- first cruise with P&O together
- first cruise from White Bay cruise terminal
- first cruise to go under the Sydney Harbour Bridge
- first cruise in an oceanview cabin
- first cruise I've been pregnant on
- first cruise to stay in Hobart for 2 nights and 3 days
- first time we visited MONA (Museum of Old and New Art)
- first time we visited Mount Wellington
- first time we visited Salamanca Markets
- first time we didn't cruise with Royal Caribbean together
Being our first P&O cruise together we didn't really know what to expect, we had hoped for a similar level of service to Royal Caribbean. This did not occur!
- We were constantly stuffed around with the dining in the Waterfront restaurant. We had "My Choice" dining where the only choice is 515pm or 845pm. Dining reservations open the day prior at 530pm. As we had issues almost every night we tried to dine, it was such a tiring end to each day. Even called liars at one point as "You cannot make a reservation for 7pm" to which I replied "I beg to differ, we made a reservation yesterday at 530pm for 7pm with your colleague standing beside you".
- Our room steward was not accommodating, he always seemed inconvenienced by us and didn't like to "Skip rooms" ie do them out of sequential order and also didn't want to skip us all together. I should have spoken to his supervisor but didn't. Either do our room at 7pm when we are at dinner or not at all we don't care, but do not make it my problem that you do not want to skip rooms and cannot get to us until 830pm when I want to go to bed.
- The quality of food onboard was not at all like Royal Caribbean. The Pantry - which is their take on a Buffet - was all flavourless and cold.
In saying that there are plenty of things I actually think P&O do well like:
- They operate in AUD onboard, no need to do rough conversions in your head.
- You can quickly and easily place cash on your cruise card via the machines on board, no need to line up at guest services.
- They show plenty of Australian Sporting events like regular NRL and AFL games in your cabin and around the ship.
- There was a great choice of complimentary movies both in your cabin and around the ship.
- New Zealand Natural Ice Cream on the pool deck was yummy.
- There is no constant "upsell" like there is on Royal Caribbean. No interruptions at dinner "Care to dine at Chops Grill?".
- The drink prices were cheaper than Royal Caribbean.
Overall we had a great time and especially loved seeing even more of Hobart. A day on any cruiseline is better than a day in reality / at work.
:)
