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Having just returned from a two week Med cruise on Azura, these are our thoughts . We last sailed on her in 2018 and although she has had some refurbishment and various colour scheme changes in places, the layout was vary familiar and we soon found our way around. Check in at Malta was swift ,we were onboard by 1300 and our cabin was ready for us, a quick drink and bite to eat and out for a wander around . First impressions were that the ship appeared busy but staff were doing a good job of guiding incoming passengers to muster station registration and helping people find their way around. Back on board ,luggage delivered to cabin , shower ,change and down to the Meridian for evening meal, and managed to get a table for two without a pager and by and large the meal was good, all good so far but the recurring theme was the luke warm vegetables and the choices were less than before and smaller portions. Next day was a sea day and then it hit us just how busy the ship was, trying to get a sunbed after 10 am , pah dream on ,eventually found two near the outdoor cinema upper deck but crammed in like sardines, next stop buffet, are you kidding, not a seat to be had anywhere (we never go in before 10am to avoid the rush) ,in time we blagged a table and ate around 10.45 ,food choice has decreased considerably and has been mentioned before, no trays, forward planning needed to make sure you don't have multiple trips to the counter , waited until 14.15 to go for lunch and ended up in another free for all with tables etc ,food choice again very limited .Back outside and cinema now in full swing and so many people in such a tight space made it pretty awkward to concentrate on reading. Decided to try the Meridian again for evening meal , pager required for table for two ,no worries Question, when is a table for two not a table for two? Answer when ten are lined up side by side so close you could converse with nearly all the other diners, vegetable's once again sparingly and not overly hot with only one different main from the previous evening. All the ports we visited were excellent and getting on and off the ship was fairly easy considering how many folk were on her, ate out every lunchtime as couldn't face the limited and monotonous choice in the buffet, however on one sea day we ate in the restaurant but again the choices were so pro vegetarian / vegan/gluton free we , me in particular, struggled to find anything we would like , and once again sat in a line of ten two seat tables. We booked the Beach house as we always enjoy the food there ,however the cover charge has increased and the menu has changed to a more spicy Mexica/Caribbean theme with some of the popular deserts removed ,so not quite as we expected ( perhaps we should have taken a look at the menu before booking). We ate mostly in the Glasshouse and this was one area of the ship that felt just as it used to ,friendly ,good value and well staffed with excellent service and good choices of HOT food, it did get busier the longer the cruise went on but we always managed to get a table. So as for Azura how is she looking? For her age pretty good but if you look hard enough there are signs of wear and tear, the plumbing has a mind of its own and the most awful raw sewage smell is often present on the open decks at times The biggest difference we noted from 2018 is the clientele , its a while since we did a cruise without it been adults only and we now know why, the behaviour of some kids was unacceptable ,one group had to be told by another guest to stop jumping in the aft pool even though their mother was filming them with the no jumping or diving sign right in front of them, they were not overly impressed at been asked to stop, next day they were in the main pool as we sat and had a drink at breakers bar ,jumping, diving ,throwing towels in and there is mother filming them again under the no jumping /diving signs ,lo and behold two of her party join her and they all start throwing themselves in repeatedly, staff did nothing to stop it. A lad with his mother and another lady attempted to access the meridian wearing shorts, the maitre d informed him it was smart casual evening and he would have to change to enter , he agitated that his shorts were smart casual and would not give in but neither would the maitre d, his mother stood like a wet lettuce and let him give the staff grief before he stomped off to get changed, people clicking fingers at staff to get there attention in bars and in one case whistling at them , it is so embarrassing, in most cases the staff are more educated than those they are asked to serve and better mannered. In closing its fair to say that a vast amount of people on this cruise were first timers ,more so in the first week and this was evident as the Baltic/Ligurian lunch had just 18 of us. Will we sail on Azura again? current thinking is no ,same with the other big ships if the type of passengers who are the target for P and O are as we witnessed in the first week, the difference in our recent 65nighter on Aurora and 14nights on Azura are like chalk and cheese, World cruise next and then we will see if standards have slipped on Arcadia . These are just our personal observations and thoughts ,others will have a different view so please don't shoot the messenger

Could you confirm if the "pop up glasshouse" has the same varieties of wine that the "proper" Glasshouse has on other ships please? Been a while since we were on her and memory is not what it was !😂

Every time we have cruised to the USA we have had to have an esta

Agree with all the above comments ,on a personal note we are quite prepared to have the decor of Aurora ,dated as the cabins look, for the whole experience aboard her. The facilities and dining choices etc on board Iona were excellent and we did enjoy our time on her ,however the same would have been said when Arcadia and Aurora were launched . It may be worth trying a short cruise on Aurora to see what you make of her?.

I was informed by my good lady that it was an issue on Aurora in January and also had to ask the cabin steward to replenish in our cabin , which he did without any problems

It was my birthday while on Azamara ,I never let anyone know when it is as i don't want the fuss, came back to the cabin around lunchtime and the whole cabin was decorated with banners ,balloons, a card from the captain and senior officers, happy birthday signs and a lovely cake (just what you need on a cruise!!!). My good lady had her birthday while on Aurora and got, A card ( preprinted with the captains signature) , we don't expect anything but I would have preferred things the other way around as my birthday to me is just another day and I like to make it special for Mrs gsmt. It also highlights the difference between different cruise lines

My good lady will nearly always ask for a bowl of extra veg when she gives the waiter her order , and she would still do it if we were on a shared table ( a rarity) ,we also noticed some other diners asking for two sweets or having soup and a starter, perhaps you shouldn't have to ask but nobody has ever questioned asking for extra, also we met a lovely couple whos first sailing was the world cruise which had to be abandoned due to covid ,as they were also on our 65 nighter I would say they enjoyed the experience

We have completed a number of these longer cruises, some on Ventura , and of course some things will not be perfect and in the case of 65 night cruises yes the food does become a little repetitive , however unless its something serious we will not complain ,we may bring faults with plumbing etc to the attention of reception ,anything else can usually be dealt with by a quiet word to the correct personel. It is always nice to hear a review of ships as long as it is balanced and as such can be very useful

Same for us though on Aurora, however it appears that this morning the early bookings for upper tiers was not initiated and every cruise was available to anybody ,this caused serious issues as our TA had scheduled staffing to cope with the general sale tomorrow and was swamped with people booking once they realized they could , after speaking to P and O they admitted that they had made the error

Other lines we have been on have had staff at the entrance to eating areas (buffet,mdr etc) with hand gel and we have no problem with that as we don't want our holiday spoilt by people who either cant be bothered or think it doesn't apply to them, it wont stop all infections but it certainly makes a big difference

Hope they've been cleaned by the time you cruise again Jean, four years dust might be too much to deal with !!!!!🤣😂

Definitely with you on the subject of drowning out the singers , we have witnessed some impressive singers on cruises who have had a real fight to get their voice above the music, canned or otherwise

A quick word with housekeeping would perhaps have dealt with your issue's as nobody should have to put up with uncleaned showers, hoovering stateroom carpets from our observations does not get dealt with as often as we would like

Yes you can ,and we did a lot of times from the glass house as they stocked a few wines we liked, they will also keep your unused bottles in the mdr for another evening 😊

Our observations are that some people are rude to staff no matter which ship you are on, can never understand it personally

Thank you for a very rounded review ,we go on Azura in June for a fortnight and its been quite some time since our last cruise on her so will be interesting to compare how things have changed, previously we have enjoyed all our cruises on her

We were on her for 30 nights in September and overall we were happy with the condition of the ship , one or two niggles but would agree that some of the toilets were out of action at various times , Sindhu was open but used very little and the ocean grill was closed for the majority of the cruise and only opened in the last few days of our trip, the main criticism was the temperature of the ship which I have mentioned on previous posts and also to senior P and O management , it was just too cold to enjoy many of the venues, I don't know if we would go on her again if it wasn't for the fact our world cruise is on her, if the temperature is the same again we will not be looking to cruise on her again

From what I understand the problems with the mdr appear to be mostly on Arvia and Iona, We have been on all the current P and O ships in the fleet (except Arvia ) and have never had a problem gaining access at our preferred time ( always freedom) although on an odd occasion we have had to take a pager, with a saver you will not be given a dining time option but have to accept what you are allocated

Might also add that I agree with Selbourne that things are not the same as they were ten years ago, but suspect this to be the case with most other lines, personal opinion of course

Welcome to a fellow Yorkshire coaster!! All the above points are correct ,however on our last cruise wine could be saved by the waiters in the mdr and used for another evening(on Aurora)

That, spelling error🤔

It is my understanding thet you have to have an account, nationwide flex plus and a monthly fee of £13 which also gives you vehicle breakdown and mobile phone cover, we have changed our packaged account to this one

Would just like to also confirm that I commented on my op regarding long travel insurance and to thank people for their generous assistance, now got the same insurance albeit as we are considerably younger than the ages Jean has mentioned, nice to know that should we reach the ages quoted and we still are able to cruise we will not have to worry about insurance👍

Yes Aurora would have been our preferred ship for the worldie.

Thank you to all the lovely people who responded to my original question, I have spoken to a few companies and have opened an account with Nationwide ( been meaning to do it for a long time) and they have confirmed that their insurance can be extended to cover the world cruise, they were also the most helpful and informative when speaking to them. As others have suggested to this post speaking to companies gets more response and information than online searching, hopefully that's another item dealt with so once again many thanks and shows the value of using these boards to utilize other peoples knowledge 😊👍