1st Cruise with P&O - Canaries on Ventura

[JDB78]

Returned home yesterday after 2 weeks on board Ventura and I must say we had a great time. It was by no means perfect and had some ups and downs, but to be honest it went far better than we expected and would definitely sail with P&O again - good job as we'd already booked on Arvia next June.

 

So pre cruise we were worried having never sailed with P&O before and only really having sailed with RC on the Independence. Our main concerns were the lack of activities or facilities on board Ventura compared to the RC ships, the age of Ventura and also we were unsure of exactly what the general ambience would be like onboard. I'd always thought of P&O was being quite formal and dare I say stuffy? In contrast to this were reports that Ventura could be Butlins at sea at times.

 

Sailing with 2 kids 6 &16 so quite a big age gap, our main concern was would they get bored? Our 6 year old daughter we were less worried about as we knew she would make at least some use out of the kids club. Our 16 year old son we knew wouldn't bother with the club and we thought would have to make do with the sports court.

 

Parking with CPS was a bit of a pain compared to ABP. Was asked to wait in a queue for about 30-40 mins in blazing hot heat whilst they checked everyone's car, took pics etc. I get it but ABP was literally show your paperwork, park at the next available bay then they take the luggage from you. 

 

1st impressions of Ventura were mixed, we quickly realised that the sports court was tiny and unusable if more than 1 or 2 others were already in there. The gym was functional but quite dated and small compared to the Indy. First morning on board, struggled for sunbeds anywhere - eventually finding some up on about deck 17/18 - not great for kids wanting to use the pool. 

 

We found the layout on Ventura was quite quirky, for kids club it was walk through the 1st buffet area then up a floor, for Bay Tree restaurant it was down to 7 walk across then down again. For those familiar with the Indy, everything is very open plan and built around the Royal Promenade and we were surprised Ventura didn't have something similar - well apart from the mid-ship Atrium - just made navigating the ship that bit more difficult especially in the 1st few days.

 

Few days in settled into a good routine, up early, got beds by the main pool no problem. Used the buffet for breakfast, which did get very busy, but food was ok, with a decent selection. The pool side snacks were ok for the kids, the buffet restaurant although quite limited in choice, was great for a quick bite for lunch. We used the mdr for dinner and again the choice was quite limited but always managed to find something and quality was generally good - seemed to be quite a lot variation in the cooking of steak however. Son ordered sirloin quite a few times, always medium - result was different always every time - no big deal however.

 

Sun had been shining pretty much since day 1, all was going well, cabin was inside, was small but functional. We prefer to spend as least as we can on the price of the cruise, so gives us that bit more to spend on other things. We don't tend to spend much time in the cabin so not something we worry about.

 

Got to the Canaries and the captain mentioned about high winds due to 2 weather fronts meeting. He said we would have done an alternative port but where we were the weather conditions were going to be the same so ploughed on. In port weather conditions were absolutely fine out at sea, was quite rough. Having paid the early saver unfortunately we were placed right at the front. For 2 nights straight we got no sleep due to the motions, loud bangs - literally like explosions or some smashing metal containers together. There also seemed to be machinery near to us so could hear a lot of whirring off and on. Spoke to reception to see if anything they could do and were lucky enough to get a move so cant praise them highly enough for resolving that for us. As soon as we made our way back north the weather conditions couldn't have been better. The ocean up to and over the bay of biscay was as flat as a board.

 

The shows were great, a decent choice although some acts were on twice, so if they weren't your thing, tough. P&O seem to excel at the evening entertainment so if one venue doesn't suit, the chances are a different one will. Game shows, singers, horse racing, magicians etc. From memory with RC they really pushed the main show, but little other options.

 

Overall there were only a few negatives really. The general facilities on board. If P&O want to compete with other brands for the family market they really do need to build ships with more varied facilities. Gangs of youths - when I say gangs, not exactly inner city gangs. They all seemed very well turned out in appearance and quite well spoken (most of the time) but still several groups of around 10-15 mid teen boys and girls is quite off-putting and maybe intimidating for some. Couple of other small gripes - people talking when shows were going on - witnessed 2 occasions were a guest turned round and gave them an earful - wasn't kids / young adults doing the talking either. Son was left stood at the glass house bar for 10 mins after ordering a drink, was annoying he seemed to be forgotten about and they didn't think to speak to him again after making his order - but these things happen.

 

Sorry for such a long post - had every intention of keeping it short. Overall a great family holiday, good mix of people, good weather, good entertainment - little bits that could have been better, but for price we paid - not to mention the fact of no cruising for 4 years, we were so glad we booked.

[SarahHben]

We are doing the same itinerary on Ventura next August so it was interesting reading about your experiences, thank you.

I followed Ventura on the ship tracker for the last fortnight so see where she docked etc. We have a port side balcony cabin booked and she seemed to dock on that side more often than not. 

We have to go in the summer holidays as I look after my Grandson and my daughter works term times so we are thinking of paying extra for the Retreat depending on price.

[AndyMichelle]

Great, balanced review, thank you. 

I think that sums up most of our pre covid experiences, never perfect but always manage to have a good holiday. 

Glad some form of normality seems to be coming back. 

Hopefully Arvia will give you more of what you need. 

Andy 

[Billish]

11 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

she seemed to dock on that side more often than not. 

Although that means nothing for future cruises. Weather,  tides, other ships in port etc will determine which direction the ship faces when in port.

[gsmt47471015]

Thanks for a good ,balanced and factual review, always nice to get first hand accounts. We have always been at the front of Ventura, and Azura, and only once have we heard a very loud metallic bang when we were told the crew thought we had run into a rogue shipping container.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise 

[Plugtheleak]

We are booked on  Ventura for N222 which looks to be the same itinerary as this one. Great to here you had a good time and we are getting excited now for our trip. So to my question, which of the pay extra restaurants are open?

[kevcharben]

3 hours ago, SarahHben said:

We are doing the same itinerary on Ventura next August so it was interesting reading about your experiences, thank you.

I followed Ventura on the ship tracker for the last fortnight so see where she docked etc. We have a port side balcony cabin booked and she seemed to dock on that side more often than not. 

We have to go in the summer holidays as I look after my Grandson and my daughter works term times so we are thinking of paying extra for the Retreat depending on price.

We have just returned from this cruise, and we took the option of the retreat for the full 2 weeks.

Cost was £240, and in my view full value for what we want when on board.

A couple of tiny gripes with it but noyjing that would stop us doing it again.

 

[SarahHben]

3 hours ago, kevcharben said:

We have just returned from this cruise, and we took the option of the retreat for the full 2 weeks.

Cost was £240, and in my view full value for what we want when on board.

A couple of tiny gripes with it but noyjing that would stop us doing it again.

 

Thank you, that’s handy to know.

Was that the price for booking while onboard or was that booking in advance?

[JB9302]

Is the £240 per person ?

[kevcharben]

yes £240 per person.

 

Booked Onboard, didnt know you could book before boarding

[SarahHben]

34 minutes ago, kevcharben said:

yes £240 per person.

 

Booked Onboard, didnt know you could book before boarding

Thank you.

It may not be possible to book in advance, I’ve only been on 1 cruise so far so I’m still discovering what can be pre-booked etc.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

Hiya.

We did it the other way round. Had a couple of cruises on Ventura before trying independence with RCL. Totaly agree with you. P&O need to provide more "fun" to capture more of the family market. By that i mean a lot of the more modern ships have slides, mini golf, climbing walls, better sports etc and RCL do this very well. The oasis class ships do this very very well. P&O i am not sure where they see themselves tbh, not too formal but not too slack like carnival. But they maybe seem to think that us Brits tend to stick to British ships and that. Think of spain and having british style resorts. Im not saying all ships should follow this but family friendly seems to be a afterthought. 

 

That said after our oasis of the seas trip in Feb next year we have booked Arvia for the Carnaries next Aug from Southampton. The two week pricing was cheaper then RCLs 1 week out of Barcelona. Looking forward to trying P&O again after a few years away.

[gsmt47471015]

It is pretty obvious that at this present time P and O are between two stools, and to some extent in a state of transition, they could , and should have had two different identities under the P and O brand

[BouncingWheel]

I don't believe P&O are trying to compete with RCL as they offer less activities, entertainment etc.. but they also charge less because of it. Their strengths were a very british product paid for in pounds and good for families with younger children. The issue is that they gambled on trying to attract many more of these people and the economic outlook is that those are the type of people that will be cutting back. Maybe they hope that some of the RCL folks will be attracted by the cheaper fares.

 

At the same time they are also trying to undercut the likes of SAGA with Aurora & Arcadia but again not really competing as they are offering a cheaper version of a similar product. At least with this area I think they will have the people still flocking to them as long as they can stop annoying them and make them feel valued.

 

I would say for P&O their competitors, for price, are Fred Olsen, MSC (starting to encroach), Ambassadors and maybe Marella. 

What I do not understand is why Princess is now becoming more of a player over here as I see them vying most with P&O and that is just Carnival competing with Carnival and again Princess ships have nothing like the activities that RCL have.

 

 

[terrierjohn]

47 minutes ago, BouncingWheel said:

I don't believe P&O are trying to compete with RCL as they offer less activities, entertainment etc.. but they also charge less because of it. Their strengths were a very british product paid for in pounds and good for families with younger children. The issue is that they gambled on trying to attract many more of these people and the economic outlook is that those are the type of people that will be cutting back. Maybe they hope that some of the RCL folks will be attracted by the cheaper fares.

 

At the same time they are also trying to undercut the likes of SAGA with Aurora & Arcadia but again not really competing as they are offering a cheaper version of a similar product. At least with this area I think they will have the people still flocking to them as long as they can stop annoying them and make them feel valued.

 

I would say for P&O their competitors, for price, are Fred Olsen, MSC (starting to encroach), Ambassadors and maybe Marella. 

What I do not understand is why Princess is now becoming more of a player over here as I see them vying most with P&O and that is just Carnival competing with Carnival and again Princess ships have nothing like the activities that RCL have.

 

 

Princess has a very loyal American following and this is what they try to tap into for their Southampton sailings. Which, with the Americans love of all things British, is why they do so many round Britain cruises. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by terrierjohn

[Megabear2]

56 minutes ago, BouncingWheel said:

What I do not understand is why Princess is now becoming more of a player over here as I see them vying most with P&O and that is just Carnival competing with Carnival and again Princess ships have nothing like the activities that RCL have.

Princess had to do something with a large number of ships when the US market to Europe was closed.  The UK started the staycation craze so they were able to use Sky and Regal last year for that.  As a sweetener prices were low and also all inclusive - Brits love a bargain so that was a huge draw for them.  This year Princess planned two ships, an increase on the normal offering from Southampton most likely because they could see a pent up demand, and so when the Ukrainian situation erupted they chose to send Enchanted Princess here as well.

 

Now that Princess have been tried by many there is of course more demand but the test will be when prices increase to normal levels and the all inclusive option is either dropped or becomes more expensive.

 

The give aways to tempt passengers are slowly ending. Celebrity for instance now quote cruise only fares rather than always included which is still available but at considerably more.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Megabear2

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Now that Princess have been tried by many there is of course more demand but the test will be when prices increase to normal levels and the all inclusive option is either dropped or becomes more expensive.

We are booked on Sky in early April, just before her dry dock at what I consider a reasonable price. But looking at summer prices, the fares seem extremely unattractive. So perhaps "normal" pricing has now arrived.

[zap99]

3 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

It is pretty obvious that at this present time P and O are between two stools, and to some extent in a state of transition, they could , and should have had two different identities under the P and O brand

A bit like when they had ocean village.?

[BouncingWheel]

The consensus then seems to be that in "normal" pricing times Princess will be more expensive than P&O (even if you take the gratuities etc.. into account). Having been on both (and also being in the minority who is a big fan of the medallion technology), I don't really see much real difference between the two to justify a large difference in price.

 

Although it certainly makes sense about the US folks wanting to do fly-in Britain cruises but doesn't make sense to me for the overall brand trying to undercut each other / flood the local market. Again, my view is that they are trying to build the Princess brand in the UK (I agree that might be due to circumstances) but that is not helping the P&O brand or the overall business.

 

 

[Cruisemeister2002]

Great review. Thanks. We, that's me and the wife sailed on Ventura some years ago and although my slight preference is Azura as I wasn't keen on watching footie whilst trying to see through people stopping in the thoroughfare that ran through the sports lounge. Not sure if it's changed since then ? Perhaps a recent traveller could fill me in. We are due on Ventura early part of next year and can't wait as we last sailed in September 2018. I don't say I am scared to try other cruise lines as out of 17 cruises 16 have been with P&O it's just that from what I have deduced Cunard are too stuffy, Carnival and Virgin too razzamatazz, Saga too expensive, although we are considering trying them, Princess we tried and whilst entertainment excellent and the food was good unfortunately loads of fish on the menu so wife ended up with steak every night and she doesn't like baked Alaska with runny meringue. Not sure about Ambassador cruises, ships are pretty old and some of the other lines don't sail from Southampton and seeing as the wife can't fly it rules a few out.

[lindyloo22]

We were also on this cruise, Venture does look a bit worse for wear but we still had a good time. Did notice that there seems to be less choices with food in MDR and buffet but what was on offer was good.  On the Wednesday of the last week when the captain came on the tannoy to give his sail away speech he did recommend that marks to be worn around the ship he didn’t give any information as to whether covid was on the ship just said cases were rising in the uk. Not sure if it was the same day but we did see a guy outside some cabins with his kit for testing.

We did decide to wear masks then and right from start we were always sanitising our hands. On the Saturday we were coming home I woke up with the feeling of a cold and sore throat, done 3 test on the Saturday all negative tested again Sunday and now positive, hubby testing negative.

If I had to catch just glad it was the day we were going home.
 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, BouncingWheel said:

The consensus then seems to be that in "normal" pricing times Princess will be more expensive than P&O (even if you take the gratuities etc.. into account). Having been on both (and also being in the minority who is a big fan of the medallion technology), I don't really see much real difference between the two to justify a large difference in price.

 

Although it certainly makes sense about the US folks wanting to do fly-in Britain cruises but doesn't make sense to me for the overall brand trying to undercut each other / flood the local market. Again, my view is that they are trying to build the Princess brand in the UK (I agree that might be due to circumstances) but that is not helping the P&O brand or the overall business.

 

 

If Carnivals thinking is correct, and the UK will show a big increase in cruising, then it makes petfect sense if they want to be the dominant player.

I accept that the current economic situation might slow the growth of cruising, but holiday companies have to play the long game.

[JDB78]

18 hours ago, lindyloo22 said:

We were also on this cruise, Venture does look a bit worse for wear but we still had a good time. Did notice that there seems to be less choices with food in MDR and buffet but what was on offer was good.  On the Wednesday of the last week when the captain came on the tannoy to give his sail away speech he did recommend that marks to be worn around the ship he didn’t give any information as to whether covid was on the ship just said cases were rising in the uk. Not sure if it was the same day but we did see a guy outside some cabins with his kit for testing.

We did decide to wear masks then and right from start we were always sanitising our hands. On the Saturday we were coming home I woke up with the feeling of a cold and sore throat, done 3 test on the Saturday all negative tested again Sunday and now positive, hubby testing negative.

If I had to catch just glad it was the day we were going home.
 

Same as me, a bit of a croaky voice, bit of a headache one day but nothing major. Both wife and I have been getting several pings from covid app saying I've been in close contact with someone with covid. All tests negative however. 1st 9-10 days cruise I didn't really see many wearing masks. After the captain made the request, did see a lot more, did make me think, we've all been on board in relatively close contact for over a week, are a few more people wearing masks for a few days going to make much difference now. Was only asked to wear a mask once - think it was Lisbon. Nothing getting off, but asked wear a mask going through security getting back on in the terminal building. 

 

Regarding testing, as far as I read it correctly, kids aged between 6-12 should have been tested at the terminal, but this wasn't done. No idea if it was a general change in policy or just the fact it was so busy. Think there were 450 kids on board. If say 200 of them were in the 6-12 age range, add on parents and siblings. Normally they say wait 15 to be sure the test doesn't throw up a 2nd line, plus time to do the test itself. Not sure P&O really wanted 300-400 people to be waiting round for an extra half hour when they had up to 3000 people to get through.

 

Regarding the speciality restaurants, I didn't use them, but the Beach House and Sindhu both looked open. Didn't see any comms saying about places being closed. 

[lindyloo22]

JDB78 good you have both negative tests. We always wore marks when we got off and going through the terminals but not many people did, I was just unlucky headache gone still a bit of sore throat and aching a bit but otherwise not to bad. Hubby still negative.