Wow what a ship absolutely brill. This being our first cruise we did not know what to expect but finished way above our expectations in every department. Will definitely be booking another with you.
Despite some reports the ship was in quite good condition. Our cabin was clean and well kept with good storage. The dining room was good with plenty of room , much more than other cruise lines. The food in the MDR was good, but the buffet lacked a little imagination. The entertainment was generally good and liked the Metropolis bar and the Glass House. did not like the set up in Havana but preferred Tamarin. We are booked on Ventura again in December
We thoroughly enjoyed our first cruise on the Ventura. The service we received from the cabin through to the dining staff was first rate. We really enjoyed dining at the other restaurants on ship, and especially liked the Glass House. The excursions were okay, part from the camel ride trip in Lanzarote which was amazing. I would definately recommend cruising on this ship, and we are looking forward to our next cruise very soon.
Lovely ship. Great service. All we have become used to with P&O. Did not use excursions but they have been good, if expensive, in the past. Glad to hear that 'service charge' and wifi are to be included in the overall cost soon. Nor before time,as I have said on every cruise we have taken! Look forward to the next cruise with P&O possibly next question year to Norway.
Great ship, food, in fact everything was superb, it was the places we docked that were really not that good as there was nothing there, so without using the tour's you saw little
Bad weather on three days out so the indoor pool on Ventura was a must. Unfortunately arriving on a Sunday in Madeira meant my grandson was unable to visit Renaldo museum & some shops closed. The Canaries were lovely with nice beaches. The only negative was a lot of walking at ports Great entertainment & shows. Overall good cruise
When we booked our holiday we went for an outside cabin with obstructed views. The cabin was very nicely laid out and had everything we could of wanted. However nobody had mentioned that we would be above the Theatre and therefore we had loud music thumping until 11.15 most evenings. This affected our children as they could not get to sleep. We felt that the menus on the Gala evenings were very poor and the menus were not explained very well. We were unaware that we could still order certain dishes which are available on all evenings. The lobster and lamb were so overcooked we could not even cut them. The overall service we had was very good however when we booked the cruise we were not told that there would be a daily charge for tips that would be added to our bill. I do believe that children over the age of 12 should not have to pay tips. The only point i would make is that the additional surcharge costs for using the retreat or to eat in the additional restaurants were a bit much. I can understand you might have to charge but considering what you pay for a cruise an additional £28 per person to try different restaurants was well over the top.
Loved being away in February for 5 weeks. Never cruised to the Caribbean before, had high expectations for Jamaica but was quite disappointed, the weather was really good but hurricanes had affected our itinerary. I would not choose to go to the Caribbean again unless staying in one of the good hotels however the rest of the cruise to North America was amazing. Loved Key West, New Orleans And Charleston, all on my bucket list. The immigration process into America badly ate into our time in New Orleans, not sure what P&O could do about that . Again, an impending hurricane affected our transatlantic crossing and we were unable to break our return journey at the Azores. Spent 10 days at sea , love being at sea with good weather but in March we were confined inside for 4 days. Not too bad but they closed all the shops for renovations. Not good P&O. All in all can thoroughly recommend this cruise.
Service very good. Entertainment, some better than others , you can’t please everyone. Baggage claim at Southampton very poor and chaotic, needs looking at.
We were on the Ventura a couple of years ago and in the main it is the same ship. We did notice that some of the little 'extras' were missing, such as afternoon tea in The Retreat (which we complained about so much was nominally reintroduced). I suppose my main disappointment was with the entertainment, especially in the Arena where they decided to raise the volume considerably and then add too much echo so that much of the singing became a piercing shrill and ruined much of the enjoyment. One production from Headliners was so bad that whole rows walked out. Also, there were several 'Tribute' acts; Adele, Gary Barlow, Frank Sinatra & Eric Clapton which, for me was too much and some were not very good either. We did hit extremely bad weather and so missed out on the Greek Islands and many complained, but you can not control nature and the Captain and Crew did the right thing by protecting us and the vessel from danger. But all things considered we really had a great time and would definitely recommend it.
