Trusted Cruise Ship Reviews

Got back this morning from my 4th carnival cruise. Im now gold class whoo hoo lol, the ship is always well maintained and the staff and facilities can not be faulted.
The food variety in the buffet and dining rooms was brilliant, already booking another cruise for June 2018... keep up the great work Carnival !!

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This was our 2nd cruise on Pacific Aria and our 4th P&O cruise; and probably our last! I want to be clear that I do not have an issue with the ship, the cabin, the entertainment or the crew (for the most part).
I DO have an issue with the penny-pinching decline in standards in the catering departments!
Since our first P&O cruise in 2015 on the Pacific Dawn, we have seen the quality, the quantity, the variety and the general standard of food declining exponentially.
The Waterfront menu is now a very sad, boring and unappealing ghost of what it was 3 short years ago.
Menu choices have more than halved, and portion sizes have been reduced.
Standard items from the old menu, such as Pasta courses and vegetable sides have been removed.
On this last cruise, pretty much the only vegetables available, was a woefully bland mixture of mainly turnip and swede.
Dessert choices are a joke. Maybe 4 selections, one of which is fruit and the other cheese. The so-called desserts that are on the menu are pretty underwhelming! No WOW factor as of old.
Service was slow and disorganized, and food was rarely hot.
Add to that, that previous favourite staples, like steak, are now on the menu as 'specials' which P&O feel justified in stinging you $17.000 for! What a joke!!
The Pantry, which is not a patch on the old buffet, was uniformly appalling on this trip.
Food on the serveries was barely warm, and much of the time cold, especially at breakfast.
The Pantry food suffers from a never-ending sameness day after day, and the fact that on this trip food was often under-cooked, over-cooked or dried out did little to whet the appetite.
The only light in the darkness was the Dragon Lady and Angelo's especially, where food was decent and service was excellent.
I don't have a problem with anybody making a reasonable profit, but P&O are taking the mickey charging what they do for such pedestrian food, which makes a shopping mall food precinct seem like haute cuisine.
If you want to throw your money away on second rate cruising, be my guest.
P&O won't be seeing us on one of their ships in a big hurry, that's for sure!
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We had our 1st cruise and went on P & O Aria. We had a good cruise from Brisbane to Cairns and back. Crew and entertainment great. Food generally good. Luke Mangans Salt restaurant was not worth the money. It was second rate.

Carnival Spirit exceeded our cruising expectations from the moment we checked-in! They have a free onboard app to plan our days which we could add events to a planner that would alert us to our selected events, these events ranged from wellbeing seminars, trivias, bands, comedian, sales, art auctions and the list goes on. We enjoyed the various bars which all had signature cocktails, the bands and singers were fabulous and even took requests. The food was in abundance, from the free eateries to the fine dining we were catered for no matter our tastes or desires, offering gluten free and vegetarian options. The crew and staff are amazing, so helpful, friendly and always up for a chat and a laugh. No wonder we had cruising withdrawals! Carnival, you will definitely be seeing us again!!

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This was our first cruise for myself my wife and 2 children.
From time of boarding until time of return we cannot find a negative thing to say about this cruise, other than we wished it was longer.

Large variety of food with the every day eating at the pantry with selections of food from many countries, then seafood restaurants and also the upmarket Salt Restaurant, could not fault any.

Room stewards, bar staff, and roaming waiters, treated us like they have known us for 10 years, nothing was a problem.

My most memorable experience was with the casino staff, i have never wanted to return to a place that constantly takeS your money, but due to the personalities of all the staff in the casino, i returned daily, I have never laughed so much in all my life with these people, and have many pictures I will treasure until I return for our next cruise, in which we are planning today after being back for 1 night.

We have also become friends with many of the passengers, and the age difference was not relevant,, young middle aged,, older, it does not matter, a cruise is what you make of it, and we made it a trip to remember.

Thankyou Team P&O.

John L
Brisbane


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My second cruise with P&O, same ship the Dawn, cruise 12 months apart. No heating in my cabin for 3 days, it was freezing, no hot water first morning, blocked drain in shower second morning, cabin across hall had overflowing toilet into hall, constant sound of carpet blowers to dry carpet from overflowing toilet, fridge hummed constantly, carpet in cabin smelt of vomit, bed had springs pushing through, was told mattress would be replaced, it was swapped with my sons.

Menu in Waterfront same as last year but quality of food greatly reduced, Pantry has less seating than there was with the buffet, had to stand to eat on numerous occasions, set up of Pantry not parent friendly as have to line up numerous times to get food for myself and children then run plates back to tables, less choice that the buffet, quality of food inferior in the Pantry compared to buffet, recycled food from previous day, food slopped on plate rather than served by staff, lied to by management with regards to broken air-conditioning and mattress, all goods for sale in the shops on the Dawn are more expensive on the ship than in shops in Australia, stage shows still the same as the previous year we traveled on the Dawn, purchased an Edge pass for my daughter, can only use it for 7 days, the Edge shop was closed for 3 of the 7 days, waste of money, all in all a dreadful experience. I would advise to take cash to put into you onboard account, if you give them a credit card number not only will they charge your card with the account balance there will also be charges held on your card as well, those funds wont be released back to you for days or weeks so your account may be $400 but you will have another $400 held. If you do choose to travel with P&O, I suggest you don't buy anything on the ship, alcohol is hellishly expensive, the coffee is disgusting, the rooms are not maintained very well, if you drink water expect to pay a lot to stay hydrated with bottled water as the ships water tastes disgusting.
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Brilliant ship...much better than Jewel or Dawn(haven't been on since refurb), had an Oceanview on Deck 6 midship starboard - very roomy cabin, loved the settee in these rooms(was informed by cabin stewards that they are in all cabins)...bathroom - shower over bath but was informed that internal rooms have regular step in showers & that apparently on Deck 5 rooms slightly larger not sure of this but we had plenty of room...great nightlife as opposed to other P&O ships we've been on...food at Waterfront was as usual excellent/ Pantry food & set up much better than other P&O ships/ Angelos - it was ok but other 2 in party of 4 absolutely loved their experience there...Dragon Lady got thumbs down from us all(4) - no drink service, food extremely poor (we won't bother with it on next cruise)...smaller ship than we've cruised on prior but we had a fantastic time - highly recommend Aria.

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Especially being a new ship we were disappointed in most aspects of this cruise.

Second time on Queen Mary 2 . February 2017 . Wonderful as we were last on 2013 around New Zealand. This time we had an Obstructed View Balcony Cabin. Superb . Obstruction was minor, I would recommend to try.
Loved it on deck 8 .We had an 8 seating table and the fellow travelers were a real bunch of fun travelers.
Loved meeting up for High Tea each day and discussing our excursions each evening. Love Queen Mary wouldn't sail any other ship. Crew are very helpful and fellow passengers are very nice . So our next voyage will be within the next two years as Pensioners we look forward to our next Sailing.
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this was a first for us both and at first what had i let us infor but after the first night on the ship i was convinced that this is the life and was thinking about where to go on our next cruise. the food and entertainment was great,the staff on the ship great so over all the whole experience was great and still get talked about over morning tea most days of the week.
so guess what we are hooked on cruising.
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