Daily Telegragph review of the Ventura

[coxswain]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/mediterranean/2473588/Ventura-cruise-big-ship-big-queues.html

 

 

 

 

 

jj......

[StLucia]

It's a real shame. These are such basic problems. We're going on Independance soon and everything I'm reading about her is positive, whereas for Ventura it's not so good. We're still looking forward to going on her in October but P&O do need to get their act together.

[lostinvegas]

That review has worried me a little, I hope by the time Ventura get to the Caribbien the problems have been ironed out. Were on set time dining as we like to have the same waiter and people on our table every night so I am not so worried about the freedom dining.

 

Chris

[daiB]

That review has worried me a little, I hope by the time Ventura get to the Caribbien the problems have been ironed out. Were on set time dining as we like to have the same waiter and people on our table every night so I am not so worried about the freedom dining.

 

Chris

 

If you read down the telegraph article you com to a reply by a, eddy barber, who gives a different view of a Ventura cruise.

 

We are on her in Jan. and looking forward immensely to the experience. I agree about club dining and it does not surprise me at all that they have had to go to club in 2 of the restaurants.

 

This is the same ratio as on Oceana were often they have to use part of the freedom dining room for club.

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[Donna+Wendy]

Not a really great review. She says the ship is nice, but the staff never smiled. How sad. Staff or crew that dont smile, means something is wrong. Its the system. My friend Wendy and me, always say that people smile from the inside... which I believe to be true. My friend Wendy is a hairdresser and she meets people every day. She always smiles at them. I always sat that its always nice to be nice.

[tom_uk]

There are a number of interesting things about this review.

 

Firstly I'm not sure about Freedom dining in an environment where you're trying to mix it with traditional (Club) dining. If you're going to do Freedom dining then I'm beginning to think you have to do it 100%. NCL has many fans of their Freestyle Dining, especially on the ships designed for it (the Jewel class). P&O's problems may be compounded because they're trying to mix both styles. What are they going to do on cruises where the split is 50/50? - after all they 3 main restaurants, not 2 or 4. As Dai says you could split one restaurant into part Club / part Freedom, but I have a feeling that would be the worst of both worlds. Certainly Club diners, especially those sat on the edge of the Club area, are likely to be peeved by the coming & going of Freedom diners.

 

The second point is that a lot of the issues seem to be little things which I'm sure they can get right, but haven't yet. The question is, why haven't they? These things should have been thought about before the maiden. (I'm thinking of things like the baby-food warming issues, for example.)

 

The third thing I'm wondering about is the difference between the complaints about Ventura, and the reputation of Caribbean Princess, Emerald Princess, Crown Princess, etc. Even the closest sisters to Ventura (i.e. those with the Lido deck, which the original two or three Grand class ships didn't have) seem to have a solid reputation among Princess customers. What's so different about Ventura? Given that the ship is (virtually) the same, the remaining differences are a) the company and b) the passengers. What are P&O doing that's different from what Princess are doing? Have P&O passengers' expectations been misled?

 

Fourthly, the service point struck home with me. I found service on Oriana to be unsmiling. It was certainly good and professional, but for the most part there was no friendliness, or at least no signs of friendliness. We did find one bar waiter in Andersons who always had a smile, and part of the reason we started going there was him. This contrasted greatly with our experiences on Galaxy, where service always came with a smile and a chat.

 

Finally, let me say I'm still very much looking forward to our cruise on Ventura in September. Of course, the fact that we're booked for Club dining, and don't have a family, are contributory factors.

[CASPALL]

I agreed with almost everything in that report - especially the queues forming in the self service restaurant!

However, we met a lot of smiling staff on board. The grumpy ones were the officers - not a friendly lot. I never even saw the captain -though it is a big ship so maybe he walked around the ship all the time but never where we were at that time!

I adored the Ventura but hated all the queuing -right from the moment we were told we could board at Southampton we had to shuffle along the walkway all the way to the ships entrance -sweating!!!

They even took the cruise card picture at check in so I don't know what the delay was about.

Lets hope they get it all sorted out very soon.

[coxswain]

Chris i cruised on the IOS in June - we found the food very poor.

 

 

 

 

 

jj......

[Pontius Navigator]

Maybe it takes a while for the crew to bed in. We have noticed this sort of atmosphere before. On a US ship we found the officers almost wholly indifferent with the odd exception such as an NZ Purser (F).

 

On a P&O ship we found the officers were reasonable but there was still an atmosphere amongst some of the staff. I guess it varies. Some ships are happy ships and some are not.

[timetravellers]

We went to the Fjords in June on the Ventura - our first cruise.

 

We found the cabin and facilities to be superb. Our cabin steward, Agnelo, was excellent.

 

We have since been on the QE2 and we have to agree that the staff in the restaurants on the QE2 were friendlier.

 

We also agree with previous comments about the queues in the buffets although we did always managed to find a table eventually.

 

Once we discovered we could have breakfast in the cabin on our balcony, we never went for a buffet breakfast again!

 

As for Freedom dining, we were forced to book ahead as the first night was a shambles. Suffice it to say, on our next 3 cruises, we are on fixed dining.

 

Overall, we loved the ship and we would certainly cruise on her again.

 

Gail

[Helford]

I posted on the 'Telegraph' page as I was genuinely puzzled as to why such a negative review?

 

We had an absolutely wonderful time on our two week Ventura 'Med' cruise. We never had any queuing issues and I am convinced that all the negativity follows from your own approach to life and the cruise!

 

We paid for Freedom Dining and over our two weeks we NEVER waited more than 15 minutes for a table. Hardly hassel to take a pager and wait in the bar with a drink for a few minutes.

 

I am disturbed that I am reading despondent individuals posting that they are hoping that P and O resolve 'all these problems' before their cruise in x months. I really do not know what problems! Go onboard with a positive attitude and you will have a great time. Any stay in the smartest hotel will have 'niggles', P and O have fundamentally got it correct. My only 'issue' onboard was with certain passengers who wished to be rude and offensive to the P and O crew, (Manners cost nothing!) and looking for every opportunity to complain about everthing and nothing! On my first full day, I was in the laundry putting an iron over a dress shirt and was subjected to a tirade of abuse by a 'lady of a certain age' who thought that I was crew - all because she didn't have any soap powder. I helpfully pointed out she could buy some for 50p in the shop, big mistake. The air turned blue! The same 'lady' also confronted me in Barcelona when I got off the last courtesy bus of the day into the City, complaining that she needed to get back to the ship (She had obviously not listened to me when I told her that I was a fellow passenger), by this time I 'helpfully' told her that, that was the last bus of the day and she would have to walk back!:D Strangely I never saw her again:eek:

 

She had 'wound me up' so much, that my evil streak surfaced!

[Wendy+Donna]

There will always be people who moan all the time. I dont, and am always happy. So is my friend Wendy. She is a hairdresser and both of us are always happy and nice to the crew. We have so many photos taken with our waiters. Wendy with a waiter. me with a waiter. One night, we got out picture taken with the captain. It was so nice. I hope the crew on that ship will smile. i hope they will have a nice time and they work so hard. I always feel sorry for them

[Vampire Parrot]

I haven't been on Ventura, but on P&O's 2nd largest ship (Arcadia) I found that pretty much all of the staff were friendly and smiled.

 

The hotel staff (waiters, stewards, restaurant manager, shop staff etc) were their usual friendly, helpful selves.

 

I had three conversations with engineering officers, and they were polite, extremely infrormative and very willing to talk about various aspects of Arcadia and other ships they'd worked on. The Pakistani sailors were also their usual selves - fairly reserved as they don't usually interact with passengers, but whenever I saw one I'd say hello and they'd smile and say hello back.

 

The deck officers I spoke to, from the Captain to the 3rd officers and cadets were also polite, professional and friendly, with some very funny anecdotes.

 

Perhaps it's just a case that the Ventura is a new ship?

 

VP

[lostinvegas]

<quote> I really do not know what problems! Go onboard with a positive attitude and you will have a great time</quote>

 

Well that has cheered me up, we always go with a positive attitude and it always works because we have never had a bad holiday to date. I guess it depends on your perception of things.

 

I agree the staff can add to the cruise. When we went on Oceana there were 2 bar staff in the casino: Alex and Savio, who were fantastic. We had drinks in there every night before dinner just to go and chat to those guys and see how their day had been. They told us all about their home in India and all about their country which I found fascinating.

 

I hate moaners, especially people who think there above everyone else. I agree feedback should be given if there is a problem so the staff and company can improve, but there is a right way to go about things.

 

I am so excited about our cruise its just a shame its 6 months away.

 

Chris

[CASPALL]

I am NOT a moaner and I always have a positive attitude.I am NOT an impatient person and I can easily wait for a table. I WILL go on Ventura again. I wrote how it was on the cruise I was on.

I couldve mentioned the hour we had to queue to get off at Zeebrugge (the shore people didnt have a gangway for us!!!)That meant we only had an hour and a half in Ghent which was a pity. Then there was the hour we queued like crushed cattle to

get OFF the ship at Southampton. The gangway broke off that time. We almost missed our flight connections because of that. Am I complaining? NO! These things happen though ,we accept them and there are lessons to be learned for the various people involved.

[Kitchie]

We are going on Ventura in 4 weeks and I am still excited about it.

 

I have found that if people are not happy with something they let others know about it, but if you have had a fantastic time - which we hope to have - you very rarely give people all the little details of your trip, just incase they think you are boasting.

 

Let them moan. I will still make my own mind up about it all.

 

One thing I will ot maon about small details as that can happen on any holiday you take. The good usually outweighs the bad.

;)

[Wendy+Donna]

I am happy that overall, people say nice things about cruises. I mean, when we are happy...others are happy. My friend Wendy and Me are always laughing like two little schoolgirls. We love talking to the waiters and cabin stewards. They all have so many stories to tell. Its not their fault if something goes wrong. Cruising is wonderful isnt it. I am so happy that I and Wendy discovered it.

[ecallaghan]

There was a Savio who was our waiter on our Xmas 2003 cruise...I guess he's still aboard Oriana! Shame he won't be on Ventura this Christmas with us.. :(

[idparky]

We had a great time on Ventura in the Summer.

The ONLY major issue we had on the cruise was having to listen to people moaning all the time about nothing.

 

Usually it was the older, previous P&O cruisers who continually compared Ventura to other P&O ships - "Oh it's not a good as Canberra" Well if you like those ships go on them and don't expect Ventura to be the same. It was very clearly marketed as a different type of cruise experience, and that it was for families. Yet all the time we heard - "There are too many children".

 

Other moans included :-

 

"The doors are too narrow"

"There is too much to do"

"The ship is too big" - can these people not read?

 

As to other passengers the following also happened on our cruise :-

 

1. Two families were removed mid cruise for fighting over sun beds

2. Two families were removed mid cruise for their sons fighting over a girl

3. One family removed mid cruise due to a family member throwing a sun lounger over board.

4. One family removed mid cruise due to a family member throwing a life vest over board.

5. One family removed mid cruise for their son trying to jump over board.

 

I also personally witnessed an assault in the theatre where a bully was saving seats for his family and when a couple tried to sit in them - he assaulted the man by hitting him very hard in the stomach. He was not removed as the couple did not make an official complaint as they were intimidated by the large 'bully' family. I offered to be a witness but they did not want any more trouble.

 

Is this a P&O issue or just the state of the 'British' public - I was ashamed to be British on this cruise.

 

You can read my very long and detailed report here :-

 

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=45629

 

It is a glowing report for Ventura. So if you are due to go soon, relax and enjoy it, we did.

 

Ian

[stopgo]

All newspapers report honest and trueful situations as regards holiday reports. If they didn't the cruise operators would take them to court.

[Gerrym]

All newspapers report honest and trueful situations as regards holiday reports. If they didn't the cruise operators would take them to court.

 

 

Do you smoke much?

[stopgo]

Its very rare for a newspaper to give a bad holiday review, because they get alot of revenue from tour operators advertiseing in their quality news papers and don't want to upset them.

[Gerrym]

All newspapers report honest and trueful situations as regards holiday reports. If they didn't the cruise operators would take them to court.

 

 

Its very rare for a newspaper to give a bad holiday review, because they get alot of revenue from tour operators advertiseing in their quality news papers and don't want to upset them.

 

 

So, what you are saying there is that newspapers always give honest hoilday reviews and the reviews are always good. That's great, so if we always choose a holiday that we see in the paper it is guranteed to be a fantastic holiday! LOL

 

I think your logic may be flawed and perhaps you need to refrain from the evils of the Devils juice!

 

:D

[Norfolk Brit]

All newspapers report honest and trueful situations as regards holiday reports. If they didn't the cruise operators would take them to court.

 

I used to work in marketing for a holiday company, and got quite a few calls from reporters wanting free holidays in exchange for a write-up; a particular Telegraph journalist was one of these callers, and she wanted a freebie in the school holidays for herself, husband and four children.

 

I doubt the subsequent reviews were completely objective.

 

Mary

[stopgo]

So, what you are saying there is that newspapers always give honest hoilday reviews and the reviews are always good. That's great, so if we always choose a holiday that we see in the paper it is guranteed to be a fantastic holiday! LOL

 

I think your logic may be flawed and perhaps you need to refrain from the evils of the Devils juice!

 

:D

Its only the same as reviews on here, you rely on the honesty of the writer.