United Kingdom Cruise Guide and Reviews

The size of the ship is nice as you have no long lines and the service was wonderful. Food was well prepared and presented. Balconies to the rooms were very disappointing but the cabin size was good. Activities were poor and excursions excessively expensive but the ports of call were just fabulous.

Dartmouth was our favorite port.  I highly recommend the River Ferry and Steam Train shore excursion in Dartmouth!

Overall, the itinerary was excellent!  The Explorer was the most beautiful ship I have ever been on! Great restaurants and great staff!

Tender service was not good.  They only use 3 small tenders from the ship and do not hire any extras from the port authority.  This results in up to one hour plus waits for tender service.  This is especially bad when it is raining!

We missed the port of Cobh, Ireland because the captain did not order enough tugs to get us away from the dock in Liverpool, England.  This resulted in an extra sea day.  Disappointing!

I should begin by saying we have cruised on the various upscale lines.  This was our fouth in a row with Oceania and second time on Nautica.  We are sold on Oceania because we like the size and feeling of their ships.  No mega cruises with thousands of passengers.  Oceania must do a great job in hiring their staff because once again they were exceptional in friendliness and service throughout the ship.  Our penthouse suite gave us plenty of extra room and we had a great time interacting with our Butler and cabin stewards.  Dining on Oceania is like going to a fine restaurant at whatever time suited us.  I am not going to write abook here -- we again had a great time on Oceania & Nautica as did many of our 672 fellow travelers -- most of whom have the same loyal feeling for Oceania and are repeat cruisers.  On-board, we booked a Caribbean cruise for February to escape our midwest winter.

Oceania had good entertainment in the evenings.  On a mid-size ship, you do not get the big Broadway productions of some of the mega cruises we have been on. I  am happy to make this trade-off.  The singers on Nautica were far and away the best of our 4 cruises.  We'd been to England many times and London; still, we did 5 days on our own in London and I am kicking myself for not doing 3-4 more.

Quick efficient check in and the cabin was excellent. The food was also of a high standard but that is all I can say about this cruise. We have never cruised before and after this experience, we never will again. I do not want to be serenaded by yellow or blue coats singing "Sailing" as we leave port. It was all so Butlins. I was almost expecting staff to say Hi di Hi to us. Truly awful.The buffet was like a scrum down with greedy people piling up their plates with food they couldn't possibly eat.

we decided to have our breakfast served to us, which was far more civilised that walking round with a tray of food trying to find somewhere to sit.

water in the cabins should be free and not charged. For what we paid, it should be free and is very mean of P&O.

like many people, we asked for a refund immediately as we thought that we will decided who and when to tip and not be dictated to. We weren't even told that my credit card had been debited. Cheek!

the entertainment was sub standard and more akin to a holiday camp. The daytime activities were a joke and thoroughly boring.

Our first and our last ever cruise! Never again!

Good itinerary, allocated flexible dining which suited us.

Weather not too bad though very little sun until Bilbao.

Nice ship, though lacks a little character perhaps because of its size.

All facilities good though seemed to be somewhat understaffed in open deck areas. All round though a very good cruise.

Somewhat disappointed with cabin allocations as we booked two cabins & were allocated C100 & C101, which we assumed to be adjacent, in fact one is port & the other on the starboard side of the ship - miles away! Not useful when looking after elderly relatives.