Dont be put off ventura!!!!

[SCRATFAN2009]

DONT BE PUT OFF GOING ON VENTURA, ESPECIALLY BY THE NUMBER OF CRITICS- We have just returned from a 7-night holiday to France, Spain and Portugal, which we almost cancelled -twice! The reason we almost cancelled was because of reports on this site. The reports suggested that the ship was dirty, the food quality was less than other P & O ships, entertainment was poor, service was slow, hundreds of kids, etc. etc. In general it was suggested that because of its size and class it was inferior. But we decided to take a chance and we are glad we did. This was our third cruise with P & O, the previous two being Oceana, which we loved, and Oriana, which was near perfection. So you can imagine that having read various reports, we did not know what to expect. VENTURA IS DIFFERENT - REMEMBER THIS -IT IS A FAMILY FRIENDLY SHIP INTENDED TO ATTRACT A WIDE CLIENTELE. In this it succeeds. Passengers vary from 1st time cruisers to Cunard regulars on QE2. However, despite being completely full, the service was good without being rushed, freedom dining worked extremely well, food was of good quality and waiters patient and friendly. Entertainment was a bit different to Oriana, but plentiful and a very wide variety, and certainly of good quality. West end style shows were good,Andrea Dickinson and Nik Page (Vocalists) were excellent quality, we did not see the magic acts but heard they were equally good, there was something for absolutely everybody and virtually every possible time throughout the day. No problems with hardly noticable children, but could change in school holidays. If you dont want that, dont book those cruises! The ship was immaculate throughout, our cabin steward was second to none, there were whingers on board, but we were under the impression that some people dont enjoy holidays, they just like comparing and complaining. Every ship is different and has its own character. . Ventura is more of a freestyle ship, dress code is less than other similar ships, but standard was still high, and most passengers made the effort on formal nights. Thank you P & O,I think you have achieved what you set out to do. Score: 9/10:):):)

[Swerve]

Excellent post Scrat, especially;

"VENTURA IS DIFFERENT - REMEMBER THIS -IT IS A FAMILY FRIENDLY SHIP INTENDED TO ATTRACT A WIDE CLIENTELE. In this it succeeds."

Methinks a lot of people forget that the Ventura is advertised as such !

We will have our first cruise on her in August and looking forward to it. Ok, it may only be a weekender but it should give us a flavour of what to expect should we decide to have a longer cruise on her. On the Gala nights was the main dish Beef/Beouf Wellington ?

Gotta say though that I'm particularly looking forward to our cruise on the Oriana the week before, gonna be celebrating my birthday and I worked on the old Oriana so looking forward to a ding dong time.

[The cruising concierge]

We have just returned from this cruise and had a wonderful time.

It was our first P & O cruise having had 6 MSC cruises before.

There were 4 of us cruising as we always do and found this cruise to be fantastic.

Vigo was wonderful, the town may have been closed but there was a festival celebrating 200 years of them kicking out the French from the town, it was great , we followed the musicians around the town and danced with the locals.

We loved it.

The cabins were great, spacious, lots of hanging space, large showers, fantasic service, great food.

A wonderful cruise, good entertainment, great disco too (I am 62 and love to dance)

A wonderful cruise !!!!

[Fiscal buccaneer]

We’ve just got back from the Ventura having had a wonderful time. It was our 8th cruise but the first time with P&O and I’d book again without hesitation.

 

We really enjoyed the entertainment and found the food and service in the Bay Tree to be terrific. We thought the wine selection was very good, all extremely well kept and represented very good value for money. We enjoyed the ports of call, had a ball with the locals in Vigo and though that Quimper and Bordeaux were beautiful.

 

The cabin was much larger than expected and was extremely well maintained.

 

Not everything was perfect, we tried East and concluded it wasn’t worth the cover charge, there was a rather odd shortage of mugs in the buffet and there are insufficient public toilets in key areas with some not maintained as well as they should be.

 

That said, for us, all the positives significantly outweighed the negatives, we had a great cruise on a beautiful, clean ship with a crew who worked very hard to make our time as enjoyable as possible.

[capasamari]

We are on this, our first time on Ventura. There are seven of us and we are going on this weekend purely to explore the ship and find our way around before we are on her again for Christmas and New Year in the Caribbean.

 

We booked last April and have had some mixed feelings given the varied reviews coming back, but at least we know what pitfalls to look out for now! Our main concern is the sheer size of her, hence the weekend!

 

Carol x