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P&O Cruises - Ventura Ship Cruises Reviews are written by REAL cruise passengers & we DO NOT moderate or change any of the review. You can agree or disagree by posting up your own comment. If you write your own review we will send you a Fodor's Guide to Cruising for FREE, Visit Some Fantastic Places On P&O's Ventura Cruises 2012
We sailed on Ventura Western Mediterranean 14 – 28th August 2010
This was a first cruise for myself, Wife and 2 teenage daughters, we chose Ventura because it was advertised as a family friendly ship.
Check in at Southampton no problem at all, from getting out of the Taxi (we had stayed in Southampton the previous night) to stepping onboard Ventura took 40 minutes, as it was after 15:00 our cabin was ready so we went straight to the cabin and out onto the balcony with our free glass of Champagne in hand and serenaded by the Brass band on the quay.
We had a Superior deluxe balcony cabin on D deck, plenty of room for the 4 of us with a sofa bed and a pullman berth for our Daughters, our cabin steward came to introduce Himself almost immediately advising if we needed anything to let him know straight away.
The first 3 days were spent at sea heading for Barcelona, our first chance to explore the ship, we chose to have our Breakfast at the waterside on deck 15, buffet service plenty of choice, finding a seat was not a problem, the ocean view was fantastic.
Activities are too numerous to mention, all the old favourites like Bingo, Line dancing and deck games together with guest speakers on various subjects, the pools were busy on sea days and sun loungers were in short supply but our youngest daughter never failed to get in the pool, the rest of us found a lounger, not next to the pool but in the sun and near enough to the pool to see our Daughter.
If you talk to people about cruising they always mention the food, Ventura was no exception and in my opinion excelled in this area, food 24/7 next to the pool, in your cabin or silver service in the restaurants you will never go hungry and the service from the Staff is exemplary nothing was ever to much trouble.
We are not big drinkers but when we did want a drink all we had to do was ask a drinks steward and wait a few minutes and the drinks were with us, no queuing at the bar.
This cruise visited 7 ports and we chose tours at 2 of them whilst making our own way around at the others, tours are expensive but if your destination is a big city like Rome and you have never been before it is well worth the extra money.
With the odd exception if we did decide to make our own way there was a free shuttle bus to take you from the ship and into town.
One observation I did make was how clean Ventura is kept, during our cruise the balconies were deep cleaned the handrails varnished and we even caught sight of the deck hands painting the white hull whilst docked in Palma.
I read a lot of mixed reviews about Ventura prior to going on our cruise and at one point was even questioning if we had done the right thing in booking our cruise, I can assure everyone out there P&O have put a lot of effort into making Ventura what it is and we had a fantastic cruise with no complaint at all.
Quality of Food
1st sitting in the Bay tree restaurant
Entertainment
Ventura theatre company least enjoyable with their production of "Flash"
Steve Tandy Comedian absolutely briiliant
Shore Excursions
2 excursions
Florence & Pisa
Rome
Both involved a lot of walking and were fast paced but well worth the money
Staff
Our waiters in the Bay tree Alexo & Vasant who made an enjoyable cruise even better through their dedication in ensuring everything was right for us.
Our Cabin Steward Plifford who when asked got us whatever we needed and looked after our cabin without intruding.
Children's Facilities
n/a
Our Daughters did not make use of the Kids clubs, but from what we saw Kids are well catered for on Ventura
Onboard Activities
Plenty to do, one minor criticism, my eldest Daughter said there was not always a film shown on sea days and a lot of the good films were shown when the ship was in port and we were ashore.
Cabins
The cabin with its blacony was everything we could have wanted, pleanty of storage, bathroom with bath & shower and plenty of wardrobe space.
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