Absolutely excellent cruise. Went with my parents and grandma. I'm 16 and love cruising. A great way to get away from the mayhem of a modern Christmas and enjoy a traditional Christmas with grandparents and friends. The itinary was great despite the first and last days being bitterly cold in the Bay of Biscay.
We called at a number of ports: Lisbon (Xmas Eve-warning hop on hop off bus red ...
Having cruised before on smaller ships, we thought we would try one of the 'biggies' and as we wanted a Christmas and New Year cruise to somewhere warm, we chose P & O's Ventura cruise to The Canaries and Madeira. The weather couldn't have been kinder with just a bit or rain in Madeira (didn't spoil the wonderful New Year fireworks display though). Both ways across the Bay of Biscay were ...
I chose this because it was one of a few that covered Christmas and the new year.
The decorations were far below that of two greats ago.
There was no Christmas atmosphere.
Christmas jumper competition judged on the day of departure, before most passengers had received their luggage.
Bar staff pandered to long time cruisers and other passengers had to wait for service.
Passengers sat ...
P & O's Ventura is a lovely ship with many good amenities, lovely caring staff and good food. We could fault nothing about the ship. However, we were amazed at the type of passenger that it seemed to attract. Perhaps we chose the wrong cruise, going to the Canaries in the midst of Winter or getting away from it all over the Christmas period.
There were a large number of people on board who ...
For years we've met fellow travellers extolling the virtues of P & O and we decided to give them a go with Britannia. Not for us we thought...
Well, Ventura was an absolute delight. Some of those supposedly high end cruise companies (I'm looking at you Aszamara) could learn an awful lot from Andy Willard and his crew on how to give good service. Captain Andy Willard is an out and out gem, a ...
We had our first experience of a cruise 5 years ago with MSC, and I wasn't totally sold on cruises at all. Hence 5 years before taking this one.
We liked the idea of sailing out of Southampton without any airport faffing, so went on the 9-21 December trip to Iberian Peninsula.
Cabin:- Our inside cabin (B536) was an upgrade to mid ship & was great. Larger than I was expecting, and perfectly ...
Over a year ago i travel, along with some friends of ours and their families, excitedly purchased tickets for a Thanks giving cruise Ventura. Our cruise was the second voyage. The restaurant food was varied however I felt there was too much noise in the restaurant area. I don't ask for silicon but I don't want to hear all the conversations around me. There were quite a few activities in the ...
Just back from a cruise to The Canaries, rough seas at the beginning but then the sun came out in Madeira and the Canaries.
We did freedom dining and could never fault a meal, always hot and served efficiently, the waiters were extremely kind and friendly. We also dined in Sindhu and the Epicurean, again both lovely dining venues.
Shows onboard the ship were excellent and well ...
Embarkation was quick and we were able to go on the ship straight away, the atrium was decorated with a large tree.
Despite very poor weather on the run down to Madeira for 2 and half days, the captain changed some of the evening activities.
We enjoyed the cruise and ports of call and had booked 2 excursions unfortunately the deep sea fishing was cancelled due to lack of numbers, but was ...
we don't fly so cruise from a UK port
overall we had a great cruise , only 2 snags, 1 they seved gluten to my wife, also went to Indian and she was ill, but apart from those 2 incidents we had a geat cruise, ship was full and it was difficult to get into some venues unless you turned up an hour early also films where put on mostly at 1pm when we where having a sit down lunch
drink prices ...