Pacific Aria Review

4.0 / 5.0
0 reviews

Not Happy

Review for Australia & New Zealand Cruise on Pacific Aria

Hi, my husband and I and 2 friends boarded this cruise on the 13th August to the New Guinea Islands. My first disappointment was the fact that we could not take on a pack of bottled water or the usual 2 bottles of wine on baord, like we could on every other cruise. And our first thoughts as we headed towards the boat was how tired and dirty the boat looked. As the cruise sailed up the Brisbane River, we all decided to get a cocktail to celebrate the beginning of our holiday only to find out that the cocktails we ordered had half the amount of alcohol in them. It was on another P & O Cruise that the bar staff taught us how to make Mudslides and Toblerones and these cocktails on the Aria were like chocolate milkshakes, the other drinks on the boat seemed to be watered down as well. Not impressed at all. This happened right throughout the cruise and when we questioned the bar staff they just said (It is company policy) which I can only gather is what they have been told to say. Not good enough. We wrote in a complaint at desk and asked to see someone higher up, which of course never happened. The next complaint is the variety of food in the Pantry Dining - poorer quality and poorer variety of food than any other cruise we have been on. We tried 3 other restaurants and was not happy with the amount of dishes to choose from, on there menu's and at these venues. Had much better on other P & O Boats. Then we went to see a show - because of the layout and low tiering of the seats in the Marquee - we could not see the stage performances hardly at all, and in the end, we had to get to the Marquee sometimes 3/4 of an hour earlier just to get a seat in front of the glass petitions on the top level to be able to see the show. Then there was the trivia - we learnt early that we also had to get to trivia at least 1/2 hour beforehand just to get a seat and many people just walked away in disgust. When we ordered drinks from any venue (except the Dome room) we had a long wait. Any venue that had a good entertainer at it, just got swamped with people and there, again, was no where to sit. The layout of the boat is very poor. The adult pool on the back deck didn't even have 1 spa - this has never happened on another ship. Pretty poor. The only 2 spa's on the main deck were usually full of kids and parents. The amount of toilet facilities around the boat were very poor and outdated. None I found had more than 2 toilets in them. We were all very disappointed with this cruise ship and would never go on it again and this was not just our opinion - there were people on the boat that told us how disappointed they were as well. The only good thing I could say about the boat is that the rooms were nice and that the staff cleaning our room were very good. I feel this trip was not worth the money we spent on it. The only way P & O will get us back on their boats is to give us a free cruise to prove they have changed their policies and maybe ditch the Aria boat or give it a make over. I feel terrible to make this sad revue but feel it is necessary to do so and hope P & O read it and make plans to rectify situation before more people right more sad revues.

Cabin Review

Cabin OA

Our cabin was very nice and the staff who cleaned our room were excellent at their jobs. Their names were Selve and Eliza.

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