Latest cruise on Ventura

[ChrisPBacon]

Just done a med cruise from Southampton and the weather was spectacular. We've done quite a few cruises now, mainly on P&O and I always post my thoughts after them.....and they always seem to spark debate, particularly on certain subjects.

 

First of all, the food. I have to say that it's improved in the main dining room. Portions seemed a bit bigger (but is that for another reason?) and the menus though broadly the same, were a little more varied.

 

The buffet restaurant is still 'bun fight against the OK Corral'. The layout of the buffet restaurant is awful and creates congestion every time. They still can't do toast [emoji19] and the desserts haven't really changed for god knows how many years. But the food was ok.

 

The Epicurean was amazing. Love every course and I don't want to spoil anything for anyone going on their soon, but the amuse bouche delivered before our dessert played with my head.....in a good way. A lovely fried egg!! [emoji57]

 

The Beach House and Glass house were as always, although we did have one poor meal in the Glass house.

 

Entertainment. Much of it was ok. One or two stars, but average for the rest. There's something 'samey' about the entertainment on P&O ships that's starting to make me roll my eyes when I see the programme. I love songs from the musicals.....but you can get too much of a good thing. There was very little to do on deck in 30+ degree temperatures. Not a lot you can do, but lots going on in bars when the weather was screaming out for deck activities.

 

We stopped at Gibraltar from 1300 to around 1730 and about 1145, they put a Caribbean buffet on deck as people were getting ready to go ashore. Then on the Caribbean night.......no barbecue or deck food to go along with the excellent band 'Serious Sounds'. When they finished their set, people dwindled away. Why wasn't the barbecue done that night, when the weather was lovely and warm and a great band were playing?

 

I've never seen a restaurant so empty on formal nights as I did on this cruise. The weather was hot, so was it just that or a sign that more and more people don't want that formality? Lots of people walking around on formal nights in 'casual'. That's why I wonder if the portions were bigger and we were offered extra meat now and then?

 

My last point (bring forth the arguments [emoji57]) is about tipping. I know....its been done to death! In September of last year, we did a med cruise from Venice and the auto-grats were £3.50pppd. In March when in the Caribbean, they had risen to £5pppd. I only knew this because my brother-in-law, a first time cruiser, read the T&Cs from front to back and saw it. By this cruise, it had gone up to £5.50 and P&O have since removed the figure from their T&Cs, presumably so they can keep increasing it.

 

This is nothing to do with how much the Americans charge. It has little to do with how hard the staff work. This is about a 65% increase.....sneaked on in two instalments, in just one year. I'd love to know what P&O pay their staff, because I'd bet my house their wages haven't gone up 65%. Unless someone can prove otherwise, I think P&O need to retain good staff and are not willing to pay for it, but they ARE willing to have their guests pay and by removing the amount from their T&Cs, where will it stop? Most of the service was pretty good, but our cabin steward was poor and some of the service around the ship was also poor.

 

I went to the desk to remove half of the auto-grats and they now give you a form to complete. The form asks you how much you actually want to pay and the reasons why. Apart from the 65% increase I mentioned, I also said that my spending was much lower on this cruise and the tip amount was out of proportion. What did they do? They removed the whole lot. I was going to go back and tell them to add half back on, until I heard that lots of others did similar, and also had the whole lot removed. The conclusion? The onboard staff couldn't be bothered to read the comments or check the amount I wanted to pay. They just went in and removed all of them. For that reason, I didn't go back.

 

Despite the above, we enjoyed the cruise and there was nothing that spoiled it. As always, I tend to come on here and post the issues I had. P&O still do good cruises and I'd still recommend them. We are in the Caribbean in Feb on Azura, but it will be our last cruise for a while. We feel a bit 'cruised out'. Right now, I'm not sure if I've had too much cruising, or too much of P&O cruises.

 

 

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[PhilbeachTraveller]

We just got back from the short cruise to Western Europe and I must say, I agree with everything you have posted (except the weather!). We've never been on P&O before, and although we enjoyed the itinerary/ports I don't think I would do a longer cruise with them as I found it quite boring on the ship (there's a limit on how may quizzes you want to take part in) and breakfast was horrid in the buffet. In fact, the headline comedian joked that the toast was like shrapnel!

We had 2 formal nights out of 6, and a lot less participants for the 2nd one. But then you're punished by having to have dinner in the buffet if you don't dress up for it.

We went to East, the Indian restaurant, on the last night and it was fantastic. Well worth the extra cost.

I found the bar prices were very reasonable (never been on a British cruise line so used top paying in USD or Euros) and the cabin was fine (except for the non existant aircon). Staff were lovely.

We didn't pay much for this cruise, so felt it was pretty good value and got to visit some lovely places.

[SteveH2508]

We just got back from the short cruise to Western Europe and I must say, I agree with everything you have posted (except the weather!). We've never been on P&O before, and although we enjoyed the itinerary/ports I don't think I would do a longer cruise with them as I found it quite boring on the ship (there's a limit on how may quizzes you want to take part in) and breakfast was horrid in the buffet. In fact, the headline comedian joked that the toast was like shrapnel!

We had 2 formal nights out of 6, and a lot less participants for the 2nd one. But then you're punished by having to have dinner in the buffet if you don't dress up for it.

We went to East, the Indian restaurant, on the last night and it was fantastic. Well worth the extra cost.

I found the bar prices were very reasonable (never been on a British cruise line so used top paying in USD or Euros) and the cabin was fine (except for the non existant aircon). Staff were lovely.

We didn't pay much for this cruise, so felt it was pretty good value and got to visit some lovely places.

 

We were on this same cruise. The buffet toast was lethal (as was the fried bread (no golden triangles:(). The sit down MDR breakfast was a joke - the gammon steak was hiding under a tiny fried egg! We hit the buffet afterwards for a bacon sandwich to fill up.

 

The MDR dinners were fine however. We had a meal at East - the soft shell crab was gorgeous - DW's lobster was overcooked - probably not worth £20 pp compared to some Indian restaurants I've eaten at on land.

 

One other irritation - why show a film in Havana night club? No-one could see the screen (which was not much bigger than our TV at home). The theatre would have been much more sensible.

 

No Martini tasting on sea days either:mad:.

 

Guernsey tendering was slooooow as well.

 

Overall not a bad cruise, but we've had better.