Pacific Encounter Cabin 11736

Our second cruise, but our first P&O cruise since cruising resumed in Australia. We booked a balcony cabin - our first balcony cabin with P&O as the deal, when we booked way back last year, was too good not to. We are the pink circle and my sister is the blue circle. Another first - our first time with a cabin at the back of the ship.

We were on the Deck 11 and the room key card (cruise card) is in an envelope outside the door. We dropped off our bags, met the cabin stewards and then headed off to lunch. Our cabin stewards, Lacson and Gabby were great, always checking to see if we needed anything.

We did have an issue with the balcony door being really hard to open. We contacted housekeeping three times and reception twice but it wasn't until we spoke with Lacson and he organised for maintenance to fix it. This was the second day - half way through the 3 day cruise. We do like having quite drinks on the balcony in the afternoon, and tea in the morning.

The cabin was fine (other than the hard to open balcony door) although we were surprised at how small it was, very comfortable but small. We have had balconies on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and they are much larger. This cabin was the same as the Coral Princess cabin we sailed in back in July. The bed and pillows were so comfortable, we need them at home.

We had no issues with the bathroom. Water pressure and temperature were great, no toilet plumbing problems. We read so many negative reports about the bathroom, our only negative was the shower curtain. Our preference is NOT a shower curtain - gets the floor all wet. On the plus side P&O provide pool towels in the room. We use them as they are bigger, and use the bathroom towels as floor mats - for the spray from the shower. There is plenty of storage for clothes and suitcases and the wardrobe acts as a dressing room with full length mirror and a light sensor. The light sensor was good at night as it comes on automatically, and in the daytime if one wants it on while dressing, arms have to wave around to get it activated again. I ended up leaving the bathroom door open to get light.

 

There are usb ports in both bedside tablelamps and a double Australian power point on one side of the bed. The 'fridge' cooler was particularly warm and we left the outside wooden door open one day, when we had a slice of cake stored in there, to let the air circulate.  That did make the fridge cooler. There is a dressing table large enough for laptop and a few other items, it also has a few drawers. The air-conditioner was a little cold when we first entered and once we adjusted it we had no problems the rest of the cruise.

The cabin had a large tv with a few channels, including ABC News, and was ok to fill in some time when in the cabin. There was a movie channel that had mostly older movies however I did see part of a newer movie once evening. There was no TV guide so it was hit and miss catching a movie late at night. There is a live camera channel from the front of the ship and a cruise map that gives details of position, tempreture and time. Always good to put on first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

One advantage of a balcony is the balcony. Although small, two chairs and a tiny low table, it was lovely to sit out here on an afternoon with a drink.

We did enjoy having a balcony, and would book it again if the price was right. Our next two Encounter cruises are in a window room - it will be interesting to see what the view is like from the window.