This month I got a great deal on a weeks winter cruise to Northern Europe from the UK. It left from Southampton calling at Hamburg, Rotterdam and Bruges.

It is one of P&O’s newer cruise ships, that when full can accomodate more than 5000 guests. I was not sure what to expect beforehand but was more than pleasantly surprised with the great range of food, bars and activities onboard.

Here is the main atrium a feature of the ship, and then below is the rooftop swimming pool that doubled up as an evening entertainment venue.

I did not ate at all the restaurants and places onboard there is that many, including traditional sit down table service evening meals, from the onboard buffet, and other speciality dining venues, like the indian food we had below.

There was also tex-mex food at another of the restaurants we went to one evening. There is also a slightly more formal dress up night for a very well presented tasty 3 course meal. Overall it was a great first cruise for me, and I will definitely try a cruise again in the future.