My Adventure on the Ventura

On Friday the 19th of February myself and my mother – in- law (yes we get on well) set off for her birthday treat for a 2 night sailing on the Ventura. This was my first P&O experience and my Mother In Laws first ever cruise. As she will not fly having only ever flew twice in her life, her dream was always to go on a cruise. Let me tell you it didn’t disappoint one bit. From the moment we set foot on board we had a fabulous time. With a couple of surprise’s I had planned for her, the first being a balcony cabin when she thought she was getting an inside was worth every penny to see the look on her face. The second was strawberries dipped in chocolate with a note from her Grand children saying ‘Happy Birthday’. The size of the balcony was bigger than I expected too, plenty of room for two chairs and a table. The cabin was spacious with what we called a walk in wardrobe. One thing I did notice during my whole trip was how clean every where is. The tables in the restaurants are spotless and the the public toilets were immaculate.

We dropped our bags and headed for the muster drill which on it’s own was a funny experience, once the demonstration was complete we all had to put on the life jackets which we found hilarious and everyone was having their photos taken wearing them- why not? Afterwards we decided to investigate and headed up the decks. On the top deck we came across the pool area, here there are two. One had a retractable roof which was closed and already the pool was full of youngsters. Then there was an outside pool which was heated and a couple of hot tubs. The only complaint we had all weekend was the time we were allocated to embark, our’s wasn’t until 15.30 so we felt with it being only a two night break we missed out on the first day.

We were given any time dining and decided to head to the restaurant for 7pm, we were in the Saffron restaurant. I would like to say the food was delicious, no complaints at all. I have found lately speaking to regular cruises that P&O’s food has gone down hill. I thought the food was equal to a 5 star restaurant, and that’s how we felt all weekend,like we were in a 5 star hotel. We met some lovely people at our table and got on so well that they wanted to spend the rest of the eveinng with us and then we met again the next night too and had a table for four. I really enjoy this aspect of cruising, getting to meet people from all walks of life.

The entertainment program was jam packed and the first night we couldn’t fit everything in we wanted to do.  We ended up in the Tamarind Bra watching a singer who was on the X Factor a few years back. On the second night we saw a Take That tribute and a ventriloquist who had been on Britain’s Got Talent. If none off this sounds your cup of tea, then in the lounge bar there was another singer or alternatively there was also a comedian. Overall I thought the Ventura was a beautiful ship and it will come highly recommended by me. We had such a fantastic time we came on and booked the Independence of the Seas for October half term as I really want my boy’s to experience a cruise- I know they will love it!