomas Cook (MT3720). This resulted in us arriving very late on board, too exhausted to consider eating anything and being directed more or less immediately to a special safety drill for all the late passengers. Heading back to the cabin we saw that it was quite dirty. We mentioned this to our cabin steward who seemed to shrug his shoulders and said he would 'give it a good touch' the next day. However, the following day, in full daylight, the very poor state of the cabin was revealed and it became clear that none of the surfaces had been cleaned for weeks, with evidence of hairs on bathroom shelves and a very 'unhygienic' looking stain on the toilet. We reported the matter to the front desk and received a visit from a Deck Manager who agreed the room was dirty and he arranged a 'deep clean'. He suggested, however, that the state of the room was due to previous passengers leaving the balcony door open - I'm not sure how/why that would justify the room not being cleaned appropriately. The cruise progressed OK with quite good weather in most of the ports of call. Entertainment on the ship was quite good with the highlight show that of male vocal group 'Troubadour' and somewhat surprisingly the performances of the resident group 'Pulse', whom we found to exceed the performances of the stage singers/dancers. We are frequent cruisers so we were disappointed at some of the guest performers, e.g. Mark Walker, who we have seen many times over several years and he hasn't varied his set. The P&O 'Christmas Present' was quite a let down. On it's maiden Caribbean Christmas Cruise on the Britannia we each received boxes of very nice Marc de Champagne truffles, which we took home and savoured after the cruise. This time, however, we each received identical Britannia Snow Globe ornaments, which weren't very personal or worth the weight in our luggage home so they went straight in the bin. I expect many other passengers did the same. Due to hurricanes in the Caribbean the itinerary of this cruise had been rearranged and abbreviated with two of our favourite ports of call - Dominica and St Maarten - being removed with a day instead at Tobago and an additional day in Barbados at the end of the cruise. If we had been given the option to cancel/rearrange this cruise due to the changed itinerary we would have done but that was never an option. The two and a half days in Barbados at the end of the cruise were particularly tedious with our balcony cabin facing the port and the incessant noise of operating cranes and other heavy machinery. We have been to Barbados many times and have done various trips there so weren't inclined to do any more trips, plus the weather was a bit 'inclement' over those days. We probably would have preferred to go straight home the day after arriving in port in Barbados rather than 'lingering' there. There were lots of passengers coughing and spluttering during the cruise so invariably I also picked up a virus that remained with me for the 2nd week of the cruise and remains with me as I write this review. My wife succumbed to the virus on her return home and has had to take two weeks (and counting) off work. I expect poor hygiene on the ship was probably to blame for our illness as many people avoided washing their hands when entering the buffet restaurant and this was not particularly well enforced by P&O personnel. I would point out though that there are only three hand washing stations at each entrance to the buffet restaurant with often significant queues (20-30 people) waiting to wash their hands. It's probably little wonder that some passengers had no patience and simply by-passed this process. In the ratings that follow I might have recorded some categories as 'Good' but that option isn't available as the jump is from 'average' to 'very good'. We are unlikely to travel on the Britannia again but will be travelling on the Arcadia later this year and the recently refurbished Oceana next year.