We have just returned from the above cruise and to be honest, we were disappointed. Bearing in mind that she is a brand new ship, we were expecting a 'wow' factor. This was sadly lacking, but its difficult to say why.
It's interesting to note that on one of the cruise review sites, the cruise we were on - N809, has much poorer reviews than the previous Canaries' cruises. The most the cruise was rated was 3*, but mostly 2* and 1*. Wonder what was different?

There was no lift courtesy whatsoever. I use a mobility scooter and by the time I turned around and ventured towards the arriving lift, a pack of 'oldies' who had arrived after me, would have descended on the lift and shut the doors! Obviously this is due to the mentality of the passengers, not the staff. A sign at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to the back sundeck saying that no lift was available to this area would have saved me 25 minutes of hassle trying to reach it! Some areas were only accessible by one set of lifts.

The majority of the staff who hailed from India and Goa, seemed unhappy and rarely ventured to smile. I think I saw 4 in total smile during the whole 2 weeks. From what I gather the staffing ratio is roughly 3-1 (passengers to staff). On other ships this can be as much as 2-1 and you certainly notice the difference! The staff training does not appear to be top priority on this ship as waiters in the 24hr restaurant would swoop in front of you, lift your drink up and wash the table right in front of your nose without an 'excuse me' or anything. The 'sneeze guard' was a joke as you had to be a contortionist to reach a lot of the stuff.

My main complaint was that, on arriving, you received a letter re. Norovirus which was taken extremely seriously. Signs were in toilets asking you to use a paper towel to open the outer door and handwash was available in the self service restaurants. Unfortunately, there was no handwash in the main restaurants. Myself and others complained about this at the beginning and then later on I asked the maitre d' who said he encouraged people to wash their hands!! People were coming in from shore where no hand wash was provided then attending afternoon tea and sharing a cake and sandwich platter. The maitre d' saw I was on a mobility scooter but did not pass on this information to staff who often tried to seat us the furthest away from the door.

We dined in the Bay Tree Restaurant in the evenings. Only one set of lifts went to this restaurant so not ideal for the disabled who have to wait ages for a lift. The other restaurant would have been better suited. The quality of food generally was sometimes good and sometimes poor. If you didn't like anything on the menu, you could ask for steak, chicken etc.. Our waiters were excellent in this restaurant, especially our waiter, Wellber.

Whilst breakfast was served in the main restaurants, this ended at 9am on sea days and 8.30am on port days. This appeared to be too early as trying to get a table in the other two self serve restaurants would take several trips around until you found someone leaving a table. Not good enough. Although the ship is brand new, the carpet in the 24hr restaurant was filthy with soot, trod in from outside.

The decks and sunbeds at the back of the ship were filthy with soot throughout the day.

Staff did nothing to discourage people from reserving sunbeds until two days before the end of the cruise (generated through many complaints!). They then posted in the newsletter that if a sunbed remained empty for half an hour, you, the public could remove the towel and use the bed. The onus was on the passenger, not the staff.

'Havana' (which indicated in the brochure as a Cuban bar with Salsa music for adults!) turned out to be the childrens' and teens' club with quizzes and discos. Very disappointing.

The promised 3D films did not exist. Instead the Tamarind Bar doubles up as a cinema in the afternoon during port days.

The entertainment at the Arena Theatre with the team was good (mainly thanks to the duo Donovan and Rebecca) and the cast worked extremely hard but it was a bit repetitive. There were not enough seats - only about 725 - and even with 3 nightly shows this was not enough. You had to arrive 30-45 minutes early to guarantee a seat.

We had 5 days at sea and the activities on offer were not brilliant or numerous (except for the children/teens).

The above review is my personal opinion, though I have to say all the people we spoke to on this cruise felt the same and the other reviews of this particular cruise mainly mirror it. I did report my grievances to an officer before leaving but so far have heard no feedback from P & O. I was told by many people that other P & O ships were far better. Will I be cruising with them again - probably not.

Dizzycruiser