Cruise in style on P & O Victoria (P&O North Sea Ferries)

Member Name: grumbleweed

Product:	P&O North Sea Ferries
Date:	29/04/01 (239 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent food; relaxing traditional atmosphere

Disadvantages: None

We went on a P & O fly cruise on “Victoria”, leaving Venice on 21 June and visiting Naxos (Sicily) Civitavecchia (for Rome), Piraeus, Samos, Kas, Rhodes and Itea. Midsummer was a great time for this cruise. The days were long and the light quality wonderful. The weather was extremely hot (average midday temperatures ranged from 77 to 93) but on deck there was always a welcome breeze and all the public rooms/cabins are air conditioned.

Embarkation arrangements were excellent. After checking in our baggage (good weight allowance)at a Gatwick hotel where we stayed for the night prior to our flight to Venice, we did not need to handle it again until it was delivered to our cabin soon after embarkation. On arrival at the ship, we were met personally by our cabin steward, who like many of the crew was from Goa and could not have been more helpful from bringing us tea in the morning, to turning our beds down at night.

Victoria is a fairly small ship by modern day standards – about 28,000 tons with 700 passengers & 400 officers and crew. It has an intimate, relaxing atmosphere. The quality of furnishings is very high with comfortable lounges and bars, lots of brass & wood panelling and original artwork. It has traditional wrap around decks. It can get into smaller ports and often anchors off shore, providing a fast and very efficent tender service straight into the main part of town, avoiding those long and tedious walks through the industrial parts of large commercial ports.

On days at sea (about five on this cruise) decks don’t feel too crowded. There is a very wide range of sports and social activities, aerobics, fashion and beauty demos, classical music concerts, clay pigeon shooting, bingo, bridge, dancing lessons, and a variety of quizzes to name just a few. Or you can simply relax in a deck lounger with a beer or cocktail in hand and scan the distant horizon for passing ships
or, occasionally, a school of flying porpoises.

We found the food and service to be first class. Most days we ate lunch in town or casually on deck, often a barbecue - although a couple of times we went to the restaurant for a more formal lunch. P & O still offer an excellent curry dish every lunch time, in recognition of its historic oriental connections.

Evening dinner was always a special occasion – five or six courses if you wanted them, with coffee & petit fours eg
Scottish Smoked Salmon; Royal Windsor Game Soup; Halibut Fillet with Creamed Lobster; Fillet of Beef Wellington; & Fresh Strawberries Romanoff. Wine is extra, and was about £16 a bottle on average which can mount up over the course of a fortnight. Four evenings were formal, when most men wore dinner jackets. The remaining evenings were divided between informal (tie & jacket) and smart casual. This seemed a good compromise, and we personally enjoyed the opportunity to get dressed up and dine in style – it making a nice change from our usually hectic, microwave/telly dish lifestyle. One thing I would say is to go for the late sitting, usually about 8.30 as this gives more time to relax and get ready after a day’s sightseeing – all the main shows are repeated for second sitting diners, so you don’t really miss anything.

The evening entertainment was generally of West end quality, excellent shows, cabarets, films, casino and of course the Midnight Buffet! There are also bridge competitions and quizzes in the evening.

Overall, this was a great value for money cruise. We booked late and obtained a very significant discount through one of the cruise clubs advertised on the net.
Although it was still over £1000 a head, everything was included except alcoholic drinks & excursions.

Summary: