Azura Cruise

Hi everyone

I've lurked on this board for a while but this is my first post!

We're thinking of booking a cruise on Azura for next April. We are experienced cruisers but have never cruised with P&O (previously cruised with Holland America, NCL, Princess & Royal Caribbean with Princess & Holland America being our favourites). We're wondering how P&O compares? We're young (in our 20s) but are not exactly party animals :P preferring quieter ships and enjoy ships with plenty of places to chill-out & read inside and outside. And we very much enjoy the food!

Also, we always book inside cabins as we find they are extremely good value, quiet and great for getting a good sleep. Currently the best value cabins available are the inside cabins at the front of Deck E. They have cabins above and appear to have nothing below :S with the Playhouse Theatre slightly further back. Just wondering if anyone has booked a cabin in this area, and if they experienced any noise?

Many thanks :)

I can't particularly comment on the cabin area as I've never stayed there, but I'd have thought if you're going with a PF grade a cabin as far back as possible (for a PF grade) on Riviera/R deck would be the best option - they have cabins above AND below. If only cabins on E deck are showing, remember you can always search for a specific cabin on the booking page where they show you the available cabins.

Ship-wise, we've travelled on NCL Epic and Emerald Princess. Although my past cruises on P&O and Princess were both a few years ago, I could compare them as almost identical. If you book a select fare before 30th November you may also get free OBC regardless; we did and we're in a PE grade on Ventura next April (we had no extra OBC advertised as we went for the coach transfers).

NCL is much more relaxed compared to P&O and if you're cruising between the 2nd and 18th April expect quite a few families as these are the main dates for the Easter holidays I've found. P&O have Black Tie nights and you don't need to go TOO extravagant (I just wear my suit that I wear for work with a nice tie and DW wears a nice dress) but you still need to bother if you don't want to eat in the buffet. There will be 2 black tie nights per 7 nights you spend on board.

P&O is a lovely blend of traditional and modern cruising overall in my opinion; they have the family areas, and the quiet areas - there really is somewhere for everyone.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the cruise if you do book it - our first cruise with P&O was when I was 33, seven years back and I thought I wouldn't enjoy it being a young family but we loved every second of it.

Dan

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Hi Dan

Thanks for that - I searched for all the Rivera Deck cabins that aren't under the Thermal Suite but all are showing up as reserved! :( thought it was weird they all were but perhaps everyone has the same idea as I do!

We're thinking of going the week starting on Easter Sunday (16th April), which I know is during the Easter holiday period. We sailed on Navigator of the Seas on the last week of August this year and there were quite a lot children but we thought it was fine. However, maybe there were less because it was the Fjords .... the Azura cruise is to France, Spain & Guernsey.

If P&O is like Princess it'll be great!

Many thanks

If you haven't booked yet it would be a good idea to do so through one of the larger, specialist cruise travel agents. They have access to cabins that aren't available on the P&O site. You will probably get some discount too.

Hi there Cruisingfan89!

We were in our early thirties when we first cruised on P&O and we loved it.

It obviously depends on the ship and also when you go on them. As you're looking at Easter you will have loads of children round you, which you may not mind. Azura is a really lovely ship, modern, but not glitzy, so you should enjoy her.

Don't believe what you see on the P&O website - not all available cabins show up! Either do what someone else has suggested and try a TA, or ring P&O directly to find out what is actually available.