Oti Mabuse and other big names join the Strictly Come Dancing cruise where fans get to see four hour-long shows and take masterclasses taught by the professionals
OTI MABUSE has definitely got her sea legs – and she’s put them to good use on a P&O Strictly Come Dancing cruise.
She and TV mates Craig Revel Horwood, Janette Manrara, Aljaž Skorjanec, Giovanni Pernice and Oksana Platero are the latest big names to join the show’s five-year-old seaborne version — and The Sun went along too.
The cruises follow two routes — the Mediterranean or the Baltic states — and I, a cruise first-timer, picked the two-week St Petersburg option.
Arriving in Southampton I boarded P&O’s flagship liner Britannia and headed to my comfortable cabin. There was plenty of Strictly-themed entertainment on board. Each week the professional dancers put on four dance showcases which are automatically ticketed so no one misses out.
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The hour-long shows give fans the chance to see these dancers’ true talents up close, and they are quite spectacular.
Janette and Aljaž wowed with the waltz, jive and a beautiful America smooth while Oti and Giovanni got the party started with a saucy samba and passionate paso doble.
During the day, the theatres were packed for the Q&A chats with the dancers and judge Craig, and the professionals hosted masterclasses in the beautiful art deco ballroom.
For foodies, there was a cookery course run by dessert chef Eric Lanyard — and several specialist restaurants such as the Indian Sindhu, where diners can pay extra for a different meal from the complementary eateries.
The meals in the all-inclusive restaurants are first-class so there’s really no need to splash out if you don’t want to.
But if you are vegetarian it really does pay to look at the special menu, which has to be booked 24 hours ahead, as I found to my cost when faced with my worst nightmare — goat’s cheese, in both starter and main.
Among the city stops, Tallinn, Stockholm and Oslo were particularly beautiful (I can recommend the Segway tour of the latter) and the sight of the Swedish fjords as our huge liner navigated between the tiny islands, some of which had just one house, was stunning.
But the highlight for me was the breathtakingly extravagant gilded palaces of St Petersburg. From Catherine Palace, with its unique amber room, to Peterhof Palace’s gold fountains and the ornate rooms of the Hermitage, these are not to be missed.
The excursions are not cheap and are not always necessary, as a shuttle bus will take you to each city centre, but in St Petersburg it’s essential unless you want to take a chance and arrange your own Russian visa. A word of warning if you dock at Zeebrugge — the bus takes you to the seaside town of Blankenberge but instead it is well worth taking the ten-minute train journey to Bruges, a much prettier place to spend the day.
After seeing the places I might never have visited, and enjoying the most stress-free fortnight of my adult life, I could well be a convert to cruises.
I just need to practise my cha-cha-cha.
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GO: Strictly Cruising
GETTING / STAYING THERE: P&O Cruises is offering a 14 night Strictly-themed cruise on Azura, visiting Spain, France and Italy, from £969 per person for an inside cabin.
Departing Southampton on April 13, 2018, price includes kids’ clubs, full-board meals and entertainment on board.
Ports of call are Alicante, Barcelona, Toulon, La Spezia, Rome, Cartagena and Gibraltar, returning to Southampton.
See pocruises.com or call 0843 373 0111.
