Living the high life on the high seas

TO many, the notion of cruising still suffers from an ageing stereotype which is wildly off the mark.

The antiquated view that cruise liners are little more than seaborne retirement homes is, in this writer’s experience, the most prominent reason why young men and women scoff at the idea of spending their hard-earned time off sailing the ocean waves.

There is a common misconception that all a cruise entails is coffee and cake on deck, all day, every day, with nothing much else to do, surrounded by the older generation.

However, while there is enough coffee and cake to keep the most staunch afternoon tea fans satisfied, cruising offers so much more. It’s a comfortable compromise between Eastbourne and the West End; a floating village of activity, energy and total relaxation neatly flatpacked into a well-presented, superbly serviced box, where tranquillity and vibrancy happily cohabit.

Our cruise – a four-night jaunt aboard P&O’s Azura – departed from Southampton and within 25 minutes of arriving at the terminal we were in one of the 115,000-ton superliner’s two buffet lunch restaurants, trying to pick from a vast selection of food.

Compare that to the arduous process of flying to holiday destinations, with hours-long waits in faceless departures lounges, incessant security checks and airline meals.

Azura can handle up to 3,100 passengers at once, with around half that number of crew on board at the same time and, given our trip fell in the school half-term, the ship was at her capacity. However, with those on board spread over 16 decks of cabins, cocktail bars, lounges, games rooms, pools and a fully furnished spa retreat, remarkably it never feels overcrowded.

We estimated the age split among the guests to be at around 50 per cent over 60 but there was a diverse mix of young families, couples and the veteran traveller amongst our ranks – very much a floating community.

The ship itself is kept in superb condition, with an army of cabin stewards, deck hands and cleaners sprucing up her various facilities 24-seven. Our cabin steward, Hector, was prolific. The room was cleaned twice a day, with beds made up prior to dinner and turned down again in time for our return. He showed a dab hand at towel animals, too, and those little touches add warmth and personality to a holiday – an important factor that can get lost in chain hotels.

In fact, the service in general aboard Azura was excellent, ranging from the promptness of our champagne breakfast on day two through to the silver service at dinner in the ship’s two fine dining restaurants – Sindhu and Seventeen – to the waiters and waitresses who wouldn’t allow your glass to stay empty for long, whether you were on deck five or 16.

P&O cruises include the vast majority of your meals within the cost of the holiday, including six-course, sit-down dinners in the ship’s main dining rooms, helpings from the poolside pizzeria and breakfast from the buffet. However, a cover charge – which varies depending on the length of the cruise – is applied for visits to Sindu and Seventeen.

The ship is a cash-less zone, with all transactions – the purchasing of drinks and souvenirs, for example – done through a ‘cruise card’ system, which is charged to a debit or credit card at the end of your holiday.

Sindhu – a British-Asian fusion option with a menu designed by Michelin-starred Atul Kotchar – came in at £20 a head and was seriously good value for money. Tender meat, stunning flavours and surprisingly dazzling desserts were the order of the day.

In Seventeen, passengers are treated to a lavish dining experience. Serrano ham is carved at the table, pineapples are flambeed right in front of the diners and unexpected pre-aperitifs compliment an already blisteringly good menu. For £26 a head, once again it was money well spent.

A third dining option which takes an extra charge is The Glasshouse, a wonderfully designed wine bar in the middle of the ship which serves tapas-style dishes throughout the day. At a cost of three dishes for £5, we were blown away by the quality.

The wine list, put together in conjunction with TV expert Olly Smith, was encyclopaedic, too, with wines ranging from the French classics to a rather unusual Japanese white.

While all three extra dining options were excellent, guests are still treated like kings in the ship’s main restaurants at dinner time, where the service is as good as anything you are likely to experience at high-end bistros.

Passengers can either choose a first sitting (6.30pm) or second sitting (8.30pm) for regularity, or they can pick freedom dining, where tables are allocated to hungry diners on a first come, first served basis.

We chose the latter and, though we felt a little rushed on our first visit, as the waiting staff accelerated through the courses to the point that my girlfriend had her soup whisked from under her nose as she inhaled the final mouthful, when we returned for a second time we found it a lot less panicked.

We resolved that pitching up half an hour before the restaurant was due to close was probably the catalyst for our initial hurried meal.

The buffets, though offering an array of dishes from across world cuisine, were the biggest let-down in terms of quality. Azura caters for its guests every hour of the day, and while the self-service meals were hardly woeful, when compared to what was on offer elsewhere they were fairly nondescript.

When you feel like you’ve reached capacity, the ship’s fully equipped gym offers an outlet to work off those extra calories, or you can choose to be pampered in the floating haven of the spa.

Away from eating and drinking, the ship lays on entertainment all day, every day. Each evening every cabin receives a run-down of the day’s events in newsletter form and, while there is plenty to get your teeth into, perhaps here is where the stereotype is still well fed. Quizzes, lectures, films and bingo feature prominently on the itinerary, and those less inclined to take part are left to their own devices – which generally seems to mean sampling each and every one of Azura’s nine bars and lounges or gambling in the ship’s small casino, which offers blackjack, three card poker, roulette and slots.

If you’re not the gambling type, you could while away a few hours watching a movie under the stars at the outdoor cinema, complete with pool and hot tubs.

International tenor Alfie Boe wowed crowds in The Playhouse – Azura’s 800-seat theatre – on the second night, though we did not find the time to see the ship’s own performing arts company or comedian as there was simply to much to do in such a short space of time.

After a day at sea, Azura arrived in Zeebrugge and a 30-minute shuttle bus ride into Bruges gave us plenty of time to explore the historic Belgian town, its mazy waterways and cherry beer.

With cruise liners generally only staying in port at any given place for around eight hours, those who enjoy jumping into a culture while on holiday may find it hard to get real fulfilment. However, the ease of disembarkation – no passport control is required as all the details are sorted by the cruise company prior to departure – makes for a much more relaxing visit.

Passengers disembark and embark using their cruise card, which acts as an ID card as well as a payment method for the duration of the holiday. Returning to the ship has become a little more tedious in recent years due to added security criteria but, regardless, it took no more than 15 minutes to make our way up the gangway and back on board.

Next stop, the following day, was St Peter Port in Guernsey. With the rain refusing to relent, we spent little more than 90 minutes ashore before retreating back to The Glasshouse.

And that’s the magic of cruising – if one thing isn’t to your taste there are 100 different ways to spend your day.

<li> Sam Morshead was a guest of P&O Cruises. The cost of two people sharing a luxury deluxe balcony cabin for four nights on a similar cruise to this one is roughly £700 per person, though there are cheaper alternatives. Log on to pocruises.com for more details.