Well the ship really needs a shake up.Looks its age.not as clean when we last went on ship.(june 10)could do better.food can not fault.well staff not intrested,Only 1 was o.k,yes 1.others had long contracts which were coming to a end.The resturant was a joke no leadership from head waiters,waited most nites for table.(freedom),but i put that down to oap,s,who were rude with it.my fault wont book early again,If you got to breakfast early & were sat in a chair that the oap,s used,you had the death look,so we waited for the for them to move on.the entertainment was good,could have been better,still you had to be at the venue before the oap,s,still the bars were clear at nite.i must say i do have not any grudges with the oap,s.????? The capt we saw once,was the annoucments made in the morning,recorded,Not like Hamish reid who mixed with the passengers.

Just had a two week cruise to the Caribbean, have to say the reviews prior to sailing were a little negative, however we found the ship to be very friendly and clean. The standard of food was good but sometimes the service in the Ligurian restaraunt was sluggish, more so if you had a table for two. We tried the horizon grill one night and the food and service were beyond reproach, just superb. We also dined at the Marco Piere White and this too was fantastic, with quite large helping's, of course there is a surcharge for eating at these venue's ,but well worth it.
The staff were all really friendly and very helpful, they always had time to chat and joke with you and were very courteous at all times.
The entertainment was beyond belief, the Headliners were better than a lot of west end show's we have seen, the energy level's were incredible and the routines were fantastic. It was a pleasure to watch this talented group of people who really seemed to enjoy what they were doing, also the comedian/magician and the other comedian were excellent. We really were blessed with two week's of brilliant entertainment.

Would we sail on this ship again? Yes, having sailed on Ventura two years ago everybody told us to give Oceana a try as it is a really sociable ship, they were not wrong. Although smaller than Ventura it never felt small and you did bump into familiar faces a lot more often. Only once did any problems arise and that was with the dreaded towels on sunbeds, we were unable to find a sunbed at 0840 and had to sit in a chair for the best part of the day at sea, however the ships staff did start removing towels etc from beds which prompted some heated exchanges, but if your not sitting on it for two hours then give it somenoe who will! Fair play to them for making an effort to stop the one thing that Brits complain about, Germans reserving sunbeds at most resort's.

Finally a word about the captain. On Ventura the captain kept a large distance from the passenger's, this captain was the total opposite , a real people person who spoke to you when he saw you, went on shore trips with you and alway's kept you informed about the day's destination's and the following day's arrival time etc. If you are lucky enough to sail with captain Diangelo you are in for a treat!

We have booked to go on Azura next winter so we will see what delight's she hold's !

this is the best ship ever, it is my favourite out of the fleet, if you didnt like it well then go do some other sad things on the internet other than post negitive things on nice ships websites.

We sailed on the 25th October 2010 from Southampton to the Carribean on the Oceana. The ship was fantastic from the moment we embarked to leaving the ship 2 weeks later the whole holiday was fantastic! The ship was clean, the food was extremely good, the service from the staff was brilliant, especially in the Winners bar on Deck 8.

This is our second cruise but the first with P & O and I must say it is the most enjoyable adventure, sailing from Southampton it took 4 days to Maderia which is a beautiful island, then 5 more days to arrive in Antigua then we visited St Martin,Dominica,St Lucia and Barbados, the days at sea were fantastic and the islands we visited were fabulous.

Cruised Princess in the past,far superior to P and O, down market with typical that will do for the british.Americans demand a higher service which you get on Princess.Staff levels and food cut to the minimum.Strong curry smell in cabin,little or no assistance on excursions, plaza grill like 70s motorway services.Club Dining quite good but several meals under cooked and over salted.If a first time cruiser you would not know the decline in service standard,Try other lines in the carnival group that have more Americans on board quite draining with them but a better service

We have just returned from a transatlantic cruise on the oceana, we are in our 20's and 30's. the ship was fantastic, the staff could not do enough to help and serve you, the ship is very clean and we noticed staff working around the clock to maintain the ship, even when we docked they was painting and cleaning off access equipment. They closed part of the plaza for a refit but did not see or hear any work, we wasn't disturbed at all. very professional

In eating areas chairs and carpets stained with food - Cabin carpets stained

In Horizon Grill T bone steaks not available (Still had to pay £15 cover charge)

Crew efficient but not happy - Restaurant service average


Good but sound systems very loud and
distorted over whole ship


Too British and down market - Reminded us of Butlins

We went on the Oceana in August and had forgotten to post a review on this site and as many of the folk on here helped us to pick our first cruises we thought we'd better add one !

Our Med cruise in August was our first cruise with P&O after a week on OV2 last year and a last minute decision once the ash cloud hit and we got the cruise at a bargain price. We didn't regret that decision to swap holidays once throughout the whole 2 weeks.

Check in at Southampton was faultless and very quick. We boarded the ship at 12.30pm and waited until about 2pm for our cabin. The Plaza Buffet was manic though and seats limited if you wanted a meal there and then. The atmosphere when we left Southampton was amazing (choked me up!) as the band played as we left. It really was something special - particularly when it is your first cruise. It threw it down with rain as soon as we left port but no one seemed to care !

Our cabin A318 was lovely and much better than we had expected. It was smaller than the OV2 but plenty big enough for the 2 of us, with lots of wardrobe space for our luggage and space under the beds for the cases. The shower was smaller than last year but hubby managed and he is very tall and 'chunky' (to save a marriage).The balcony was a little smaller than last year but plenty big enough for our needs with 2 comfy recliners. We were on deck 11 and noticed that balconies on some of the decks below seemed much smaller - we think that was anything below deck 10. We could watch the Capt and crew on the Bridge as we left the various ports which made some sailaways special. We had no problems with anyone smoking / smoke and our neighbours were perfect and we hardly heard a sound (we just had the odd word across the balcony when we were sailing away from ports).

We used freedom dining and this suited us perfectly. If you go down at about 6.30pm expect to have to wait for about 45 minutes if you want a table for 2. This was no problem though and we were given a pager and just had a drink while we waited. The Ligurian Restaurant was for freedom dining and we found the staff more than friendly, professional and polite. the food was excellent and tables for 2 were spaced out nicely. Sometimes they used the tables for 4 if there was high demand.

We used the Plaza Buffet for breakfast and for our midday / afternoon snacks. Twice, after long days we ate here at night and enjoyed the themed buffets in more relazed surroundings. We also tried the Marco Pierre White twice but have to say that we didn't think it was as good as The Bistro on OV2 and were very disappointed in the Horizon Grill which didn't seem very special considering we had paid a relatively large additional charge for using it. Thinking back there were restaurants to suit everyone and I am sure that everyone was able to eat what, where and in whatever style restaurant they chose.

We loved the formal nights as the whole ship was transformed and thoroughly enjoyed P&O's little traditions like the champagne fountain and the procession of the restaurant staff on the final formal nights. We are glad that we joined in with the formal dress code as it was fun to dress up (first time since we got married!).

The weather for our cruise was very mixed and as someone else has said we got drenched in Florence / Pisa. The weather can't be helped though and we made the best of every day - rain, sunshine or fog! We did notice a few days that the ship rolled quite a bit but we don't suffer from sea sickness so were more than happy.

One thing that really impressed us was the number of sunbeds on sea days. (mid school holidays) There are lots of different places to sunbathe, some quiet and some round the pools (which were noisier). We never once had a problem finding anywhere to sit. Lots of people enjoyed the promenade deck, playing deck games and just relaxing. The promenade deck was also a beautiful place to go for a walk in the evenings and watch the sun set / dolphins watch.

The excursions were excellent value (apart from when it rained!) and we were pleased with the price of drinks onboard. We tended to have bottled water and thought it was good to be able to purchase bottled water as a package for your cabin. Next year we are on Celebrity and are already thinking that we are going to miss the P&O prices !

One highlight was watching the dolphins swim alongside us on the way home. To be honest it cheered us up as we felt quite sad as we made our way home. I suppose the only downside of the cruise was that after Barcelona we felt like we were on the way home (which in effect we were) and felt like the 2 sea days on the way home were gloomy as the weather was grim and they felt so 'final'. I think that is the only thing that would make us hesitate booking a cruise from Southampton again rather than a fly cruise.

Finally, we must mention the children / families on board. We both work in schools and were hoping that it wasn't too manic during the school holidays. We were not disappointed as we thought that the children / teenagers were exceptionally well behaved and well mannered (polite, holding doors open for us, well behaved etc etc). A ship full of adults only can lack atmosphere and we are glad that we went on a family cruise.

Could go on and on about our holiday - we had a really fabulous time and it went far too quickly. Thank you Oceana and P&O - we will be back.

Hi we have just got back today from the West Med on Oceana and the ship and all the crew were excellent we cannot fault anything, ok we are first timers, i would recomend to all the ship and the accomadation, we had a balcony. We found the entertainment brilliant espicially the Headliners.
The food was excellent too. There were 4 formal evenings, the whole experience was perfick and we will be back.

P&0 Oceana, Caribbean, 5/2/10. When we booked we thought we were booking an upmarket cruise, having cruised with Royal Caribbean, Princess, Carnival, and MSC.
Sadly we were wrong, compared with the Sea Princess it was a down market ship.
At first glance it seemed ok but after a while you would start to notice the general upkeep of the ship was not up to the standards of other cruise lines, eg ripped carpets with yellow tape holding the carpet together, scratched and damaged panels on the lifts, cracked tiles, pealing varnish on the hand rails, the ship is in need of a facelift. Entertainment in the evening was disappointing, other than the shows put on by the entertainments team which were excellent. During the cruise we had 4 nights of piano recitals with only a handful of people in the Starlight’s bar. If you like to dance on a small 15ft dia dance floor along with the sequence dancers then the Atrium is the place for you. Although Ron & Pat would put different music on for different styles of dancing if requested. We found that the Yacht and Compass dance floor was taken up with tables and chairs to accommodate the quiz night, but was not cleared after the quiz, more for the convenience of the crew, and not the enjoyment of the dancers. We did complain but found that the next night more tables on the dance floor (so why have a dance floor?) After a more strongly put complaint the tables and chairs were cleared. So should we have had to complain in the first place? The band Illusions in the Yacht & Compass was very good. The buffet on deck 14 was poor out of the 7 nights we went to eat only 4 were good. Breakfast and lunch was excellent, with plenty of choice.
The restaurant was ok, but not excellent, one night I had lamb with the blood still coming out of the meat, which ruined my appetite for the evening. I would give it 3 stars. The crew were ok but not happy, would say hello but with no smiles. On the plus side the captain Hamish Reid was excellent, he would talk over the intercom every morning, and most evenings with his Scottish whit, which was nice to hear and keep you informed as to what was happening that day or evening and give advice about the sun ect. He was regularly seen walking around talking to the passengers. When we disembarked at Barbados he was at the bottom of the gang plank shaking hands and saying goodbye. If I was asked to rate our cruises I would say P&O 6/10. Carnival MSC & Princess 9/10, Royal Caribbean 10/10.