We chose this cruise for the itinerary mainly . I have been on over 20 cruises but never one as bad as this , the flight out with Thomas cook was fine but on arriving Barbados we were made to stand in lines on the tarmac like school children waiting to get in the old battered coaches , we had booked private transfers but were not allowed to go to the terminal and had no choice but to get on the coach . On arriving at the ship more ques to get your credit card scanned and I was screamed at by ground staff for asking where I could smoke. The entertainment staff doing everything they could to make stupid jokes and cheer everyone up . We booked a balcony cabin which was tiny the only space was to one side of the bed about a 5 feet by 3 feet to get dressed in and the bathroom was just ridiculous a small 3 feet square impossible to dry yourself inside the bathroom once you get out the shower . Our luggage took 5 hours to arrive in our cabin and we had to ask for more hangers as only about 20 in the wardrobe for 2 people for 2 weeks . The food onboard was appalling school dinners in the Horizon with people carrying trays all pushing shoving trying to get food , the wine machines didn’t work and glasses and tables dirty even though you are made to sanitise your hands at every opportunity. The staff in the restaurants were rude and clearly something had upset all

Of them , the food was poor to say the least, on the second formal night the choice was roast of the day , fish n chips, cottage pie I mean seriously we got all dressed up for that . The sunset bar staff were very rude , dirty tables all the time and over flowing ash trays . We had freedom dining but we’re made to go to first sitting on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve which was 5.45pm just crazy . We booked and paid extra to see Asward with dinner instead on Christmas Day we were told we had to be there for 7pm we had two choices on the menu the same poor quality food and waited for 2 1/2 hours for Asward to come on stage , I complained to the f&b manager who was totally uninterested , when Asward came on the three guys sang to backing music for half an hour and then left just beyond a joke and felt very ripped off . Everything on this ship is just about making more and more money out if you , you don’t even get a bottle of water in your cabin each day , we paid 6k for this cruise . Formal nights were non eventful , some people dressed up , others walking around in shirts and t shirts , the entertainment was dreadful .

We called reception several times on our cruise with problems and not once did they answer the phone , we even left it ringing for 45 minutes and still no answer, the que at reception was massive everyday and only three staff behind the desk, we spoke to Shona regarding our dining arrangements and was told we had freedom dining and there was no first or second sitting onboard , only to get a card through our door 3 days later to say we could only have first sitting Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve we were constantly given wrong information from the reception staff. Three nights we had to call security to stop the noise below our cabin at the smoking area on deck 7 (we were on 9 ) kids were partying and shouting at 3 am , it was more like Butlins at sea !!! Each port of call had so many ships visiting with thousands of people at each island making it really unenjoyable , we were constantly harassed as soon as you go out the port, people waving boards in your face and shouting at you to go on tours it was really awful , one port san Maarten had 7 cruise ships in on one day , 15000 passengers or more in one tiny port and all so expensive. There is no space around the pool onboard crammed in like sardines not even a space between loungers and no umbrellas so it was either bake in the sun or nothing , we didn’t even bother it was just so horrible . WiFi is £12.50 a day and doesn’t work so we had two weeks of no internet . I was really shocked how bad everything was and will never cruise with p&o again !!