This was our second cruise with Ocean Village, this time on Ocean Village 2. We had 3 partial view cabins on Deck 8 which were excellent, the only minor drawback being they were very near the smoky Casino Bar and the smoke wafted along the corridor in the evenings. Unlike another review on this site, we had no trouble with our toilet. The cabin showers are spacious. All other bars on this ship are non-smoking, as are all restaurants. The food was excellent and catered for all tastes; one of our party was vegetarian but this did not present a problem; indeed, in La Luna restaurant, the staff went out of their way to provide her with a special meal. The ship's young Indian and Philippino staff were brilliant - nothing was too much trouble and our cabin steward, Benjit, was excellent. I cannot praise them enough. The entertainment was very good, in particular the Freedom 2 Move group and the Robbie Williams tribute singer. We are all in our 50's and early 60's but nonetheless enjoyed the entertainment.
The Action Ashore trips are on the expensive side - we only did 2 this time around; on our first trip on Ocean Village 3 years ago we did 5 trips. This cruise is very informal, ages on the boat are very mixed, which we liked, and folk very friendly. This cruise is not for you if you want formality. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would certainly travel on Ocean Village 2 again.

I have sailed on OV1 and it was the best holiday ever. I expected the same standard with OV2. NO, if you are thinking of booking with OV2 don't bother.
First of all my suitcase did not arrive at my room even though my husbands arrived at lunchtime (early flight in) In the end there was a ship search at 7pm to look for my case. It turned up an 1.5 hrs later.
The food and service was good at the beginning. However when gastroenteritis broke out things went down hill. To get a ham salad, you had to queue to get the ham, then queue to get a bowl of salad then queue again to get any colslaw - thats if there was any.
To get a hot meal you had to queue for the meat and be served by a member of staff. This was ok but when you had to queue for the potatoes then queue again for the veg, the meal was on the verge of being cold when you got to the table. On one occasion, I wanted some gravey, so left my knife and fork at the table and jumped the queue - when I returned to the table my cutlery had been removed. I left my meal at the table to get a new lot of cutlery. On my return my dinner had gone. I then had to re-join the queue for another meal. When I had finished I wanted some fruit salad, again I had the same situation with my cutlery going missing and had to find replacements. As the sea was rough at the time it was difficult carrying my dish and stay standing.
The staff on the entertainment team worked hard but could be better. In Connections bar which was too small to cater for the amount of passengers - not bad for general entertainment. Very few people got a seat.
I got really fed up with OV trying to sell paintings. Really boring. This was not entertainment.
The general cleanliness of the ship was good. However the corridor leading to our cabin on 10th floor constantly smelt of sewage.
When the staff cleaned the seats and then used the same cloth to wipe the tables - this was not hygenic.
The trip to Rome was not only expensive and we didn't hear a word the tour operator said and she went into too much detail.
If you get off the ship at Barcelona don't use the tour buses. There are three trips, you have to go on one to connect to one of the others. Each trip takes 2 hours and costs 19 euros for a day pass. It became a worry that we may not get back to the ship in time.
Use the underground, found out too late that its cheap, quick and gets you there.
My husband got the gastroenteritis and was confined to his room. He was told the catering staff would phone him about serving him food to his room. They did in the evening but forgot the following morning when we were due to go home. We were told by the medic not to leave on the coach as a taxi would be arranged. Our coach left for the airport at 8.00. 8.30 we called the reception to find out if the taxi had been arranged and was assured things were under control. At 9.00 I went down to reception as our flight left at 10.30 and it took 30 mins to travel to the airport. It took the receptionist 20 minutes to sort out a taxi and told us she thought we had missed the flight. We got to the airport at 10.00 to find the queue thruogh the police check point was going to take about 30 mins. We found our way thruough to find the plane had been delayed.
All in all this was a very stressfull holiday as two day we had to put up with hurricane force winds that rocked the ship that made it difficult to walk without holding on to something. I don't blame the weather on OV2 but it didn't help.

Ok where to start - overall this was a cracking holiday. Now down to the nitty gritty!

FOOD - I for one really enjoyed all that was on offer. Lots of variety available. It does pay however to check out the menus for both the Waterfront and Plantations. The soup was delicious! I must however agree that sometimes it was hard to find a few dishes that actually went with each other. The good thing though is that chips were scarce unless you went to the grill area.

We went to the Bistro one night for my birthday - yumyum is all I need to say on that score. The bonus was that later in the evening I won a gameshow quiz and won another Bistro meal for 2!!

ENTERTAINMENT
On the whole, not bad. Really enjoyed the magician and the Robbie Williams tribute. Out of the resident singers Matt Quinn was really good with some really up to date songs (Grace Kelly was a good one for him!) Lucy, however!! She tried and was nice to look at but most of the songs weren't for her.

We only saw a couple of the comedians, Jeff Stevenson was the only one that stuck in my mind.

STAFF
Faultless - many thanks to Nikhil and Neeraj in the Connexions bar, excellent service throughout!

PORTS OF CALL
Nice mixture but why oh why Tunisia twice in the 2 weeks? 1st time we went on the Carthage trip which was well worth it. The rest, well these have been covered dozens of times already.

SUNBEDS
Please please please dont expect a bed after 0900. Get up early, watch the ship dock, get a bed and enjoy the looks on the faces of the late risers as they trudge round with their towels at 1100 expecting their pick of sunbeds!!

All in all a great holiday, so much so that I'm already looking at either the eastern Med or a repositioning cruise with OV for next year.

PS I apologise for my rendition of Stayin Alive!! That Boddingtons can be strong stuff after a few!

Booked on the Ocean Village web site we decided to go with O V 2 friends had been on the original O V and raved about it.

On line booking I was nervous about doing this never done it that way before but if we had any questions we phoned them up and they were really good,

Checking in at the airport was excellent as they have their own check in desk we flew with Thomas Cook the plane was cramped but thats par for the course got to Palma and picked up the ectcases got on the coach and away we went arrived at the ship photos taken ect
I was a bit dissapointed as when we travelled with Island Cruises you got a champagne reception

First impressions of the ship was fabulous was looking forward to seeing the cabins which did not dissapoint
it was really spacious the shower is like a mini wet room so far so good I hear you cry

Now for the food the first night we went to plantations
and to be fair there was a good choice Chinese Thai Itallian ect but the lay out of the resteraunt was confusing so by the time you got your meal to the table
which wasnt easy finding one it was cold the only night my husband and I ate the whole meal together was at La Luna which was excelent would recommend the king prawns
by the way anyway to go on and trust me I could!! the second night was exactly the same menu plus the plate were cold and the sweet dishes were hot which is fine unless its a cold sweet, by the way the afternoon snacks constist of chips burgers sausages pasta or sandwhiches all with mustard the third night we ate at the waterfront which was no different two nights no one came to take our drinks order then things got worse as the novo virus hit and obviously for those reasons you could not serve your self even with a cup of tea now I am not complaining about the precautions they and we had to take but it became a canteen and you had to queue even longer and you were knocking into everyone
there was just no room the only consellation was the food was hotter,we met so many people who booked in the Bistro or La luna simply because of the queueing to be honest if I had wanted Butins I would have gone there,
and they cant just blame the virus as the food was rubbish the first three days,

Now for the entertainment the ships dancing singing group or what ever they are were awful we walked out twice their 80s review was dyer the guy who did simply red was good the posh comedian in connexions was really funny the acrobats were fantastic saw them in the village square twice the art auction .. now the reason i went was the free fizz but to be honest found it interesting once!! but they were on every day they took over the ship

Sun deck ..the beds are so close together you cant move
.. you cant walk round the ship to stretch your legs as you can on other ships we did go to the gym but two of the tread mills were out of order and as we were on board the first two days we walked up and down the stairs sad but true

To top it all we had the worst gales in 10 years one of the reps told us that it was force ten on the sunday night that was scarey my husbands bed came away from the wall the drawers were opening ,all the stuff slid of the dressing table my mattress was slidding of and were were on deck six..we spoke to others on the upper
decks and they were really scared the ship listed
that much the water came out of the pool in to the resteraunt the glasses came of the bar if it wasnt nailed down it fell off now I know thats not a fault of the ship but the captain could have asked us all in the morning if we were ok just out of courtesy
to be honest couldnt wait to get of the ship and there was a plane full of people who felt the same.

Remember this was Ocean Village 2 and everyone we spoke to that had been on the original ship said that was fab
so may be we will try that one day if the price is right but O V 2 wasnt for us we wanted a holiday with out the formality but at the same time with a good standard of entertaiment and food you dont get this on this ship also they say they are aiming at 35 to 55 but it was all ages one man was 90 so the should review there entertaiment accordingly for eg ther is a beautiful piano in the cassbar but apparently they have no one to play it.

For me the best part of the cruise was the people we met the places we visited (dont get of in Tunisia )
and the cabins were nice will go on the Island Star again next year granted not as nice cabins but it blew O V 2 out of the water (excuse the pun)on everything else especially were they dock, O V 2 docks in the cheapest berths so they are the farthest out now maybe we went on a bad week what with the virus and the gales
but the rest of it still woulndt have been good .

hope your reading this before you book if your not have an open mind and dont expect to much .

Never having cruised before we looked upon this our maiden voyage with excitement as everyone had told us how great cruising is.
However I can honestly say I have never experienced anything or would want to again remotely like it.

Our flight out to Palma and arrival at the ship went according to plan no different to any other package tour transit apart from the weather which was a shock on arrival as we had left behind sunshine in Manchester. The ship looked very impressive as we boarded with all the security checks and hygiene concerns. As we arrived at our cabin the cabin boy advised us that our toilet wasn’t flushing but that it would be sorted. Not too concerned at this point we went to explore the ship and returned couple of hours later to find it still wasn’t working. So we went to reception to report it and found a queue of passengers all with the same complaint!! Even some of the public toilets were in the same position and this continued throughout the stay it was like Russian roulette whether it was going to flush or not. Even to the point that I was ringing reception at 5:30 in the morning to report the fault again.

Our first day was at sea and was spoiled by the weather and I know OV2 cannot be held responsible for that but they could have catered better and had contingency plans to entertain guests in this situation. It was diabolical and deserted we took a video and photographs and it looked as if me and my partner had the ship to ourselves. There was no atmosphere or excitement as we left Palma which I had envisaged, it was a bit of a let down really.

The food, although a good variety, was served luke warm and therefore by the time you had queued and found a table it was inevitably cold and obviously did not help with the outbreak of gastroenteritis that we heard about but thankfully avoided. Also if you had to leave your table to get something else from the food bar the staff removed your plate and utensils even if you hadn’t finished, I had only got up to get some salad and my plate was removed it was very frustrating. The Bistro was in no way large enough to accommodate the guests wanting to dine there and the only reservation they offered us was on a day and time when we had to cancel as the ship was so rough I could not move from my bed let alone go to eat.

The first episode of concern was from Tunis to Florence and as the ship left Tunisia it became a bit rough like going over small bumps that give you butterflies but gradually worsened and as I lay on my bed unable to get up the waves splashed against the window and it felt like the ship was going to tip over as it leaned to one side. I had suffered these fears for about 3 hours when the captain in his infinite wisdom only then decided to come over the tannoy to tell us that we were experiencing gale force 10 winds and 14ft waves and it was to be expected?? Why could he not have given us this information 3 hrs earlier and lessened our fears?

The entertainment needed a lot to be desired I appreciate that because of bad weather we never got to see the acrobats who were supposed to perform outside on top deck, but the rest of it was very amateurish. There was a couple of young singers who didn’t even bother to dress for the occasion, and although in themselves were okay did became monotonous as they went from bar to bar and therefore if you moved on you saw the same person. The show we saw was also not very impressive and could have been passed as a rehearsal. I honestly thought, and with the feedback I had received from other cruisers, that the entertainment would be something that did just that - entertained.

Another point I would like to make is how everything was sales orientated I felt that they were trying to get money out of you continually. The daily various product sales of perfume, watches, jewellery etc. were one thing but then they bombarded you with art auctions and the drink waiters didn’t let you finish one drink before they were asking you did you want another. There was an abundance of them just walking round pestering you all the time did you want another drink they outnumbered passengers several times. Even on the last day as we waited in reception to disembark they were wandering round asking did we want to buy chocolates or any other souvenirs, it was definitely sales orientated.

The excursions that we did go on weren’t too bad although I don’t feel enough information was given about the shuttle buses etc that had been laid on at little or no cost, obviously because they wanted to get even more money out of you.
There was no cinema on board and although the TV’s in the cabins showed films they were repeated continuously throughout the day and obviously as the weather was bad people were staying in their cabins longer than normal and therefore a variety of films would have been more acceptable.

The final straw that broke the camels back so to speak was on our last day when we left Corsica to arrive in Palma the following morning. It had surprisingly been a good morning the weather had changed it was quite warm and lots of people were sunbathing on top deck, it was a good atmosphere just as it should have been the whole time. However we were due to set sail at 2:00 pm and the wind had got up and people started to cover themselves up. We made our way back to the cabin and noticed it was a bit rocky and I started to pack the cases as they were being collected later that evening. It just got worse from then on and we decided to go to reception as this was supposed to be a more stable option as it was lower deck. However I could not stand it any longer and we precariously made our way back to the cabin holding on and passing sick bags on the way. It was a nightmare the whole cabin was going up and down drawers were sliding open and shut and this was to continue till the early hours of the morning when we arrived in Palma. I was physically being sick every time I tried to move and we had no option as we had to finish packing the cases it was horrendous and an experience I never want to repeat. My partner needed a shower and decided it wasn’t one of his better ideas as he had to hold on to sides of shower cubicle and the water in the bottom was like a tidal wave as it swished up the sides.
Needless to say we were more than relieved the following morning as we arrived at Palma and were eventually allowed to disembark to fly home.

My issues of discontent are :-
HYGIENE –toilets not flushing
FOOD – being kept and served at wrong temperature. Bistro not big enough
ENTERTAINMENT – amateurish and not catering for bad weather
EXCURSIONS – not enough information
INFORMATION – Passengers should be kept informed especially if its their first time cruising. The Captain or crew were seldom seen and did not mix with passengers
SALES – too much selling and pressure

I do appreciate that the weather played a big contribution to this disastrous holiday but that being said I have endured holidays with bad weather before and made the most of it. In this case there were other contributory facts on behalf of OV2 that I feel they should be responsible for. Some of the failings are standard customer care issues of which at the very least you would expect from an experienced company. Unfortunately this experience has left a very bad taste as far as cruising goes and I don’t think I could take the risk of it happening again. It is important that OV2 should be made aware that they do not live up to expectations and that maybe improvements should be made for future passengers comfort.

We boarded the Ocean Village 2 on its Maiden Voyage at Southampton to Palma 6 night cruise. The check in at the quayside was very quick. I was expecting a better send off than we got there was a dismal firework display and if you wanted to toast the ship you had to pay £2 for a glass of cheap Champaign (which by the way was given away free at the art auction) all the same it didn’t spoil the send off. Now for the rest of my review:

Accommodation - The cabin was clean and spacious on par with the OV 1 our cabin was a BC grade (balcony with solid front) it was ok but would not book solid frontage again as you had restricted view. Cabin attendant kept the room clean with fresh towels every day.

Bars & Entertainment - A good selection of drinks were available at all the bars, average cost for a can of beer was £2.20. However the Marquee was very cold the Casbar’s décor was dark brown and red and was seemed very dark and unwelcoming, the Connextions bar was better décor but only slightly but the Balcony bar had better décor. The Sun weaver and pool bar was bright and what you would expect of a poolside bars. The entertainment in these bars were good but “as for the Players bar/Casino/slot machine area” we found this the worst place we went to because this was the only indoor smoking area other than in your own cabin, even smokers complained how smoky it was in there. Which prevent my partner from playing in the Casino which she loves as she has asthma and could not breathe in there.

Food - Waterfront and Plantations were buffet style eating and the food in both were varied daily and was lovely. We ate in La-Luna where there is a £4.75 cover charge and an extra supplement on some of the dishes but the food was exceptional and a must, can not comment on the Bistro as we never ate in there.

Overall we had a fantastic time and the highlight for the cruise was as we were sailing into Gibraltar OV 1 was sailing out and both ships passed each other within a half a mile with both ships sounding there horns and everyone was cheering. We were however slightly disappointed when the ship broke down in Gibraltar, we were meant to sail at 6.00pm but sailed 7 hours later at 1.00am. This meant that we could not make the scheduled stop at Cartagena the next day, a lot of people were very disappointed until the Captain announced OV was to put £100 per person into there on board account which we thought was a nice gesture. I certainly would cruise on the OV 2 again only if they address there smoking policy. I am looking forward to reading the reviews after July 1st to see what changes they make if any.
Feel free to email me at barrymaidment10@hotmail.com if you require any additional information.

The first part of this is not a review more of a statement of facts.
I booked this holiday in July 2006,firstly because it was the maiden trip and secondly because I am disabled.
I booked a cabin on deck 8 No8131 this is because from this deck I could get to the safety meeting/lifeboat drill, however less than a week before we sailed OV wrote to me saying that I was now Three decks lower on deck 5 No5157,
I made several phone calls to OV explaining that from deck 5 I would not be able to attend the boat drill as I could not climb Three flights of stairs, they said there was nothing they could do as they had given my cabin to some one else,but they said that they had contacted OV2 explaining the problem, the Captain, David Box said he had not been told any thing from the company I also wrote to the Managing Director but in true OV standards he ignored it,on arrival at the ship I gave the receptionist a personal letter to give to the Captain explaining the problem the end result was when the boat drill was called I sat in my cabin as I was unable to attend, I asked the captain next day about the letter I had sent him, he said he had not received it but not to worry.

I also booked via the OV web site a helicopter trip, I printed the receipt to confirm this, a month later OV change this to a walking trip around Cannes, the end result I cancelled the trip.

So on to the arrival at Southampton, check in was quick
no problems there, on arrival at our cabin, no cases we had to go to deck 8 and carry our own cases back to deck 5 lots of other people had to do the same,
and in to our cabin, I was surprised at the state of it,the carpets had several stains, the walls had scuff marks and the window was badly chipped, the duvet stunk of stale tobaco, the soap holder was missing,but there was no other choice,
we sailed around 5pm to a fire work display in broad day light,
after dinner in the Waterfront (I went to get an ice cream you had to pay extra for this also you had to pay extra for Orange juice in the morning) and a few drinks we went to bed,
at midnight we heard a sound similar to the ships horn it turned out to be noise from the ships stabilisers we had this noise from the wednesday until Saturday, the team leader said it was not possble to do any thing about it,
The first night the toilets stopped working for 7 hours this problem occured 8 times.
we should have got to Gib at 1pm however the captain wanted to sail past OV1 so we had to stay at sea until OV1 left Gib ,we got of the ship at 3.30 but had to be back on board by 5.30, only to have to a string of messages from captain saying why the ship was not leaving port he finally said at 11.30pm the ship had broken down, now the good news, in the water front knives still had food stains on them but not to worry the glasses still had lip stick and finger marks around them,and the plates were cold and wet,
One day we sailed at 1.00pm this meant that around Two thousand people wanted lunch, of the four restuarants only one was open, to make matters worse half of this was closed to passengers, but the Corporate Chef came past and I heard him say, I am not eating here lets got to part thats closed off.

As for the entertainment that was a complete waste of time, the main feature on sat night was a port talk on Palma, they did have a pianist but for some unknown reason he played Christmas carols at the end of April, don't ask me why I don't have a clue.other entertainment included a comedian, this was held in a room with about 250 seats it was rammed with people, however 14 officers and staff had managed to find them selves seats while most of the passengers stood,
the food overall was not to bad when you consider they had to cater for Two thousand people,
we when to the James Martin Bistro and had a first class meal but it was only what other cruise ships do as standard
OV2 charge £6 each return to go on the shuttle bus to Palma if you get a taxi it was £5 each way for up to Four people,
if you go to Barcelona OV2 charge £2.50 one way, the bus next to the shuttle charges £2.10 return, YES you pay for ice cream in the restuarant and YES you pay for Orange juice, YES they have four Art Auctions every week, on this ship you do not know when you have finished paying, they say its for people who don't do cruises, I say that people who do cruise should not do this, I paid full price for this cruise and feel as if I had been mugged.
would I go on this ship again? maybe if it was a last minute cheap deal.