The only cruises we have done previously were with Airtours about 8-10 yrs ago. We could not fault them then. This time we took several steps up the ladder from budget to 4* cruising with P & O and the brand new Azura on only its 3rd cruise. We arrived at the terminal to find hardly a spare seat in the check-in hall, what's this I thought, looks worse than Manchester Airport on a bad day. Unfortunately there had been a pile-up on the M-way and lots of people had been delayed and all arrived at once. We found a seat but before we knew it we were being checked-in, brilliant. Then, to set foot on the Azura, wow! We had splashed out and booked a deluxe balcony cabin. Really it was too big just for the two of us but we enjoyed it. To say that there were 3000 passengers on board you never really noticed it except at meal and show times, the rest of the time we were left wondering where they all were. The ship I could only decribe as fantastic, the food out of this world, the service superb, the entertainment excellent. As first time P & O cruisers I can only say"we'll be back". One thing that I was most pleasantly surprised about was the price of beverages and alcohol. £1.70 for a latte coffee, served with a smile every time, and the accompaniment of a very listenable pianist in the Blue Bar, just my cup of tea, sorry coffee. Also it was nice not to be hassled by the waiters into ordering drinks, one "no thank you" and they didn't come back unless you asked them to. Nice touch, very unlike the American ships, so we hear from fellow cruisers. So in a nutshell, P&O and Azura-we're hooked. Would we do it again, you bet.